When I woke up in a rain soaked tent at the beginning of the Columbine climb at the Leadville 100 the morning of the race, there was an incredible storm brewing just to the west. The race had just started at 6:30 am and it was butt ass cold. There was a dusting of snow on the peaks surrounding Leadville that morning, and 40 miles into the race the real storm was wreaking havoc on the entire field, a storm by the name of Lance Armstrong. I was fortunate enough to have ridden up to the spot on the Columbine climb where Lance began his move. I rode up in my WINTER parka in a miserably cold rain deluge. When Lance appeared suddenly in solo attack mode, it was clear that this race was already over. When Dave Wiens followed in second place, he was already waving the white flag as he sarcastically chuckled when I mentioned he was chasing down Lance Armstrong which made it clear that at this point he was racing for second place, and this just 45 miles in. Lance had put three and half minutes into Wiens in just five miles of climbing, and by the time they came back down from the plateau just fifteen miles later, the lead on my watch was 16 minutes, the king of the 100 had been crushed by a Tour legend. Wiens rode strong to second place, but Armstrong's performance from mile marker 40 to 60 was devastating. I'll complete this post later this eve....more vij and pics to come from Leadville and the Rage in the Sage 24 Hour race. Crazy weekend!Wiens chuckles at the thought of actually chasing Armstrong, then it's Shriver who was the lead out for Lance, Grant, who says "man he is going fast" at mention fo the four minute gap, and Lance's 12 Hours of Snowmass partner Zanni.
Travis Brown (Squirt Lube and Trek athlete) comes by in sixth place and gives Squirt the call out, "my drivetrain's like butter" 45 miles into the rain soaked mudfest at the Leadville 100.
Lance descending off of Columbine, now with at least 15 minutes on Wiens. This descent is on one of the most bizarre course layouts I've ever seen in a race, with 1300 riders coming UP the hill while Lance is flying DOWN the hill, fast. The road was muddy and riders climbing were three abreast in places. VERY dangerous descending.
This was not the only storm brewing at 7am on Saturday morning in Leadville, Lance Armstrong was the other.
The climb up Columbine was contested in very difficult conditions 
The morning of, with monster storm rollin in.
1300 Racers tackled the Columbine climb in very variable weather conditions...
Pardon the shit camera work when I saw this bear cub climb a tree while driving to Leadville...
Special guest appearance by Mario C. Senior
And of course a Lance souvenir from his first Leadville 100 victory, this got tossed right after the vijeo I shot of Lance as he went by, notice the "X" on top of the bottle, must be some triple top secret stuff in there.
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