Cyclist Catherine Williamson shares her experience at the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike event.
Catherine Williamson. Photo: catherinethecyclist.blogspot.com
Leadville 100 is on the bucket list of many mountain bikers on this side of the pond. It has a lottery entry and each year is over subscribed despite nearly two000 starter.
The 100 mile course changes in elevation from 10 15twoft up to 1two 4two4ft in the Colorado Rockies, no mean feat for someone who lives by the sea!!
Through the MBC Rob Fawcett managed to secure one of those sought after spots for me and Cory Wallace, male winner at Mongolia Bike Challenge and so the trip was planned to incorporate Single Track 6 along the way too.
Plans changed slightly and I ended up recharging my batteries after ST6 on the very peaceful setting on the gorge just outside Victoria on Vancouver Island staying with Rob.
Leadville was in question due to the travelling there until I had help from both from Team Asrin and then Dewet from Squirt Lube offered a place at Breck Epic, the 6-day stage race round the corner from Leadville and one he has sponsored for a number of years.
With the thought of both an epic one day race plus a stage race it was much more appealing to travel and so after one ferry, two buses, a two hour flight following a four hour delay, another bus and a then a two hour drive Dewet, John; the US distributer of Squirt Lube and myself arrived at Leadville eight hours after registration closed. Not only did I get my race packet from the very friendly organizers my Epic also got a little love from the Specialized mechanics set up there for the race.
We stayed out of town at friends of John’s so race morning saw the alarm set for four something AM to get there for the 6.30 start.
Even then there was no time for a warm up but luckily I had a gold number (13 in fact) so got in the front pen. It would have been pretty hard to warm up anyway as it must have been around five degrees up there at around 10 000ft.
What the Americans do well is get very enthusiastic for events and Leadville 100 was no exception. Cheering and the National Anthem plus the celebs called out including Mark Webber whom I would loved to have rode along side with were called out so it was impossible not to get carried away and I got goose bumps as the final countdown was read out.
Read the full race report here.
