A ROUGH START TO OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THE YEAR (Breck Epic Day 1)

[Music] I'm Sid and this is my husband Mackie we're professional mountain bikers on a quest to race the best and most challenging mountain bike races around the world races just like this one the bre epic a Six-Day stage race in Breen Ridge Colorado high elevation big days Rowdy trails and an absolutely appalling amount of climbing this SE sucks this year's race is a special one this is macky's sixth Time Racing bre epic but it's my first and it's also the first ever edition of the bre epic women's tour I'll be racing against upwards of 60 other Pro women from around the country and the world this is the largest female Pro field ever in North America and racing against this many other fast women is going to be a super unique experience and a big step forward for women's mountain bike racing so naturally nerves are pretty high for this first day and I'm already feeling a little underprepared compared to so many High Caliber competitors tell me about your Tactical mistakes I just went too hard at the beginning it's clear that this is going to be a big week challenging in so many ways can't stop to puke anymore if this happens again we're just going to do it while we roll that has been time consuming but also rewarding oh man this section is amazing this dirt is so nice and the weather is already set to wreak havoc on day one there were some complications at the start and that it was pouring rain as always these videos are made possible by our team on patreon and to say thank you we post them there first you can watch Day 2 on patreon right now all right let's get into it bre epic here we [Music] come okay you guys we are getting ready to head to bre and ridge for the bre epic if you've been watching our Channel you've seen us do several stage races over the past year and a half or so and most of those were fully supported stage races so like when we did bcv in 2023 we had the food in camping package we were camping at the venue and eating the breakfasts and dinners so we didn't have to think about what we were going to eat Breck is a little bit different all of the races start in end in Breen Ridge so we have an Airbnb for the week and we are in charge of all those Logistics this is also a really hard race there's a ton of climbing the stages are longer than the bcbr I know for me I want to be making as few decisions as possible on the race day so what we've done this week is I made a full meal plan of what we're going to eat for basically every meal for 6 days I made a chili pork shoulder and my mom made a pasta sauce this morning I've been packing all our clothes and doing something a little different which is putting our outfits for each day into one of these packing cubes so that we we literally don't have to think at all of like oh where are my socks or oh should I use the gloves I used yesterday nope there are clean gloves and socks and Shamy and jersey in every one of these bags so hopefully that will also cut down on the mental energy we need to get going every morning huge thank you to my parents and macky's parents who are both coming up for the week they're going to spoil us a little bit so that we can focus on racing I'm going to just finish throwing things in bags and we're going to head to Breen Ridge next step in prepping for bre epic making sure the bikes are good to go first I need to swap front tire said it already did the rear one for me I've got a tick in the bottom bracket which I'm guessing just needs a little bit of Grease possibly replace some cables just make sure everything's working well because you really don't want to go into a six day stage race and not have your bike in Primo condition [Music] Mack's going to race the ebike this year two years of single speed at Breck was enough we give everyone 30 seconds to compose their angry comment before I tell you that that was a joke we're bringing the ebike cuz everyone going to be tired after the race so if we have to go anywhere or if Macky wants to come back to the Finish Line to like see me finish you can just zip [Music] over T I finally subscribed yeah thank you I feel like second you were like [Music] okay now is the time to get the bikes ready to go we need to put number plates on I have number 67 Sid has number 37 I'm going to attach tube CO2 or spare CO2 tire lever to my bicycle with this handy piece of Velcro all right I think the final bike prep is about done numbers are on today has been a little stressful I'm not going to lie but I think now we get a good food so that's good this is Sid's first ever bre epic racing instead of supporting it is my sixth ever Breck epic and I am very excited to be racing it with gears because the last time I raced this three years ago I did it on a single speed yeah you have not done it with gears since 2013 over a decade so how are you feeling about your first ever nonsupporting bre epic I'm actually very excited to not be supporting I feel like I should have prepared better but I feel like that before every race so it's a common defense mechan afterwards I feel like I should have gone faster and that's just how it goes you're going to be amazing yeah okay bedtime yeah this is the time in stage races right before you start where I'm like nah I don't need to do stage races once the gun goes then it's fine it'll be fine think it's going to be wet which is fun it definitely rained like all night I have no idea what riding in this big of a field of pro women is going to be like I think today is going to be a bit experimental try to figure out what's going on who's going to do what how fast everybody is going to go out it is currently pouring rain outside coach Mike says don't go get wet and do your warmup just do a warm up inside that's what we're doing look at that wind oh what not lucky there's always that one person that didn't bring a rain jacket oh it's definitely jee's fault that this is happening hey team this is what we're working with this morning total downpour before the start just got an email from Mike Mack 30 minute hold we will start at 9:00 a.m. I think that was a very good call because you probably can't tell but it is still pouring out there 30 minute delay is now over it has stopped raining Jim is saying Sunshine out there not sure I believe him but you know at least it's not raining anymore the original course for today was supposed to be this 36 mile Loop through the mountain Mountain around Breen Ridge with 5,700 ft of climbing however after the first 30-minute delay it became clear the rain was not abating and that the trails would be soaked so we had another 30-minute delay and a course change instead we'd be racing only 16 miles with 2500 ft a veritable Sprint by comparison unfortunately this change cut out some of the better descents of the day but it was clearly the right decision to keep the trails in good shape part of bike racing especially mountain bike racing is being able to pivot and adapt to changes like a shorter race that demands a completely different Playbook and strategy than what you were expecting racing gets underway in 5 4 3 2 1 [Applause] [Music] Only You racing gets underway in five 4 3 2 1 go [Applause] [Music] let's go [Applause] [Music] it was right about here that I realized I had made a big mistake and gone out way too hard for a start at 10,000 ft of elevation later when we reviewed my power file we saw that I had done my first minute of this race at 400 watts and had a second best 5 minute power of the year at 287 while I may have gotten away with this at sea level or our home elevation of 7,000 ft or just in a normal-sized women's field I did not get away with it here and this is the part where I got passed by what felt like the entire field but was probably only about 10 people still it was hard to not have a few negative thoughts In This Moment [Music] woo right her back I tried oh woohoo that was fun finally going down oh man oh recover recover come on SL down to come by on your right coming back in that was a piece of cake I do it all the time in my car here we go enjoy the day sixth place currently I got four miles to go okay take there yeah go go this is a spot that I could get by I remember this spot I passed a girl here in the firecracker and then like promply hit a tree which was embarrassing at the bottom of this super fun piece of single track we gotone on to a downhill dirt road and the three guys behind me went flying by I thought sure if you really want to blast this dirt road be my guest but it turns out they had a reason which was that the Finish was at the bottom of the dirt road so instead of finishing fifth I ended up eighth on the day but we were all separated by less than 2 seconds so it didn't really matter for the overall nice guys nice ride nice R you guys [Music] go Sid go Sid go [Music] Sid okay that was day one of 2024 bre epic there were some complications at the start and that it was pouring rain so they ended up delaying the start by 30 minutes and then the delaying the start by another 30 minutes which I think was a very good idea and then they ended up shortening the course by over half so it ended up only being like 16 17 miles instead of 36 it was short I think race time was like an hour 15 or something I do not envy the bre epic crew having to make those decisions those are tough decisions to make that's one of the things I've learned from racing bikes for a long time is there's generally a lot more going on behind the scenes than you realize as a racer so My Philosophy is never question a race director's decision I believe I ended up 8th but fifth 6th 7th and eth we were all separated by like 1 second overall I'm quite pleased I was climbing with guys who were strong climbers training Peak says my second best 10 and 20 minute Powers after downeyville not bad for being at quite a bit higher elevation and uh day one of a six- day stage race smells good in here hello hi how you doing how was it um it was fun I me make some tactical errors tell me about your Tactical mistakes I just went too hard at the beginning yeah that's it so I must have gone into the single track like fourth which was clearly not the move all of these people are within Striking Distance the hard part of that though is that there's probably an equal number right behind you I mean today's descents were not very hard they were not indicative of what the rest of the race is like at the end of the day I would say I am pretty happy with today and that result I definitely I don't think I executed to the best of my ability definitely started out too fast as Mike pointed out I kind of raced the race that I was given and tried some stuff it didn't work ultimately like this whole week is kind of a chance to experiment and to race in a really deep field it's different than anything I've have ever done it felt like I was getting passed by like 40 women and I think part of that is I'm just not used to getting passed so that was like obviously like some negative feelings negative emotions I think I did a good job of kind of not letting that affect the race now it is time to go eat a bunch of food Lo and Joe are coming over Mackey's parents are coming over have a celebratory dinner eat a lot of carbs and get ready for [Music] tomorrow right Sid what's for eats burritos of course burritos that was just the beginning folks and A Gentle Beginning at that at least compared to what's yet to come tomorrow it gets real check back in for that story on Wednesday or watch it right now on patreon that's bike racing I needed to go harder if I wanted to do better woo [Music] he [Music]