On the 9th August, one Evans Cycles Race Team member will be riding the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race in Colorado. He’s looking forward to it, and stepping up the training now his nerves are settled. Here’s an introduction to Staff Trainer Nick Coley’s challenge:
First : meet Nick (it always helps to put a face to a name..)
Have you ever looked at the route profile of a ride you’ve got planned, and thought: “What have I gotten myself into? Have I bitten off more than I can chew?”
That’s exactly how I felt as I sifted through the many videos on YouTube covering the Leadville 100 mountain bike race.
Rewind three months and it was all cheers and excitement – looking through my emails one evening I saw the words “congratulations” and “Leadville” in the title. BOOM. After four years of failed lottery attempts I had managed to bag a spot on the Leadville 100 mountain bike race out in Colorado with my colleague Paul Markland.
What is the Leadville 100?
Let me explain. The Leadville 100 is one of the original, true 100 mile mountain bike races. It’s 100 miles off road, but on an out and back course, meaning at 50 miles you basically do a U-turn and ride back along the same trail, passing those behind you.
The race is pretty hard for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s 100 off-road miles, secondly it has 3844m / 12,612ft of climbing – but the most difficult element is that the town of Leadville sits at 3094m / 10,152ft above sea level and the course peaks out at 3786mm / 12,424ft. Exactly! Uh-oh!
The history of Leadville 100
There are plenty of videos from the race on YouTube. “Race Across the Sky” is the full official documentary covering Lance Armstrong racing the event, but there are many more, including one by Specialized watching Christoph Sauser on his first attempt, in which he calls it: “The hardest race I’ve ever done”.
In this documentary, Sauser explains: “You stand up on the pedals and bang, it’s like someone hits you with a hammer and you have to sit back down.” This from an ex-World Champion! My: “What have I gotten myself into?” pangs are back…
Training begins
Now that I’ve pulled myself together, my thoughts are fully focused on getting ready for the biggest race I’ve ever done, and 1hour 30minute mountain bike xc races aren’t really going to cut it.
Distance and volume of training are going to be more of a focus with the aim to get a few 100 mile road and MTB rides under my belt, but still keeping some intensity in there. Between now and Leadville I have the Paris Roubaix sportive, Mountain Mayhem solo and a week trip to the alps to help with the preparation.
This is a once in a lifetime race, and I’m going to make sure I rock up to the start line at 6:30am on the 9th August knowing I’ve done everything I can to get inside the 12 hour cut off time. To do that, I need some guidance, so I’m getting myself a coach from DigDeep Coaching who is writing me a training program specifically for the Leadville 100 and one that fits in and around my working week.
The guys at DigDeep know the race and have coaching experience to match so I’m in good hands. Then there’s only the other matter of bike, clothing, nutrition, hotels, car hire, flights and Glastonbury to get over and I think I’m there!
My next update will be mid training program and I will be able to update you on my training and nutrition and hopefully a decision on what tyres I’m going to take…
We’ll post an update from Nick in a few weeks time… feel free to add your stories or words of encouragement below…