Leave it to the guy who's never competed on a mountain bike before to win one of the premier off-road bike races in the U.S.
Levi Leipheimer won the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race on Saturday, setting a new course record in the process. His RadioShack teammate and defending champion, Lance Armstrong, didn't race due to injuries sufferd in the Tour de France.
Listening to his comments after the race, it sounds like the 36-year-old left it all out on the 100-mile Rocky Mountain route that ranges between 9,000 and 13,000 feet.
“Twenty miles to go, I didn't care if I was an hour behind or a half an hour ahead, I just wanted to get it done …. It was just torturous.”
Leipheimer finished in 6 hours, 16 minutes, 37 seconds. That's about 12 minutes faster than last year record-breaking ride by Armstrong.
Leipheimer rode in the front of the race most of the day; he credited competitors like Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (finishing second) for pressuring him to keep up a strong pace and set the record.
Growing up, Leipheimer was a competitive skier in his home state of Montana. He switched to road cycling and led several teams at the Tour de France. He now lives in Santa Rosa, California, and has won three Tours of California.
Hall of Fame mountain cyclist Dave Wiens finished in 4th place. The 46-year-old won the grueling race 6 straight times from 2003 to 2008 before succumbing to Armstrong last year, when he finished in 2nd place.
Finishing 3rd was Todd Wells.
Singletrack.com has video and text from Saturday's race. Also see the Leadville 100 page on Facebook. And UltraRob paused in the race long enough to take some photos.
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