Leadville 100 2014 MTB (aka Race across the sky)
Disclaimer: this RR is intended to be an all inclusive RR, for those of you who dont know about the race. If youre already are in the know, then skip to page 2.
Setting: 100 mile mountain bike race in Leadville CO. Elevation between 10,000-12,500 feet. 95% jeep service road or highway, 5% singletrack.The granddaddy of mountain bike races.
What has made it so popular: Who wouldnt want to do a 100 mile race at 10,000 feet? Lance armstrong racing and winning has not hurt the popularity of this race surprisingly. The list of other doping winners has seemed to tarnish this race for the purists, but the leadville brand doesnt seem to care. I agree, it has definitely lost its mystique, but if you are a serious mountain biker, this has to be on your bucket list.
What youre after: Some race to finish, some race to win, some race just for the belt buckle…..12 hours or less and you get a finishers buckle, 9 hours or less and you get La Plata Grande...the big buckle!....ill let you guess what one was i was after.
Gettin in: Due to the popularity, getting into this race is not easy. And i guess thats a good thing. You can do one of 4 things to get in...1. be a pro, which i am not 2. pay a lot of money to buy your way in, for which i dont have, and 3. qualify (yup, this is me, the hard way..dammit) 4. Lottery - if youre from colorado forget the lottery, you wont get in. This race was developed to support the local economy of leadville, if youre not spending a night or two at the local hotel and dropping lots of money, youre not getting in.
I was able to secure a roll down qualifier spot at last years Silver Rush 50 in Leadville. Signed up a year ago, hoped i would still be able to ride a bike a year from then.
Fast forward 1 year….
Knowing the leadville was the A race of the season I had planned a couple of long races for the year,. 18hrs Fruita, PV derby 66mi, Breck 100. Turns out the A race should have been the breck 100. Loved that race. (See Breck 100 RR). The leadville had now become my B race.
Prior to this race I was lucky enough to have Breck 100 under my belt. I had a fairly strong finish there on a much more difficult course than Leadville so i was feeling pretty confident that i would at least finish leadville. This was much different than my mindset going into Breck, which was my first 100.
The week or two before the race i had planned a few longer rides. Did Copper triangle CCW with WB, a few 40+ milers in Breck, a few 3 or 4 lappers on Chimney gulch and lookout mountain. However, the race still snuck up on me, definitely had planned to do many more longer rides than i had done. Oh well.
Week of...took it relatively easy, ran a few days, rode a couple of short rides, low intensity. Two days before i went up to Leadville to preride the initial climb of St. Kevins, Sugarloaf, and the dreadful Powerline climb.
Gear selection: Need to go light, really really light. Since most of the course is jeep road or actual road, the lightest bike you can find is what you go with. Scott Scale Pro Carbon 29’er, 1x10. Biggest concern was what front chainring to run. Going with 34T up front..go big or go home. this could work out really well on the flats and downhills or could cause me to explode on the climbs. Definitely my biggest unknown. 24lbs total. Continental Xking tires, tubeless, carry 2 bottles, barends to help with the long climbs and to rotate hand positions over the long race.
Nutrition Plan: Learned a few things from Breck 100. 1. Eat until your jaw is tired of chewing, then eat some more. 2. drink A LOT, water, electrolyte drink, beer, just drink A LOT. should have to pee every 3ish hours.
LT 100 plan: 2 bottles per aid station (est 10 bottles total), endurolyte tabs as remembered, Probars, fig newtons, pringles. Easy...now lets see how well i stick that it.
Race day: slept well for 3ish hours, about 2 hours longer than i had for the breck 100. Feeling good. Coffee in and one of WB’s famous PB and J tortilla sandwiches and i am ready.
Get to the start and assume i am in the last corral. Assumed this based on the fact that when i registered a year ago with my qualifier ticket they said they would not accept prior years qualifying times for corral positions. This led me to think that i would be behind the 2000 other riders and have to work my way through a bunch of not so strong riders just to finish, and hopefully avoid any carnage in front of me. When we arrived, i found out that i was in fact in the 3rd starting corral. YAHTZEE!!! i think to myself. Now i have to totally turn my gameplan around. Instead of planning on a 9.5hr finish, i am now looking at going sub 9, if i can pull myself together...remember, big buckle on the line.
While standing there waiting for the temps to get above 35degrees, my lead crew member bailey is getting more attention than the pros. He gets more request to pet him, scratches behind the ears and little kids breakfast burritos, Also gets interviewed by NBC news i think. Apparently Lance is not the only celebrity in town today.
Now that i am not in the corral i expected, i am trying to quickly reassess my game plan.
Is my nutrition going to be enough now that i will be pushing the pace?
Is my gear ratio setup going to allow me to push the climbs, the flats, the downhills?
Do i even change my game plan and still just ride to finish vs ride to place sub 9?
Boom! ...and we’re off....buckle up kids!
Out:
The first few miles are all road, supposed to be an easy roll out but we are immediately doing 35mph. I am extremely uncomfortable riding elbow to elbow with 2000 other riders. We make it to St Kevins climb and we all slam on our brakes, total pile up. We luckily make it up the 3 mi climb without any major incidents. Head down the road again towards Sugarloaf. Thinking to myself, if i am hitting 40+mph, this is going to be a miserable climb back out of here at mile 90 later today. ugh. Hit Sugarloaf and the climb is much more mellow. Fall in with a group of riders and we chat about strategy. Remember, this is more of a race to finish, or finish in a specific time frame, not to podium. You start to strategize and work together right away. Conserve as much as you can.
Make it over sugarloaf and start the powerline descent. Suuuuper sketchy! 3.5 miles of ripping downhill with 2 feet deep rutted out sections. Just a taco’d tire waiting to happen.
Make it down successfully (ie alive, without tacos, tires still inflated.) and hit the pavement again towards twin lakes. Think to myself, this is where i thought i was sending my crew (WB and Bailey), where are they? Shoot i missed them!...i am out of water and have about 2 hours before twin lakes aid station. Think to myself, damn, i knew i should have stayed at the prerace meeting where they went over logistics. oh well, ill settle in and draft off some guys until i get to twin lakes aid station. Hopefully my crew will move on and head there.
Struggling with my 1x10 34T drivetrain. spinning out on the top end doing 30mph on the flats in the paceline.. Definitely wish i had gone 2x10 at this point. I am still hanging around but definitely at the end of the peloton. I will not be taking any pulls in this group.
Then, miraculously, i hit the aid station past Powerline, and WB and Bailey are there!! I feel like a miracle has happened. Make mental note to make sure i pay more attention to race details and logistics. Fill up on water and PB and J sandwich, and more fig newtons. . Head out towards twin lakes. Nothing too exciting in this stretch. Actually hit some of the only singletrack on course but it isnt much.
Hit twin lakes aid station and the crowd is going nuts! Like intoxicated, drinking PBR mimosas and wearing pink tutus nuts. I am feeling it. feeding off of it. Loving it!. See WB and lead crewman Bailey. they hook me up with some words of encouragement, water, bailey is licking the salt and dirt off my legs so i can go faster, more fig newtons. I actually think our 20 second pit stop included the conversation of:
Bailey: bark bark bark bark bark, lick lick lick lick lick
WB: what do you need?
me: i dont know, what do you have? (remember, i planned my own nutrition, i knew what she had. Is delirium already starting to set in? ut oh…)
WB: um…
me: water, fig newtons, more fig newtons
bailey: bark, bark, bark
Out of twin lakes, up columbine. This is where you start to separate. you are now 40+ miles in and climbing at avg 8% grade. Its getting hot, youre getting closer to the sun, 12,000ft and climbing. 8 miles worth of climbing. still climbing, get chicked. trying to chat with a few people to pass the time. Hit the final push. The pros are now ripping past you on the loose and rocky section. They are screaming as this is an out and back. You can see the top but it still seems like miles away. Get on and off your bike, a bit of hike a bike, a bit of riding at slowest pace ever, almost falling over. Coming about 1 inch from getting destroyed by faster riders who are now descending. NOT overly happy about this section. also at 12,500, no o2. Loose, rocky, still climbing.
Back:
Make it to the top, grab a little bit of water, head back down the hill. Pass about 1500 riders, similarly to how i was just passed by the pros and faster riders. Coming inches from crashing into other rides...and crashing off the ledge and off the side of the mountain. Not fun. See Blaze Cook on the decent a few miles behind. I yell his name and he gives me a grunt. I know what he is going through, i just did the same. 8 miles of screaming descent later and i am back at Twin lakes.
Just at the end of the aid station and i see a huge mud puddle. See a few riders in front of me avoid it and go around. I jump directly into it and skim across it. They are mountain bikes, its ok if they get wet and dirty.. spin through and see Brian Jekich who is there crewing for his old man. I love it, the energy at Twin lakes is electric. Music, booze, naked 90 year olds...everything. See WB and lead crewman Bailey. Get the usual barks and refill on fig newtons. Im off.
Find a group of guys that we have been trading places with all day. Now about mile 65-70. We work together, form a paceline, take turns taking pulls. Make it to powerline aid station. I am cooked. Although we are working together we are WORKING it. Riding much faster than i would be if i was solo. We are clearly feeding off of each other. Straight killing it. I am now starting to reach into my reserves, which are quickly dwindling. We hit the pavement and are faced with a significant headwind. probably 15ish mph winds. I am struggling. Just working hard to keep a semi decent pace. Notice no one is passing me though so that is good. Then i look behind to see…..yup...you guessed it…. a 6 person deep paceline. You have got to be kidding me i am thinking. Ive got 5 or 6 guys behind me just hanging out drafting off of me for the last 10+miles, probably sipping espresso, peeling their bananas, taking naps, etc. Again, i was hoping that others had the same plan to form a peleton and take turns pulling, but this wind and time in the race clearly had led these guys to forget that. I pull out and make the guy behind me take a pull. He thanks me for helping him out so much, he looks totally fresh, this really pissed me off. We are now at the end of this section and are at the bottom of powerline. The last tough climb, and possibly the hardest. 8% avg, runs of 20+ in spots, 2 foot deep rain rutts.
Now that i am not overly happy about the last section, i am determined to ride powerline. Unfortunately, no one rides powerline. except for the lead pros, maybe. 80 miles in and there is no way you usually have enough steam to ride powerline. Walking allows you to use different muscles and recover. I say %*^& that im riding this son of a B.
Start passing a few squirrels that had drafted off of me. Spectators are cheering me on, shocked that someone is riding it. One guys tells me he needs to take my picture since he hasnt seen anyone ride powerline all day. I am hurting though. Getting nauseous. want to bail, cant bail, just, keep, pedaling, dammit! Make it to the top of the first steep section where it gets flat and i pull over to collect a coke and mountain dew from some random spectator, who is about 85 years old who lugged all these coolers up the climb earlier in the day just to hand out to riders. incredible. I love him. Crush the dew, crush the coke, almost puke them both up. Manage to keep them down and keep pedaling up, but certainly completely cooked. Not sure if i can make it back, nevertheless under the 9 hour mark. Start analyzing my time and distance to go. Literally counting down the speed and miles i need to go to pull a sub 9. Start to see some guys off on the side of the trail, losing their fig newtons, or whatever they were eating.
Get to the top of Sugarloaf and start the descent. I have never been so excited to go down hill, until about 300 yrds in and the rocky descent is now jarring every bone in my body, only 3 more miles of downhill to go. fantastic.
Make it to the road and now start the ascent up to the top of St. Kevins on the road. Since we were descending at 40mph, on the out, i didnt make note of the distance of this BACK climb. It seems to never end, just grinding it out, its now really hot, all exposed.. pass a few guys. One guy clearly did less homework than i did as he asks me, 1. how much farther 2. what time is it. 3. what more of the course do we have to ride 4. is this the last climb?.
Finally make it to the top of Kevins and grab one last bottle of water. About 15 miles to go. Start the descent and all i can think about is what i will eat when i finish...a pizza?..2 pizzas?....prime rib...fig newtons...ok snap out of it!...ripping the descent back to the flats. Hit the bottom of sketchy Kevins descent and find a small group to finish with. We trade off on pulls and are just ripping the last few miles. We have successfully set our eyes on a sub 9 hour ride. The others start to pull back and relax, i reach deeper and get every last ounce of power out of my reserve...which has been empty since powerline climb.
Finish! 8:44. Big Buckle!!
Post race/reflection: feel pretty good. Legs are a bit wobbly. I see WB and Bailey there, they are excited the day is over. I ask for fig newtons and WB reminds me she doesnt have any more because i had eaten the whole box (yikes, that cant be good for your stomach, might pay for that later). Bailey is helping me clean up by licking all the dirt and sweat off my legs. Meet up with Jen and Jordan Anderson who give me some beers. Stick around and watch some people finish. See Blaze come across, he looks exhausted. The dude did an awesome job.
Big thanks to my crew, WB and Bailey. Without them out there it would have been a long empty ride with nothing to look forward to between aid stations. Having a crew at a race like this is a must. It totally helps with moral.
Big shout out to the Strava crew, you know who you are. Nothing beats checking in a few hours after a ride to see all of the positive comments and sometimes shenanigans that has occurred in the comments of everyones ride. Love it.
Lastly, I am glad to have done the LT100 and to be honest not sure i would do it again unless i was pacing someone else. I have my sub-9 hour time, big buckle. The race was definitely worth doing but i think mostly because the feel of it was not to win, or beat the guy next to you, but to achieve your own goal time. The course certainly has a lot left to be desired. This is why the Breck 100 race is more of an A race, it is a much much better course, and a lot smaller group of riders.
Next up: Xterra Buffalo Creek Aug 24, last race of the season for me.
Stay safe out there…
K2
