I’m in a Holiday Inn in Green River with Greg. The first ever 24 hrs of Leadville was a blast. I raced with a media team of friends in the mixed co-ed division. Jon, Adam and Kristy were awesome to race with and I loved being at an event with little stress and the time and energy to experience the event and cheer for the other riders. Normally when I’m racing 24 hour events solo, I am in my own world and miss much of the festivities of the event. This was different. I got to crew a bit for Greg on some of his laps, watch the other solo and team races unfold and catch up with some old friends. The course was a really fun, fast 18 mile lap that had a bit of everything, including plenty of climbing and altitude. There was also great single track, hike a bike and some very fast descending. I did the first lap and turned a 1:25 lap time. My goal for the rest of the race was to try to keep consistent lap times and I was able to do that nearly down to the minute. The UCI Masters World Champs that I’m heading to in Brazil will be about a 1.5 hour race, so I treated this weekend as basically repeated race laps in preparation for next weekend. Our team, named V02 Min, had a battle back and forth with another co-ed 4 person team called the Flatlanders. Ironically, the Flatlanders were mostly from CO! It was fun to have a bit of a race going on during the race. They ended up taking the win, but I view the race as a great success. We each rode three laps for a total of 12. I got to catch up with old friends Jon and Adam and also got to introduce Kristy to her first mountain bike race! Everyone did day and night laps and we got through the race with just one flat tire and no other great dramas. Jon did promise to make Outback Oven cookies and I never saw any of those. He did share his Ipod with me for my night lap though. Adam made friends with everyone and Kristy really rose to the occasion and even took the last lap of the race.
It was also really great for me to see a bunch of my sponsors getting behind this first year race. Thanks to Specialized, Light and Motion, Hammer Nutrition, Buff and Beyond Coastal all came on board. I tried out the brand new Light and Motion Seca 1400 and it’s fabulously bright. I’m sure that’s why my night lap was as fast as my day laps.
Great post filled with fun loving energy for friends, competitors, biking and life in general. Thanks for the energy. good luck in Brazil
Thanks for your poss! I always look forward to seeing what you are up to since I’ve been following your success in the endurance mt. bike circuit.
I noticed you are taking a well deserved winter off from racing, I wanted to throw out an idea for ya’ – would you ever be interested in the Arrowhead Ultra 135 in Minnesota? It occurs in Feb. and is as much a test of endurance as it is making it through the extreme cold – anywhere from 0 to -40 degrees F (that’s 40 below zero). It’d be fun to see someone of your caliber at the race, plus it is excellent off-season training! Keep up the awesome work and look forward to more posts!!
I meant to say thanks for your “posts” in the last comment…typo…