Race Report: Leadville 100
The Leadville 100 MTB has been a dream of mine ever since I got into biking nearly a decade ago. It was one of those mythical races that just enticed me. Sorta like the Tour de France, only a little closer to home. So when I got the chance to do it (via qualifying through the Lutsen 99er) I couldn’t turn the opportunity down. We headed up a week before the race so we could just soak it all in (and acclimatize a bit).
The pre-rides got my pretty hyped. I was feeling pretty good, the scenery was just amazing and there were some fun sections of the course.
But one section had me a little worried: Columbine, the 3,000ft beyond categorization beast. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy climbing. I’ve got the skinny legs for it. But you can’t get around the fact that this is an animal of a climb. Over 7 miles long, steep, and technical. And it peaks at nearly 12,500ft. Thats some thin air. But I knew that stressing wouldn't do me any good, so I just made a mental note and moved on.
Raceday starts early. 4:15am wake up to be ready for the 6:30am start. My brother and I didn’t have to start at the back of the pack thanks to the qualification process. But we still had some passing to do. The gun went off and we began what would be an epic day.
One of the tricky things with leadville is the temperature range. You start in the upper 30s and end up close to 70 degrees. This calls for layers. I opted for the normal bibs/jersey combo with the addition of a base layer, a vest some arm warmers/knee warmers, some windproof gloves and an aero-cap. This worked great as we bombed down towards the start of St. Kevins, the first real climb of the day. Passing wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and we were able to settle into our own rhythm. I felt great when we summited Kevins, but I knew I had to eat if I wanted to stay that way. Nutrition is an absolute requirement in this race. It can make or break your day. It’s something you have to plan out beforehand. So I slammed a powerbar and bombed Turquoise Lake road. Sugarloaf pass isn’t as steep as Kevins, but it’s longer and more technical. The climb went well and the descent went even better. Powerline is a rad recent. Its an opportunity for the real mountain bikers to gain some time on the roadies.
As I hit the flatish section after Powerline, I knew I needed to find a group to ride with, and I did thankfully. You can save a lot of time and energy if you can stay out of the wind. I rode with a group here or a group there until we hit the Twin Lakes aid station right before Columbine. From there on out I was riding at my own pace. This isn’t the kinda climb you want to mess with. If you overdo it here, it can be really hard to recover. Another hard thing about columbine is that you’re facing two way traffic. The turnaround point is at the top, so you have to stay to the right. This is fine for the first ⅔, but the last section is really steep and pretty technical. It was tough, but I managed to get a decent time up and down the mountain. I stopped again at Twin Lakes, dropped some layers, grabbed some food and set off. The flattish section between Twin Lakes isn’t really that flat, but it has a few spots in it where you can recover. Which you will need to do before powerline.
The hardest part of the race was the powerline climb. It rises 1,500ft over 3.5 miles. Its super technical, really steep and has lots of false summits. You hit it at mile 80 so you’re already gassed. So this was a slow but steady one. I managed to get over it and was rewarded with a long descent to recover on. With less than 15 miles to go at the bottom the adrenaline started to kick in. The climb went by fairly quickly and the decent even faster. At this point you know you’ve got the race in the bag. And as I hit the finishing boulevard I was riding an emotional rollercoaster. It was so unbelievably satisfying to cross that finish line. My goal was sub 10 hours and I finished in 9 hours and 38 minutes.
While this was a very hard race, but it was by far the most beautiful one I’ve ever done. If you ever get the chance to do it I highly recommend. Or even if you in the area, take some time to explore the area. Its special.