Tandem Cycling - Leadville 100 - tandem style

Some of you may have heard of this little race out in Colorado due to a certain 7 time TDF winner's attendance. It was quite the scene. We went and lined up with 1300 other riders, one TDF champion.

Well we did it! My wife and I decided a year ago that we wanted to take a step from road tandems to mtb tandems. Many phone calls with Alex at mtbtandems.com (he’s awesome by the way), and October our big green machine arrives. We managed to log about 900 miles on it since then with about 100,000 ft of climbing (quite a few road tandem miles as well too). The goal of all of this was to register and complete the Leadville 100 mountain bike race and finish under 12 hours (with 14,000 feet of climbing)h. Yesterday we achieved that goal. It was a LONG day. It was cold, it rained, it was muddy (and that was all in the first 20 miles).

There were 5 tandems, we managed 4th place 11 hours 23 minutes. The second, third and fourth place tandems were only separated by ten minutes. The first place team (team Warner) came it at 10:48 defending their winning streak at Leadville.

Great race! It was no picnic, the mud took a toll on the drivetrain and we had some mechanical issues, we overcame those and managed to work through all the low points that occur when you’re on the bike for 11 plus hours. I can’t put into words how proud I am of my stoker, wife and best friend. She’s a rocks-star! Completing Leadville on a tandem is exponentially more fulfilling than on a single bike. :)

I have multi-page race report that I am compiling, PM me with your email address if you would like me to share. I don’t have a blog and the length of the race report is probably not appropriate for the message board.

EDIT - I have attempted to post the "race report" to a blog. I caution you all that I am no writer, this is just a rambling report of the happenings on Saturday. http://leadvilletandem2009.blogspot.com/

Dan

Awesome job.

That is hardcore. Congrats.

Hats off to you and your stoker. Congrats!

Congrats on a big time accomplishment!!! Wow!

Congrats, really really cool!

Congrats on a terrific accomplishment ... the ride report is a great read too! - Jim

Wow. A 100 mile mtn bike ride is daunting enough, but on a tandem and in Leadville? Impressive and Congrats!

Disagree with your decision not to post it. Just split your account of the race over a few posts and post away. A report like this would be an inspirational resource that should be publicly available. Far more valuable IMO than other stuff on the Internet.

Please.

disagree with your decision not to post it. Just split your account of the race over a few posts and post away. A report like this would be an inspirational resource that should be publicly available. Far more valuable imo than other stuff on the internet.

Please.

+1

Quite the accomplishment! Congratulations.

Congrats and Great job! Would love to read your post about it....

Congratulations! She is the queen among us stokers! I hope the TDF winner gave you a wave of accomplishment!

Congratulations! She is the queen among us stokers! I hope the TDF winner gave you a wave of accomplishment!

TDF winner was ALL BUSINESS. No waves, no pleasantries. Dave Wiens on the other hand was encouraging other riders as he passed. That dude is a class act! Nothing against TDF winner (I don't think he's actually from this planet).

Regarding the ride report - I need to figure out how to post it. It is LONG and rambling. My wife actually wrote a report as well, much better than mine (for a group that she rides with).

I have no problem sharing. I actually wish there was more such "race reports" out ther so that we can all learn from each other.

Any ideas how to post a 4 page word document?

Dan

What kind of gearing did you have?

What kind of gearing did you have?

22-32-44 chainrings 11-34 cassette

I saw you out there, as you hit the dam. Great job! Did all the tandems finish?
Here is a pic of team Warner



Sorry bad resizing!

I saw you out there, as you hit the dam. Great job! Did all the tandems finish?

Yes, all 5 finished. One came in just over 12 hrs. :(

What place did the 29er come in?

What place did the 29er come in?

I believe they were the 5th place team.

1 Mark Warner/Serena Warner 10:48
2 Mark Hirsch/John Hirsch 11:14
3 Chuck Schuster/Karla Wagner 11:19
4 Dan Orlinski/Bevin Orlinski 11:23
5 Bob Brown/Robin Johnson 12:04

By the way, after a bit of harassment, I broke down and posted my "race report" to a blogsite (Warning - I am no blogger). I'm not even sure if the link will work... :)

http://leadvilletandem2009.blogspot.com/

Great story. IT's cool all the tandems finished.

This has been a great read for this team.

PK

awesome job!!!

great report.
do you consider full suspension a requirement for the ride?

awesome job!!!

great report.
do you consider full suspension a requirement for the ride?

My stoker does!

The winning team rides a hard tail Cannondale (I think I heard it might have a rigid fork - but I did not notice it when they passed us on their way back).

Also, I think Bob Brown was on a hard tail 29er.

If you wanna know about riding a hard tail tandem for a LONG way, look up Jay&Tracey Petervary. I think he has a blog. They did the Tour Divide on a hard tail 29er. We saw them at the Laramie Enduro - they are AMAZING!!!

Great report. Thanks!

Awesome report, thanks for posting it!

Roland

It was Bob and I on the 29er. It was my first race so I wasn't sure what to expect. I now know that we spent way too much time at the rest stops and stopped too many times. It was also a tough time for Bob because he had recently lost his mom so his head wasn’t fully in it. I think we will do much better next year. It was great to see all of the tandem bikers and congrats to all of you for finishing under 12 hours! Watch out for us next year! ;-)

Congrats . . . times two!
Proper training pays off.
Stokers are the turbo chargers on tandems!

It was Bob and I on the 29er...

Watch out for us next year! ;-)

NEXT YEAR HUH??? Nice job finishing the ride! Sorry to hear that you were a few minutes shy of the buckle - I'm sure that being sooo close is enough to bring you back next year.

If you would have asked my stoker if she'd do it again after the race (or me for that matter) the answer would have been, "no .......WAY!" I'll bet uspspro and his stoker would say similar things about the Everest Challenge.

It is amazing how quickly we can forget the suffering...and all the good memories rise to the top.

Can either of you post or send us a link / location to find out about next years race? These are some of the type events I want to get us more involved in.

PK

http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/

It appears that the 2010 registration is not up yet. The race is usually the 2nd weekend in August. Mark your calendar for January to get your registration in. There is a lottery to get in. Entries must be received before the end of January.

Good luck - we'll want to hear all about it!

As soon as we crossed the finish line, I said we are getting a belt buckle next year! I was even more inspired after doing the race. I’m hooked now! The only reason we didn’t finish was due to minor things. If we had only skipped one rest stop… Oh well, you live and learn. We will get it next year! :-) Looking forward to seeng all of the other awesome tadems next year too!