CONEJO VALLEY CYCLISTS

Your CVC Colorado correspondent was at the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race today, August 15. It’s 100 miles through a rugged Rocky Mountain course at altitudes between 10,000 and 12,000 feet.

Many of you will have read about it : Last year it was Lance’s first race since his retirement, and he used it to see if his body could still handle the tough stuff. In the 2008 race Armstrong hung with Dave Wiens (who already had won five times in a row before last year’s edition) for about 85 of the 100 miles, and eventually came second.

This year, full of Tour de France fitness, he came back to show who’s boss (probably was in his “unfinished business” file, like never winning on Mont Ventoux.)

Liz and I went out into the back country and caught the action at around 60 miles. At that point Lance was already about 11 minutes ahead of Wiens, and he had a steely “man on a mission” look on his face as he came past.

In the end Lance won in about 6.5 hours, approximately 30 minutes ahead of Wiens who came second.

Even though this time was a new course record by about 15 minutes, Lance had been talking to the local press about trying to beat 6 hours. The rainy 41-degree weather for the first hour of racing probably tossed that ambition out the window.

Last year was the first “Lance year,” and race organizers had five times as many visitors as ever before, even compared with the year Floyd Landis raced.

This year, it seemed that the numbers doubled over ’08. Out in the backcountry, where I watched in the same place as last year, there were at least 10 times the ’08 numbers. “Kah-ching” went the cash registers in Leadville. . .