Leadville, The 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Podcast p/b Shimano

There are a few pro cyclists revered as iconic Leadville 100 MTB Racers. For our money, Todd Wells belongs alongside Rebecca Rusch and Dave Wiens on the Leadvillian racer equivalent of Mount Rushmore. (Who else belongs? We ask him.) Self-effacing in victory and gracious in defeat, Todd has great stories to tell both from the front AND the middle of the pack. Don't miss this episode!

In just a few weeks, Jeff Leenhouts is going for his 25th finish at the Leadville Trail 100. And despite a rather...unique...approach to training and fueling, Jeff has an amazingly consistent record at the Race Across the Sky.  If you're looking for great stories from a guy who loves this race and the people who race it, look no further. You're going to love this episode.  

If you're looking for inspiration, this is the episode for you. Roxanne Hall — a Leadville local, businesswoman, athlete, and artist — has finished the Leadville 100 more times than any other woman...in spite of chronic pain from a terrible crash years ago. In this episode, Roxanne shares amazing stories, motivation, and practical advice based on her decades of racing experience in Leadville and a...

Leadville is a legendary place to most of us, so what does it mean to be one of the local legends there? Marvin Sandoval would know.  He's consistently a sub-nine-hour finisher of the LT100, has raced the Leadman nine times and has won the series twice. Along the way he's collected a lot of great stories and valuable information for anyone who races the Leadville 100. Enjoy!

In endurance racing, little improvements can add up to big differences. That's why we have Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling as our guest. He runs an entire testing center dedicated to chains and lubrication. We asked Adam to focus on the conditions we see in the Leadville Trail 100 and how we can save valuable time with some smart drivetrain choices.

Earl Walker knows how to get around on two wheels. He's been a pro downhill mountain biker. He's completed the Leadville ten times.  And if you've raced the Leadville 100 in the past nine or so years, you've no doubt noticed him at some point in the race. That's because Earl is riding the moto, out in front of the lead racers. From there, he has the best seat in the house of the race, and he's got...

Heath Speckman is a Leadville State Trooper, an Air Force Veteran, and a one-time MMA fighter. And those are the things we hardly even touch on in this episode. Because Heath is also the guy who Everested by riding up and down Columbine over and over. And Heath is the guy who rode the Leadville course every week for 8 weeks last summer. And in short, Heath is the nicest guy who will ever tear your...

You may know Peter Stetina from his World Tour days. Or you may know him from his fourth-place finish in the 2019 Leadville 100. But we connected with him because we heard he had a great story to tell about his very recent attempt to set a new record on the 142-mile Kokopelli Trail (Moab-Loma). It's a great story on its own merits, but a ride of this distance for a pro like Pete is also hyper-rele...

We're joined by the host of the popular Youtube channel Hardtail Party for this episode. Steve has a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of hardtails as your everyday ride than just about anyone, and has some extraordinary recommendations on how to select your next bike (but you may be surprised what he recommends for a Leadville racer). Enjoy this episode with an incredibly smart guy with a...

John Croom has NOT raced the Leadville 100. Yet. But that's about all he has not done. He's on Team USA for track cycling, was an Olympic hopeful, and holds the national record in track cycling's team pursuit competition.  And now — like the rest of us — he's getting ready to race the Leadville 100. Unlike most of us, however, he does not own a mountain bike. Somehow, we don't think that's going t...

This episode is an answer to a question many racers have asked a number of times: is the Leadville 100 actually a great GRAVEL bike course? Well, we found a guy who — along with a few friends — has taken this question way beyond the "thought experiment" stage. Stephen Fitzgerald of Boulder Colorado — owner of Rodeo Adventure Labs, a small bike company with some VERY capable gravel racing bikes — s...

Selene Yeager is a top-selling professional health and fitness writer, trainer, coach, and podcaster. She's been a regular contributor to Bicycling Magazine since 1998 and is currently hosting Hit Play Not Pause, a Feisty Menopause podcast for performance-minded women. She's ALSO been on the Leadville podium, twice: once in the Leadville 100, and once in the stage race.  Selene brings a TON of sto...

When — not if — you need work done on your bike in Leadville, you'll definitely want to go into Cycles of Life. And maybe you'll want to go in even sooner, because it's simply a great bike shop with a terrific vibe...and they take care of you like you're a local.  In this episode, Hottie and Fatty talk with Brian Feddema, founder, owner, and head mechanic of Cycles of Life, to hear his story, his...

Michael Iddings is one of very few people to have completed the Leadville 100 more than twenty times. But as his power and max HR plummeted, his frustration grew: his doctors weren't taking his concerns seriously.  And, as it turns out, those concerns needed to be taken VERY seriously.  Season 4 of the Leadville Podcast is all about stories, and we're starting with a bang. You will not want to mis...

Season 4 of the Leadville Podcast will center around the amazing stories this race brings, and that dovetails nicely with the intriguing "From the Ground Up" contest pro cyclists Ryan Petry and Alexey Vermeulen have dreamed up: Choose three people new to mountain biking and give them (almost) everything they need to race the Leadville 100. We talk about the why, what and how of this contest that w...

Our first guest this season was Michelle Duffy, Associate Marketing Director at Life Time, talking about the LT100 2020 registration challenges. Little did she (or we!) know that by the time we talked again, that would be the smallest challenge the team (and she personally) would have dealt with. We're happy to have the 2020 season behind us, to be looking forward to 2021, with Michelle on the men...

Kimo Seymour — President of events and media at Life Time, not only has  his thousand-mile buckle, he's finished the Leadville 100 UNDER eight hours every time he's raced. In other words, we could learn a thing or two about this race from this guy. But we didn't bring Kimo on to talk about the course or race day tactics (at least not this time). It's been a bad year, simply put, for racers, and we...

There are exactly TWO people who have done the Leadville 100 every single time it's been held. John Callahan is of course one of those two, and TODD MURRAY is the other...and we've got a full hour with him. There's literally nobody with more experience with this race, and it was an amazing honor to swap stories with him for an hour.

Brian McCulloch is a good coah -- he'll assess your fitness, help you set goals, and put together a plan. But Brian also brings something exceptional to the coaching table: remarkably infectious enthusiasm. Brian has boatloads of energy, and boy do we need that now. So get ready for some training focus reload and some great stories too.   

Last Tuesday, Fatty and Lisa went to Leadville, checked into their AirBnB, went to bed, and then got up and rode the Leadville 100 course — with a stowed ice chest as their sole support. It was a hard day. A slow day. A day of re-learning some very important things about the Leadville 100.

Have you ever seen a racer on a Singlespeed at the Leadville 100 and wondered, "Why would someone do THAT?" Well, this is the episode that tries to answer that question. Fatty has raced on a singlespeed for six of his 22 finishes — even winning the category once.  Fatty's built (and will talk at length about) the singlespeed of his dreams for the 2021 race, and details out differences in how singl...

Let's just say right up front that this interview is one of the single most fun conversations we've ever had in the Leadville show. Whether it's podcasting, endurance racing, or absolutely crushing the CX field on a singlespeed, Sarah brings amazing energy and join to what she does. And the fact that she is an incredibly accomplished racer and a Leadville contentder means you'll be able to learn w...

In our first bonus episode of the season, Fatty and Hottie talk with Rebecca Rusch — The Queen of Pain — about the RPI Challenge, a reimagining of the Rebecca's Private Idaho race. Learn what it is, how it's different from any other virtual event (that we know of), and why Hottie and Fatty are excited to be signed up and ready to train and race with a 7x World Champion.

This is the 3rd in our series on "Owning it, the dumbest mistakes we've made in a race." We're excited to have YURI HAUSWALD, ALISON TETRICK, and Fatty share their honest, funny, and occasionally serious helpful insights based on big mistakes they've made. Plus we have a few favorite listener-submitted mistakes to discuss. Enjoy this can't-miss episode!

Frank Matson is a Leadville 100 racer and the visionary film producer behind the Race Across the Sky movies. If you've ever raced (or hope to someday race) the Leadville 100, you've almost certainly seen one or both these beautiful and inspiring films. In this episode, Hottie and Fatty sit down with Frank to celebrate these independent films, made about at race we love. Learn about why they were m...