Saturday, August 13, 2011

Leadville update.

Awesome awesome awesome day!
 The crowds were worse than I expected. At ~5:20am I was placed at maybe 1500th position. The first ~50 miles were complete chaos and I was forced off the bike MANY times. I hit Columbine Mine in a horrible 4:40 with a sub9 pretty much gone. I coasted back down, stopped at 60 miles to get bottles from my wife. I was super negative and pissed. I got going again and the crowds were minimal, the roads were clear and I was completely fresh. Almost zero fatigue. I started rolling and I built momentum and by mile ~70 I was killing it and I was going by everyone much faster than they were riding and catching literally hundreds of people and that motivated me like nothing else. By mile 80 sub9 was (sort of mine). Barring  a mechanical I was still feeling fresh and obliterating every climb. And sure enough, dropping off Powerline my chain came off and got 2 kinks in it that wrapped in to my derraileur. I jumped off, threw my bike down and removed the chain, untangled it (thinking I was losing my sub 9) and reinstalled it... less than 2 minutes baby!
 At mile 99 I was still completely fresh and still catching many riders. I finished 173rd I think in 8:37.

 And I stole this video from Brandon (who has a great spectator race report) of the race at mile 2. I go by at 4:33 in the green shorts and Brandon yells "LUCHO".

LT100 MTB 2011 - Start from Brandon Fuller on Vimeo.

31 comments:

Local Mind Media said...

Hell yeah! Someone tweeted you dnfd. Righteous my man!!!

Lucho said...

Thanks Tim! I'm super stoked. I rode crazy smart... almost like the 100 run but with no meltdown.

Damie said...

because you frickin' rock. incredible.

Local Mind Media said...

I'm so freaking happy for you! I was bummed out when I thought you dropped after all the work you put in. Really great news.

Lucho said...

Thanks Damie!

Tim- I started the race with some fierce demons (to say the least). I stayed 100% safe all day with zero chances and ridiculously perfect nutrition. I'm really happy that you're happy with my result!

beth said...

YEAH!! let me say that again. YEAH!!
Turns out the BOP seeding really was a clusterfuck. oh well, you'll have a better corral next year then :)
Congrats. Hope you're sporting the buckle tonight!

Brandon Fuller said...

WE ALL SAT HERE ON THE COMPUTER AND THE SITE SAID YOU DNF'D AT PIPELINE.

Son of a bitch! Now it reads correct. No clue man. So hard to find you out in that crowd anyway. What a crazy event!

Congrats on your finish. I was puzzled by the DNF so glad you actually rode what you wanted to!

Dave said...

Awesome! Congrats man! I'm impressed with the 2 min wrench time on the chain! Way to keep your cool. And dude, that was a BLAZING back half! Nice work, now go enjoy some cold beverages!

Lucho said...

Beth- I skipped the awards tomorrow to go to my wife's triathlon. No buckle for maybe a month or so.

Brandon- I was so bummed I didn't see you guys. I looked at every person too.

Thanks Dave! The 29er rocked.

James said...

Great Job!! With the everything in the last month, I can only imagine how this must feel! The lessons your boys have learned from you through this might end up being the most impressive.

Ward said...

Great ride T!! Any chance you'll be at Pikes next Sunday?

Rick said...

Great stuff Tim! My pre race prediction holds for next year now!

Lucho said...

Thanks James. I had a ton of fear at the start and nearly walked away a couple of times. I'm quite pleased I faced them.

Ward- My wife works so I have the boys. Not sure but that could be a pretty fun day trip!

Rick- Definitely, I'll roll it over!

GZ said...

Congrats. I am glad this worked out for you. Looking forward to seeing the buckle necklace.

Lucho said...

Thanks G! I'll definitely need to figure out how to wear both buckles on the same belt. Which would look both bad-ass and stupid.

Crotchrash said...

Congrats coach! I missed your time by 6 minutes! :-)

Anonymous said...

Congrats! Anything you would have done differently in the 1st 50 miles? What do you think your time would have been if you were properly seeded at the start?

mtnrunner2 said...

Fantastic! What a great finish.

And good you don't have any new lacerations or fractures :) Because it must get pretty crazy out there on course sometimes.

Michelle Simmons said...

Oh this is awesome!!! I also saw the DNF on the live updates and my heart sank thinking you were just going to be sick about that... but THIS is great and I'm stoked for you! Drinking a beer in celebration for you now. :))))

Lucho said...

N8- You may have won!

Anon- Good question. I doubt I could have done anything to lower my time. There was absolutely no way to pass and make time in the first ~10 miles. On Columbine Mine it was outright dangerous to pass with riders screaming down at us on a narrow double track trail. Getting out of line could have (literally) killed someone. So no, I think did the best with what I had to work with.
I think I lost maybe 30:00-40:00 total.

Mtnrunner- Yes! I was fairly concentrated on not taking any risks and hitting the ground. I'm still beat up from Silver Rush with a bad thumb/ palm and still some some lingering rib pain... another fall would have sucked. Thanks!

Mama- I'm drinking a lot more in celebration. Thanks for the toast, I'll do the same after Kona!

scott said...

When I saw you near the top of Sugarloaf you more than half-way back from leaders (estimate). My friend and I thought we missed seeing you go by...but then BAM there you were crankin' up steady. Then on the return up powerline I'd say you were at least 400 back from the leader and was good to see you take some jog steps up as you were near the top of the first big climb...you must have crushed the 3 smaller climbs to the top. Nice work out there!

-scott

Lucho said...

Thanks for the support out there! It's always awesome to hear your name called.

Steve said...

Lucho, Nice work getting the big buckle! Sorry you had a back of the pack start. Soild race.

FatDad said...

sweet job coach. i was holding my breath that something small didn't get in your head and start rattling around busting shit up in there. stoked that you locked it down killed it. congrats.
use the buckles to make a breastplate cause your a frickin warrior.

Dirty Running said...

Great job. Congratulations.

McDuff said...

The DNF confusion was the result of the way the website posted...all riders, even the leaders were listed as DNF until they finally crossed the line.

But what concerned me about Tim's splits was the listing of checkpoint 3, Twin Lakes Outbound twice about 2 hours apart with no other splits between. The final listings got that all sorted out and filled in for the other checkpoints! Apparently a lot of cell phone traffic was raising havoc with wireless reporting during the race.

Trigirlpink said...

That is so so awesome. nuff said.

J.P. Patrick said...

Untouchable at the Leadman series next year!! You know you're thinking about it! Great job, Tim!

Brad Poppele said...

Well done Tim!!! Very happy for you! Enjoy your down time.

Brett said...

I wonder if anybody behind you ever passed you? If not, that means you passed 1,377 of the 1,500 folks in front of you. That video is excellent, because it really shows how many dozen miles and hours it truly would take to work yourself past people.

runninggunner said...

Nice work Lucho! Glad to see you rocked it. Hope you enjoyed an IPA or Two after.