Over the weekend I mentioned that I was out in Leadville, Colorado, with Lance Armstrong for a recon ride of the Columbine Climb. Well, it wasn’t like the old days when it was just Lance, me, and maybe one other person to either ride with Lance or drive a support vehicle. No, after 7 Tour de France victories, a comeback to professional cycling, and the Livestrong campaign, there’s a lot more interest in what Lance is doing. As a result, there was a full-fledged film crew at the Twin Lakes Dam as we prepared to go for our ride, and Ken and Merilee were out there as well. Ken and Merilee are the race directors for all the Leadville Trail 100 events, and their efforts have provided an invaluable economic stimulus to the town of Leadville for more than 20 years.

After the mining industry left Leadville in the mid-1980s, Ken and Merilee started promoting endurance events around the town. And they developed the race schedule into a finely-tuned economic machine. As a competitor you have to be in Leadville the day before your race for a “medical check” and pre-race meeting. The medical check consists of telling a doctor you have no known allergies and you’re not on any medications, but it got you into town a day before the event so you can spend money in the local restaurants and shops, and stay a night in a Leadville hotel. Then there’s the race itself the next day. In the case of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, the race is on Saturday and the award ceremonies are Sunday morning, keeping you in town for another evening.

From an economic perspective, it’s brilliant. There’s not another town nearby that would be convenient to commute from, and competitors almost always bring family and friends as support crew. There are nearly 1,000 people who will start the 2009 Leadville 100 mountain bike race, which probably translates to an influx of about 3,000 overall people into the town for a three-day weekend. Add to that the number of fans who will show up this year because Lance Armstrong is competing, and you can see how one little mountain bike race can be such an important part of the old mining town’s economy. And it doesn’t stop there: the following weekend, 600 competitors will line up for the Leadville 100 Run, and the runners bring much larger support crews for an event that lasts 22-30 hours.

I don’t mind that Ken and Merilee have designed the Leadville Trail 100 events to cost me more money over the course of the weekend. I don’t mind because I respect their ingenuity and I admire the fact that their events support so many people in the town of Leadville. When the bottom fell out of Leadville’s economy, they didn’t turn to the government for a bailout, they plowed forward with the pioneering spirit of a western mining town and figured out a way to make it work. And if you’re fortunate enough to be in Leadville this Saturday, you’ll look out over the thousand cyclists who will pack the start/finish area at 6:30AM , cheered on by thousands more as the rising sun lights the towering mountain peaks to the west, and you’ll hear the loud boom of a shotgun as the Mayor of Leadville signals the beginning of a long and glorious day riding through the High Rockies.

Chris Carmichael

www.trainright.com

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