Kirkland defends Breckenridge 100 bike race title

Bryan Dillon takes third in B-68

While most riders have at least a couple of long-distance biking events under their belt at this point in the racing season, Team Alpine Orthopaedics athlete Jari Kirkland had not when she jumped into the Breckenridge 100 race on Saturday, July 16.

The Breckenridge 100 is an epic endurance race laid out in three separate loops that all start and finish in the town of Breckenridge. Kirkland estimates that between 60 and 70-percent of the course is single track and includes close to 14,000 feet of climbing crossing over the Continental Divide three times throughout the 100-mile race.
Kirkland is no stranger to epic endurance bike races with a slew of titles to her name including winning the Breckenridge 100 race last year.
The first lap takes riders on a long sustained climb over the Ten Mile Range and into Copper. In addition, racers had a series of snowfields to hike across all secured with fixed ropes as a safety precaution.
“You did not want to slip and fall,” says Kirkland. “If you had slid, you could have been hurt really bad.”
One snow field proved dicey enough that race officials were forced to drop the course down to its narrowest point forcing competitors to walk across and then hike-a-bike straight back up to rejoin the course.
Once finished with the first 30-mile lap, the course ramps up in difficulty for the next 35-mile loop as athletes are pushed to their climbing limits with a succession of 1,000-foot plus climbs.
“It’s the hardest loop,” says Kirkland. “They just stack the climbs on top of each other.”
While the final 35-mile loop may not be as difficult when compared to the other two, the fact that it’s the final 35 miles is punishment enough. Fortunately, it was during the final loop that Kirkland finally hit her stride.
She battled stomach issues throughout the first two loops making it hard for her to replenish her system with much needed nutrition.
“I didn’t feel super great,” says Kirkland. “I was having stomach issues. I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to eat anything.”
Kirkland bounced back and forth between two stages of distress.
“I got some protein and salt in me and would feel better and then eat a GU and start to feel worse,” explains Kirkland. “It was a yo-yo effect.”
It wasn’t until the 80-mile mark on the course that Kirkland started to feel good and was able to step up her pace.
“I finally found my legs,” says Kirkland. “I actually felt like I could race my bike. I was more on my A-game than my B-game.”
After riding with the same group of five guys, Kirkland managed to drop them and charge into the finish line to take the women’s solo title with a time of 10 hours, 31 minutes.
“It was nice to know that I felt good enough to push it,” says Kirkland.
Meanwhile, Team Alpine Orthopaedics rider Bryan Dillon was battling it out in the B-68, a 68-mile endurance race that covers the second and third loops of the Breckenridge 100 course.
According to Dillon, the start was pretty casual. Once it turned to single track, a group of riders took off but Dillon maintained his initial pace.
“I hung back,” says Dillon. “It’s 68 miles so you got time to make up time.”
Halfway through the first loop Dillon started to pick up the pace moving his way into third place on the final climb of the first loop.
From there Dillon was left to his own devices without a visual on the top two riders.
“I didn’t even see them,” says Dillon. “If I caught a glimpse of them I might have dropped the hammer but I was just racing my own race and not get caught by the people behind me.”
Eventually, Dillon crossed the finish line in five hours, 58 minutes hitting his pre-race goal.
“I was thinking around six hours,” says Dillon. “I don’t want to be on my bike for any longer than six hours.”
Dillon will jump right back into the endurance-racing fray this weekend as he heads north for the Steamboat Stinger, a 50-mile mountain bike race in Steamboat Springs.
Kirkland will return to the Mountain States Cup series in two weeks to race in Snowmass and then is off to Sweden to compete in an adventure race with a Swedish team in a national series championship event.
“They’re winning the series right now so I’m really excited,” says Kirkland. “It’s a lot of pressure but I like that.”