Saturday, August 11, 2007

LEADVILLE!


Landis and Dave Wiens chatting at the start of the 2007 Leadville 100. Wiens wins when Landis flats; both beat the old record. (photo: UltraRob)


LEADVILLE!

Phone reports say: Wiens breaks 7 hours in 6:58; Landis 2nd after a crash and flat, also breaks old record.

Rollout, Wiens immediately behind the left bumper, Landis just behind and right of him. (Photo: McCusker)

The official site has a timing/scoring page that is starting to get information.

Checking out the Raspberry early on. No scab yet! The bionic hip looks to have been tested as well as the knee. (Photo: McCusker)

At Pipeline pass going out, it's a group of five.

20 mile lead group (Photo: McCusker)

10001Dave WiensM408:15:00/001:45:00
20569Mike KloserM408:15:00/001:45:00
30795Bryson PerryM208:15:00/001:45:00
41218Max TaamM208:15:00/001:45:00
51220Floyd LandisM308:15:00/001:45:00

Wiens leads Max Taam (Photo: Ultra Rob)

At Columbine Mine, the turnaround, there's a group of three:

10001Dave WiensM410:08:00/003:38:00

20569Mike KloserM410:08:00/003:38:00

31220Floyd LandisM310:08:00/003:38:00

41218Max TaamM210:17:00/003:47:00

50004Mike HoganM410:24:00/003:54:00

60016Thomas DooleyM410:24:00/003:54:00

70007Ryan HamiltonM310:25:00/003:55:00

81223Thane WrightM410:25:00/003:55:00

90002Jake RubeltM310:26:00/003:56:00

Game face very on. (Photo: Ultra Rob)

At the Pipeline, the last station for a timecheck, it's down to Floyd and Dave:

10001Dave WiensM411:25:00/004:55:00

21220Floyd LandisM311:25:00/004:55:00

30569Mike KloserM411:30:00/005:00:00

41218Max TaamM211:38:00/005:08:00

50004Mike HoganM411:46:00/005:16:00

60016Thomas DooleyM411:47:00/005:17:00

70007Ryan HamiltonM311:49:00/005:19:00

81223Thane WrightM411:49:00/005:19:00

90002Jake RubeltM311:54:00/005:24:00

This is 5:00 faster than Wien's winning time last year to Pipeline two. Wiens is a four-time (in a row) Leadville winner - an old bio can be found in this MTB hall-of-fame nomination.

We got a phone call saying Landis went down after missing an obstacle because of sun, caught up to Wiens, then flatted and finished a couple of minutes behind, both breaking the old record. Great for Wiens, who was pressed hard, and a good outing for Landis, who was said to be pretty happy about it.

10001Dave WiensM413:28:46/006:58:46
21220Floyd LandisM313:30:30/007:00:30
30569Mike KloserM413:40:23/007:10:23
41218Max TaamM214:01:27/007:31:27
50002Jake RubeltM314:04:51/007:34:51
61223Thane WrightM414:07:02/007:37:02
70004Mike HoganM414:07:42/007:37:42
80007Ryan HamiltonM314:12:16/007:42:16

Landis rolls in 2nd. The scab is now good and formed.


The bike is a BMC, and looks to be a Fourstroke FS02 in polished aluminum, with a Fox suspension fork, disk brakes front and back. He said at one point he'd use a hard tail, but apparantly he's turned wimp. From one of Ultra Rob's pix, it's clear Landis has the full-suspension, and Wiens a hardtail. Landis has one bottle, Wiens two. That must have been the difference.

Fatty Dug crashed and abandoned. He is not worthy. He shows a picture of a section of Powerline/Pipeline with folks walking up, saying "it really is that steep".

Fatty says, "And they all have gears"
(Photo: Fatty)

Aside from training, another reason Landis may not have been answering his iPhone lately is that AT&T wireless had been down in Leadville, with a bunch of fumphering from the spokespeople. Supposedly now fixed.

Glendora Mtn Road is a good place to go, and UltraRob has great pictures from pre-start Leadville as well. Here's a pre-race sighting from GMR:

Pre-start. Looks chilly, but the kid is happy! (Photo: McCusker)

Startline report, and a 20 mile update has Landis in lead group of 5 at the 20 mile mark, sporting a bloody raspberry.

Ultra Rob a does a quick post-race report with some more great pictures.

AP story has quotes; see the Roundup; Velonews mixmasters AP.

5-Iron
thinks that if Floyd can do so well at Leadville on a "bum hip" then he, 5-iron, should get off his duff and get going. Good plan. TBV has a 75 mile ride planned for Sunday, "flat" with only 5000' feet of climbing.

Biking Bis
reports on Floyd Landis bloodied but second at Leadville today, and gives us a plug.

DrunkCyclist has a stand-in gives a quick-n-dirty report, waiting for the D-man to recover enough to take the keyboard himself.


GMR, it doesn't hurt to ask. We got credentialed for the hearing! Thanks for the reports and pix.


4 comments:

5-iron said...

Thanks so much for the Leadville coverage. Isn't it great to see Floyd on a bike and racing? Makes me eager to see him tear up the Alps and Pyrenees next July.

Jeff Abernathy said...

Great coverage, TBV: thanks. Anyone have details on what steed Landis is riding in those mountains? --JA

cat2bike said...

Thanks TBV, for the great coverage and pics! It's great to have the contributers! I'm so proud of Floyd; He did great!!! And so did the guy who finished first...:)

JAM said...

Random trivia question: Wiens is a common Mennonite last name; does anyone know if Dave also has Mennonite background? I couldn't find anything readily accessible with a Google search.