Lava Tours in Costa Rica

For the second year in a row Lava Tours participated in the epic Leadville 100 MTB race. This year we took part with a team of 5 racers and one support staff.

Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Ken and Merilee who as usual welcomed our participation with open arms as well as all the volunteers who make this race possible every year.

Some of us arrived in Colorado 10 days before the event in order to acclimate and do some work as well visiting bike shops and friends of the company.

On Tuesday before the race we did some route marking on Half Moon Rd. and also on the paved section between Hagerman’s and Carter Summit. It was easy work and we were glad to help out a bit.

By Thursday before the event the entire Lava Tours team was in Leadville assembling bikes and getting the final preparations ready for the race. We were all very excited and looking forward to a great start Saturday at 6:30 a.m.

Friday morning we all attended the packed pre-race meeting where Ken usually delivers his motivational speech. This year, however, Lifetime Fitness’ own Bahram Akradi also took part of the conference as his company recently purchased the event and will be running it from 2011 onwards. Needless to say, it was a great preface to such an awesome race.

Our group also had the pleasure to have lunch with John Hill, LT100´s Medical Director. He is both an LT100 biker AND runner and offered a lot of insight and advice that ended up helping us immensely during the race.

We also got to chill with California-based pro Pua Sawicki. She was not going to race Leadville but was there hanging out with the crowd and crewing for Grace Jones, a buddy of ours from last year's race.

Later on Friday we opted to skip the official LT100 pasta dinner and instead attended Carmichael Training System’s  (CTS) LT100 dinner out in a picnic field not far from downtown Leadville. CTS had over 120 people at Leadville between athletes and staff and it was great hanging out with them all, including our good friends Koop, Adam and the big guy himself. They will soon be in Costa Rica for a training camp organized by yours truly.

On race day we all woke up at 3:30 a.m., by 4:15 a.m. had had a delicious breakfast at the Leadville Hostel and by 5:15 a.m. had our bikes at the start in downtown Leadville. One member of the group (yours truly) was lucky enough to be allowed to start in front of the starting line in the pen for VIPs, Pros and top 100 finisher in last year’s event. This meant no pushing and shoving and riding in front of the pack while the race rode controlled through Leadville and towards St. Kevin’s.

Once Ken fired that shotgun we all sprinted downhill feeling the cold mountain air chill our fingers and toes. This year, however, it did not rain on us and pretty much the entire field was able to make it up and down Columbine Mine in full sunshine and without a drop of rain. This, in part, accounted for Levi’s new course record.

 Our team had mixed results. While all of us enjoyed the experience and would do it all over again, only three our of five finished under 12 hours, one finished under 13 hours and one DNF’d. Next year, however, we are going for under 9 hours!

See you there!