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.