2016 LT100MTB Race Report, Part 0: Family Photos from Last Week

08.15.2016 | 6:37 am

A Note from Fatty About the “Choose How Fatty Rides Leadville” Fundraiser: I’m incredibly excited to announce that the “What Should Fatty’s Leadville Focus Be / Monster Vs Hammer” fundraiser was a massive success. Here’s how the results went:

So I changed my registration and rode my singlespeed as The Hammer’s domestique. When I begin the race report (tomorrow, probably — although I have a lot of day-job work to get caught up on today, so no promises), there’ll be a lot more about that.

What was more interesting was where the competition between The Monster and The Hammer wound up:

This wound up being an incredibly tight race. Although it should be known that it wasn’t an exact tie. Here’s what the chart looks like when I don’t have it round to the nearest percentage point:

With only one percentage point separating them, well, it couldn’t have been much closer.

And with a total of $4210 raised for NICA, this fundraiser won no matter how you look at the pie charts.

2016 LT100MTB Race Report, Part 1: Family Photos from Last Week

Over the next several blog posts, I’m going to tell the story of The Hammer’s and my Leadville 100 (and I’ll ask The Hammer and The Monster to write their own reports, too).

But before there was the race, there was a week of vacation. And before that, there was a week when I was in Ireland for my day job. So today, I’m just going to catch you up on some of that before jumping to the big drama at the starting line.

How will I catch you up on so much, in just one post? With a bunch of captioned photographs, of course. 

The Hammer and I wanted the twins to be able to participate in some of the rides before the race, so we surprised them with new Felt Surplus 70s. Just before I took off for Ireland, we showed them off to the Twins, and then The Monster was going to take them for a ride. I showed the girls how the big volume tires could take a hit by just riding straight up a curb without lifting a wheel. One of the girls followed my lead…and immediately got a pinch flat. The thing is, we had not spare tubes and I had to go to the airport right then. So The Hammer and The Monster got to learn how to change big 27.5+ tires in a trial by fire. To their credit, they got it done and the bikes haven’t had another flat since.

A newspaper from Ireland, to prove I was there.

I didn’t read this article, but am pretty sure I would have enjoyed it.

I got home from Ireland late at night, got some sleep, got up, and it was time to pack the truck. But since six of us were going (The Hammer, The Monster, The Programmer [formerly the IT Guy], The Twins, me) and The Hammer and I were each bringing two bikes (just to be safe), we needed to take two vehicles. Here’s my truck, loaded with about half our gear and 3/4 of our bikes. The Programmer’s truck held the balance of bikes and gear. Big families have a lot of stuff.

While walking around town in Leadville, I stopped in Melanzana, where I usually buy a beanie or hoodie. There, I saw Floyd Landis as he was leaving the building. I wanted to chase after him, but The Hammer stopped me, telling me to leave the man in peace. But I tweeted about seeing him, and he replied, telling me to swing by Periodic Brewing (Pb, get it?) and say hi. I did, and we wound up hanging out and having an incredibly interesting, heartfelt, honest, and fun conversation. 

A mural on the side of a building in Leadville. I’m not 100% sure I approve of where The Hammer’s got her hand. Nor the Monster’s for that matter.

The Hammer, The Monster, and I tended to coordinate outfits when we pre-rode sections of the race course, and over the first few days, we rode about 75% of it, so The Monster had a great idea of what she’d be experiencing. And we took a lot of photos, too. Here we are at the top of the Columbine Mine turnaround point. All smiles right now.

I’ve been to Leadville twenty times now, but this is the first time I’ve ever been on the awesome hiking trail right by the Fish Hatchery. Combining the race with a family vacation was an awesome idea.

Car and Couch strike heroic poses upon a rock of considerable size.

Posing behind the fish at the Fish Hatchery. Not an actual fish.

Skipping rocks at Turquoise Lake. As it turns out, kids will skip rocks for hours if you let them. Which we did.

We got to town right as a racer in the Leadville Boom Days Burro Race was finishing. I’d explain what a burro race is, but I really have no idea. Good for him, though.

One of the things I love about getting to Leadville a week before the race is the Boom Days street fair. And street fairs mean street food, which include bacon-wrapped sausage and fried turkey legs.

We visited Frisco (close to Leadville), bringing our bikes, because there’s a beautiful bike path alongside I70. Colorado is so beautiful. 

The Monster and Couch, taking a break during our ride.

We rode the Leadville train, which goes a whopping 5mph, for about eight miles. I stayed awake for the first half of the ride, but on the return trip took a little nap. It was glorious.

One of my favorite moments from the whole trip was when we rode the ziplines. Six of them, from the top of a mountain down to the highway. 

Car coming in for a landing.

Leadville has a great bike path loop — the Mineral Loop, I think it’s called — that goes around the town. Our friend Rohit was nice enough to join us and act as ride photographer, and now I’m pretty sure we’ve got our Christmas Card photo nailed.

Or maybe this should be our Christmas Card photo. 

Finally, of course we got a photo of us at the famous “We Love Leadville — Great Living at 10,200 Feet” sign that greets you as you enter the city. 

Honestly, I believe this was the best, most relaxing family vacation I’ve ever been on.

And then the race began. 

Which is where I’ll pick up in the next installment of this race report.