Words: Shauna Farnell
Above Image: Eddie Clark

After finishing second on an abbreviated and thus fast-paced course in Stage 1, Kaysee Armstrong said she felt far from fresh coming into Stage 2 on Monday. Nonetheless, the Team Juliana rider from Knoxville, Tenn., dropped the rest of the sizable women’s field on The Colorado Trail Monday to take the win and the overall lead.

“I felt fine, but a lot of times I feel like the only reason I’m good at Breck is because I’m really good at suffering,” Armstrong said after winning the 42.5-mile stage in 4 hours and 36 seconds. “It was actually a really tough start. Stella was with me, pushing up the climb. I was telling myself, don’t blow up. As we got to the top, I passed her. Then we started descending and hit the trail and I mean, I love trail.”

From that point on, Armstrong dropped Stage 1 winner Stella Hobbs and the rest of the field. Hobbs ended up in second, finishing Stage 2 in 4:04:12 while Durango’s Ellen Campbell rounded out the women’s podium in third with a time of 4:06:22.

“Before I knew it, I looked back and was like, where’d Stella go? I never saw her. So I was like, don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back,” said Armstrong, who also won Stage 2 in 2023 and finished second overall to Erin Huck, who isn’t racing in this year’s Epic. “Last year, my biggest thing was I kept looking back and was always stressed. This year I was like, if she catches me, she catches me. Just ride your race.”

Hobbs, 31, from Whitefish, Mont., is riding for the bike shop she co-owns, Great Northern Cycle & Ski. While a seasoned mountain biker and a competitive gravel racer, she is new to mountain bike racing. After asking Armstrong what size front ring she was running and discovering that Armstrong and other pack leaders were running a 32-tooth while she was running a 34, she thought she’d finish the day with a shopping trip to pick up the smaller ring.

“When I was still with Kaysee, that was the hardest part,” Hobbs said. “We were riding so hard on that first climb. Then she dropped me on the descent. Our long climb up the Colorado Trail was fine, but I was not turning it over the way I would have liked. I was like, hmm, maybe I’m a little depleted. Later in that climb, I was doing some soft pedaling and over every little rollover I was like, OK, rest. Overall, it was a beautiful day on the bike. I think not racing mountain bikes is why I’m having so much fun. It’s so new. I love the learning trajectory.”\

Rider: Ellen Campbell, Image: Jace Stout

Campbell, from Durango and riding for Specialized Rapha Tailwind Domestique Coffee, is in the midst of her Epic debut. She entered the race the day after taking sixth in the brutally demanding Leadville 100. A huge steak burrito launched her quick recovery.

“I don’t think I did anything too crazy specific to recover besides eating,” she said. “My mentality going into the first day of the Breck Epic was, just pedal and try to finish. Have no expectations.”

In her third year of pro racing, the Lifetime Grand Prix has been Campbell’s main focus, but she has wanted to work the Epic into her schedule for many years.

“Singletrack is what I grew up doing. It’s what I miss, so this week is more of a bike vacation,” Campbell said. “Riding singletrack and doing it with 60 women is really cool. It really opens a lot of doors for more women, brings more women into the sport. They can see that if 60 women can do six days of mountain biking at [10,000 to 12,000] feet, it makes it more approachable and welcoming. It feels really good to know there’s this many women who want to shred mountain bikes for this many days. There’s like 50 women here I don’t know. It’s cool to have new, fresh competition and new, friendly faces.”

Indeed, the finish line scene among female Epic riders is filled with congratulatory hugs, shoulder squeezes and, yes, discussion of gear choices and course anecdotes.

While Armstrong now leads Hobbs by just over 2.5 minutes in the GC, followed by Campbell nearly 11 minutes back and Haley Dumke a close fourth, she is not entertaining any illusions that maintaining the front spot is in the bag.

“We all know the lead doesn’t mean anything in this race,” Armstrong said. “It means nothing. Stella is riding strong. At least I have a little cushion with Ellen, but wouldn’t be surprised if she came back and starts kicking our butts. Evelyn [Dong] is a mountain goat; she’ll win Wheeler. Anything could happen.”

Kaysee Armstrong, post finish – Image: Jace Stout

Riley Amos on the Colorado Trail – Image: Jace Stout

By Shauna Farnell

Olympic star Riley Amos once again proved his worth on Monday, following up his Stage 1 win with another victory in Stage 2, ripping through the 42.5-mile Colorado Trail course in 3 hours, 11 minutes and 17 seconds.

“I got a little bit of a gap, but not as much as I was hoping,” said the 22-year-old Durango native who, in addition to finishing seventh in the 2024 Paris Olympics a couple of weeks ago, has been lighting up the World Cup XC circuit this year. “I definitely felt like I put more energy into it than time I got out, but it was a super good day.”

The Trek Factory racer was once again trailed closely by 22-year-old Robbie Day. Day, who grew up in Evergreen and races for Bear National Team, is a runner up National Champion and has also been ascending the World Cup ranks. After riding Amos’ wheel across the finish line to finish just one second back in Stage 1, Day crossed the line in sync with Specialized Off-Road rider Howard Grotts in 3:11:43, followed two seconds later by Yeti Cycles’ Zach Calton.

“Everything kind of hurts right now,” Day said after the race. “We really got moving in the last third of the race – me, Zach Calton and Taylor Lideen. We started going for it, pushing the pedals as hard as possible after 30 miles. We saw Howard and Riley. The hardest part for me was on the CT. I maybe got 75 percent up the climb and thought it was a 25-minute climb, not a 45-minute climb. I was like, I can’t sustain this. I’m gonna bonk so hard. Then I reeled Riley back in. Zach and Taylor and I made up some time. I saw him and was like, OK, turn on the burners.”

Robbie Day holding a 26-second gap during Breck Epic’s second stage. Image: Eddie Clark

Amos said it was Matt Pike who set the blistering pace out of the gate, splitting up the lead pack just a few minutes after launching off the start line.

“Me and Robbie went over the top of the first climb together. I had a little gap and stayed on it til the bottom. I maintained the gap and was climbing solo for a while,” Amos said. “Toward the top of the Colorado Trail, I looked back and Howard was just flying up there. He latched onto the back of me and we went over the top. I was pushing the downhill on the limit, trying to push him off the wheel. We were just going so fast, foot out on every corner, trying not to make any mistakes. Then I was solo again for a long time. I went through Aid Station 2 feeling good, but man, that last climb was brutal. I thought I had a really good gap. I thought everyone had come apart and I was gone, but I was the one coming apart. I looked back at the top of the last climb and Robbie Day was right there. I had to really dig for the last five minutes.”

Amos leads Day by a mere 26 seconds in the GC while Grotts, his local mentor since childhood, trails in third by 2 minutes, 23 seconds, Calton by 2:54 and Lideen 3:59. The rest of the field trails by another 7-plus minutes going into Stage 3, the Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot, a 40.5-mile ride that summits above treeline and spans 7,100 vertical feet.

Riders flying down the CT. Image: Devon Balet