The Leadville Trail 100 is an ultra endurance mountain biking event this Saturday August 15 in Leadville, Colorado. This year is a rematch. Dave Wiens has won the event for the last 6 years in a row. Last year he beat Lance Armstrong as they dueled it out. The two rode together for much of the race, but Wiens pulled away towards the end of the race to a decisive victory.
This year, Lance is in much better shape, coming off of his third place finish at the recent Tour de France. Many think he will handily beat Wiens this year. He is leaner, more fit, and he is bringing a team member or two to help him. He will be without his expected lieutenant though, since Levi Leipheimer broke his wrist and ended up dropping out of the TdF.
(Dave leads Lance up a climb during last year’s race.)
With so many people predicting an easy victory for Lance, we wanted to provide a different view. The following list is courtesy of UltraRob, an outdoorsman, racer, blogger, and mountain biker ( http://www.ultrarob.com/ ) .
Top Ten Reasons Dave Wiens Will Beat Lance Armstrong at the 2009 Leadville Trail 100
10.) Twin Lakes is going to have its annual Coloradoans vs Texans tomato war a couple weeks early. It won’t go well for Lance.
9.) Dave won’t crash in the creek crossing at the bottom of Powerline like Lance did in a Winter Park race in 1999.
8.) Dave is from Colorado and not a transplant from Texas
7.) Dave has figured out how to use the electricity on Powerline to climb faster.
6.) The Tour de France wasn’t a good way to train for the Leadville 100
5.) Rabid old school mountain bike fans will cause Lance to pass out from dope smoke clouds on Columbine. France will rejoice that Lance is caught ‘doping’
4.) Johann won’t be following in the team car to give Lance information over race radio
3.) No 3G reception up on the divide, Lance can’t Tweet like he can in Europe and panics.
2.) Dave is man enough to ride a hardtail
1.) Dave has more balls than Lance
Photo of the start from last year’s race. This year, there are over 1300 registered entrants. Rumor has it that the event organizers had to turn away about 4000 more (aka, the Lance effect).
Have an opposing view? Care to give us your predictions? Please comment below.
Mtbr.com will have event results, photos and write-ups forthcoming.
All photos copyright: Rob O’dea, as provided by Leadville P.R. LT100@leadvilletrail100.com
For more details about the event see: http://reviews.mtbr.com/blog/wiens-to-defend-leadville-trail-100-title-against-lance-armstrong-tinker-juarez-august-15/
Official Event website: http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/
Awright. That was actually pretty good.
Lance by 5 minutes!!! I’m taking bets.
The winner: fans. These two guys are going to push each other into another world of performance. I will be like the rematch scene at the end of Rocky II. Yeah, and Rocky wore black shorts with yellow trim. I think they even said LIVESTRONG somewhere on them. So I’ll take Lance in a bit of an upset (Wiens should be the favorite – it is HIS race), struggling across the finish in a daze trying to figure out where Talia Shire is. As far as reason #1 goes: come on – the guy did survive testicular cancer. Let’s leave his balls out of this.
My favorite is number five
I say let the best man win! This competition only elevates the exposure mountain biking can have on youth and people who know little about it. I’ve quit all other hobbies, my bike and a trail is all I have time for these days! Let’s see some new people out there….
Don’t hate on Lance for the comeback and don’t hate on Dave because he owns this race. Both are great riders and will push each other to do better. I thought this was an entertaining list…but the dig on testicular cancer was in poor taste. Having beat it twice, I pray you never have to endure it…you wouldn’t be so quick to show how clever you are.
Mad respect to both riders. I pray everyone who enters has a safe ride and pushes themselves as far as they can go! I wish I was able to be there….maybe soon
Grace and peace!
I fully expect Dave Weins to out perform his previous wins …especially with Lance coming out of the win at Snowmass…
Although it was mildly amusing, #1 was not in good taste. 7, 8, 9, and 10 were kinda lame. Here’s some better ones from the LT100 Yahoo mailing group.
While descending columbine, Lance gets a Tweet that Goldie Hawn and Melanie Griffin are having a celebrity cheese party and Lance promptly turns left and pedals back to Aspen.
Seeing the sign for “Twin Lakes”, Lance gets horrible Olsen sister flashbacks and is unable to continue.
Seeking Twitter supremacy, Ashton Kutcher and Shaquille O’Neal jump out of the bushes wearing inflatable Sumo outfits and belly-slam Lance.
Declaring “This Is My Damn Race!”, Ken releases the Turqoise Lake Dam just as Lance steps onto the plank at powerline.
I wouldn’t count out Travis Brown who has thrown his hat in the ring.
How do YOU KNOW Dave’s ball count? EH?
Ok first of all I agree, #1 was just bad…but in all fairness, they guy just had another kid ( after chemo and having only one ball) so really nobody has more balls than Lance.
DW is great, it is his turf, he is an amazing athlete…better than 99.9% of the population
But Lance is Lance and he just came off a major 3 week training camp where he rode alongside AC, the Schlecks, and the fastest sprinter in the world and more than held his own so my money is on LA.
>>I wouldn’t count out Travis Brown who has thrown his hat in the ring.
Travis cannot win. He has a full time job for a while now. He’s one hell of a nice guy btw.
Who are the other pros in this race??
go wiens!! so tired of the whole armstrong thing.
Travis couldn’t have won this race in his prime…he was a different type of rider, more explosive and great technically…now that he is a full timer he’s got no shot, plus that 69er is not the ideal ride for this race.
Besides DW and LA, there is:
Tinker Juarez
Travis Brown (late add)
Max Taam (Lance’s mate from the winning Snowmass team)
Jeremiah Bishop (registered but probably out due to injury)
Manuel Prado (Sho-Air-Specialized)
It’s always a crap shoot, but it’s looking more and more like weather will be a factor.
I wouldn’t count Travis out, he smoked everyone at Wiens’ race the Gunnison Growler. That race is a punisher, Lance should do that next spring!
As far as the race I imagine that the pace is going to be lightning fast and a dam exciting race. It will be who blows-up last that wins, sans mechanical.
I’m pulling for the hometown boy. GO WIENS!
There are no world-class pros here. Jeez, when someone has to explain to us who this guy is and that, it’s not really in the same stratosphere as Lance.
I know why Travis is a late addition to this race. He is there to help Lance get the course record. Lance really wants to crush the record and let it stand for the ages. So he needs the pace to be very high in the early going. And he doesn’t want to be in front setting it. So get some of his guys up there early then take off on the Columbine and go for gold!!!
What’s the record anyway?
Tinker all the way!!!!
Holy cow!….check out these photos of Travis Brown’s Leadville sled:
http://www.velonews.com/photo/96646
Drop bars and road triple on a 69er full sus. mountain bike. Funky, funky…
It’s almost over. Lance is absolutely killing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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# No SUB 6 hour record expected…did we fail to say that? We meant to. But yes, Lance will hammer the 6:45 mark into submission #LT1007 minutes ago from Seesmic
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Lance is approximately 8 miles out past St. Kevin’s #LT10014 minutes ago from Seesmic
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Race officials now projecting a 6:10 time for Armstrong. No record expected #LT10027 minutes ago from Seesmic
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Waiting at the finish. Word is Lance is due in here in about 20 mins from now. (via @chaincondom Thx Dave!) #LT10030 minutes ago from Seesmic
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Word from @steve_froth roving reporters Kurt, John & Jamie is that Lance cleaned the Powerline climb yet again this year. Rocking it. #LT10033 minutes ago from Seesmic
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Lance hasn’t passed the 12 mile to go marker, so revised stats put him in very close to the record time but slightly under #LT100about 1 hour ago from Seesmic
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Reports from the powerline climb are that Weins was pushing the bike. Last year, he and Lance cleaned the climb. #LT100about 1 hour ago from Seesmic
Uh…guess not.
Hey Gregg, this is an excellent top ten list. #1 is a low-blow, but also the funniest one. Too bad you were wrong. Anyone can post their own list to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.