armstrong crushes leadville 100

Lance Armstrong soloed off the front of the pack on one of the high climbs and cruised to victory in the Leadville 100. Lance's victory spurned so much interest in the high-altitude endurance event that event servers crashed for several hours into the race; this sent millions of frustrated cyclists onto streets everywhere as they attempted to get a decent workout after sitting in front of their computers for the last hour looking a live-blog feeds. Six-peat champion Dave Wiens took second. Over 1600 participated and at this hour (5pm) MST over 1000 were still on the course.

1st. Lance Amstrong, Aspen, CO, 6:28:50.9 (new course record)
2nd. Dave Wiens, Gunnison, CO, 6:57:02.0
3rd Matt Schriver 7:09:48.5
4th Alex Grant 7:10:54.1
5th Len Zanni 7:11:21.0
6th Max Tamm 7:16:56
7th Travis Brown 7:22:05.5
8th Manual Prado 7:35:27.2
9th Mike Hogan 7:353:35.0
10th Jason Tullous 7:35 47.1

Women
1st Rebecca Rusch 8:14:53 (30th overall)
2nd Amanda Carey 8:40:03.0 (66th overall)

wiens takes sight on leadville trail 100: armstrong on his wheel

Is Dave Wiens the mountain bike equivalent of Alberto Contador for Lance Armstrong? Weins, 6 time winner of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, defeated Armstrong last year by a couple of minutes in the grueling climbs above 10,000 feet. It was one of Armstrong's first tests in his comeback so the 2nd place finish was somewhat measured. Since then, Armstrong has ridden in the Tours of California, Italy, and France. He's yet to win and is looking for some redemption in Leadville. Weins has no interest in submitting and Lance's plan of having Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer pace him to a new course record fell flat when Leipheimer crashed, breaking his wrist during stage 12 of this year's Le Tour.

For the first time in history you can watch live-streaming video of the Leadville Trail 100 for about the price of six-pack of beer.

Leadville 100: wiens buries armstrong on last climb

Don't come to David Wiens with tales of Tour de France victories and expect any sympathy. Wiens, 2-time world mountain bike champion and Lance Armstrong, 7-time Le Tour winner, separated themselves from the field on the climb up Mt. Columbine to make the Leadville 100 mountain bike race a 2-person breakaway. And then much like last year, Wiens went by the former maillot jaune holder on the final climb. Wiens, despite riding the last few miles on a flat tire, then cruised to victory to earn his 6th consecutive victory in the Leadville 100. Last year Wiens dropped another Tour legend, Floyd "Flance" Landis, in the Colorado Rockies.

Wiens also did this in record time (6:45:45), breaking his mark from last year. For the mathematicians, that's an average of almost 15 miles an hour. On a mountain bike. Above 10,000 feet. Don't try that at home unless you're being paced by a legend. Wiens or Armstrong. You choose.

Elsewhere:
warrior ant press: the 2-mile high club

Photos: Joseph Kreiss, Velonews