Popular Colorado mountain bike races Breck Epic, Session Series highlight 2024 | Trail Trax

Nestled at the center of one of the world's best sprawling and interconnected backcountry-trail networks sits Breckenridge, Colorado.

You can thank Victorian-era gold and silver miners for creating the foundational trail systems in the 19th-century surrounding the town — now used today to pedal mountain bikes up and down on during summer and fall months.

But Breckenridge isn't just a mountain town with a mountain bike "problem" and epic rides fanning out in each direction. It's also home to the Breck Epic and Breck Bike Week, which is Aug. 10-17 this year.

What started in 2009 as a core group of mountain bike riders just wanting to get out and ride bikes has turned into a premiere mountain bike race event annually in early August.

"These are the six huge rides you would do with your friends," mountain bike race guru and Breck Epic Founder Mike McCormack said of the Breck Epic. "We are still reppin' a certain type of mountain biking: high alpine, backcountry and there are not a lot of events like that in the world."

McCormack has kept the race true to its nature by creating a capped limit of participants, along with declining offers to buy the race from him.

"We only want a certain number of people on course, with about 400 people on course, and every year for the past seven or eight years, those people have been coming from 25 different countries and 40 different states," McCormack said. "We've said no to being purchased seven times because their vision really didn't align with ours."

McCormack has also tried hard to keep the Breck Epic a "big, back-of-beyond experience," rare air in the mountain bike race world currently, and as he said: "it is a race, but for most people it's a ride with a slightly elevated heart rate."

Minimal changes, however, to the course's routes have been altered over the last 16 years, most noticeable to Stage 5 (Wheeler) with bikers riding a section of the Colorado Trail and not riding down the Tenmile Recpath from Copper Mountain to Frisco.

But, as McCormack said, the courses are similar to what they looked like in 2009. That's in part due to the Town of Breckenridge, the National Forest Service and Summit County Open Space working collaboratively over the past 30 years to expand, connect and improve the trail systems the Breck Epic riders pedal on.

The biggest change, or addition, to the Breck Epic is the assembly of a festival around the race, set to be known as "Breck Bike Week."

"We are bookended by two mega-events, Leadville (Leadville 100) on one side and Steamboat (SBT GRVL) on the other," McCormack said. "Breck's secret sauce is the inside the park home run. In collaboration with the Town of Breckenridge events team, we're building a festival, a demo and expo, we're brining back the women's cycling summit for the second year, we're launching the Breck Epic women's tour this year and we are bringing back the inter-galactic pond crossing this year."

With 50, 60-minute rides that begin and end in town and a dozen huge epic rides that do the same, with "you're garage is your trailhead," McCormack said.

The Ritual Mountain Bike film festival (a collection of filmmakers' work and stories) and the Epic Creator workshop (three workshops: film, photo and ambassador) will also be part of Breck Bike Week.

Not only will riders ride the epic trails around Breckenridge, they will also get to socialize, network among industry folks and converse about issues like diversity, equity and inclusion in the bike world.

"We're trying to bring women in to the women's cycling summit who are leaders in the industry who can showcase 'what's possible' and 'I made it virtue of my intellect, drive and my gender-head had very little to do with it'," McCormack said.

And as a small company, McCormack said they are constantly looking at ways to be creative to give back to the biking community and industry by creating a fun week for everybody participating in Breck Bike Week.

"The ambassador segment of the creative workshops are about cultivating newer, better uses, and hopefully that finds some traction among the bike industry," McCormack said. "We're up to having conversations that are meaningful here in Breck and maintain our core, brand ideal. We're not splitting the atom here, we're just riding bikes."

As for the future of mountain biking, McCormack sees changes already happening in the landscape during what he calls "The Golden Age of mountain biking," which is beginning to steer away from today's dominance of 35- to 55-year-old men driving the ship.

"The sport is still dominated by men, but women's participation is growing, the new kids who are coming in are coming in in droves and I think that is a testament to the success of the programs like NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association), local race series," McCormack said. "I'm grateful and appreciative and respectful of everyone who is trying to move the ball forward and there's 10,000 people doing it 10,000 different ways and ultimately we are going to arrive together."

Registration for the Breck Epic is open now.

Session Series invades Maryland Mountain and Floyd Hill

Closer to Denver and Boulder, the four-race Session Series starts May 29 at Maryland Mountain outside Blackhawk, Colorado, with the second race June 5, and race three and four at Floyd Hill Open Space near Genesee Park June 19 & 26.

If you are looking for some fast-paced downhill action as a rider, this is the event for you. If you want to watch fast-paced downhill action as a participant, this is the event for you.

The timed downhill event pits racers against each other for whom can bomb the trail the fastest, and registration is now open.

If you go to watch, remember parking near the Floyd Hill Open Space is tight and limited. Plan accordingly, such as carpooling, be prepared to hike up to the course since the event area will be closed off with booths and racers' bikes, and be mindful of the course and riders on it.

Other notable bicycle races and rides around metro Denver and Colorado in 2024:

Valmont Short Track - Every Wednesday in May and June - Boulder

Royal Gorge Six & Twelve - May 18 - Cañon City

Madgravel - May 24-27 - Kiowa

Pikes Peak Apex - June 7-9 - Colorado Springs

The Hundo - June 15 - Bailey

Junior Bike Week - June 26-30 - Crested Butte

Colorado State MTB Championships - July 6-7 - Copper Mountain

Highlands Ranch MTB Series - July 10, 17, 31 and Aug. 7 - Highlands Ranch

Triple Bypass - July 13 - Evergreen, Colorado

Trestle Gravity Series - Aug. 1-3, 31- Sept. 1 - Winter Park Resort, Winter Park

Copper Triangle - Aug. 3 - Copper Mountain

Denver Littleton Twilight Criterium - Aug 3 - Littleton

Leadville 100 MTB - Aug. 10 - Leadville

SBT GRVL 2024 - Aug. 18 - Steamboat Springs

Denver Century Ride - Sept. 28 - Denver

The Rad Dirt Fest - Sept. 28 - Trinidad

Beti Bike Bash (women only) - Oct. 13 - Lakewood

For a full list of more events check HeidiBikes or BicycleColorado.