Leadville 100 on a tandem 2010 edition

I meant to post this several months ago - better late than never, right?

Installment number two of my blog (one year later). Somewhere between August 15th 2009 and January 2010, the painful memories of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race apparently faded. In January 2010, when Leadville registration opened, there seems to have been a momentary lapse of reason and we threw our hat in the ring again. Flash forward eight months and we’re at the starting line of Leadville again on our big green bike.
The temperature was in the high 30s and a bit brisk. Similar to last year, we have the splits for each aid station for an 11 hour finish, 12 hour finish and last year’s actual time taped to Bevin’s handlebars. This should help us understand how we are riding relative to our goal of breaking 11 hours.

The downhill start at this temperature is enough to make your fingers go numb pretty quickly. We did not see any crashes in the first section of the race this year, making for a positive start. Leading up to the St. Kevin’s climb, I went to shift into the granny gear and “no-go”. I had a bit of a panic moment and somehow managed to get into the small chain-ring before the road really turned up. Lesson learned, don’t jack with the limit screws on your front derailleur the week before a race!!

This year 13 tandems were entered in the race and 12 ended up starting. We did not see any tandems in the first miles of the race and then we saw our new friends from Belgium (Doris and Lieven). They passed us in the early steepness of St. Kevins , then a few minutes later we slowly went by them and did not see them again until the turn-around when we were coming back down Columbine. We saw another tandem as we were climbing St. Kevin’s and slowly managed to ride away.

The descent around Turquoise Lake was fast and uneventful. We had a nice climb up Haggerman pass road and managed to have a handful of riders sitting on our wheel (this will be a common theme for the day). We turned left onto the Sugarloaf climb and got into a nice groove, we had the tunes going and struck up a few conversations with other riders, primary themes were about how they would never ride a tandem with their significant other, does the DJ take requests and is it harder riding a tandem??

After what seemed like a quick climb and some rollers, we were on to the Powerline descent. This portion of the course tends to give some of the riders a hard time. I do not think it is that difficult, but it does help to have some mtb skills. As usual there were a couple of crashes. We came upon one group of riders franticly waving and shouting, “rider down”. Everyone slowed and passed a gruesome scene of a bloodied rider and several people trying to help and radio for help (turns out this rider ended up SERIOUSLY injured was still hospitalized last time I heard). About this time, we passed a rider with a Lifetime Fitness outfit on and he told us he was shooting some video and that we were on camera. I think he followed us for a bit. Not long after that we hear a crash and someone right behind us apparently grabbed too much front brake and was down. A few minutes later, some dude washes out RIGHT in front of us, on an off-camber lose section. I managed to stop the bike on a dime and not go down. He picked himself up and quickly got out of the way (I think he was fine, just a little shaken up). Finally we get near the bottom of Powerline where it is steep, loose traction and multiple large ruts and gullies. There were course marshals instructing people to go slow and not end their race here by trying to go too fast. I think we only saw one person go down and we came away staying upright as usual.
The next section of the course is relatively flat and we ended up with a large group of riders sitting in behind us (wheel sucking). I would not mind if someone would just come up front once in a while and take a turn, but oh well. We rolled through the first aid station, lots of cheering and good vibes. Moving right along we clicked off the miles to the 2nd aid station (Twin Lakes). As we arrived, the crowds were even bigger and countless “go tandem” cheers. Just like last year, we had the world’s best crew, Lori. Looking across the sea of people we spied her pink balloons. This year she tied the balloons to a tent pole, so they were several feet above the crowd and VERY easy to spot. So I need to describe just how organized Lori was, here’s how it went. 1) She gives Bevin her other camelbak (already filled with ice cold water). 2) She grabs my camebak and refills it. 3. Switches out Bevin’s bottles and mine on the bike. 4) Asks what else we need? …and we’re off!!!

As we’re leaving the last bit of spectators around Twin lakes I hear someone call my name, its Nate, he says hi and gives me a high five. Prior to the Columbine climb, there’s a short up and a couple of rollers before you hit an open field, it’s as we are coming to the field when we see two riders coming the other way. It is not until later that we find out that it was Levi Leipheimer and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski. Also as we are crossing the field, we see a tandem in the distance (Bevin says “don’t go chase them” and we don’t). We had heard from a couple of people that we were the 6th tandem that they had seen.

So we begin the ascent up to Columbine mine. This is a long section of the course and its about 8 miles up with approximately 3000 feet of climbing. It’s a steady grade for about 5-6 miles and then it gets a little steeper and rockier. As we are ascending we pass the 5th place tandem (from Kansas). We are climbing well and the time seems to go quickly (gotta love having the tunes for the climbs). As we reach the first ungraded rocky section, I am surprised as to how many people are walking their bikes on the first steep pitch. In everyone’s delirious state, they don’t comprehend that someone is still riding, so many of them are walking in the most ride-able line. So I’m calling out, “we’re still riding, can we get a line?”. The problem is that the downhill riders are FLYING down on the left side, so I don’t have much room to ride. With a bit of begging and pleading, the walkers graciously moved and we remained upright and pedaled the entire first section. Then the hiking/pushing/slog begins. At 12,000 feet, pushing a 45+ lb bike is no fun (even with your awesome wife doing more than her share). So we push and then ride and then push and then some dude with a movie camera thinks it’s a good shot to focus on the couple pushing the big bike – what’s up with that?

So we get towards the top and start riding again. Meanwhile I forgot to mention that the first place tandem had passed us at least 30 minutes ago and then the second place team (Jay and Tracy Petervary) following a few minutes behind – which was a big surprise. We saw the 3rd place team (turns out they are from Parker Colorado) and then finally Chuck and Karla who were racing for their 10th Leadville tandem finish that HUGE 1000 mile belt buckle. It appeared that the top 4 places were spread out enough to not allow for any changes in order. We ride across the top of Columbine and descend to the aid station and loop around (not stopping) and back up a short climb and then on to the downhill. We ended up behind a couple of slower riders on the narrow/rocky double-track and went a fair bit slower than I would have preferred, but we kept is safe and when it widened, we were off and running. Back across the field and up and over to Twin Lakes. We roll in and see Lori and her pink balloons. Quick refill of the camelback and a couple of new bottles and we’re off – it’s like an Indy pit crew!!

More cheers for the tandem and lots of people. All of the sudden a wind gusts and someone’s EZ-up tent flies up into the air and is coming down exactly where we are riding. I come to a skidding halt and stop with my nose within inches of the now upside down canopy. Meanwhile I had jammed my knee into the handlebar and nearly had me singing soprano. Many apologies from the people with the EZ-up tent and a nice push off and we’re rolling again. We had an uneventful ride to Pipeline II after the tent incident.

No problem finding Lori with her pink balloons. Quick refuel, a change of Bevin’s left shoe, and we’re off. There was a major headwind heading towards the Powerline climb. We managed to get in a pace line for a short period, but it was mostly just people sucking our wheel. The bottom section of Powerline is a pretty nasty climb. Its about 18% to 22% grade and is not ride-able by most at this stage in the race (I will say that we “cleaned” it during our 45 mile pre-ride a few weeks before). We get off and start pushing. It’s hot, its steep, we’re tired. We get to the top of that first hill and we get back on the bike. We’re both pretty spent from pushing the bike up that nasty grade. We get back on the bike and manage to ride the rest of Powerline and try not to think of all the “false summits”. We had a great descent down Sugarloaf and managed to pass quite a few people. Then hit the graded Hagerman Pass road and got in a good groove, this year we pedaled and did not slack like last year.

So we’re 80+ miles into the race and feeling it. Even though we were actually on a good pace and I was thinking maybe we could stretch for 10:30. Bevin was delusional. Struggling with her “head-math” she was convinced we weren’t even going to reach our 11 hour goal. I did not have the energy to argue or convince her otherwise, we just pedaled onward. We hit the pavement and got up to speed and coasted for a few. Just a 3ish mile climb on the pavement and we’re about home free. That climb still sucks though. We managed to stay in the middle chainring and push it. I was still thinking 10:30, I think Bevin was still wondering if we could break 11 hours. Quick stop at the mini aid station and we’re off again (no lounging around like last year!!!). Back on the bike two short steep pushes and its downhill for a while, we rode both of these while quite a few of the riders around us were off pushing again.

Now we’re heading downhill on St. Kevins - woohoo!! Seemed like an eternity ago that we were elbow to elbow with hundreds of our best friends on that climb on the way out. Fast downhill, several shout outs of “on your left” and we’re down. Some flatish dirt road and I was not going to loli-gag our way back to the finish like last year. Kept the pedals turning, not much coasting. Next thing we know where at “the boulevard”, a short section that is rocky and some say steep, but it’s just b/c you’ve been riding 99 miles already. Just a few more miles to go (yeah, its not really 100 miles, more like 103). We pushed the middle chain-ring again for the rest of this dirt road (partly because I couldn’t shift into the little ring again). Hit the pavement and turned the corner for onto 6th avenue. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being so close to the finish but being so completely spent. I decided to put my head down and just hammer for to the finish. We passed at least a half a dozen people and were moving like a freight train coming to the red carpet.

10:33 final was our time (5th place). We went 50 minutes faster than last year! Turns out Bevin’s math skills are nonexistent after riding 80 miles between 9,000 and 12,500 feet (and she is in the Finance field). I got off the bike, someone gave us finisher’s medals and I gave Bevin the biggest hug. It’s pretty cool to be able to do something like this with your wife/partner/best friend. We’ll never win or even place at a race like this, but it is our own accomplishment that drives us to push ourselves. I’m pretty sure we won’t be doing Leadville again anytime soon. I know that we said that last year, but we’re ready for a different challenge and that race has a crazy amount of people now that Lance & Levi have come to play.

I need to add that we had the chance to race with and meet Eric Weihenmayer. Eric is the first blind Leadville finisher (as far as I know). He and John Lemon rode their tandem to an 11:44 finish. Hats off to those guys. There were 11 tandems and 10 under 12hours. Andy & Cara Applegate are this first tandem (to my knowledge) to break 9 hours on a tandem and get the BIG buckle, 8:42 to be exact - nice work you two!! I also have to give big props to Chuck and Karla for finishing their 10th Leadville on a tandem - they rock!!!

I suppose if I’m going to ever post a 3rd edition to the blog, I may have to change the blog name to something other than Leadville… I’ll have to figure out how to do that maybe next year?

Here's the links to the gps stats, profile, maps etc.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44716856

http://connect.garmin.com/player/44716856