Breck Day 3 -- Pennsylvania Gulch

Today went both better and worse. After a "neutral" roll out up a steep road climb that shattered the field, we dropped down some single track for about 10 minutes before beginning the day's biggest climb. Just a minute or so into the single track we passed the Kappius boys at the side of the trail fixing a flat, so we were finally leading the race. We were both feeling pretty good, and managed to pick up quite a few spots up both of the first two climbs. We looked back in an open field at the bottom of the second climb and could see them about 30 seconds back, but we held that gap over the top. We had an unfortunately slow stop at the aid station, but were still doing ok.

But with about 8 miles to go, I lost a contact in my right eye. This is getting to be really annoying. We stopped for a moment to see if we could find it but had no luck. By the time we got rolling again and into the single track, they were 10 seconds behind us. I was riding well, but at the bottom of the single track were we hit a road section, there was a fence across the trail that hadn't been there when we road up this section of trail during the prologue. My depth perception was a bit messed up, and I slid into it pretty hard with my right side. I didn't think much of it at the time, and we took off down the road toward the final climb.

The Kappius boys caught us on the road and we sucked wheel until the aid station, they stopped, but we kept going and got a gap as we started the climb. That's when I found out that I had smashed my derailleur and could only use the bottom 4 or 5 cogs. On the steeper sections of the climb, I was pushing about 20 rpm and my legs finally blew up. They came by and Ryan rode the climb with them, but I had to walk. They ended up finishing 1:09 ahead of us.

I'm afraid this was our best shot at a win, and it's pretty annoying to blow it like that.

Today (Wednesday) is the 'queen' stage. 43 miles with 4 big climbs. French pass is over 12,000 feet, and Georgia pass is just shy of 12. Depending on how everyone feels, that 1:09 might not be a big deal.

(Rolling into the final aid station with Russ and Brady)