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Katerina Nash of the Czech Republic rides through the final stage’s finish line on Friday to win the Union Cycliste Internationale elite women’s division at the 6-day Breck Epic mountain bike race.
Devon Balet / Breck Epic
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Russell Finsterwald rides through an aid station during Friday’s final stage of the six-day Breck Epic mountain bike race. Finsterwald won the stage to finish runner-up in the Union Cycliste International elite men’s division.
Liam Doran / Breck Epic
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Hannah Finchamp pedals through an aid station during Friday’s final stage of the Breck Epic mountain bike race. Finchamp won the stage to finish runner-up in the Union Cycliste Internationale elite women’s division.
Liam Doran / Breck Epic
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Park City native Keegan Swenson rides through the final stage’s finish line on Friday to win the Union Cycliste Internationale elite men’s division at the 6-day Breck Epic mountain bike race.
Devon Balet / Breck Epic
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2019 Breck Epic overall champion Keegan Swenson (right) chats with fellow riders during Friday’s final stage of the annual mountain bike race.
Devon Balet / Breck Epic
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Katerina Nash and Hannah Finchamp ride during Friday’s final stage of the 2019 Breck Epic six-day mountain bike race.
Devon Balet / Breck Epic
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Nathan De Graaf of Breckenridge heads down the back side of Wheeler Pass during Thursday’s fifth stage of the Breck Epic six-day mountain bike race, which he rode in honor of his late friend and fellow Breck local Eric Dube.
Antonio Olivero / aolivero@summitdaily.com
BRECKENRIDGE — After five consecutive stage victories for the both of them, Keegan Swenson and Katerina Nash didn’t win the Breck Epic’s final stage — the 29.3-mile, 3,740-foot elevation gain Gold Dust — on Friday. That said, Friday’s ride felt more like a victory lap for both, as Swenson and Nash finished in the top four in the Union Cycliste Internationale elite men’s and women’s divisions to cement the overall championships.
Swenson’s top overall time of 16 hours, 57 minutes and 14.29 seconds was more than 13 minutes ahead of runner-up and Stage 6 winner Russell Finsterwald, who completed the Gold Dust course in 02:00:57.13 for a total overall time of 17:10:18.72. Swenson and Finsterwald were joined on the UCI elite men’s top five podium for the week by Nash Dory (17:19:05.45), Richard Cypress Gorry (17:23:58.15) and Ryan Standish (17:28:39.34).
After the race, Swenson described the weeklong six-stage race as one with heaps of suffering, killer trails and better views. Namely, the Park City rider described Thursday’s Wheeler Pass stage as an absolute beast that left him thinking he’d never breathed so hard going so slow.
“I came into this race pretty fit,” Swenson said. “I had a goal of like — I wanted to win, you know? And I also wanted to get good training out of it heading into Worlds. The first couple of days, I just wanted to establish a good lead and then just try to set pace the rest of the days and follow wheels and try to win stages.”
On the women’s side, the Czech rider Nash took third on the stage for a total championship time of 21:11:30.28. Hannah Finchamp won Friday’s final stage in 02:21:44.25 to finish as the overall runner-up to Nash. The two were joined on the UCI elite women’s top five podium by Evelyn Dong (21:52:10.87), Chase Edwards (22:42:29.19) and Amy Beisel (22:45:02.27).
“Today, I was down,” Nash said Friday, “but it was still enough to take the overall, so I am really happy.”
De Graaf finishes Epic in honor of Eric Dube
In 30 hours, 28 minutes and 58.24 seconds, Breckenridge local Nathan De Graaf conquered the 220-plus miles of Rocky Mountain riding he dreamed of completing.
Riding in honor of his late friend and fellow Breckenridge local Eric Dube, De Graaf powered through the six-day race. It’s one he said challenged him from Sunday’s first day, when pedal-deep water on the Pennsylvania Creek stage provided him with a powerful reminder of just how tough the Epic would be.
“That kind of set the stage for me,” De Graaf said. “That there was a lot of mental toughness in that second half of the first day to just even finish. … It put me in a place like, ‘OK, Nate, why are you out here?’ You’re here to honor your buddy and have fun.
“I knew it was going to be hard,” De Graaf added. “It definitely delivered on being hard.”
After De Graaf pushed through a technical issue on the Epic’s second stage, the Colorado Trail, he said Sunday’s struggles came back as fatigue during Tuesday’s Queen Stage, the circumnavigation of Mount Guyot. It was during that stage, while De Graaf climbed Georgia Pass, when he was at his most tired of the week, grinding it out mentally one pedal stroke at a time.
Come Thursday’s iconic Wheeler stage, De Graaf was more than halfway there. After he crested the 12,408-foot Wheeler Pass, with friends up there cheering him on, he switched gears into fun mode for the scarily steep Miner’s Creek descent, a rowdy ride Dube loved.
“I crushed it down that,” De Graaf said, “hooting and hollering the whole time. I just smashed through that.”
As for when he felt closest to Eric, De Graaf said it always came at the end of each stage.
“Every time I rolled through a finish line, I just — it was super emotional to roll through any of the finish lines,” De Graaf said. Whether it was a hard day or a fun day, it was just, he would have loved this event. He would have loved how hard it was, the community around it, the energy of it, finishing every day and thinking about how stoked Eric would have been out there with me.”
Stage 6: Gold Dust
Friday, Aug. 16
29.3 miles, 3,740-foot elevation gain
Total time followed by stage-6 time
Union Cycliste Internationale men
1. Keegan Swenson, 16:57:14.29, 02:02:17.03
2. Russell Finsterwald, 17:10:18.72, 02:00:57.13
3. Nash Dory, 17:19:05.45, 02:02:48.55
Union Cycliste Internationale women
1. Katerina Nash, 21:11:30.28, 02:29:12.34
2. Hannah Finchamp, 21:15:51.09, 02:21:44.25
3. Evelyn Dong, 21:52:10.87, 02:28:01.91
Six-day solo men 19+ pro-1
1. Juan Cordova, 20:01:44.81, 02:18:02.59
2. Wes Rasmussen, 20:07:08.04, 02:20:33.58
3. Pablo Cruz, 20:20:09.10, 02:13:55.03
Six-day solo women 19+ pro-1
1. Jenna Downey, 26:34:39.24
2. Ro Mayberry, 27:32:57.56
3. Romany McNamara, 30:16:11.47
Six-day solo singlespeed men open
1. Jorge Brito, 21:01:07.22, 02:25:25.87
2. Dahn Pahrs, 22:57:20.96, 02:48:42.74
3. Mark Nesline, 23:27:48.65, 02:39:24.33
Six-day solo singlespeed women open
1. Colleen O’Neil, 30:47:06.98, 03:50:28.83
2. Jessica Nelson, 33:18:47.19, 03:45:18.86
Six-day solo men 30+ category 1
1. Daniel Munoz, 20:29:19.24, 02:21:48.22
2. Ciro Zarate, 20:43:33.85, 02:25:59.82
3. Jarad Christianson, 20:52:19.01, 02:16:40.78
Six-day solo men 40+ category 1
1. Felix Camire, 20:27:52.20, 02:27:23.48
2. Simon Dove, 20:36:29.73, 02:27:19.89
3. Ryan Dahl, 20:44:23.93, 02:28:51.72
Six-day solo men 50+ category 1
1. Matt Woodruff, 21:53:06.66, 02:33:47.71
2. Lorenzo Milesi, 23:00:28.49
3. Peter Davis, 24:22:56.45, 02:47:17.84
Six-day solo men 19+ category 2-3
1. Connor Dilger, 22:24:50.21, 02:30:16.91
2. Austin Kuithe, 24:48:24.05, 02:54:35.53
3. John Rauen, 26:34:51.24, 02:54:35.53
Six-day solo men 30+ category 2-3
1. Bernardo Vintimilla, 21:20:28.52, 02:21:36.61
2. Fausto Molina, 21:28:11.02, 02:22:12.77
3. Isidro Ponce, 21:45:49.94, 02:22:48.02
Six-day solo men 40+ category 2-3
1. Kris Hendricks, 21:53:48.97, 02:33:03.67
2. Juan Diego Mejia Vallejo, 22:44:36.33, 02:37:35.15
3. Tim Peeters, 23:45:14.74, 02:38:53.46
Six-day solo men 50+ category 2-3
1. Troy Mayr, 24:12:14.64, 02:42:49.44
2. George Gresham, 26:10:33.98, 02:55:58.00
3. Jeff Sympson, 26:25:56.99, 02:52:46.69
Six-day solo men 60+ category 1-2-3
1. Russ Asleson, 25:11:04.45, 02:58:00.02
2. Kevin Malone, 27:20:40.80, 03:09:09.86
3. Larry DeWitt, 27:34:56.20
Six-day solo clydesdale open
1. Arthur Elmer, 25:49:51.23, 02:48:41.14
2. Christian Hon, 25:49:51.23, 02:48:41.14
3. Ryan Knoche, 26:27:20.08, 02:56:46.15
Six-day solo women 19+ category 2-3
1. Gabriella Loaiza, 30:29:10.47, 03:16:41.40
2. Janelle Brown, 30:38:52.81, 03:11:15.51
3. Beth Steen, 33:30:26.27, 03:36:17.35
Six-day solo women 40+ category 1-2-3
1. Tracy Paradise, 25:58:08.97, 03:02:25.53
2. Shelley Peachell, 26:18:35.80, 03:02:25.47
3. Echo Rowe, 27:49:08.72, 03:05:16.06
Six-day solo women 50+ category 1-2-3
1. Tamara Tabeek, 29:15:23.30, 03:13:55.99
2. Heidi Coulter, 30:11:48.75, 03:19:55.17
3. Kim Bear, 32:09:46.16, 03:39:15.90
Six-day duo open men pro 1-2-3
1. Nunez-Garrett, 22:19:12.19, 02:31:03.52
2. Barnett-Quattlebaum, 22:59:17.93, 02:32:24.17
3. Rider-Kettrick, 23:07:23.76, 02:32:24.17
Six-day duo men 80+ pro 1-2-3
1. Stefko-Porter, 22:06:23.74, 02:30:26.11
2. Lofgren-Diehl, 22:45:57.01, 02:38:56.20
3. De Bakker-Houben, 23:32:52.59, 02:43:00.88
Six-day duo men 100+ pro 1-2-3
1. Bruderer-Alejandro Sanchez, 26:32:35.93, 03:06:13.85
2. Campbell-Thebeau, 26:43:04.49, 02:56:11.18
3. Finnoff-Finnoff, 27:50:33.90, 02:58:56.81
Six-day duo coed pro 1-2-3
1. Franco-Carrington, 26:09:09.26, 02:56:20.56
2. Ibanez-Rodriguez, 28:33:06.79, 03:12:30.49
3. Stockton-Scholtz,
Six-day duo open women pro 1-2-3
1. Coffelt-Pruis, 34:49:59.40, 03:36:34.00
2. Hibbitts-Graziosi, 35:31:36.07, 03:51:07.05
Six-day duo relay
1. Melley-Melley, 25:58:46.93, 02:57:33.94
2. Zander-Zander, 26:16:52.38, 02:54:25.09
3. Arlinghaus-Arlinghaus, 28:35:09.93, 03:39:38.71
Tandem
1. Davis-Davis, 25:23:31.85, 02:52:59.26
2. Gomez-Gomez, 39:58:39.50, 04:03:01.67
3-day 4-6 solo open men pro 1-2-3
1. Jorge Coto, 09:36:41.68, 02:19:10.77
2. Peter Tonn, 09:39:42.34, 02:28:26.77
3. Andrew Ordelheide, 12:25:11.81, 02:55:24.00
3-day 4-6 solo open women pro 1-2-3
1. Angela Parra, 10:27:18.07, 02:38:09.79
2. Bethany Hancock, 13:00:13.24, 03:02:27.13
3. Stephanie Brunnemann, 14:12:56.30, 03:24:56.97
3-day 4-6 solo men 40+ pro 1-2-3
1. Felipe Castro, 09:31:02.00, 02:21:46.93
2. Andres Gamboa, 10:11:12.79, 02:30:56.20
3. Alfredo Peralta, 10:18:19.35, 02:30:04.95
3-day 4-6 solo men 50+ pro 1-2-3
1. Vince Archer, 10:04:05.61, 02:30:19.84
2. Steve Mee, 10:50:34.15, 02:46:12.15
3. Dan Knight, 11:50:34.15, 02:46:12.15
Grand Fondo, total time for stage 6
1. Reade Warner, 03:03:45.35
2. Cole Ellison, 03:59:17.50
3. Ron Kelley, 04:18:11.89
BRECK EPIC 2019: Rear-view mirror