At Evans Cycles we’ve spent the last couple of months talking about the #OddOnes – the people who choose to ride instead of drive, clean their bikes to get them dirty, or shave their legs especially for a weekend ride.
Cyclists are a diverse group and some #OddOnes are more intrepid than others. Nick Coley, from our training team has signed himself up for the ambitious challenge that is the Leadville 100.
Nick’s been keeping us updated with his challenge, preparation and training over the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow is race day and he’s now staying in Leadville. Here’s where he’s at:
Since my last blog I have managed to get a good week of riding in the Alps. We managed to watch the tour and then spend a week riding the big climbs out there, including Alp D’Huez, Glandon, Crox de fer, Les Duex Alpe. If you ever get the chance to get out there on your bike, I really recommend it.
The journey to Boulder
A few days after returning it was time to make the 28 hour trek from London to Dallas and then onto Denver. We finally arrived in Boulder at 2:30am local time on Friday 1st August.
Boulder is quite a place, sitting at 1600m above sea level it’s a good spot to get a few rides in and even get up to similar altitude as Leadville before we travel to the small mining town that sits on a plateau at 3000m above sea level.
The big unknown of the Leadville is how much the altitude will effect me. I’ve ridden at high altitude before but not 100 miles on a mountain bike and up to 3700m.
A step into altitude
SO the idea was to take a small step to Boulder, stay there for a week, get use to the dry air, altitude and get a few rides in to hone the MTB skills, get used to my set up and really keep the legs ticking over. Any real hard training now will make little difference to the race on the 9th August.
After a few relaxing days we set off to Leadville. After 2 hours of some of the most scenic roads I’ve been on, we arrive at the old mining town of Leadville.
This place is from back in the Gold rush days and our Hotel, the Deleware, is like something from the 1800’s The oldest hotel thats still going in the USA and the highest!
Reaching Leadville
On arrival, I walked upstairs to the 3rd floor and found myself out of breath – it suddenly hit home that the altitude here is hard on the body, especially for a sea level Englishman like me.
After checking in and getting to grips with the time warp hotel, my colleague Paul and i decided to go for a quick spin, that turned into riding out to the powerline climb and giving it a go.
The climb comes in at 80 miles and hits 19% in places. Its hard and on quite a few occasions only the top 2 men have ridden it, the other 1998 riders end up walking it! Defiantly no shame here.
Thursday in Leadville started with a early start, breakfast then a short 16 mile drive out to Twin Lakes, where at 40 miles the race takes on the big climb, up to Columbine mine topping out at 3700m.
This climb is a monster and is around 12km long, averaging 8% and gaining around 1000m. The climb starts as a gentle cruise, through tall birch trees which are typical in Colorado. Then it continues to climb.
On the way I stopped to ask a guy putting markers out for the race:“which way does the course go mate?” he replied: “the steep route bro”. Nice.
This part of the climb is steep, loose and expose. During the race we will also be dealing with the faster people coming down on the left hand side so I need to make sure I can ride the right hand side, and stay on the right hand side.
My heart rate rose with the elevation and I found myself gasping for breath – I could defiantly feel the effects of being at over 3000m above sea level. After a few steep sections the climb levels off before a quick flat section along a thin ridge at the top. I stopped to take in the view as next time I’ll be here I’ll be performing a quick U-turn to go back down.
The view is incredible, you can see Leadville in the distance and the rock ins are spread out across the horizon. After some time taking it all in, it was time to descend. It may be a dirt track/jeep track up, but gong down isn’t as straight forward as you would think… it’s loose and rocky in places so takes concentration. It took 30 minutes to get down and back at the car. In the race on Saturday there will be another 40 miles to go at that point…
For now its time to get in the car and back to Leadville.
Pre-race prep
Back in town we signed on and it all became real, race number and all the freebies that come with a big race like this.
We also collected some top tube stickers with aid stop times relating to what time you want to complete the race in. Sub 9 hours and you need to be at the bottom of Columbine at 2 hours 50 minutes then at the top at 4 hours 35 minutes. Something to aim for!
So we are all set, just a quick check over of the bike on Friday and then its race day! 6:30am on Saturday to the sound of a shotgun blast marks the start of the 2014 Leadville 100 MTB race. Time for talk is over, all the training and effort put in will be tested to the max. It will be a day to dig deep and really push myself to the limit!
We all wish Nick the best with the race, and look forward to hearing a report!