Our twins accompany me across the finish line. Image by Kurt Hoy/singletrack.com
This past Saturday, a finish line coming into view has never looked so good to me. Anyone who has done the Leadville 100 knows exactly what I’m talking about. The race course at Leadville is what is called an out and back; a rarity in the world of mountain bike racing. Participants ride 50 miles out to a turnaround point and then come back on the same route in reverse. Yes, that means everyone comes across everyone at one point or another, and yes, it does get interesting at times as in one direction racers are going uphill and slower; in the other downhill and faster. But everyone knows this and generally, good judgment is used as riders stay to the right.
The first and last half-mile of the race takes place on a straight, paved road that heads due west from Leadville’s main drag and is lined with modest homes. Before the race, as you wait for the shotgun to be fired signaling the start, the gentle downhill, the small climb and the short plateau leading to more downhill riding are of little concern. You are fresh, freezing (typical temps at the 6:30am start are in the high 30’s) and nervous as you stare down a million dollar view - Mt. Massive, the second highest peak in Colorado and aptly named, is hulking in the background, usually splashed orange with early morning alpenglow, but this year shrouded in dark, foreboding clouds that hinted of things to come – and the vast lands where you’ll be toiling away for the better part of the day.
And they're off! Image by Brian Riepe/Mountain Flyer Magazine
Boom! The shotgun fires, the preparation and the prerace nerves are all in the past and a mass of flesh, Lycra and high-dollar bikes embark on what will be more than a thousand individual stories of pain, anguish, elation and triumph; of goals met and satisfaction, or not, and perhaps, disappointment. The little hill and plateau are inconsequential early in the morning. However, for many riders that make it the entire 100 miles (and change I am told) back to the outskirts of this classic silver mining town, finally gaining the top of this broad crest is almost as meaningful as crossing the actual finish line, just a comparatively easy few hundred yards further. I can guarantee you that Lance Armstrong’s elation at finally gaining this vantage just short of being done was every bit as meaningful to him as it was to every other rider in the race, me included.
For most, crossing the finish line signals the completion of something more than just the bike race. Since the field is filled with riders from every walk of life, motivations and goals vary greatly. Everyone out there can tell you a much longer story than the one that just covers those 100 miles on that one Saturday in August and that goes for me, too. As I finally crested that hill and saw the finish line, a journey within a journey that began nearly three years ago, finally drew to a conclusion. The larger journey has been simply participating in the Leadville 100 each August since 2003; the smaller one has been the presence and influence of Lance Armstrong on the race. His announcement in Bicycling Magazine in November of 2006 that he would compete in the 2007 Leadville 100 changed the course of this race forever.
Lance high on Columbine killing it. Image by Brian Riepe/Mountain Flyer Magazine
I’ll never forget first hearing about this and how much it fired me up. Snow had come early to Gunnison that fall but walkers and runners had packed it down on our local trails so the snow packed singletrack riding was as good as it gets. At that time, I was riding for fun and fitness but suddenly, I had an entirely new motivation to ride and to train. There was a new, exciting and challenging goal lurking in my future. Not just another Leadville 100, but one with the retired but fiercely competitive seven-time winner of the Tour de France.
While I suddenly had a new snap in my step, the story continued to evolve as 2006 wound down. Floyd Landis also threw his hat into the ring. Whoa! This thing was really blowing up! Floyd was fresh off of his own Tour de France victory but also subsequently was accused of using performance enhancing drugs en route to his Victory. I didn’t have much time to ponder both riders competing as just eight days later, Lance pulled out do to a scheduling conflict.
Floyd did end up racing in 2007 and his participation compelled me to prepare for the race more seriously than I had in the previous four years. We had a great race and he pushed me to my limit and a new course record of just under 7 hours. I didn’t know what the competition would be likefor the 2008 race but I prepared as if anyone could be there, Lance certainly being front and center in the back of my mind. Although his camp was silent, I did hear from someone that winter that they had heard from someone that a friend of a friend of a cousin of someone (or something like that) who was eating dinner with Lance that he was definitely going to race in Leadville that summer. Ken Chlouber, Leadville 100 race organizer, did tell me in April that Floyd “was in for sure.”
Then, just two weeks before the race, a couple of friends from Crested Butte pulled me aside at a local Xterra Triathlon I was helping out with and asked if I had heard anything about who might be racing at Leadville. I said I hadn’t, other than that I expected to see Floyd there. They told me that they had it from good sources that Lance was in Aspen and training for the race. Three days later it was official, Lance would be lining up for the 2008 Leadville 100.
Finally done in the arms of my wife, my support crew, my life, Susan. Image by Brian Riepe/Mountain Flyer Magazine
The 2008 race was an amazing experience for me as I was really fit and he was just fit enough so that we were really close all the way to the end. But as I topped that final climb last Saturday, I was but a shell and Lance had come in more than 30 minutes earlier, thrashing the course record he had helped me set by about 20 minutes. But back to my view of the finish line: it was one that, at several times during the preceding hours, I wasn’t certain I was going to see. To be continued….
