Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Leadville 100 Times

Has anyone on this forum done the Leadville 100? I'm trying to gage my chances of finishing in under 12 hours (yes, I want the silly belt buckle... ;)) given that I did the Triple Bypass (120 miles, 10,000' climbing, 8,000'-11,000' elevation) in over 8 hours last year. Any 'normal' century takes me about 5:30-6:00, but I'm new to long-distance MTB.

Boy that's a tough one. But usually if you want info on how to do a ride the best people to ask are people who have done it. Go get results sheets, look for names, try to get in touch, and find out in any of them look fatter and slower than you.

i'd say you have a very good shot of doing it!

first of all though, did you get in? i think that race is [pretty hard to get a spot in and unless you got your spot through the lottery system already i don't think you'll be racing this year.

i have done 4 offroad hundred milers in the east. i finished 2 in under 12 hours and i would have a lot of trouble doing a road century in under 6 hours so i think your fitness is definitely in a good spot.

that said... how bout elevation? you routinely ride at 12,000 feet or whatever that race goes up to? i think i'd have trouble with breathing up there but i don't have too much experience with it coming from the east coast.

i hear the course is pretty much non-technical so that helps with getting it done quickly, but... do you ever ride an mtb? if you can ride mtb i think you would not have any problems on this course BUT if your just hoping to hop on an mtb and treat this like a road century you might be in for a rude awakening.

it doesn't take a ridiculous amount of fitness to do one in under 12 hours (i submit myslef as proof). but you gotta be ready for 100 miles of offroad action and hope you don't have any major mechanicals or crashes that will cost you time.

if you got into the race you might as well give it a shot and have fun.

i think you'll be surprised at how competitive you'll be if you can do a sub 6 hour century on your roadie and have reasonable mtb skillz!

I didn't sign up for this year, I was thinking ahead toward next year. That'll give me time to spend some quality time on my MTB.

Elevation will be a factor even though I live at ~5,000'. The Triple Bypass kicked my butt last year -- I lost a lot of power/energy anytime I got much over 9,500', which is a good portion of that ride -- hence the 8+ hour ride time. But thanks for your confidence!

I do know one person who rode Leadville a few years ago, but he DNF'ed, so it's hard to use his experience as a guide. If I don't get many more responses, I'll take RC's advice and start bugging people directly.

It was tough to get into, the Lance effect has multiplied that difficulty exponentially.

It's RIDICULOUSLY hard. I've done the Triple, Death Ride, Mt. Evans, etc..... and they are nowhere as tough. However, if you are an accomplished MTB person, then it becomes much more tolerable. it's not just the terrain, and altitude.... the weather is frequently/always very cold and wet in afternoon. Lance made it look easier than it is.... and because he finished so quickly he did not have to suffer as much with weather.

If you haven't seen "Race accross the sky" - it just came out on DVD... and will give you some sense of it.

Technically the riding isn't hard compared to many other MTB 100's, the altitude is what makes it tough.