So here goes. Started in the white corral, with about 1700 of 1800 riders ahead of me. Took 3 minutes to get to the start line after the race started. After I crossed the start line there was another bottle neck (I think to spread traffic after the bottle neck on the descent) that brought us to a stop then walking pace with the clock running.

You descend out of Leadville on paved roads. I tried to move up as much as possible through here without being sketchy, or wasting too much energy. I'm told there are always crashes on the paved start. Lots of the racers don't have a lot of pack riding experience and you need to take that into account. I did try to draft as much as possible, always being on a wheel to save energy.

At the bottom of Saint Kevins, it was a complete bottle neck, with traffic almost stopping. A number of people walked. It was difficult to ride over short little steep sections were you'd like to accelerate and use momentum to clear, but you couldn't because there was no where to go. About half way up I had to put a foot down, when I got my front wheel on the wrong side of the stopped wheel in front of me, and started walking for a good bit. I think it was more energy efficient to walk than ride in the stop and go.

Probably ended up going too fast up St Kevins, when it finally cleared a bit, burning too many matches. The race starts fast and you can get swept up in it. Hindisight, a little better pacing on ST Kevins might have helped avoid blowing up later.

Second climb Powerline things had spread out a good bit. I did that at my own pace, felt good, and passed more people than passed me.

Descent of Power line was a bit scary for me. I let several faster riders go, and fell in with some people wh actually were even slower than me down it. A little more confidence to let the bike run, and I could have saved several minutes, and some nervous energy.

After the first two climbs, there was some relatively flat paved road. I tried to get a group together with limited success. Got a couple of people to paceline, but it seems that as we rolled up people not many wanted to jump on. Guess they were all mountain bikers. There are definitely times you can draft here on the pavement, and through the Wild west on smooth double track. I tried to balance always being on a wheel, and moving up. In hindsight, I did a lot of work through this section, towing others and burning energy. Would have been better off sitting in.

Th single track section was actually pretty easy. I could have gone a bit faster but got stuck in traffic. I didn't have the confidence that I could go signficantly and consitently faster though, so I just sat in the back of a line, and lost a couple of minutes there.

Got to the first Twin Lakes time cut, with a decent amount of time to spare, feeling guardedly optimistic, but also knowing I'd use too much energy on St Kevins, and on the flat portions. (to be continued).