Firecracker 50

Chipotle/Titus had 3 representatives at the 2006 rendition of the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge. Dave Muscianisi ended up 3rd in the two person mixed team. He had a lightening fast start & rode the leg with the pros. Drew Geer rode to a 5th place finish in the 40+ experts riding a 4:50. Mark Gouge was riding in the to group when, a bit too zoned out, he went straight when he should have turned left. After an extra 1500 feet of climbing he found himself lost & 45 minutes out of the race, before staging a comeback.



Weather was perfect & the course brutal but beautiful. The climbs are easy, but long & they keep coming at you. There is 13,000 feet of climbing over 50 miles! (Leadville 100 only has 12,000 over 100 miles) The descent is fast single track but you have to stay attentive & never get to rest. I followed the sage advice of Mark Gouge & kept my HR under threshold for lap one. I really appreciated that on the 2nd lap as I had strong legs & picked up a lot of riders who were fading . This is a very well run race & well worth the effort.