Levi Leipheimer took a break from his road bike today and notched up a win in Colorado’s Leadville 100 mountain bike race, crossing the line with close to nine minutes in hand over second place Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski. Todd Wells rounded out the podium in third place, with six-time victor Dave Weins finishing the day in fourth.
"This is ridiculously hard," Leipheimer told the Associated Press after his win. "It's hard to describe the pain and torture that you go through on a ride like that.
"It's not what I'm used to. It's like a six-hour time trial. There's no sitting in. There's no draft... I just couldn't wait for it to be over."
Armstrong's spokesman Mark Higgins told AP last year's winner was skipping the event for two reasons. He wanted to recover from a hip injury sustained at the Tour de France, and also wanted to spend some time with his kids before the school year started.
"It would have been great to have him here because he would have been in the mix," Leipheimer admitted. "It would have hurt that much more, though."
Leipheimer scorched the course besting the previous record set last year by teammate and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. His time was more than 12 minutes ahead of Armstrong's 6:28:30 effort from last year, raising the bar to 6:16:37.
The Leadville 100 is a 50-mile out and back course situated in the Colorado Rockies. Its low point is at a lofty 9,200 feet, with the high point being Hope Pass at 12,600 feet. Most of the course is comprised of forest trails, with some mountain roads mixed in for the grueling, high altitude test.