Mountain Flyer Exclusive:

Leadville 100 2008

How it all went down, in the words of Dave Wiens

(August 12, 2008) Gunnison, CO - We made Wiens whip this up on short notice and wanted to get it to you quickly so please forgive any grammar infractions. It’s relatively raw: – Ed

The highway patrol car went really slow for the neutral start so that made the beginning a bit sketchy at times as we’d kinda surge then have to all put on the brakes as we crowded around the lead vehicle.

As we rolled down the hill Lance told me that I had a chain ring mark on my leg. Then he asked me about Manny (Manuel Prado from Costa Rica) and I told him I thought he’d be tough. I met Manny the day before while pre-riding the course. This guy is fairly young at 27. He’s a great bike rider and very personable. Once we were on the dirt and the race was on, Snake (Jake Rubelt) attacked the straightaway.

Manny chased him and grabbed his wheel but looking back he saw that nobody else was reacting and he came back to the group. Not Snake, though, he was just beginning a two hour plus solo breakaway. Up and over St. Kevins the pace wasn’t too hard and we were a sizeable group climbing up the pavement to the Hagerman Pass road.

The Hagerman Pass road is gravel and not too steep but then the climb up Sugerloaf is steeper and rocky and usually breaks things up somewhat. Today was no different. Snake was still off the front and Lance and I topped out and began descending. We passed the spot right as you first drop into the Powerline descent where Floyd went down last year. Lance was leading and Manny flew by us. I felt a rider behind me and then perhaps half way down heard him crash. It turned out to be The Kid (Max Tamm) apparently he got right up and was no worse for wear.

Manny was gone and I was going slow so The Kid and Nate Whitman came around. We were close to the bottom and the ruts are huge running down the trail. The line is on the left but then you gotta cross the big rut to your right and get on that side. My brother and I call this place “don’t go left” because if you stay left, that line eventually ends in a big nasty ravine.

Lance led Max and Nate directly to this spot. I went right passing them and came off the Powerline in 3rd with those guys right behind me plus Jonathan Scholnick.

Now Snake had Manny with him and they had a gap of perhaps a few hundred meters. Suddenly on the long, straight pavement, Lance was gone. We looked back and saw that he had stopped to pee. We sat up and he got back on easily. Once again, mentioning Manny, he asked if I was concerned. I told him I wasn’t so we didn’t chase. It wasn’t long before Manny just came back to us. Snake stayed out alone, however. Through the Pipeline aid station we were six riders. Everyone was taking turns at the front and Manny punched it up one steep climb but other than that the pace was mild. I had to pee now so I stopped and they relaxed the pace so that I was able to get back on with little extra effort.

The pace and the race seemed really slow to me. Snake finally came back to us and at about that time we were caught up from behind by a whole gaggle of riders including Ethan Passant from Crested Butte. Ethan had just won the CTR (Colorado Trail Race) 8 days before, the CTR is an under the radar, self-supported 500ish mile race from Denver to Durango. He was racing the Leadville with a kidney infection or a deflated lung or something that’s not helpful for bike racing. He’s an animal.

We rolled through the Twin Lakes aid station, everyone fueled up, we climbed the little poppers to the south and found ourselves beginning the ascent of Columbine, the biggest climb of the day.

The group was big, perhaps 8 or 9 riders and the pace was slow. I remember thinking that there’s no way a course record will be broken today, we’re just going way too slow. Everyone was pedaling but nobody attacked or seemed to be going that hard. Next to Lance and Manny, I was most impressed and concerned with Scholnick. He always looked composed, never seemed to be breathing hard and just had a look. Seemed like a nice guy, too.

Finally, a ways up the climb, Ethan just kinda rolled off the front and established a gap of maybe 100 meters. Nobody chased or seemed too concerned and this gap stayed static for several more minutes. Then, for whatever reason, as the less steep portion of the climb was coming to an end, Lance went to the front and started pedaling with more authority. I got on his wheel and we rolled up on and past Ethan. I looked back and the group was shattered. Now it was just Lance and me.

Upper Columbine is steep, really steep in a couple places and very rocky. The recent rains had it in as good a condition as it gets and we traded off leading up to the half-way and turnaround point. From here we can get a look at where the chasers are and Manny was heading them up but we’d gapped everyone pretty good and they were scattered along the trail all pretty much riding alone.

I led down the nasty part up top but I could feel Lance on me, wanting to pass, I think. He couldn’t due to the uphill traffic or he didn’t want to get by that bad or something but I could feel him almost on top of me. He came around on the lower portion which is smoother and very fast with some switchbacks. I was able to match his pace here; we were jumping out of the turns pretty good.

There are some short, steep little climbs to get back over to Twin Lakes and I was stoked that my legs felt really good once we started climbing again. The last three years at this point, my legs have cramped up some. We got through the Twin Lakes aid station and climbed the pavement up and over onto the big gravel road.

During the whole race, we didn’t talk much but there were occasional snippets of conversation, for example at one point Lance inquired, “So Dave, you’re a school teacher?”

We came up behind an old pickup and the driver didn’t see us. I could see the cigarette in her left hand and I could smell it, too. I got her attention and passed on the left. After a moment I looked back and the truck was behind me but not Lance. I sat up and then he came around the truck and got back on. I asked him if he’d stopped for a smoke. He said he hadn’t but he had stopped to pee.

A bit of pavement and then the soft hike a bike section that I think is often called the North Face. This can be a telling section and I thought I might test Lance here. I ascended the hill as planned, meaning to ride up as far as comfortable, hop off, hike up steadily, remount and continue to put pressure on the pedals. Once I hopped off, Lance stayed on his bike a bit longer, passing me before he got off.

I was steady here and opened up a bit of a gap going over the top. Without attacking, I kept a good steady pace. Lance closed the gap fairly quickly and my little experiment was over. We kept taking turns at the front as we neared the Pipeline aid station. I could see it in the distance so we were scant minutes away. I looked at my watch and was shocked to see that it was around 11:15am. 11:30 into Pipeline and you are really close to a 7 hour pace. We were way up on that!

I had to monkey around with my feedback at Pipeline and Lance sat up and waited while I sorted my stuff out then it was back to the pace line across the long flatish paved section that leads to the paved rollers and finally to the decomposed granite of the Pipeline climb.

On the rollers I thought I may have detected a chink in Lance but I wasn’t certain. I didn’t necessarily feel like a million bucks myself. As we got closer to Powerline, he asked me if I planned to ride it. I told him I’d always walked the steep bottom part. He didn’t say anything more about it. Once there, he led and simply never came off his bike.

The recent rains had made the traction perfect but it’s still a steep, difficult climb with some crux moves to stay on your bike at about mile 85 in the race. We rode the entire climb. The bottom is the steepest and there are maybe three little respites where you actually descend for a moment. The middle and upper parts are not as steep but still tough and rocky.

We were switching off driving at the front and at one point, for a brief moment, I thought I was beginning to crack as I was spinning fast but losing his wheel. I dropped a gear, told myself to chill and that was that. Then, near the top while I was at the front, I opened up a bit of a gap. I went with it, not attacking but continuing to pressure the pedals. As I crested the last steep, I had a decent gap.

Here, you don’t just hit an apex and then start coasting down. No, you have to motor across kind of an undulating flat section that goes on for a bit. I couldn’t see him but my sightlines weren’t that far. I was thinking he might have just let me go, knowing he’d catch me back on the descent and sure enough, once I turned onto the Hagerman Pass road he was right back.

We worked down this gravel road, hit the pavement around Turquoise Lake and then began the paved climb back up toward St. Kevins. We traded off and while he didn’t seem comfortable, he didn’t seem to be in huge trouble either. There’s an aid station right where we hit the dirt and his guys were there with a musette bag for him. There was some sort of difficulty there and a gap opened up as I rode through onto the dirt. I relaxed momentarily as he got back on and then we started the final dirt portion of St. Kevins.

St. Kevins mainly climbs but there are some short descents and some flats, too. The trail climbed up to the right and I slowed for him to pull through. It was here that he told me to go. He said that he was done. I said come on but he said no, he couldn’t. So I went.

Once again, not an attack but I was pedaling with some emphasis. I looked back a few times and while I had a good gap, I could still see the yellow and black Livestrong jersey back there. He was hurting but he hadn’t stopped pedaling. He knew he still had a good descent where he could take some time out of me.

I kept punching it and just as I crested the top of St. Kevins, I startled two people with two big dogs. One of the dogs chased me almost all the way to the hard right switch onto the main descent but it was downhill and I had a head of steam. What was he going to do, bite my tire?

I descended the steep, rocky part of St. Kevins a bit faster than I liked but everything was good. Now, jamming across the flatish double track and onto the pavement, I was about half way through with what would be about a 10 mile TT.

Slightly downhill pavement leads to little jeep road, then that becomes an overgrown double track which finally and brutally deposits you at the base of short but steep, loose cobbly climb, which thankfully quickly gives way to a gentler, smoother gravel road. A guy on the side of the road tells me “just 3.5 miles to the fininsh”. 3.5 miles? Is it that far? My legs feel pretty good though and I have good power left in them, much better than at this same spot last year where I was dying.

It seemed like forever but I finally reached the pavement. From there it’s just a short climb with a long rollover to a nice descent and finally just a tiny climb up to the finish line. But, just as I hit the pavement, I feel my rear wheel starting to loose air. Oh no. I can’t hear it but it’s going down pretty fast. What should have been an easy and fun final few hundred meters had just turned into an anxiety fest wondering if I was going to have to ride in on a complete flat.

My oldest son Cooper was near the top of the hill and instead of high-fiving him as we both would have liked, I had to say, “Oh buddy, you better just let your old dad nurse this thing in.”

In the end, the flat was no big deal. The tire held at about 10 psi and I crossed the line. It was an amazing feeling and I felt a great sense of relief. Prior to the race, I had my chances of winning at about 1 in 5 so I was pretty happy

For more images and a complete race report see the next news story on the cycling news page.

Wiens time-trialing the road after St. Kevins with a scant 2-minute lead on Armstrong.