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LT 100 MTB
Big Jonny has been wanting a race report so here are some general thoughts that I had on the LT this year. It doesn’t matter that Lance won. What did you think was going to happen? It didn’t matter if he brought a thug squad or not. Wiens had the same free ride as Lance did, but when Lance went for it at the base of Columbine no one could follow. So that’s that. Did those guys help Lance set the course record? Yes. Did the cop car at the start help with that? Yes. Did anyone get mad at the cop this year for going so fast? No. So shut your pie hole. I think if someone is bitching it should be someone who 1. didn’t get in through the lottery process. 2. read somewhere that Lance called in a favor to get a couple of thugs to come and help him. 3. you’re not as fast as those thugs. I think then you might have a legitimate complaint but before you start throwing mud you need to see it from all sides. From Kens point of view. Let Armstrong in the race; let him bring in some thugs. Good for the race good for the town. The reason that he has the race is to bring money to a dying mining town. Then step in Lance’s shoes. He need some help to really drill it. If not then Wiens and himself are going to have to do a huge day by themselves. Which would have been cool to see, but the outcome would have been the same. My point of view, I didn’t care. I get the free ride just like everyone else. When my number got called like everyone else’s I was out the back. Your view…. Well, if you put in, then didn’t get in, then you heard about some other guys getting in at the last second. Well you should be a little miffed. Maybe next year you can call Ken at some point if you don’t get in and say I can bring X amount of dollars to your race and this is how I’m going to do it and you can expect a check for this. Then see if you “get it”. If all your bringing is yourself then head to the back of the line. Don’t get all high and mighty on how big and bad yourself is. Bring something to the table, not just yourself.
Ok on to the race. Fuck 4:30 is early to wake up and try to eat! Then add to that it’s raining at 4:30…… I woke up and the first thought in my head was shit, this is going to be a long day. The rain was on and off that morning. I don’t mind racing in the rain as long as I can start dry and at least race into the rain, but starting wet sucks. So dry or at least sort of dry was a good thing. One thing of note was that I got to start along side of on my heroes. Tinker, another class act just like Wiens. BAD ass. Tinker was winning races back when mtb racing was real. Big loop formats and that guy really does ride in his big ring all the time! I remember watching the worlds in 94 in Vail, Tinker was big ringing all three of those loops where most of the guys where middle if not small ringing it! So that was cool. So off we go down the pavement. Cop car immediately goes to 40 mph. Looks like someone got a phone call to step on it so we could be 5 minutes faster in the first 3 miles. Usually I have the opportunity to attack the bunch at mile 4 or so. Not this year. Just single file for us all the way to the base of the first climb. Well turns out that the pace was a little too much for me and all but 15 of the top guys. So I had to let go the first climb. No worries it’s a long day. I just rode my own pace. I still came into the first time check at the same time I always do. So did Lance and his posse have an effect on me? Not really. Usually I come through in the top 5 now I’m in the top 20. Who cares. The goal for Leadville has always been go under 9 hours. Get the big buckle and anything else that happens is just gravy. I would say that the biggest factor at Leadville this year wasn’t Lance. It was the weather. We got pounded on going up the first climb, then again going down Power Line. Then again at the top of Columbine it was super windy. I would say 20-30 mile an hour gusts. There was a small group of us that got hit by hail for about 5 minutes. That sucked. Try being clad in skin tight lycra at 12,600 feet and the wind is howling and hail is pounding you. Not a situation that I would want to be in again. Then the decent down Columbine for me was a rainy and muddy one. Besides that it was a great day all the way back to the finish line. If you did do the race and finished then great job! That was the worst weather I have seen in the 8 years that I have done it. My time was slower this year that past. 8 hours 1 min. But I had fun. It’s funny how 25 minutes can make me feel way way better. Usually it takes me a couple of weeks to recover from something like this. I have ridden 4 times this week and today I feel great. So a word to the children out there. If you just ease up a bit and don’t go into the red on the long rides, you will finish feeling a little bit better.
Fuck it, I don’t really have much to say this year. I didn’t really want to do the race. I tried to get out of it 3 weeks before but couldn’t. I didn’t train for it like I used to. But I did it and that’s that. Ho Hum on the LT. It’s not as cool as it used to be.
Time to find something else that turns the cranks… You know what I mean???
Big ups to Fatty!! www.fatcyclist.com sorry that he crashed
Big ups to BJR for showing up and barely missing the 9 hour mark.
Big Jonny is still a DB
Gnome is keeping it real.
Chopper you still alive?
Snake
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A refreshing Leadville race report; The bitching about Lance this and Lance that is in the same vain as the 911 conspiracy theorist and in it’s self has become conspiratorial. Strait talk about what a promoter sometimes thinks he can and needs to do for a race to evolve. Face it, this is a big race which is getting the notice it deserves. So it isn’t what it was…great events never are.
Damn son. You go and get up off the couch and barely miss a sub 8 hour ride & blow the doors off most everyone else? Fuck you Snake. Fuck you. Now, I’ve never understood the ability to go back to that race time after time, but now it’s already 8 for you and you know what, now you gotta go for ten and collect the decade platter buckle mother fucker.
no doubt. no doubt in my mind.
Oh, and word on Lance.
This post is full of win. There are those of us who would never consider attempting something like that.
Gracie, a very good friend of mine, finished in 13 hours. She is 47, has MS, and still goes out and kicks it. Two buddies went along to support and they said she never stopped smiling. She is my hero.
Well done and completely agree. This was my sixth year at LT100 and although I am kind of fat and drink and smoke too much, I make it my priority all summer to work to get the big buckle. For me this is what the race is about, racing against myself. It’s cool that LA and Tinker and all show up now, good for Leadville, I can still race against myself. I have done a bunch of the other endurance races in CO, and just hope that Leadville can still manage to differentiate themselves from these b/c the race HAS lost some of its unique qualities in the last couple years…
I agree with you CB and Dan. The race is more about “you” and what we can do. I think that is Kens vision all along the way. Just toe the line and see what you can do. The big tag line is “your better than you think you are” If this race empowers people then so be it. Thats what it should be there for to challenge every person. The real heros are not who wins or who does sub 7,8, or 9, but rather who faces the challenge and doesnt back down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LMEa0TVY_4
Can I do that? Embed a link in a Reply???? oh well you all get the point I hope.
Dan, congrats to your friend with MS. The real hero of the day!
awesome ride report, thanks Snake.
Lemme guess its not “cool” anymore because Lance showed up? You sound like one of those people that only do something until it becomes “popular” and then quit doing it despite enjoying it. You sound like you are too cool for me when you say you didn’t even want to do it this year but did it anyway. Wow! Way to take one for the team. If you really didn’t want to do it then why did you? Did somebody hold a fucking gun to your head? Quit being so fucking dramatic and just your fucking bike. Unless it isn’t cool anymore to ride because people like Lance might show up.
…snake…never the traditional report but always right on & always a good read…
…sheesh, damon…it’s a good doctor who follows his own diagnosis when it’s needed…“RIDE YER FUCKING BIKE”…
…sorry to shout but jeez…ok, thanks…
Damon your a fucking idiot.
Snake’s been in attendance @ Leadville for the last eight years straight. I might as well add that of those eight years, at least six of them he was in the the hunt for the win.
And where were you again? What exactly do you know about the race? Apparently you have no idea. Anyone who toes a line up there knows that “people like Lance” Pharmstrong only matter inside the tool sheds that house the masses of whimpering rubber-band wearing “fans” such as yourself.
As a warning, lame shit such as what you have displayed ain’t welcome here. Learn to show respect or just STFU. Or I’ll do it for you.
Damon – you nailed it, snake is to cool for you. So get back on your bike son and stay to the right so we can all pass your bitter ass.