BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Freshly arrived in the United States for the first time ever, James Kelly etched a serious gold star on his international racing career. The 31-year-old Australian won Stage 1 of the 2026 Breck Epic on Sunday, finishing in 2 hours, 49 minutes.
“The Breck Epic has been on the bucket list for a little while,” Kelly said. I’m pretty stoked to be here.”
Last year’s Australian Cross-Country Marathon champion, Kelly, who juggles pro mountain biking with a career as a lawyer, spent about 10 days in Boulder before testing his lungs on the Pennsylvania Creek course, which stacked up nearly 6,000 feet (starting in Breck at 9,600 feet) of climbing over 36 miles.
“This is the sort of racing that I love. These are the trails I love,” Kelly said. “This is an iconic race. It’s rare that you get to race this quality of trails over this distance.”
Kelly was pacing with a few other men’s pros, extending his gap during second descent until he had the course to himself.
“I like to get into my own rhythm and sort of time-trial it,” he said, adding that the elevation was probably his biggest challenge of the day. “I just tried to not get any flats or make any major mistakes. There was actually one bit [Indiana Creek] that I had to walk. It was nice to rest and use different muscles. I think I’ll acclimate. By the end of the week, we’ll be nicely there … or, completely cooked.”
Naturally more acclimated, 25-year-old Sam Brown was runner-up on Sunday, finishing stage 1 a few minutes behind Kelly. Hailing from just over the pass in Eagle, Brown is an accomplished gravel racer and has shown signs of greatness during his previous two Epics, in 2023 and 2024.
“I was just pacing myself,” Brown said. “Today’s not the day you win the race. I was riding with Macky and Taylor for most of the race.”
Macky Franklin, from Los Alamos, NM, is another familiar face among the race’s front runners. Racing in his eighth Epic, Franklin finished third, pedaling across the line in sync with Taylor Lideen of Arkansas in 2:53:10.
“We rode together for what, 75 percent of the race? From the bottom of the descent with the water bars, from that point on, we ran together and just had a blast,” Franklin said.
“It’s so easy to overcook yourself on the first day,” Lideen added. “It’s actually really refreshing to ride hard, not too hard, but still push it and be like, OK, I can still do this for five more days.”
Deanna Mayles charges down Aspen Alley on her way to winning Stage 1. Photo by Nate Abbott.
Mayles charges to Stage win in her first Epic against stacked women’s field
The women’s pro group proved that we’re in for an action-packed week with multiple top contenders.
Racing in her first ever Epic, Deanna Mayles set the pace on Sunday, hammering to a decisive Stage 1 victory in 3:18:29.
Hailing from Colorado Springs, Mayles spends a lot of time in Breck and is familiar with the trails. Having never raced bikes until 2020, the 32-year-old has moved up the ranks at lightning speed, finishing 10th overall in her first Life Time Grand Prix race series in 2023. Sunday’s stage win marks her sixth victory in elite events so far this year.
“There are such nice trails here. The Grand Prix stuff, not to knock it, but on a lot of those courses, you don’t really need a mountain bike,” said Mayles, who pulled away from the rest of the women’s field about 10 minutes in – on the first climb – and never looked back. “These trails are just a lot more challenging and rugged. My biggest smile today was probably seeing my friend at the water station. I didn’t expect to see her there.”
Arizona’s Julie Momber, overall bronze medalist in the 2025 Epic and three-time 24 Hours of Old Pueblo champion, clocked in about 6 minutes behind Mayles as runner-up in Stage 1.
“The hardest thing for me today was I thought it was 32 miles. Those last four were tough,” Momber said, adding that her key focus was ensuring that 2025 Epic champion Leah Van Der Linden stay in her rearview mirror. “I knew Leah was behind me, so I was just riding hard to keep her from passing me.”
Van Der Linden encountered some snags during day one of defending her Epic crown. She hammered from the start and was sending the first steep, loose descent, when she suddenly pulled a Superman over the bars, tearing her jersey and bloodying her knee. Still, she Momber in sight.
“I passed about five guys and was feeling super good. Then came the puncture. Erin came by and I was like, can I chase her down? It was feisty today. We’ve got competitors every year, but his year, but we’ve got some fast riders. It just continues to raise that level for the women’s field. And it’s day one. I gotta keep telling myself I’ve got five more days.”
The Erin in question, former Olympian and fellow Boulder resident Erin Huck, flew past Van Der Linden to round out the Stage 1 women’s pro podium.
Flatlanders come from afar for first Epic
On the non-pro side of the race, there are a staggering number of Epic first-timers, many coming to Breckenridge from overseas and not much higher than sea level.
Grinding the climbs on day one. Photo by Jace Stout.
Men’s duo team Douglas Drysdale and Kevin Jacobs traveled all the way from South Africa for their first Epic. Both seasoned by the Cape Epic, the high-altitude Breck race left them breathless at the finish area. Still, the adrenaline was flowing and they are determined to keep up the fight.
“It’s tough coming from sea level, but I think I might feel stronger tomorrow,” Jacobs said.
In the small (e.g. three athletes) field of 50-plus women, Leadville’s Renee Lockey ran away with the stage win with an impressive time of 4:15.52, but Nina Brandt, who has bagged two other Epics, was racing for the first time on a new titanium knee.
“Sometimes when you’re out there alone, you ask yourself why you do this,” she said. “Then you start riding with a good group and realize we’re all in it together. Then, it’s quite fun.”
Hailing from North Carolina where trails top out at 900 feet, Kevin Satterfield said the toughest moments of Stage 1 were “all the parts above 11,000 feet.”
“The legs feel pretty good, though,” he said. “It was a great course.”
From Minnesota, Alex Knutson-Smisek tacked the Epic solo in 2023, but talked Vanessa Dang into joining him this time around.
“As beautiful as expected, maybe a bit harder,” Dang said of the first stage of her first Epic. “The hills were steep and the elevation hurts.”
“I felt like we had a good, consistent pace,” Knutson-Smisek chimed in. “Last time I went out too hard, which made for a hard week. The duo dynamic is amazing, because you have someone with you all day and you both have low and high points.”
Stage 2 kicks off at 8:30 a.m. in downtown Breckenridge, taking riders on a 42.5-mile course to The Colorado Trail, climbing 6,565 feet.