Thursday at 5:30AM marks the official beginning of the trek east to Leadville.  I’m excited but have some real questions on my mind when it comes to bike choice.  As a GT Dirt Coalition rider I have a company-provided GT Zaskar that’s just kick ass.  It’s light, handles like it’s on a rail and has provided me all of my best finish times this year (other than operator error at Solitude–but I’m trying to forget this).  On the other side of the temporary garage is my Ellsworth Evolve.  If I was forced to make a choice and keep only one of my bikes, it’d be the Evolve (sorry GT).  But if I was forced to make this choice I’d probably give up racing as well.  Point is, one works best for me for racing certain types of races and the other works best for me racing other types of races.

I really like riding hardtail more than a suspended bike and there’s nothing that I’ve ridden so far on the Leadville trail that makes me think I must have suspension.  It’s the tire size and the thought of rolling over 100 miles on a hardtail that push me to think the Evolve has to be the bike of choice on race day.  It’s not my lightest bike, but those big wheels and a little cush-under-the-tush make a very attractive proposition.  Especially after getting my teeth rattled out of my skull on the Zaskar coming down Trabuco Trail earlier this year.  After 40 miles on it I was constantly looking behind to make sure I picked up my teeth to bring them to the dentist for reinsertion.

So I’m going to sleep on it one more night (mostly because I never make a decision until the last minute) and we’ll see which horse gets in the trailer by Thursday AM.

Still have to pick up a few items before I head east including rubber gloves, some extra tubes, and some sort of flag or something that goes sky high in order to find my crew.

Nutrition is all worked out.  FRS, coffee and some rice and eggs in the AM to get started. A PROBAR just before liftoff.  (If you haven’t had them yet, I highly recommend them.  Lots of wholesome goodness.) I estimate about 10-15 calories will be burned across the day.  So I’m using Infinit Nutrition’s custom formula for my food at 295 calories per 20 oz of water.  I’ll add the usual Goldfish Crackers for mental support and a few extra grams of sodium and calories.  Oh yeah, and some sort of cookie goodness or PB & Nutella concoction.

I’ve decided to leave the Ergon BD1 behind.  I really love this pack, but I just can’t race with one.  I’ll opt for water bottles on the bike and replacements at aid stations.  I’ll keep extra food (Infinit powder) in my Feedbag (these things kick ass if you haven’t gotten one yet).  This’ll require a few extra goodies on me and I’ll have to take a (big) chance on the weather, but barring rain the morning of the race, I’m traveling light.  I’ll use some hand warmers taped to my body and start the race with my Solo gilet for the first couple of hours till the sun warms up.

With no flats or major mechanicals for the day, I think I should have a good day (meaning finish under 12 hours).  My best hope is for a finish under 9 hours with no mechanicals, but my pre-rides make me think a reasonable hope would be 10.5–and no mechanicals.

That’s all I got for now.  Oh wait.  Go Dave!