What started out as a gleam in our eye has grown into a staple on the Colorado mountain bike racing calendar. Why the 4th? Because absolutely nothing athletic was happening in our town. Sure Scott Yule, Mike Zobbe, Ellen Hollinshead, Monique Merrill, and a host of other local mountain goat legends were bagging a 14er, skiing 4th of July Bowl on Peak 10, or riding their favorite epic. But nothing organized was happening. Where I come from there is at least a dinky little July 4th 5k Run just about everywhere; and then people get with family and friends, BBQ, and relax for the rest of the day. On July 4, 2000, while watching the parade after a morning bike ride, Mike McCormack and I looked at each other, cut our palms with a rusty chain tool, high fived each other and made a blood pact. The Firecracker 50 was born!
So...welcome to the 2009 Firecracker 50, welcome to Breckenridge, welcome to our backyard!

Come see what the local mountain goats ride every day. Each 25 mile lap has 5400' of climbing. Fortunately for you a bunch of that is on the climb out of Breckenridge on the old narrow gauge Railroad grade. The race starts the 4th of July Parade in a neutral start format by start wave. From there the odyssey sends you into the Backcountry. There are a couple of grunty little climbs (especially coming out of Lincoln Park, locals hate that one), a couple of long lungbusters (up past the old snowplow at Iowa Mill and Little French), some absolutely rippin' descents (from Humbug to Lincoln Park) and plenty of contouring flume and singletrack (Little French Flume) for you to mash on your big ring (or your only ring if your sick enough to go singlespeed, right Tim G?).
Take my word for it, the course is a full-on MTB course. It has it all and it's no gimme!