The Leadville Trail Mountain Bike Race is 100 miles of high altitude riding with the entire course being above 9,000 feet and climbing to 12,600 feet in and around Leadville, Colorado.  Kim Bear, Gary Johnson, Ries Robinson and George Broome represented Team Santa Fe at this years Leadville Trail 100.  Jan helped with the medical check in and then flew out, reluctantly to Canada to race with Team REI/Salomon in the Canadian Championships Eco Challenge.  You can read about his adventure later in this newsletter.

It was a dry year on the Leadville course with the temperature around 72 degrees.  Ries had an incredibly good year coming in 27th overall with a time of 8:27:27; it would be his 7th year to finish.  After 10 years of finishing this grueling race, the award is a huge silver belt buckle.  Next was Gary Johnson with a great finish of 10:04:11 finishing in his first Leadville in 156th place overall out of 414 finishers.  Kim finished in 11:23:28, not her best, but she was very happy; her front derailleur broke in the first 10 miles to name one of a few mishaps.  Ries was at the finish line, since Jan couldn't be, Kim could only smile!  It would be her 5th finish. George also had mechanical problems and crossed the finish line with loyal Santa Feans cheering him.  It was a great year to motivate Team Santa Fe for next year at the Leadville Trail 100.

Kim and Ries wore their Litespeed jerseys and rode their trustworthy Litespeed bikes.  The race cannot be done without the Polar heart rate monitor.  It is crucial to monitor heart rate over a long endurance race such as this.  It was very sunny and Dermatone was another part of essential equipment. 

What an interesting event for me! I received a phone call from Liz Caldwell and Barry Siff asking if Kim and I could join them to do this race in Golden, BC, Canada, which was only 2 weeks away. Unfortunately Kim had some prior commitments, but I said yes. After some quick scheduling changes at work, I was on my way to Golden, BC. I left Kim in Leadville to compete in the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race, which I missed for the first time in 7 years. I arrived in Calgary at 10 PM on Friday night August 9th and got to Golden at about 6 AM on the 10th with very little sleep. The next couple of days were spent doing gear checks, certifications and getting to know my teammates Liz, Barry and Jay.

The race began at 6 AM Monday morning, August 12th with a sprint to our canoes and a 45-kilometer (km) paddle down the Columbia River. This was fairly uneventful. Following this was a trek along the river, then inland for about 10 km to our first gear pick up, bikes. We then had a 20 km bike also uneventful and straightforward. This lead to transition area 1 (TA1) and the beginning of the first mountain section, we left the TA at about 4 PM. The first several hours we moved along well with no real navigating problems, despite the terrain being very challenging. At about 2 AM I took a fall down a snow field about 150 feet only to be stopped by the rock field below. Members of other teams as well as my own came to help, the damage was a laceration on my arm and hip, sore ribs and foot, all on the left side. We decided to take an unscheduled nap at this point to allow me to recover. We got on our way as the sun came up but did make some navigational errors over the next segment of the course to the glacier. The climb up the glacier went well as did the rest of this first mountain section. We arrived at the next TA at about 6 PM that evening. There I received some first aid (sutures to my arm) and we were off on the next bike leg, which we thought was going to be easy, NOT! We ended up making several errors, listening to other teams, bikewhacking (bushwhacking with a bike) too high on the mountain to name only a few. When the sun came up again we finally did the right thing; our original plan was to hike along the river and surprisingly after about 3 hours we came to a road that lead directly to the next check point. This was the beginning of the next water leg but now in a small river with 2+ rapids. Barry and I were teamed up here and did a poor job, lost our boat to the river, recovered it with the help of Jay and after some discussion continued on with new canoe partners. The rest of the canoe went well and we finished up by mid-afternoon. Back to bikes for a 10 km steep up hill climb to the next TA where the second mountain stage would start.

The second mountain stage was long and difficult; we had to change our navigational plan during this segment a couple times due to the terrain.  We also made an error and headed to the wrong peak for the rappel but did get it right with only a 1-2 hour mistake. After the rappel it was a long trek down a river valley then a climb to the Kicking Horse Ski Lodge where we arrived at 11:30 PM and got some hot food and made some phone calls. Just after we arrived the wind reached 100 km/hr and it began to rain then snow.  It ended up snowing 6 inches. After eating we headed down the mountain in the snow we reached the TA at about 4 AM. We left the TA at about 8 AM after the rain stopped, on bikes, here again we made some navigational errors and then reached the next transition back to paddling at 7 PM. From here it was a long 40 km paddle down the Columbia River back to Golden. The river navigation was difficult after dark due to the marshes and false river channels. Just before reaching the final check point, Barry and I feel asleep in our canoe and we went in, getting wet with only 2-300 meters left in the paddle. So then it was a cold wet run/walk to the finish line, which we reached at about 3:30 AM.  We finished 13th overall and second of the USA teams.

This race was filled with awesome views, difficult bushwhacking, bikewhacking and challenging navigation. After we got warm at the finish line it was off to have a warm meal at the local truck stop, the only place open, followed by a quick nap.  We then began packing for the trip home. More eating, the awards ceremony, a little partying, then on to the bus for a 4-hour night ride to Calgary only to find out that the flight to Denver was cancelled. I made it on a flight to Chicago then to Albuquerque where Kim picked me up and I was asleep in bed that night by 10 PM. What a whirlwind trip!! It was great to race with Liz, Barry and Jay. The lesson for me was if the crampons are on then the helmet and ice axe should also be out, on and ready for use.

Several TSF sponsor gear items were used and abused during this race; thank you Litespeed, Leki, Princeton Tec, Bushnell, ThorLo, Montrail, Terry, BTI, Suunto (my altimeter was ripped off my wrist during my fall, it must have helped save me somehow), WPC Brands, LP Composites, Petzl, Black Diamond, Cascade design and GoLite to name only a few.