Two of Americas biggest off road bike races are happening on the same weekend down here in the Colorado Rockies. The Leadville Trail 100 will go down on Saturday August 14th with over 1600 racers. It has grown into one of the top MTB races in the World and is known as the “Race Across the Sky) as it takes place between 2800-3850 meters in central Colorado. The next day over 3000 racers will toe the line at one of the countries fastest growing gravel races, the Steamboat Gravel. 120 of us have opted to do the doubleheader and have signed up for both, under what they call the Leadboat Challenge. It’s going to be a grueling but awesome weekend on the bike!
All the ducks will need to be in a row headed into the weekend as once Leadville 100 starts at 6:30 am Saturday Morning it will be full tilt until crossing the finish line in Steamboat early Sunday afternoon. I raced Leadville in 2015, coming in 15th, in a time of 7 hours, that year Alban Lakata and his European counterparts came in and smashed the course record. Some of the race was spent riding with Todd Wells for 6th position before a broken shifter cable and flat tire dashed any hopes. The race report from that year can be found here by clicking on www.marathonmtb.com. This year I’ll be gunning for a podium, hopefully under the 6:30 hr mark, before showering, eating, and hopping in my rental car for the 2.5 hour jaunt North to Steamboat Springs.
I will be running the Kona Libre gravel bike for both races. For Leadville it will be set up into beast mode with a FOX Rad Suspension fork, Maxxis 2.25 Aspen tire on the front and a Rambler 50 c in the rear with Cush Core protection. For the much smoother rolling Steamboat Gravel the Libre will be switched over into flower mode as I’ll swap out the FOX suspension for a ridged carbon fork and replace the tires with fast rolling 40 c Maxxis Velocitas. It will be a tight turnaround. Luckily I will have support from my buddy Leland from Avalanche Sports in Breckenridge who will help with the swap over and give the bike a one over before I shower, eat and drive over to Steamboat. I’ll then eat more food, and go find a bush camp for the night for hopefully a few zzz’s before awakening at 4:30 am for Stage #2 of the weekend!
Sunday will start bright and early with the start gun going off at 6:30 am for the 144 mile race on what they claim are some of the best gravel roads in America. Having put in some solid training with a bike tour from Oregon to Canada, a big Everesting ride, and a few short road races I’m confident the legs will have some diesel left in them for Sunday. The plan is to go for it at Leadville, not holding anything back as that is a race which better suits my skills. Sunday we’ll show up on the start line with whatever is left in the tank and leave it all out their! Sunday afternoon the goal will be to find a lake to swim in and some coconut waters and gluten free Holidaily beers.
Live race updates from Leadville can be found here starting at 6:30 am MST tomorrow morning. Leadville Timing.
https://www.athlinks.com/event/33913/results/Event/977377/Results
Go big or go home, here we come Leadville 100 and Steamboat Gravel !!!