Evelyn Dong (Juliana) descends from French Pass. Image: Eddie Clark

By Shauna Farnell

Kaysee Armstrong was on a tear Tuesday, hammering off the Stage 3 start line and pretty much riding solo, ascending and descending the rocky and technical French Pass and Georgia Pass, crossing and re-crossing The Continental Divide. The 34-year-old Team Juliana rider won the 40.5-mile, high elevation Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot in 4 hours, 5 minutes and 23 seconds, holding onto the leader’s jersey after her Stage 2 victory and greatly increasing her lead in the overall standings.

“I enjoy this stage, but not that much,” Armstrong said. “I’m just so tired. I did feel really smooth going down the Colorado Trail. I didn’t’ really have to think about it, then it was over. I would have more fun if I wasn’t racing it. You’re breathing hard the whole time. There’s so many steep climbs. It’s never forgiving. It’s the loosest rock in the world.”

Armstrong managed to stay in the saddle on the loose climbs. After summitting French Pass and catching sight of Ellen Campbell behind her, she didn’t see anyone else in the women’s field for the remainder of the race. When asked what she thinks about for three-plus hours riding by herself, she said clearing her head is her strategy.

“I tell myself not to think. I can overthink so much. I’m like, just stop thinking. Focus on the pedaling, looking at the views and being here,” she said. “Some people are like, I’m out there working through life’s problems. I’m like, no. I can’t. If I was working through my life problems out there, I’d be wrecking.”

After a turbulent start to her Epic – a crash resulting in a dislocated finger within the first 15 minutes of Stage 1 – Evelyn Dong found her stride Tuesday. The 39-year-old Utah resident finished second behind her Team Juliana teammate, just over four minutes off Armstrong’s winning pace.

“After the first stage where I dislocated my finger, I had a little adrenaline and kept going,” said Dong, who won the Breck Epic in 2015, landed on the podium in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and barely missed it last year, finishing fourth.

“Yesterday was a little rough,” she said of Stage 2, when she finished 13^th and more than 20 minutes off of Armstrong’s winning pace. “I was having a hard time holding onto the bars and just having a big pity party for myself. But I figured some stuff out. I had to tape the finger better. I’m doing kind of a middle and ring finger grip. It’s not bad. It’s better than yesterday.”

Dong returns to form after Day 1 setback, Campbell slides into second in GC. Image: Devon Balet

As a clog of riders pushed their bikes up the loose scree and rocks on French Pass, they cleared the way for Dong, who managed to stay in the saddle.

“I was about the same pace as people walking,” Dong said. “I’m so bad at walking. I have real short legs. I ruin the flow for everyone else.”

Dong and Specialized Rapha Tailwind Domestique Coffee rider Ellen Campbell swapped places throughout the race, Campbell leading the climbs and Dong passing on the descents until Dong was able to shake Campbell on the final leg. Campbell rounded out the Stage 3 podium, finishing just over a minute behind Dong with a time of 4:10:39.

The Durango rider now trails Armstrong in second in the overall standings. Armstrong leads the race with a total time of 9:38:53. Campbell follows in 9:55:05. Longmont rider Andrea Dvorak of Cutaway is in third at 10:00:03 with Minturn’s Haley Dumke on her heels in 10:00:05. Stella Hobbs, who won Stage 1 and finished a close second in Stage 2, hit a wall of fatigue in Stage 3, finishing 12^th and nearly 22 minutes off the winning pace. She still sits in fifth in the GC with a total time of 10:03:20.

“It was extremely challenging today,” Hobbs said, gratefully accepting a can of Coke after the race. “The first part was pretty fun. I was riding with Ellen. We had a train of gals going. We had our big climb. Evelyn came up and rode the whole thing while this giant train of ants was pushing their bikes and everyone is yelling, ‘let her through!’ That was fun to watch. Then we got down and had a road climb and the wheels just fell off the bus. I just didn’t have it today. This is my first Coke this week. Maybe I’ll have a beer tonight.”

Stage 4 and the second half of the Breck Epic kicks off Wednesday with the Aqueduct, a 42-mile ride covering 6,800 feet of elevation that takes racers out of Breckenridge through Horseshoe Gulch to Keystone and back on the Colorado Trail. 

Kaysee Armstrong rode alone to win again and hold the lead Tuesday. Image: Eddie Clark

Unidentified rider. Image: Jace Stout

Riley Amos and Robbie Day – a little friendly side-eye. Image: Eddie Clark

By Shauna Farnell

If there were any doubt that a World Cup and Olympic star accustomed to short, one-day races could hold his own in an endurance competition, Riley Amos is squashing it.

The 22-year-old Durango native and Trek Factory Team rider once again claimed victory in Stage 3, crushing the 40.2-mile, technical, high-elevation Circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot in 3 hours, 8 minutes and 56 seconds. That said, he only edged hometown buddy and mentor Howard Grotts by 11 seconds.

The 31-year-old Specialized Off-Road rider led the Stage from the start, forcing Amos and the rest of the field to give chase.

“Oy my God, he was driving the pace so hard,” Amos said of Grotts. “When we turned up that first dirt road, it instantly split the group. He was very far up there at one point.”

Amos was able to hang with Grotts for the first few miles, but descending to the base of French Pass, he flatted on the sharp, loose rocks. He threw in an insert and continued on, trading out for a new wheel at the first aid station. Then he started hammering after Grotts and the others who’d passed him.

“It was super lucky that Tommy and Lasse [Konecny] had a wheel ready for me,” Amos said. “Over the top of French, I was with Robbie [Day] and Taylor [Lideen]. After that ascent, I was in no man’s land for most of the day, thinking I was losing time. At the top of that second climb, someone said it was just over two minutes to Howard. Then the big Colorado Trail descent was just epic, one of the best descents I’ve ridden in my life – so big, so flowy and rooty and natural. I think I pulled a good bit of time there.”

Up American Gulch to Great Flume, Amos started hurting. Then he caught sight of Grotts and found some power reserves.

“The last little climb, I could barely see him. When I could see him, it’s all the motivation in the world. I just chased as hard as I could. I snuck by him five minutes before the finish line.”

Riley Amos leads Howard Grotts through Little French. Image: Devon Balet

Grotts, a former World Cup racer and Olympian who now focuses on endurance racing, knew he was in trouble when he saw Amos in his wake.

“Once I saw that pink jersey, I knew it was going to come together,” said Grotts, adding that he remembers lining up for time trials when Amos was a kid. “It’s so cool to see how far he’s come and absolutely crushing it on the World Cup scene. It’s so cool seeing that next generation pushing it further and further.” 

Grotts won the Breck Epic in 2017, but has not returned since, although he did go on to win the notoriously grueling Cape Epic in South Africa twice, including earlier this year.

“I don’t quite have the snap that the World Cup kids have anymore, but luckily we’re at altitude, so it doesn’t matter that much,” Grotts said. “I really wanted to come back to this. Glad I made it happen. Mountain biking is where my heart is at. This stage was pretty physical, but I think it worked out well. I try to put the blinders on with stage racing. You just look ahead and see what you get every day.”

Finishing within two minutes of Amos in Stage 1 and within 30 seconds in Stage 2, Grotts now trails the Trek Factory rider in the overall standings. Amos leads with a total time of 7:33:24, followed by Grotts in 7:35:57. Yeti Cycles’ Zach Calton was the third rider across the line in Stage 3 Tuesday and now sits in third overall, but more than 12 minutes behind Amos with a total time of 7:45:56. Bear Nationals rider Robbie Day, who finished a close second to Amos in the first two stages, finished fourth Tuesday and now sits in fourth in the GC with a time of 7:46:21.

Robbie Day, chasing in no-man’s land on American Flume. Image: Devon Balet

Race leaders rolling away from Stage 3’s start in downtown Breckenridge. Image: Jace Stout

Lance Haidet (Specialized/SRAM/Velocio/FatTire). Image: Devon Balet