Racers took to the start line at 6:30 AM Saturday morning. Stormy weather had dropped the temperature into the thirties at race time and when the light rain started to fall many of the top riders found themselves under prepared. “I was so cold once the rain started I couldn’t eat or drink for the first 40 miles, my hands couldn’t squeeze the bottle”, said Monavie-Cannondale.com rider Alex Grant, “I couldn’t even take a bottle at the first feed station because my hands didn’t work, they were so cold.”
As the rain came down Armstrong sent his lieutenants to the front. First up was former mountain bike Olympian Travis Brown, who pulled for the opening 5 miles. Next came Matt Shriver, who put in a tremendous effort. Shriver led the lead group for close to 40 miles with Armstrong tucked right on his wheel. Behind the lead duo came Alex Grant and his teammate Tinker Juarez, Wiens, Len Zanni (Honey Stinger), and Max Taam.
As Shriver pushed the pace, riders slowly began to drop off. Around mile thirty Juarez’s day was done when the seat collar on his bike snapped.
As the lead riders approached the base of the Columbine climb, the final ascent before riders would turn around and head for home, Armstrong took matters into his own hands. There was no explosion of speed, no “Look” before he went just an even acceleration. An acceleration that would prove too much for anyone to handle.
With each mile of the climb Armstrong’s lead grew. First, one minute, then two, and by the time they made the turn and hit the base of Columbine again it was already up to 14 minutes.
Wiens did his best to limit his losses. Riding a smart race and not allowing the pressure of racing arguably the world’s greatest cyclist crack him. There was simply nothing he could do to stop the determined Texan from taking the win and stomping on the course record by 15 minutes.
Armstrong crossed the line with an astonishing time of 6.28.50. Wiens stayed strong finishing second. Although he was almost 30 minutes behind the race winner, Wiens was happy with his race and felt he put out a consistent and strong effort.
An impressive ride by Alex Grant brought him onto the finishing section of road in third place. The Utah rider has never raced at Leadville and seemed to be relishing the stiff competition. The cold weather and altitude had taken it’s toll on Grant who was bonking in the final miles of the course and with less than two miles to the finish Shriver bridged the gap and burst past the Monavie rider. “If it was anyone other than Shriver I would have been really upset.” Grant said after the race, “Matt did so much work in the first half of the race I didn’t feel to bad that he finished in front of me.”
In the women’s race it was 2-time 24 Hour World Champion Rebecca Rusch (Specialized/Red Bull) taking the lead early. Unlike the men, Rusch opened up a gap early and held on throughout the 100-mile event.
Her chief rival, Amanda Carey (Kenda/Tomac/Hayes) suffered a flat tire in the opening miles of the race and she never fully recovered from the mechanical. Carey held the time gap steady at 14 minutes over the first 50 miles and even took some time back on the Columbine climb but that was the closest she would get to the leader.
The endurance specialist Rusch clearly had something left in the tank as she hammered her way back to the finish, eventually crossing the line at 8.14.53. Carey held onto the runner-up spot 26 minutes behind Rusch.
Written by: Shannon Boffeli with contributions by Alex Grant and Nate Carey
Men
1, Lance Armstrong 6.28.50
2, Dave Wiens (Topeak/Ergon) 6.57.02
3, Matt Shriver 7.09.48
4, Alex Grant (Monavie-Cannondale.com) 7.10.54
5, Len Zanni (Honey Stinger) 7.11.21
6, Max Taam 7.16.56
7, Travis Brown 7.22.05
8, Manuel Prado (Sho-Air/Specialized)
9, Mike Hogan
10, Jason Tollous
11, Eric Salstrand
12, Stig Somme
13, Kent McNeill
14, Ward Baker
15, Ethan Passant
16, Bryson Perry
17, Kimo Seymour
18, Yuki Saito
19, Chris Holley (Gary Fisher/Subaru)
20, Chuckie Gibson (Felt)
21, Jake Rubelt
22, Matthew Davis
23, Bryan Alders
24, Jim Lehman
25, Gerry Cody
26, David Renvoise
27, Jarral Ryter
28, Ted MacBlane
29, Jim Silverman
30, Scott McCalmon
Women
1, Rebecca Rusch (Specialized/Red Bull) 8.14.53
2, Amanda Carey (Kenda/Tomac/Hayes) 8.40.03
3, KC Holley (Subaru/Gary Fisher) 8.59.20
Singlespeed Male
1, Charlie Hayes (Subaru/Gary Fisher) 8.11.26
2, David Bott 8.43.39
3, Kenny Jones (Subaru/Gary Fisher) 8.49.02
Singlespeed Male
1, Charlie Hayes (Subaru/Gary Fisher) 8.11.26
2, David Bott 8.43.39
3, Kenny Jones (Subaru/Gary Fisher) 8.49.02
