BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. – Deanna Mayles doubled down on her Epic mark Monday, once again blazing across the finish line with a healthy lead on the rest of the pro women’s field to win The Colorado Trail stage.
The 32-year-old increased her gap in the General Classification, winning Stage 2 in 3 hours, 53 minutes and 36 seconds. Racing in the first Epic of her short career (starting in 2020), the Colorado Springs rider now leads the GC with a total time of 7:12:04, more than 12 minutes ahead of runner-up Leah Van Der Linden, who won the Epic crown in 2025. Mayles dropped Van Der Linden, who ended up second in Stage 2 in 3:57:11, and third place Julie Momber, early on Monday, climbing up the aptly named Heinous Hill.
“They always start going hard in the morning, and I’m like, ooh, I just want to stick with them,” Mayles said of the women’s frontrunners. “It was starting to get to that hard part. I just found the groove I liked. Then, at the top, I turned around and saw they weren’t there anymore. I rode around a couple guys all day. Honestly, it’s a privilege for me to be in the front. You get to ride your own race and enjoy it a bit more.”
The aspect of the race that should scare her competitors is that Mayles has yet to lay the hammer down.
“I haven’t really dropped the hammer,” she said. “I’ll probably leave it for the last day. There’s some really fun downhills. I’d love to race them for the Strava segment, but I don’t want to sacrifice the race.”
Van Der Linden and Momber also loved the loose, fast downhills, keeping each other in sight for nearly the entire stage. Van Der Linden pulled ahead on the homestretch, however, crossing the line five minutes before Momber, who rounded out the Stage 2 podium.
“I love this Colorado Trail,” Van Der Linden said. “This is why we ride. I mean, Heinous Hill sucks, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s nice you get it out of the way early. Julie and Deanna were pushing the first hill, and I know from experience that hill will get you by the end of the day. So, I was a bit more conservative on the front end of the race. Then, once we got into the singletrack, jumping on the Colorado Trail, it’s game on. Deanna is so strong. I love that she’s doing the races that she wants to do and is really showing us all how it’s done. Julie’s been having an awesome ride so far, too. We were kind of yo-yoing a little bit all day.”
Although they saw quite a bit of each other on-course, there wasn’t much chitchat between Van Der Linden and Momber.
“No friends on race day,” Momber said. “I found some good groups. In the morning, Heinous Hill was heinous, but the Colorado Trail was great. I was just a little bit tired on that long Colorado Trail climb, but the high point is that long descent. I rode it the other day, so it was fresh in my memory.”
Momber, who took third overall in the 2025 Epic, now trails Mayles and Van Der Linden in the GC, followed by former Olympian Erin Huck in fourth and Siri Krum in fifth.
Taylor Lideen (47) and James Kelly (41) stayed glued in Stage 2. Photo by Nate Abbott.
Lideen edges Kelly for Stage win
Racing in his third Epic, Taylor Lideen is on one this time around. The Arkansas resident kicked off the race with an enjoyable social ride with Macky Franklin on Sunday, the two crossing the finish line together in third for Lideen’s best stage finish to date. Then in Monday’s Stage 2, he launched to the next level, notching a debut victory, edging race leader James Kelly by exactly one second to finish in 3:22:59.
“The first day is kind of a shock to the body, but riding with Macky yesterday was so fun and today, riding with James, we rolled together so well, had so much fun on the descents,” Lideen said. “You can have a bad day here at this race, but the trails are so fun, it always makes up for it.”
Although he’s in the midst of his best-ever Epic performance, Lideen is no stranger to success on two wheels. He’s won the True Grit 100 four times as well as the Unbound XL 350 miler. Earlier in his career, he was the Under-25 World Solo 24-Hour Mountain Bike champion. Before coming to the Breck Epic, though, he was losing some of his love for the sport. Two days in, he’s finding it again.
“Honestly, I haven’t had much fun riding my bike the past 10 months. It got to a point where it was starting to really affect me, like, do I really want to keep doing this?” Lideen said. “When I ride the stages in Breck Epic, it kind of brings that fire back. My goal for this week is to find fun again and enjoy riding and racing my bike.”
Lideen is now runner up to Kelly in the GC. The Australian leads with a total time of 6:12:23 with Lideen in second at 6:16:08 and Stefano Barberi in third in 6:22:56.
Kelly, 31, whose only other international races were world championships in Switzerland, in which he struggled with back pain, was pleased to find himself once again at the head of the pack on Monday. He said his dominance in the Breck Epic thus far hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
“I actually had a pretty terrible sleep – probably a little bit too much caffeine and excitement,” he said. “It was a really solid ride today with Taylor. We sort of got a little gap up to the first climb and we were really cooking on the descents. Then Taylor knew it was the last descent. I wasn’t too phased.”
Juggling a career running a private law practice, Kelly planned to spend some of his recovery time Monday catching up on emails.
Another Breck Epic first-timer, Adam Oliver redeemed himself in Stage 2, rounding out the podium behind Kelly and Lideen. The Salt Lake City athlete made his Epic debut in red-hot fashion on Sunday, setting the pace and hanging with Kelly in Stage 1 until breaking his wheel on the first chunky descent. Grateful to be racing on a borrowed wheel, he said Stage 2 was perhaps the most beautiful ride of his racing career.
The struggle is real. Photo by Chris Rose.
“Today went really well,” he said. “I got over the climb first then kind of had some PTSD on that first chunky descent. They caught me and passed me. Then I rode solo the whole rest of the day, took in the views. The Colorado Trail was just unbelievably good. That might have been top three best trails I’ve ever ridden in my whole life.”
Making contact with the trail
The chunky descents did take their toll on some riders. There were a lot of torn kits, bloody knees and a few DNFs, including Stage 1 runner-up Sam Brown, who reportedly crashed hard on Monday.
Among the youngest females racing, 19-year-old Ava Scott maintained her pink jersey, crossing the Stage 2 finish line in sync with one of the oldest women racing – Renee Lockey – also in pink and seriously dominating the Women 50-plus field. Both generations finished in 5:22:31, although Scott had some blood and scratches to show for it.
“It was on the first single track downhill,” Scott said of her crash. “I was behind a whole lot of people. They said someone broke their shoulder or collarbone. For me, I don’t like the loose downhills. I really like the flowy uphill singletrack. I like riding uphill more.”
Stage 3 Mt. Guyot
There’s plenty of uphill in Stage 3 Mt. Guyot, which kicks off in downtown Breckenridge at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and takes riders 40.5 miles with more than 7,000 feet of climbing, crossing the Continental Divide not once, but twice.
“I know they call Wheeler the Queen stage, but for me, Guyot is the hardest,” Van Der Linden said. “It’s a really big test.”
Get ready to prove yourself, riders.
Overhead in the finish area:
“A lot of us are buddies. New buddies.”
(Racer getting his arm bandaged) “I went right under a log.”
“Are you gonna party tonight? No, no. Party time is in four more days.”
“I see a lot of bloody knees.”
I wish we had some grass to lay out on.”
(On pickle sandwiches): “I can’t decide. Do I love it or do I hate it?”