(fire crackles)
(owl hoots)
(wood creaks)
- I'm here in Leadville, Colorado to find out
can a novice mountain bike marathon racer take part
in one of the world's toughest
mountain bike marathon races: the Leadville 100.
(energetic music)
(cow bell clangs)
- [Chris] To make the race even more interesting
I'm going up against the experience
of two-time Leadville veteran Walter Summers who knows all
the ups, downs, twists and turns of the course.
Walter is also a Garmin test rider.
So how am I supposed to
measure up against Walter's experience?
Well, I've teamed up with Garmin
and they've kitted me out with their new Edge 830 unit
which is going to help coach me through the epic.
I can use the climb pro future to educate me
on the gradients and climbs ahead,
I can even set food and hydration notifications
to ensure I stay on top of my fuelling too.
All I have to do is follow the course and pedal
and let the Garmin worry about the finer details.
That's the plan anyway.
But why me?
Well, for years I grew up riding and racing on the road
hearing about all these great mountain bike events
that I wanted to take part in,
but because I had a busy training and racing schedule
to stick to, it meant I could only read about them
in magazines and on the internet.
One of the big events that sticks out in my mind
is the Leadville 100, a 105 mile
mountain bike marathon event across Colorado.
Now in it's 26th year I finally get my chance
to have my first go at a mountain bike marathon event.
And I'm not going to lie,
when Blake and Neil asked if I was interested
I could not have said yes fast enough.
- I mean everybody's heard about the Leadville Trail 100
it's you know, the world's most iconic mountain bike race.
- Leadville is grit, guts and determination.
- You can't help but lift your head up and look around
because it really is stunning terrain you get
to ride your bike through.
- There's very little that's not either up or down.
- I entered Leadville in the first place
because I was curious what all the hype was about
why all these people were coming to this race
in you know this tiny weeny mountain town
in the middle of Colorado.
- Registration limit's about 1,800
couple hundred or so will get cold feet
and chicken out before the starting line.
Tank's empty, you got to dig deep
you got to do exactly what
the Leadville miners did 150 years ago: dig deep.
(energetic music)
- [Chris] Garmin didn't want to let me walk away
with the bragging rights without them
putting up a decent fight.
But unlike me, Walter didn't come alone.
He came armed with his riding buddies
from Garmin HQ in Kansas City: Jordan and Andrew.
The first few miles are actually on tarmac
and it's onto the first section of dirt
where the route starts to get narrow and starts to climb.
The course really starts to get hard
at the bottom of Columbine.
Up to then it had been tough,
but not an hour and 25 minutes at an average gradient of 8%.
The return leg of the event
is surprisingly much harder than the way out.
Some say the race doesn't start
until the top of the mountain.
The toughest part of the entire event
is Power Lines on the return.
Pitches of up to nearly 40% on the lower slopes
total of just over 5 km uphill at 7% average gradient.
From here to the finish, you can really find your groove
and push hard to make up a little bit of time.
The route doesn't ease off until you climb
the final grade into Leadville and cross the line.
A total of 105 miles, 4000 meters of climbing
and all run off at over 2,800 meters of elevation.
Now I could stand here and tell you all about
the Leadville 100 but I've never ridden it before
so we thought it was a better idea
to chat to the founder and one of the most famous names
from the race's history.
- There's very little that's not either up or down.
- It's the headwaters of the Arkansas River
so we're right between where
two mountain ranges come together.
Sawatch Range to the west, Mosquito Range to the east
and Leadville just sits right up there in that high valley.
- There are a lot of things that
are special about Leadville.
1) The elevation puts you above tree line
in such amazing terrain, breathtaking.
The other thing is it really is
a huge gathering of the cycling tribe.
You know, I've never done a mountain bike race
with thousands of people,
all on the same course, all just wanting
to be outside and ride their hearts out.
So for me the first year it really felt like kind of like
the Tour de France of mountain biking.
It was crazy, like screaming fans
and you never see that in mountain bike race.
You're usually alone.
Just this small town vibe of hospitality
and the locals welcoming you and everybody
just really appreciating the mountains
and the beauty of this place
but the people are really special too.
- I was an underground shift boss at the Climax mine
great job, God I loved that job.
Went to work one swing shift
got all the gear on, ready to go underground
and the mine boss called and said
"Come on up, we're going to have a meeting."
Went up to the mine office and he said
"We're closing the mine.
Go back, tell your crews to go home.
Their unions will be in contact with them tomorrow
and we'll be in contact with you. It's over."
Overnight we became the highest unemployment in the nation.
- It's our family.
The athletes that come here are part of our family.
- When we started out, it was--
and this was from day one--
because our community was hurting so bad
was all about what we could give, not what we could get.
And we've maintained that all these years.
We still do that.
Because it's grown so much,
it gives us the opportunity to give more.
- One of the stand out features
of the Leadville 100 is the altitude.
It starts at 2,800 meters and goes up to 3,800.
Where we live in the west of England
it's not anything like that.
We're basically at sea level,
so we're going to go out for a couple of hours gently
on the bikes to get used to the altitude a little bit.
Ideally you'd have done this three weeks ago,
but you know, what can you do?
(lively techno music)
- We had a real blast up
on the mountain side of Breckenridge.
A few final tweaks to the bike
and a couple of tough efforts
to get ready for the race tomorrow.
Right, we're driving to the start at the moment.
It's about 25 minutes away from where we stayed.
There's a little bit more traffic today then there has been
but we've got the world's biggest vehicle
a big Suburban, so we can just push people out of the way.
Don't think we're going to have any issues getting into town
This is Leadville, starting line in Leadville.
Not the start line, 100 meters away from the start line.
Fill up my pockets with all of my food.
Make sure I've got everything else I need.
Try and find somewhere to have a little wee,
alley way type thing.
And just make sure I've got everything.
Try to get to the start line on time. That's most important.
This will be the most people I've ever lined up in one go.
Normally in a bike race you get 200 guys
and there's what? 2,000 people here today?
So ten times as big,
except it's not just ten times as big
it's hundreds times as big.
Like, it's the biggest, most well known
epic mountain bike cross country race there is.
- No sign of Chris.
We think he chickened out.
- Yeah, might be a no show.
- He might be, he could've been too scared.
Entirely possible.
- Yeah, we think Mr. Opie is chickening out.
We're all looking for him, but we don't see him.
- Right, this is it, we're going.
We are actually going to go.
All right, record some carnage.
Have fun.
- Off the start, it's kind of nerve racking.
1,700 plus riders descending
and trying to fight for position.
We talked about that early on
and we pretty much concluded that all of the descents
should be played pretty safely.
And that goes for the beginning too.
You know, there's no worse place to crash
then the beginning of a bike race,
especially when you're bobbing down hill
with 500 riders behind you.
- I'm overtaking 700 people, 800 people--
(mumbles) and I'm quite pleased with that--
probably before we got to the first gravel sector
most of them, because I was in my element.
It was like being a road rider but on a mountain bike.
Big bars to fit through these tiny gaps, quite enjoyed that.
It was a little challenge.
- The three of us being out there was really really nice.
That was kind of a really fun,
like we mentioned before, Jordan's a pretty fast roadie
and whenever we'd hit a big, hard, flat road section
we were like "everyone forgot to bring their Jordan
out with them" you know, because he'd just get
in the front an rip it for us.
(exhilarating music)
So for the first two hours
I chased pretty hard to find Walter, Andrew and Jordan
and I just got to the point where I was like
"I feel like I should have caught them now."
This is my ego from bygone years,
but I just felt like I'd ridden really quite hard
for those two hours and I needed to ease off a little bit.
I'd kind of started to notice
that I was finding it harder than I was expecting.
So from there on in, it got really hard.
The Power Lines descent was probably,
apart from the guy that switched me
and tried to cross in front of me
and then got upset with me,
it was the best descent of the day.
Just purely because it was
80--what 82.8 km an hour I did down there.
Bearing in mind, you're on like marbly gravel,
it's average 12% but the pitches are like 27% or more,
and if you squeeze your brakes
you're just going to lock up your tires.
And there's all these little kickers as well.
So you actually get a bit of air.
That was the highlight of the day.
(funky music)
So actually something that really got me through the day
was the little feature that I use on the Garmin
and that was telling me how far I was to the next climb,
how long the next climb was, what the gradient was.
The only thing it didn't tell me
was what the surface was made of.
So I think everyone before the event
had kind of made it sound like it was quite gentle
and you know, just gravel, but it was not gravel.
They were just rocky and root-y and it was rugged.
- It didn't get terribly dark.
I think riding with my buddies was a big part of that.
Honestly, probably the darkest part of it is like,
when I'm sitting behind their wheels
and I'm like pinning it right now
to just sit behind Andrew, sit behind Jordan.
I was like "These guys are so strong."
So that was probably, honestly, the hardest part.
Then I'd get my second wind and be like,
"Now it's time for me to do some work."
No, it never went super, super dark.
Honestly, it was just like we'd be riding uphill
and you'd turn and it was just like a wall
and you're just like "Ugh."
So it was very temporary darkness.
Then you'd get up and over
and get back on your bike and keep going.
So I'd say it was a little gray out for most of the day.
- The worse part of my day, it was it was Columbine Mountain
That was where I really started
to struggle with the altitude.
Somewhere between 3,000-3,200
I realized that that was my limit
and everything higher than that, I was in a dark place.
Didn't think I'd get off and walk to be honest.
Feels good though.
Right now anything but pedalling feels good.
I'm getting passed by a lot of guys again.
Don't think it's an exaggeration to say,
I'm suffering more than ever.
It's just, I underestimated it massively.
So I'm nowhere near my goal of seven hours,
but turns out that was probably a bit stupid anyway.
I am near eight hours.
I was in a really dark place until some friendly competitor
came over and said
"Look, it's only the altitude that's making you suffer.
As soon as you get back down, you'll feel better."
Your thoughts run wild, you feel dizzy,
you can barely see anything.
Glasses on, glasses off, doesn't matter.
There's no oxygen in your brain.
A lot of guys were cheering everyone on.
Quite a few people do recognize the jersey,
which considering you guys don't wear lycra
on the channel very often,
it was quite cool to hear that.
And I had the worst arm pump of my life.
So, I was behind someone that wasn't that fast
on Columbine, on the descent,
which means you're riding the brakes the entire time.
Obviously 34 PSI in the tires
and the shocks are pumped up pretty hard.
My hands were claws and eventually I said,
"Can I just go by?"
And as soon as you let off the brakes,
it all disappears then because
you're not trying to squeeze and slow yourself down.
(funky music)
(cow bells clang)
- We had to--we bit off a little bit at Pipeline
our SAG crew was not there, or we couldn't find them,
so we all went into that last three hours
with one water bottle and, you know, more sugar.
We all had some savory stuff packed away
we were pretty excited about
And not having that was kind of a bummer.
So trying to get around the fact
that we only had that one water bottle
for that last long section was kind of a hiccup,
then we got over it.
- I think Power Line was the hardest climb.
I think Power Line is the hardest climb on earth, actually.
- I remember, as we were approaching Power Line, thinking,
"Feeling pretty tired right now."
- Until you see it, you don't realize just how steep it is
and how unrelenting it is.
- So we all took a jab at it,
and watched Jordan ride away from us.
I think I made it about 7/10ths of the climb.
I looked back to see if Andrew was behind me, which he was,
but it was enough for me to slide out my front wheel,
and we had to hike the last bit of it.
It was so hard.
- Suffering like I've never suffered.
It's just how it is.
(labored music)
- I was ecstatic that I made the nine hour cutoff.
It was so exhilarating to come in
and know I made it by just that much.
And the whole crowd is there,
everyone is cheering for ya.
They said my name over the loud speaker
"Jordan Miller from Garmin"
It was surreal.
Those final 10Ks were just all out.
That was me in my zone,
that was like riding a road race,
you're in a break or riding a time trial.
I got aero, I went fast, and I crushed it.
And I came in just like that much to spare too.
It was a special moment.
- I did have a little sprint at the end,
because when you ride to the finish with another rider,
you can just, well for a start you can hear gear changes
but then also the tempo rises.
Everyone wants to finish looking strong, right?
Because that's where the people are watching.
And you can just tell what was going to happen
it's one of those things, you get dropped in a bike race,
and everyone just pedals a little bit harder
to get over the finish to make it look
to their team managers
that they haven't just sat up and cruised in.
Stupid, really, like it means nothing.
But this did mean something because it was a proper sprint.
That was quite good fun.
Hardest bike race.
Hardest bike ride.
Hardest thing I've ever done on a bike.
- [Crew Member] Coming back next year, support team?
- I'd like to recover first, before I make a bold statement.
I think it'd be really cool to come back
and see if you can put everything you've learned
this week into practice.
That would be cool.
And the result on who was actually fastest,
the Leadville novice or the veteran?
Walter finished the race in
nine hours, seven minutes and one second
And I, I'm pleased to say,
did it in eight hours, 14 minutes and 12 seconds.
About 53 minutes faster.
But the most important thing is that I was sub-nine hours
which means I got one of these big, shiny finisher belts.
So it's the morning after Leadville.
After a night's sleep,
I woke feeling pretty battered to be honest.
But we've made it back to the start town
because the day after the event
they give out belt buckles to all the finishers.
If you finish under nine hours,
you get a big one, and you can see
Walter, Jordan and Andrew have all got theirs.
It's now my turn to go inside and find mine.
(quirky music)
(indistinct voice through microphone)
(applause)
- We're in a massive cue,
it's a bit like lining up yesterday morning,
to get the belt buckles.
- That's for--
- Sweet!
Thank you very much.
Cheers!
Got new toys.
So, I made it out of the hall
where I got my finisher's jacket
with my old nickname Speedy Opie printed on there
and my finishing time.
But, more importantly,
something that's going to look pretty cool in the dirt shed,
hopefully, assuming they let me put it in there.
It's my finisher's buckle.
Look at the size of that thing!
See, you get the big one if you finish under nine hours,
and I managed it.