Lance Armstrong wins the 2009 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race

On August 15th, a small group of us left Frisco in the morning to glimpse the famous Leadville 100 mountain bike race.  This brutal race starts at 6:30am and has a twelve hour cut-off.  I believe there were 1,500 riders signed up, but a few hundred backed out.    From my research, I understood that most of the first 40 or so miles has been friendly, but after the Twin Lakes feed station, people put down the hammer to try to make time on the Columbine Mine climb;  we chose the base of the Columbine Mine climb as our spot.

As it turns out, we calculated the race correctly, and a lone rider came down the dirt path with incredible speed and began the climb. This fuzzy but telling video shows Lance Armstrong, in his LiveStrong helmet, as he powers away from the field and up to the base of the climb. He broke off from a speedy group of 8 some time after the 40 mile marker and he rode the rest of the race alone.

Three minutes after Lance started up the climb, a group containing Dave Wiens, the 44-year-old champ who has won this race 6 times in a row cruised by us and began their ascent.

By the time Lance passed us again, he had put 10 minutes into Wiens and eventually beat him by 7.  Lance broke the course record by 15 minutes and nursed his bike over the red carpet to the finish with a flat tire. 

 A team of bike enthusiasts encouraged riders up the climb. They were lively and loud.