GIBSONIA — His goal was to survive. Instead, Joe Malone thrived.

Malone, 38, of Gibsonia, recently won the Men’s Single-Speed division of the five-stage Breck Epic mountain bike race through the Rocky Mountains in Breckenridge, Colo.

“I wasn’t even planning on going out there,” Malone said. “I just had gotten back into riding ... You could say I was just off the couch, taking on a grueling race like that one.

“Believe me, all I wanted to do was survive.”

The Breck Epic was scheduled for six stages over six days. The third stage was canceled due to severe storms in the Rocky Mountains that day. Each of the other five stages was between 25 and 42 miles. The race began at 8,000 feet above sea level and reached as high as 13,000 feet.

A dedicated mountain bike racer in his younger days, Malone had not ridden in nearly 10 years. A series of injuries — two broken wrists, a broken collarbone and a fractured back — took him away from the sport, as did the birth of his two children.

“Once the kids got older, I had more time on my hands and I wanted to get back on the bike,” Malone said. “I started riding two days a week, two hours a day for maybe 30 or 40 miles, just to get back into it.”

Former Pittsburgh resident Don Powers, 47 — known in mountain bike racing circles as Dahn Pahrs — is a good friend of Malone’s and one of the top mountain bike racers in the country. Malone said Powers “pushed me” into making the trip to Colorado to take on the Breck Epic course.

“He kept telling me how I hadn’t ridden in nine years, that I was letting life pass me by ... he was really on me about it,” Powers said. “I decided to give it a go, again, just to survive the event. I was not expecting to be competitive.”

Malone runs his own concrete construction company, so he always stayed in solid physical shape that way. Stamina wasn’t going to be an issue once he hopped on the bike.

Staying on the bike might be.

Of the 400 participants on the Breck Epic course, Malone said that “85% of them just want to survive the day. The other 15% are pro-type riders out there to win.”

That means taking risks — and an occasional tumble — along the way.

“It is grueling, and it is brutal,” Malone said of the course. “One rider, Montana Miller, took a spill, and his knee landed right on a jagged rock. He was gashed right down to the kneecap.

“The final tally after the event was six or seven broken collarbones, two or three broken wrists, and a whole lot of stitches doled out. There were numerous medical personnel on hand, and medical helicopters at the ready.”

Malone said he was shocked when he actually won the first stage of the Single Speed division, beating out Powers.

“I was OK with the elevation, which surprised me a little bit,” he said. “About five miles into the race, I saw Don off to the side with a flat tire. I asked if he needed help, he said he was good, so I kept going. He caught up with me with a third of the way to go and I figured he’d blow by me.

“But he used up a lot of energy to catch me, and I held him off.”

Feeling good about himself, Malone said Powers “put a few minutes on me” in winning the second stage.

“I figured, OK, it was fun while it lasted, but the party’s over,” Malone said.

After the third stage was called off, Malone and Powers battled hard in the fourth stage. By the fifth and final stage, their bodies were bloodied and their helmets were cracked, but they riode together most of the way.

Malone’s official time for the Breck Epic was 18 hours, 21 minutes and 12 seconds. Powers’ was 18 hours, 42 minutes.

“I bought a bike off him recently and wound up beating him with one of his old bikes,” Malone said, laughing. “That felt pretty good. Seriously, though, I owe this whole thing to him. I mean, what an experience.

“You fall, you get banged up, bloodied, I shattered my helmet once ... you just keep going. It was absolutely crazy.”

Now Malone has the mountain bike riding bug again.

The Month of Mud — a series of mountain bicycle races in Western Pennsylvania — will be underway soon, and Malone will be a part of it. One of those races takes place at Alameda Park in two weeks.

“Oh, yeah, I’m back,” Malone said. “And it feels good.”