My 2018 Leadville 100 Race Report
A Note from Fatty: As many of you know, I love writing race reports. As many of you also know, I have lately been investing a lot of energy into learning the craft of podcasting. So, this year — as part of my Leadville 100 Podcast series, my race report is in audio format. Which means, for the first time ever, you’ll get the entire story at once.
The training, the logistics, the stress, the excitement, and the actual racing are now all behind us…at least for this year.
Now it’s time for some storytelling. Listen to episode 13 of the Leadville 100 Podcast here:
(For those of you who like my cliffhangers, I have good news for you: a VERY long multi-parter about the Breck Epic I intend to write.)
In this episode, I tell Michael Hotten a little bit about my Breck Epic experience (it matters, because it determined what bike I rode in Leadville), as well as give a full-on blow-by-blow of my 21st Leadville 100.
We do away with our normal show structure for this episode — it’s a lot more like one of our bonus episodes, with a couple of friends talking about a race both of us love.
This is the last “regular” show of the season. Hottie and I want to thank our listeners for your kind feedback, and I definitely want to thank the dozens (really!) of you who — before, during, or after the race — mentioned enjoying the show. I’m really proud of what we created, and it’s awesome to have that work acknowledged. We also want to thank Rebecca Rusch and Jonathan Lee for their generosity with their time and insight.
If you have an amazing story that would make a great bonus episode, leave a comment with with the short version of it here.
Finally, a big thank-you to our sponsors, all of which took a big gamble on an experiment, and stuck with us through every episode:
The Feed, which fueled Fatty to and through this race, including getting me through a very tough spot at a critical moment.
Shimano, which gave both Fatty and his wife an utterly flawless, no-maintenance-needed, trouble-free shifting and braking for seven straight days of mountain bike racing. XT Di2 is so good it makes Fatty mist up.
ENVE Composites, for bombproof wheels, bars, and stems. Seven days of mountain bike racing on the M525 for both Fatty and his wife, with not a single pinch flat. Perfect, confident riding for the whole week for both of them.
Banjo Brothers, for sturdy, affordable, great-looking bags that do exactly what they should. Somewhere out there, there’s a rider who DIDN’T have a Banjo Brothers seat bag whose race didn’t end because Fatty does.
Comment by Tominalbany | 08.16.2018 | 6:45 am
Congrats on another Leadville finish, Fatty (and Lisa and Melisa) – especially after the Breck Epic! I’ve really enjoyed the podcast you and Hottie did.
Whatcha gonna do next year to top this?
Comment by Tominalbany | 08.16.2018 | 12:40 pm
Crested Butte, Fruita, Monarch Pass, etc. etc. etc.
The planning itself sounds like a blast!
Comment by Owen | 08.16.2018 | 1:22 pm
Great podcast Fatty. Why did you go away from Skratch Labs drink at Leadville? you got me going on their drink mix and I still use it with good results just wondering.
What a amazing week of riding and racing!
Yea no way you give out your CO2 adapter he can ask to use one when he needs it somebody will stop.
Comment by Corrine | 08.16.2018 | 8:02 pm
Or you could take 3-4 weeks and race the Tour Divide! If I can finish, you guys certainly can!
Comment by TimD | 08.18.2018 | 6:48 am
Cracking stuff. But why are you wearing a life jacket in that first pic?
Comment by Etienne VT | 08.21.2018 | 2:04 pm
Great Podcast episode (S1-E13)!
I am glad we saw each other during the LT100 MTB.
Question: Any race(s) and/or ride(s) in Europe for 2019 or 2020?
Comment by davidh-marin,ca | 08.22.2018 | 6:04 pm
No cliffhangers? How can this be?
For 2019 Maah Daah Hey. Join Sharon, Dave T, Rohit (don’t tell him, it’s a secret), and me.
I’ve got an amazing story from Italy…. (too soon?) Go ahead, hit me!
Comment by Adam | 08.23.2018 | 2:16 am
Just popped back in to your site and found you’re writing again and I’m stoked to have a couple of months of posts to catch up on!
Your race reports of Leadville and the Rockwell Relay in particular were always highly anticipated, both races definitely feature in my “bucket” list as a result of reading about them on your site.
Living where I do in the UK I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to do either, but here’s hoping!
Comment by Isaac | 08.27.2018 | 9:44 am
> For 2019 Maah Daah Hey.
I concur. Such a good race… And hard. Really, really hard. I have tried and failed twice to finish it. Turns out young kids and training time are sometimes at odds…
Comment by Annie Bilotta | 08.31.2018 | 1:17 pm
What about more podcasts with you and Hotty?!?!? I’m going to go into withdrawal if I can’t listen to you two and get inspired!
Comment by Scott | 09.4.2018 | 7:55 am
What happened to the Silver Rush race report? I’m still sitting on that cliff.