Leadville Trail 100 2019 – EF Gone Racing

I can tell you what to do I paired that Chuck Ken will start to race you put your nose on the handlebars and you start pedaling and you keep pedaling until merrily tells you to quit that'll be the finish line remember the key word is let felt and going to get stuff you remember Leadville anything more is not necessary anything less is not acceptable [Music] as that is bright so level 100 this is 100 miles it's very challenging you go up Columbine and power line both are very challenging I think I don't know where Columbine top side I want to say it's like almost 13,000 feet but it's just madness and it's very challenging very challenging it's challenging [Music] run started 37 years ago the bike race 26 so the run started at a time of severe economic depression here in our community went to work one swing shift 1982 the phone rings and it was my informant they said when all the shift bosses come up come up the main office we're gonna have a meeting go home we're closing in my period what am I gonna tell mama and the baby boy that your bad ass hard rock mine and daddy doesn't have a job anymore it was three thousand two hundred and fifty people out of a job overnight this town was immediately immediately the highest unemployment in the entire nation and everything that comes with that spouse abuse drug abuse alcohol abuse child abuse we saw all the abuses and we knew the Calvary wasn't coming I came up with this one hundred mile round because I knew 100 miles I go stay overnight and spend that money and it that was the that was the fountain that still flowing today it's so cool it like they've been able to make it that's just make it work but like grow it and people just love doing it you really can't bring it back and so you have to have this personal governor and I always tell people here is like you might train with power and Hartree and all those things but but you need to train with perceived exertion here because all your numbers are off you know and a lot of people they do end up digging themselves a hole in the first few hours of the race and pay for it later seven hours of just nodding yourself like it hasn't fake lukkage Wow you can't play down the effective altitude you like it's so high you can't really comment on I mean yeah I'm gonna be honest with you if I was just looking for pure pleasure I would just go do a gondola laps at a ski resort in the summertime I'm like a downhill mountain bike just doing flow trails like there's something to be said about just grinding grinding something out I think it allows a lot of people who are going back to work on Monday to just be like like yeah can handle this like if I can do that I can handle this it's like so much more rewarding because now feels like Isis struggling with like what the purpose of being a professional bike rider was because it's like very selfish and you're just trying to get out of the sport like what you can't for you you know and then now I feel like like I can see the connection that like people having and like people telling me that like what we're doing is like motivating them to get back out on that bike or like okay go try something new all of a sudden I'm like I like gives me like purpose 7 that makes me so much happier than what I'm doing this is the coveted Leadville 100 mountain bike finishers belt buckle you got to go under nine hours I believe to get the big dog this is the big dog I did Leadville in 2016 and I can say from experience if you show up to a rodeo with this on people assume that you you know how to crush a bronc there's a reason why we're doing this stuff and that's cuz we want to learn and we want to like get out there and like play other games and see what what all aspects of cycling are all about you know honestly the people that are there coming here that they're coming because they loved her either and that's the bottom line and they want to ride their bike in a cool place and so whether they come from a pro road team or they race fat bikes in the winter or they've never ridden before whatever it is Aurel coming for the same reason you have to go in with a bit of just like fitting into the community is really all that it is the bottom line is people love to ride their bikes and they want to go fast and have a good time like the biggest bill buckle you'll ever see yeah I'm super stuck going up with Alex again one of the biggest highlights of my year was like watching him in the u.s. title it was like the night after I got back from JV Jiro's I should have been sleeping but instead of stayed up to like 1 a.m. - what you mean and there was like yes and so he's just gonna be like happy as a clam and happy alex is like the best so I got a new shirt it's pretty fancy I'm pretty into it and really it's what's behind the Jersey you know the whole story of just being the champion of America it's pretty awesome I always thought like I know I'll get it I'll get it eventually I'll get it and then after five years of saying that I was like man I'm never gonna get that Jersey and then this year I was like you know what this you go get that Jersey I'm excited to hear about Locke he's like what the hell he's been doing doing TV jira and then like now a month on I can say it's changing the way like I ride my bike I feel like I can take Milan I feel more confident and let like if you follow your passions even if like if you do it for the right reasons and it's not whatever I'm really think you should do like good things still coming out of it I love it to have this alternative program is kind of an excuse it's like no guys I gotta try this bike out so don't crash it's a it's a beautiful excuse yeah I'm out everybody I just my back just seized up after traveling and racing for the first time in a couple months and sometimes you gotta just listen to the body and I'm honestly not in that much pain I just and it just doesn't want me to move I'll do it sometime or not you know [Applause] [Applause] and it's all his familiar faces welcome home so I'm gonna speak to you a little bit and mining terms you're in some pretty badass mining country they know how to dig deep you know how to dig deep inside each and every one of you is an inexhaustible wealth through a grit gut and determination and to access that all you gotta do is believe you got it deep deep and it's gonna hurt when it hurts when those logs are done when your head can't go anymore I want you to take that pedal stroke and turn it to two if you do that before you know it you're going to be firing that bike up that red carpet your sons and daughters are going to tear out after you your brother's your sisters your mother's or Father's or never gonna experience more proud moment of you and you're gonna go home and everybody's gonna look at you you've sacrificed from this job you're finally back they're not looking they're gonna ask you one thing did you finish I was expecting like the boring Ryder meeting it was just a there's a huge pep talk me and Lachlan were joking that manless we should start riot like he feels they're right are we gonna go like gather know lots of the Empire or what are we doing we're going home woke up at 3:30 made some huevos not as many takers on the way of us as I was hoping but still made them I think Taylor in that racing was probably a net game because he cooked eggs in the morning that's a real teammate I was really happy honestly wake up in the morning just help out and just be a part of it hey Bob mail and then all of a sudden that was like but Alex and I sitting in the back of the van and this I hatred spice it's just so the two of us like on the way and it's like well here we go it was super doc the scrape was gonna be it was gonna be a party day my folks are up there wife and the dog there's something about having a dog and it's very calming because you like well it doesn't matter what happens today like I could ride like five minutes down the road and have a catastrophic mechanical and come back at least I will love me on the other side remember your promise dig deep and I commit I won't clear [Music] I'm an old sock okay in 10 seconds like [Applause] let's can shut that noble barrel office you're pretty quick what the hell you're out there to do you have like a quite a big road section to start the race and everyone sort of like just laying around nobody wanted to show their cards and then lock no more and of course sins it turns a turns the screws I'm always like you know I'm not gonna it's gonna light back white like let the rice like come to me we hit the first climb and I was like yeah let's go for this is only like 20 miles in house I hate kids hey what this what are we doing yeah I think we came with the top of that with four or five of us it's just like nothing with 100 miles I go down on 80 miles to go or something like I just had this huge smile on my face and we're both sad like yelling at each other and we just like rip this downhill it also know it's just like yes this is what I'm people that's right yeah rode together until the base of Columbine there and then Baca Martin being Locke Lamora again hits it at the bottom of that he was saying he was trying to like psyche some guys out but I think he psyched me out more than anybody Hey well everyone's waiting for who's gonna do it you know so it's like like the race is gonna start at some point so I always like to I don't know it's nicer if it's on your terms you know what I mean so I'm sure there's like a few grounds for sure [Music] it's got its weird that altitude though because you can't you can't really like sustain any sort of attack like that I have this like there's like a magic invisible line that I've always had and I always forget that I have like I always think I'm going great but then I hit 12,000 feet and just the last three K you sort of really ramped up and it's rocky and it's so like single line and that's where Alex came off that's where I noticed the on the the steep of technical stuff the mountain bike guys definitely had something I didn't just sprinting up this little section like why and then all of a sudden it was like oh wait now they're like 20 meters away and I just slowly grind back but yeah that hurt watch those guys slowly crawl away and then I'm gonna go ahead and say I waited for the guys behind me I didn't I didn't he's not barking there's something to it like this is this is a good fun this is good old-fashioned fun [Applause] let feels a very unique course in that it's just a mountain back except for one small section in the end so everyone starts together and then it all splits apart and then you do a u-turn and then you see every single other person that you started with like all the way back you all of a sudden you realize how long does like a lot of the days are gonna be for those people you see like you think back to you like wait I was bad you know that feels like a lifetime we go you know like she had again names and she come down which is really cool because they're sort of like watching the race unfold but they are Pato I was down and out I had missed a couple feeds not seeing straight spike to bottles was like watching him on the rollaway on the ground like oh no I'm thinking I should probably turn around to go get this and then I see my wife out there and she's just like this power pose just like like almost putting this bottle like like if she could have taken a liquid out of it and put it in my stomach she would have this is like oh not gonna miss that one and there's just like this connection is like oh there you go they were out there we hit power line that final client its I was like okay what have I gonna play this what's my move I'm just gonna set tempo from the bottom I was like I'm gonna go at like what I think I can do and maybe it'll be strong enough that will throw him that he actually thinks I got more in the tank without that you know that that's that's my move and we all just hit this wall and just like it was like a crappy 1980s computer game where we're just like oh that's a card like I got the wheel and it was like you got out of the seat and like did that on one little steep section like that little acceleration just to like hold speed and I couldn't do it and then I was like I'm just gonna hold it I gotta leave like right at that moment my dad was there on the side could obviously see like it was like a tough moment and he just said like he had like he's bottle of water but they say he'd be because he'd been out running and he had like half a bottle of water he's like man I got half a bottle of water here if you wanted that's awful if you wanna know this very like I just kind of was like like it wasn't like a frantic like getting jumbo it's just kind of like all right now I just gotta try and manage this as best I can yeah we're all in our 50 tooth cog in the back you know 3452 just hey just going nowhere go coming you never looked better and you as fresh as the day I first saw you I just had a little slip of the front wheel [Music] jumped off and as soon as I was running I realized that was probably going faster I wasn't really running I was kind of you know catching him I just just put some trainers on hoofed it up this sucker I thought had taken five minutes out of these guys and then in the topic gets like twisty and I lost sight of him and that was it it all sounds like white it's still 20 cows worth of I seem to do here and then I look back and I could see two guys coming out and I'm like oh now we got a race you know it was super fun watching Lachlan just like be the eagle that he is it's like man this is great look I'm working yes four [Applause] but Graz like I would say easily the best us Mount Alegre sir I've got a lot of respect for him as a black rider this is like he's too right we just had like a classic Road finish because there was no one coming from the hinds that were all focusing and it was like it's gonna be a sprint cuz I never paid seven it pretty well and like I was like I'm pretty sure I can get him in this parade [Music] [Music] [Music] I really enjoyed like pretending to be a mountain biker for the day pretty pretty happy with how the weekend went the only thing I think I'm not happy about when it comes Leadville is fact that we're gonna pile into a van tomorrow and drive to Utah this hurt you town Monday yeah no maybe I'm just going to Utah I've pushed through enough injuries in my career that I know kind of when is a good time to do that and when it's a bad time so this unfortunately ended up being being one that I had to miss but one that I felt totally comfortable missing just based on my ability to listen to my own body the coolest thing was seeing how emotionally attached they are to the event because like of what the events done for their community so you know like obviously the town was down and out and then it's found like through like basically endurance sports putting on endurance events I guess just to revitalize the whole community thank you so much for coming out and being a part of our family thank you for honoring us and getting it done congratulation [Music] is inspiring certainly that's pretty powerful especially and you know a smaller mountain town like that that's pretty significant going to dirty Kansa and then coming here to Louisville opened up my eyes to this community of people that is I mean we're all crazy like I think that these events for people are way for them to just go out and push through something that has nothing to do with the trivial sides of their lives and so while I do think that you know most of these people are kind of crazy I'm also part of this community lakis part of this community at house as part of this community everybody involved in the production of this event is also sort of crazy the whole event makes a lot of sense it's not just like another race and you know especially not to those guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Rapha Films

Views: 607,006

Rating: 4.9029474 out of 5

Keywords: rapha, 2019, ef education first, cycling, amateur cycling, explore, adventure, pro cycling, gone racing, eurosrport, backstage pass, alex howes, lachlan morton, taylor phinney, rapha films, team EF, racing, cycling highlights, usa, adventure cycling, leadville, colorado, leadville100, leadville 100, leadville trail, mountain bike, mtb

Id: s9LviOF5aJM

Length: 23min 17sec (1397 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 29 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/GenuineMasshole]

I'd love to see other teams undertake events like these.

I know it'd kill the vibe that so many people love but I think that's inevitable at this point. Dirty Kanza, Leadville, Barry Roubaix, Belgian Waffle Ride, etc. are all growing exponentially.

I think you'd have to cap the # of people per team to prevent team tactics, but it'd be fun to see MTBers, WT riders, etc. all competing in events that aren't necessarily their forte.

[u/RoseyOneOne]

Alex Howes missing those two bottles is hilarious. I felt that pain with him.

[u/Himynameispill]

Gotta say, I do respect the ultra scene more after EF doing these races. I kinda expected they'd crush everything.

[u/DANNYBOYLOVER]

I've never really had a "team" (I guess I pulled for Mitchelton-Scott because they had those docs on Amazon) but as an American and a Cannondale fan - I think EF is my team now.

​

They are just super likeable dudes

[u/Yukon_Cornelius1911]

These are awesome doc/vids. MOAR

[u/RN2FL9]

They really committed Lachlan to the alternative race calendar. He only has 37 race days so far and it's not like he doesn't have the level required to do a GT or anything.

[u/[deleted]]

Râphäá pręsēntš

[u/scr3tchy]

really enjoying these ef movies. Most impressive that the three riders directly went to ride in the tour of utah and lachlan even won a stage.

[u/bverycoolbreeze05]

Can a mlb pitcher have a tattoo of a baseball, identical in appearance to the baseball in his hand, tattooed lower down on his thowing arm?