ROB BRITTON AND CARO DEZENDORF SHOOT THE LEADVILLE 100
ROB BRITTON AND CARO DEZENDORF SHOOT THE LEADVILLE 100
With Rob carrying on to the SBTGRVL race, completing the LEADBOAT challenge in 9th place he reported back from the event that Leadboat was quite a unique experience. To Rob, it had a fine balance of putting his efforts towards Leadville MTB 100, which was attached to the Grand Prix and therefore a priority. SBTGRVL which was a bit more of an unknown.
"I was just hoping that I could recover enough and have a good day there as well,” says Rob. “Leadville was incredible, it definitely lived up to the hype that I had heard about this event. It’s been a long time since I’ve been up to 12,000 feet and it’s certainly every bit as uncomfortable as I remember. But I’m glad the body worked as well as it did give me my minimal amount of altitude preparation."
He continued that after he had been into the SBTGRVL for about two hours, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to repeat his Top 10 performance from the day before.
"That was put to bed permanently when half the group of 40 stopped to fill their bottles and the other half who are racing with hydration packs didn’t stop at all, and instead attacked the pace and made it impossible, at least for me, to bridge back across. The legs just felt empty."
When only three or four guys managed to catch the front group, Rob says he was just stoked to have been a part of these major icons of this new "gravel" world. As a recent Pro Road cyclist turned gravel racer, with a supplement of mountain biking (#isthisgravel?), Rob went into Leadville with the intent of protecting his position in the Lifetime Grand Prix and came away with a Top 10 finish. He went on to race the SBTGRVL Black course against some challenges, securing 9th in the LEADBOAT challenge and moves into the last two events of the Lifetime GP in 6th.
Caro crushed her first Leadville 100 MTB with a 15th place!
More to come as the team heads to The Last Best Ride and RPI!
Photos: @photowil
With Rob carrying on to the SBTGRVL race, completing the LEADBOAT challenge in 9th place he reported back from the event that Leadboat was quite a unique experience. To Rob, it had a fine balance of putting his efforts towards Leadville MTB 100, which was attached to the Grand Prix and therefore a priority. SBTGRVL which was a bit more of an unknown.
"I was just hoping that I could recover enough and have a good day there as well,” says Rob. “Leadville was incredible, it definitely lived up to the hype that I had heard about this event. It’s been a long time since I’ve been up to 12,000 feet and it’s certainly every bit as uncomfortable as I remember. But I’m glad the body worked as well as it did give me my minimal amount of altitude preparation."
He continued that after he had been into the SBTGRVL for about two hours, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to repeat his Top 10 performance from the day before.
"That was put to bed permanently when half the group of 40 stopped to fill their bottles and the other half who are racing with hydration packs didn’t stop at all, and instead attacked the pace and made it impossible, at least for me, to bridge back across. The legs just felt empty."
When only three or four guys managed to catch the front group, Rob says he was just stoked to have been a part of these major icons of this new "gravel" world. As a recent Pro Road cyclist turned gravel racer, with a supplement of mountain biking (#isthisgravel?), Rob went into Leadville with the intent of protecting his position in the Lifetime Grand Prix and came away with a Top 10 finish. He went on to race the SBTGRVL Black course against some challenges, securing 9th in the LEADBOAT challenge and moves into the last two events of the Lifetime GP in 6th.
Caro crushed her first Leadville 100 MTB with a 15th place!
More to come as the team heads to The Last Best Ride and RPI!