Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race

cycling, Leadville 100, mountain biking | UltraRob | Friday, August 11th, 2006 at 10:31 am

Tomorrow is the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race. It’s the 13th year the race has been held. As far as I know it’s the oldest 100 mile mountain bike race but maybe there’s some older ones out there I don’t know about. I’ve finished it 4 times and last year I crewed for it. This year I’m crewing for it again.

For me there are actually only 2 good reasons to do the race and several not to do the race. First the 2 reasons to do the race.

The people. Ken and Merilee go all out to make the race special for everybody there. The number of volunteers they get to come out and take care of before, during, and after the race is quite amazing. The volunteers do a huge part to make the race special and encourage all the racers. They spend all day handing out water and helping in every way they can. Then there are the racers themselves. For the most part everybody is friendly and will help other riders out.

Doing the Leadville 100 has a certain level of prestige to it. Lots of people that are non-cyclists know about it and have a lot of respect for someone who has finished it. In contrast when I say something about the Durango 100 that has another 5,000 feet of climbing and technical single track, people have no idea what I’m talking about. To give you some idea how much harder the Durango 100 is, the last couple years they’ve offered a $500 bonus to the first person to break under 9 hours in addition to the $500 first place prize. The Leadville 100 will likely have over the top 50 finish under 9 hours.

Now for the reasons not to do it in no particular order.

You have to commit to it by the end of January because it’s a lottery to get in. If that’s the only race you’re doing for the year that may not be a big deal but if you’re doing a dozen other races you could be injured or burned out before August.
It is one of the most expensive 100 mile mountain bike races.
It’s an out and back course. That does give you the opportunity to count what place you’re in but coming down Columbine can be a bit of a pain. I actually find the riders going down to be more in the way than the ones going up because I generally am going much faster than the other guys also heading down.
There’s no single track and very little of the jeep road is even technical

In spite of there being more reasons to not to it than I have for doing it, I think the good reasons to do it out weigh the ones to not do it as long as there isn’t something tougher the conflicts with it. I’m sure I’ll be back racing at Leadville sometime. In fact another reason to do it would be to get the giant 1000 mile buckle.

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