By David Sims
Not only did he win the race, he set a new record finishing the last few miles of the 2009 Leadville Trail 100 on a flat rear tire. The second place winner, Dave Wiens, was approximately a half hour behind Lance. I will have more accurate details after the final webcast tonight at 6:30 mountain time.
The morning started threatening rain and making all participants and race coordinators very nervous but the weather decided to cooperate with broken clouds and a breeze. This race begins at 6:30 a.m. with a 12 hour cutoff. 1400 racers representing 47 states and 9 foreign countries were on the starting line bright and early ready to roll. The oldest rider as I understand it is a 74 year old man who has had double knee replacements. This man makes cry babies out of almost everyone. There were several teams on tandem bikes, almost unimaginable on a 100 mile race, much less in a mountain bike race.
The small town of Leadville, 2 hours southwest of Denver, almost due east of Aspen, hosted an estimated over 20,000 spectators for the race today. Dave Wiens, last year’s winner and the local favorite, draws almost as big a crowd as Lance because he is local and he has won this race every year from 2002 to 2008. And the man will be 45 years old in a couple weeks. During his post finish interview someone asked him how it felt to be that far behind the winner. Dave, as cool and calm as he usually seems on film commented, “He’s Lance Armstrong. He’s just off the Tour. Last year he was just off the couch.”
Popular mountain bike racer Tinker Juarez was unfortunately taken out of the race early by a mechanical failure , his seat post clamp broke, near the Pipeline Aid Station. But Tinker will be back and when asked what he would do differently next year replied simply, “I’ll have a seat clamp in my pocket…”
Third place and beyond will be posted tonight as soon as they are available.
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