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

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 storytelling skill, racing knowledge and riding wisdom to this episode. Don't miss it!

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 shop's story, and how he manages to take care of hundreds of anxious racers who all absolutely MUST have their bike working perfectly...by 6:30am the next morning.

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 miss Michael's amazing cautionary tale.

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 will be sure to result in amazing stories.

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 mend and on the mic...once again, answering our questions about plans and logistics for next years' lottery, starting line, and race logistics.  

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 wanted to talk with the guy whose job it is to look past the problems we’ve got right now, and start thinking about what will hopefully be a brighter 2021. If you're dreaming about a 2021 6th  & Harrison red carpet, this just may be the conversation you need.  

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 singlespeeders need to approach this race.  This episode may not convince you to RACE the LT100 on a singlespeed, but you may find yourself wanting to at least ride one!