Lance Armstrong, 2nd at the 2008 Leadville 100
The 7 time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, placed 2nd in one of the most grueling mountain bike race. The Leadville 100 which took place earlier this month showcased a head to head battle between Armstrong and the 5 time Leadville 100 winner, Dave Weins. (in 2007 Weins also took 1st place beating ex-Tour de France winner Floyd Landis)
I say grueling because this is a 100 mile race (50 miles out and back). Brief description of the ride – the race starts at 10,200’, 90 percent dirt. There are steep climbs which becomes steep descents… There is a seven mile climb to the 50 mile marker at 12600 ft (approx 14,000 ft elevation gain).
Lance Armstrong on the heels of Dave Weins.
Click on this link where you can see pictures and video of the race. You’ll see the head to head racing between Armstrong and Weins. Back and forth they battled for the lead. One climb appeared steep for the two where they dismounted their bikes and walked up the hill. On the last dirt run, Lance had no more and Dave Weins broke away finishing by two minutes.
Local racer Manuel Prado of Lake Forest took third place.
Finishing times for the top three were:
1. Dave Weins 6:45:45
2. Lance Armstrong 6:47:41
3. Manuel Prado 7:20:52
Look for Lance Armstrong to return in 2009!
You can’t really say that Floyd Landis is the ex-tour winner since he was disqualified. Techinacally Floyd is not a tour winner.
So that is what Floyd is doing now, racing mountain bikes. Interesting.
I heard that Rock Racing was going to pursue Flyod to be part of the team.
Tornadoes28 – yup you are right about Floyd Landis, he was never an ex-TdF winner. I wanted to mention his doping but forgot all about it. Go Lance!!!
does anyone know what bikes they were riding? can’t tell from the pictures
It was a Trek, of course…a Top Fuel 9.9:
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/lance-armstrongs-leadville-weapon-17885
Do you think next year Lance will win this event?
http://www.PinoyMTBiker.Org – Philippines’ Mountain Biking Community
I drove out to Leadville and watched the race. It was pretty exciting to see them riding together and then later see Dave come in so much ahead of Lance at the finish!
The conceited roadies slam alleycat racers, although which type of people are at the top of your “professional” competition? Cheaters who do way worse shit than what we would do. Alleycats cheat by grabbing onto a car. When I was racing in cat 2 in pro-am events I saw riders take steroids and do anything to win.