9th August 2014l
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 2000 starter. The 100 mile course changes in elevation from 10,152ft up to 12,424ft 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, 2 buses, a 2 hour flight following a 4 hour delay, another bus and a
then a 2 hour drive Dewet, John; the US distributer of Squirt Lube and myself
arrived at Leadville 8 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 4 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 5 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.
The goose bumps got a lot worse though as we set off on the
fast road descent and it got colder and colder. Legs went numb and hands froze so when we finally started
climbing I was feeling like a block of ice and had that sick feeling come over
me when the feeling came back to my hands. I’m not sure if the altitude made it worse but I felt pretty
faint and did contemplate stopping and sitting down. However, finally blood started flowing and I felt better
each mile. I passed a few girls
and then was told I was in 3rd place. This got me too overexcited, suddenly
I felt part of the race and so on the next descent went too fast and hit a rock
putting a hole right in the tire.
I thought it might reseal so unsuccessfully bombed it then had the long
job of putting a new tube in and pumping it up while streams of riders went
past. Once back riding I found
myself in a traffic jam of riders even stopping a few times going down
hill. We eventually hit the long road
section where I rode through groups past the 40-mile mark and onto the climb
marking half way. I was enjoying
the ride a lot by now, the atmosphere at each feed station and spectator point
was unbelievable with so many people cheering everyone on and passing riders
always makes you feel good plus although my breathing was labored I felt a lot
better than the first hour. The
climb became slow nearer the top with a narrow trail and in two-way traffic it
was becoming very difficult and sketchy to pass people and certain sections we
all ended up walking. The top was
around 12.000ft and looked pretty desolate. I was glad the weather was holding up and it wasn’t cold
coming back down.
Enjoying the one piece of single track without traffic and
then fighting the headwind back along the open road I’d then forgot how steep
the descent had been down and around 70 mile I had the first signs that I was
blowing. I had only drunk one
bottle and now in the 4th hour I started feeling nauseous when I
drunk or ate anything. Before my
long lay off this year I’ve never struggled with endurance or with running out
of fuel but with 5 months off the bike I’m feeling my unfitness a lot and it’s
not fun! The steep climb up which
I walked a lot zapped the last of my energy and the next 20 miles was a massive
suffer feast. As I got slower the
climbs went on for longer though I had some consolidation in seeing others
suffer as much as me as we all asked each other ‘how much further’! I stopped at one aid station, drank
water and ate some beef jerky which helped a little but I didn’t stand for long
otherwise I might have got off and curled up on the floor!
As we got nearer the end I worked out that the last few
miles were a different way in and we didn’t have the long descent I’d frozen on
many hours earlier to climb back up.
I glued myself to a wheel in front and finally after 8 hours 31 crossed the line 30 minutes inside the 9-hour ‘gold buckle’ cut off. I had pulled back up to 161st, 5th place woman, 3rd 30-39yrs, at one point I
thought I might have got back to 3rd place but those last few hours
put paids to that idea!! Sally
Bigham retained her victory and in the men’s race Todd Wells beat Christophe
Sauser by a few seconds.
With some time to lie on the grass I finally got an appetite
back for some savory noodles and lots of crisps before packing up and heading
round to Breckenridge to just catch the race briefing for the Breck Epic starting
in just over 12 hours time!!
My claim to fame now is that final results showed Mark Webber was 2 places behind me, we had switched places a few times and I talked to him as I talked to everyone at that point but had no idea it was him!! What a shame, I could have let him sit on my wheel those last few miles!!
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| Mark Webber with some people that did recognise him! |
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