Van Der Linden maintains women’s Epic lead as Stephens crashes
Maddie Munro wraps up three-day race with mind-blowing speed
By Shauna Farnell
Images: John Hanson, Eddie Clark
Leah Van Der Linden is on a streak. Buoyed by one of the most rewarding victories of her cycling career on Monday, the 31-year-old Boulder athlete repeated Tuesday as the fastest elite woman to cross the line in Stage 3’s Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot.
Considering the downhill her major strength, Van Der Linden (Lauf/Continental/Hunt/Eliel/Tifosi) came into Stage 3 bracing for “a climbing day.”
“I kind of realized there are three pretty technical descents. So, I was just like, you know what? Keep climbing at my pace and I know I can make up a lot of time on the downhill. I think I made up almost five minutes on the Colorado Trail. That’s kind of been my motto this week. Now we’re going for the overall.”
Van Der Linden, who came into Sunday’s Epic hot off the heels of Saturday’s Leadville 100, won Stage 3 with a time of 4 hours, 8 minutes and 51 seconds. Her closest competitor, Lauren Stephens (Aegis Cycling Foundation), trailed by almost two minutes. The 38-year-old Texas native now sits behind Van Der Linden in the GC by just over three minutes.
A two-time national gravel champion and accomplished road racer, Stephens took third in the Leadville 100 on Saturday, but was disqualified due to unwittingly taking a water bottle outside of the designated aid area. She went on to win the Epic’s opening race Sunday in spite of a flat tire and light crash. She finished a close second to Van Der Linden in Stage 2 after clipping a tree and crashing, then was leading the race when she went down again on Tuesday, bloodying up a knee.
“Coming down after the Skittles [handoff], I was trying to stop, but couldn’t stop and I fell over,” Stephens said. “Leah caught me at the bottom of that descent. I attacked the next climb and Leah caught me at the next descent, so we just kept going back and forth.”
Acknowledging that it’s exciting to have such a tight GC race, Stephens found herself second-guessing whether she wanted to continue racing after Tuesday.
“I need to decide if I’m going to start or not,” she said. “I’m professional in gravel and road. I don’t make my money mountain biking. I keep crashing. I think I’ll start, but I need to think about it. I might need to dial it back a little bit.”
Stephens and Van Der Linden have a significant lead on the rest of the women’s field in the GC. Van Der Linden is No. 1 with a total time of 11:36:37 and Stephens is second with 11:39:43. Bikesmith Cyclery’s Julie Momber of Prescott, Ariz., who rounded out the podium for the second day straight on Tuesday, is sitting in third overall with a time of 12:01:43.
Munro wraps up a sizzling, three-day race
Anyone watching this year’s Epic has witnessed some red-hot pedaling by 23-year-old World Cup rider Maddie Munro.
The Boulder athlete was again the first woman to cross the line by a landslide on Tuesday, finishing Stage 3 with a time of 3:49:13. Her three-stage total time of 10:33:40 places her well ahead of any other three-day rider and in the middle of the men’s elite field.
Alas, though, she is done with her Epic.
“Today was hard,” Munro said. “After two days of racing, I was a bit tired. I think I would probably crack if I had three more days.”
A flat tire slowed her ever so slightly on Tuesday, but she plugged it quickly and blasted onward, leaving all but the 10 fastest men in her wake.
“It was just another awesome day of riding,” she said, adding that she would likely celebrate with pizza and ice cream before preparing to leave the country next weekend for a World Cup race in France.
She did say she would consider entering the full Epic at some point if variables align.
“Maybe in the future,” she said. “If we’re ever here again at the same time and it works out with my schedule, I’d love to do it.”
The Epic continues with Stage 4 on The Aqueduct Wednesday, another intensive elevation day with more than 6,400 feet of climbing over 42 miles.
Leah Van der Linden, Breck Epic 2025 Stage 3 – Mt. Guyot
Image: John Hanson
Ingrid Stensvaag
Image: Eddie Clark
Matt Pike makes hat trick in first three stages, takes commanding GC lead
Bottcher and others slowed by mechanicals as unsponsored Colorado racer continues to shine
By Shauna Farnell
Somebody get this man a bike sponsor. Matt Pike is officially dominating the Breck Epic 2025 and the dude isn’t even sponsored. The 28-year-old from Longmont held onto the yellow jersey Tuesday, winning Stage 3’s Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot, which happens to be his favorite.
“That French Pass climb is just beautiful,” he said. “It’s where you would take your buddy to go on an amazing big mountain ride. That’s how I think of this stage. It’s just a blast.”
Pike got to “rewrite his memory” of Stage 3 from last year, when he flatted and destroyed his wheel coming off French Pass and “spent the day as a volunteer.”
On Tuesday, he fired through the entire 40-mile course with 7,100 feet of climbing in 3 hours, 25 minutes and 16 seconds with zero mishaps.
“I really didn’t want to flat again, so tried to take it gingerly, but put the pressure on,” Pike said. “This is the stage for a lot of mistakes. There’s a lot of loose rocks and lots of brush. It’s hard to see what you’re doing. I’m sure we’ll hear about a ton of flats.”
Sure enough, there were quite a few, including Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling), who punctured at the bottom of the loose, rocky Georgia Pass, but managed to power back and close the gap, finishing second to Pike on Tuesday, just over a minute back.
An accomplished UCI road and gravel cyclist, the 32-year-old Swiss athlete is new to mountain biking, but also managed to pull off a third place finish in Saturday’s Leadville 100.
Highs and lows
“It’s just like after the Olympics, when all the energy goes down and everything. That’s how I felt in the first stage here. I felt horrible,” Pellaud said. “And I’m not a [mountain] biker at all. I’m in a learning process. These trails with the stones and sand, they’re super hard for me.”
Pellaud’s mountain bike is stuck in customs, so he is borrowing a Yeti for the Epic, which, after he began to build his strength and energy back from Stage 1, appears to be serving him well.
“Without the puncture today, maybe I could have been fighting for the stage win. In the end, I came pretty close,” he said. “I was there. I was proud of myself.”
Pellaud had Pike in sight at the top of the last climb, but knew he couldn’t hang descending into the final singletrack section on Sidedoor.
Roadies learning the fat tire flow
“This flow trail with the cool corners, I really need to understand how to ride it to make it fast. I can have fun, but I’m not fast,” he said. “I would like to go up there with someone teaching me how to ride it fast because I can’t keep up with those guys on any kind of the downhill.”
Returning for his second Breck Epic this year, Haidet (Specialized/SRAM/Velocio/Fat Tire), rounded out the podium Tuesday, finishing Stage 3 in 3:29:12, almost four minutes behind Pike, but impressive for a Californian who lives at sea level and didn’t arrive to Colorado until last Friday.
“When these guys attack early on, I kind of just have to let them go and ride my own pace,” Haidet said. “There were a couple sections where I was hiking faster than the other guys and able to make up some time.”
Bottcher’s botched wheel
After finishing second to Pike in both of the first two stages and trailing by only 2:41 in the GC, New Zealander Caleb Bottcher (Yeti/Shimano/Enve/Good Year) got literally derailed on French Pass Tuesday, breaking a spoke, which then knocked off his entire derailleur.
“I thought it was race over, then kind of sat there for a few minutes feeling sorry for myself,” Bottcher said. “People were coming and looking to see what had happened.”
A passing medic ended up taking the derailleur off his own bike to replace Bottcher’s, putting him back in the race.
“We did fix it really fast,” Bottcher said. “I got up the road a little bit and realized there’s no cable tension in it and stopped again to get it somewhat working. It was jumping all over the place, but it was good crisis management to be here.”
The Kiwi managed to finish 8th on Tuesday, but more than 15 minutes off of Pike’s pace. This gives Pike a significant cushion in the GC, where he leads with a total time of 9:32:50. Cassius Anderson (Marin Service Course/Enve/Castelli) of Novato, Calif., is now second overall, with a total time of 9:48:48 while Bottcher has slipped to third in 9:50:51. New Mexico’s Macky Franklin (#BeMoreAwesome) sits in fourth (9:53:11).
Haidet, who is sitting in fifth overall with a time of 9:54:31, predicts that Pike will stay strong through the latter half of the race.
Again …get this guy a sponsor
“I knew he was probably one of the favorites for this race,” Haidet said. “Last year he was doing really well and on this stage had a pretty catastrophic mechanical, which took him out of the GC. He’s such a good climber, especially up high. He’s a super solid rider. Unless something dramatically changes, I’m confident he’ll keep going well.”
This is the Breck Epic, though, and dramatic changes are always on the table. Stage 4, The Aqueduct, kicks off Wednesday, taking racers to Keystone’s high backcountry and back in almost 42 miles with more than 6,500 feet of climbing.
A little more about the guy leading the race …
Pike grew up in Richmond, Virginia and came to Colorado in 2019 to compete in Nationals at Winter Park where he “did everything wrong.” Determined to become a better XC racer, he moved to the Boulder area (now in Longmont) a few weeks later and claims to be “faking it” for the last couple of years. In his fourth Breck Epic, he has proven his worth, winning Stage 6 last year and the year before, unquestionably among the frontrunners. As for his first half Epic domination this week, he said he hasn’t quite processed it.
“Your brain hasn’t seen oxygen for three hours,” he joked after Stage 3. “But it feels good to be able to ride the way that I want to. It’s really valuable to pace this race your way.”
Matt Pike
Image: Eddie Clark
