On Sunday July 4th, Breckenridge Colorado was bustling with the 10th annual running of the Firecracker 50 endurance mountain bike race. All morning long, thousands of spectators and visitors were lining the streets, eagerly awaiting the 10am start of the Race, the Parade through town, and a whole host of other Independence Day activities.
Beginning with the 2007 edition, the Firecracker 50 has been the USA Cycling mountain bike marathon national championship race for both pro and amateur racers. The national championship race drawls the best endurance and cross country mountain bikers from throughout the country. In addition, the Firecracker also includes "non-championship" racing categories for other racers. All in all, there were more than 750 mountain bikers competing in the 50 mile race. The race consists of two laps of a 25-mile long course through backcountry trails and fire roads around Breckenridge. Each lap includes about 5,400 feet of elevation gain spread over multiple long climbs, all at altitudes ranging from 9,500 to 11,500 feet. Besides the 10 to 20 percent grade climbs, the course includes 5 or 6 different high speed descents, some of which are extremely rocky, rutted and gnarly. The route also includes some of that great Colorado single track.
The racing action always begins fast and furious, with the roadies and the climbers pushing the pace on the opening 6 miles of the course, which are on roads and dirt roads that climb at an average of about 8 percent. Shortly after that, the course goes “backcountry” and the real mountain biking begins. Each year, about 25 percent of the starters don’t finish. and this year was no exception. The altitude, the distance and the punishing course take their toll on racers and their bikes alike.
Team Green Mountain Sports racing was well represented at the 2010 edition of the Firecracker with a contingent of ten racers, seven of whom were competing in national championship categories. Our team finished with one podium placing and three top 10 finishes in the national championships races. Not a bad day's work.
Aaron Small led the way with a podium placing in the Men's 35-39 national championship race, finishing 3rd. This was Aaron’s second consecutive 3rd place finish in the national championship race at the Firecracker.
Brian Krombein finished in 9th place in the USA Cycling Marathon National Championship 35-39 race.
And, Pat D'Innocenzo placed 10th in the 50-59 race.
Ed Tokarski finished in 13th position in the 40-49 category with a blistering time of 4 hours and 29 minutes. Jim Hebert also competed in the 40-49 national championship category and finished in 27th place.
In the two-person team competition, Marjie and Rob Tokarski finished on the podium (in 3rd place) in the Category 2/Sport Co-ed division. Their finishing time was only 15 seconds out of 2nd place. Marjie rode Lap 1 of the race:
And Rob did Lap 2:
Pam Zients FINISHED 7th in the Category2/Sport Women's 40-49 category. This is Pam’s first year of mountain bike racing, and she certainly continues to take on some big challenges.
To read about the Pro races and the overall event, you can check out:
Firecracker 50 coverage by Cyclingnews.com
Firecracker 50 coverage by Mountain Flyer magazine
