New Qualifying Races to get into Leadville 100

January 27th, 2011 12:03pm

If you are a mountain biker who always dreamed of racing in the Leadville Trail 100, a new qualifying system has been developed to help you get a spot in the famous race.

Mega corporation AEG and Life Time Fitness will create a national series of qualifying races, each of which will provide qualifiers with guaranteed entry into the perennially sold-out Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race. The series of races provides avid cyclists with opportunities outside of the traditional Leadville Trail 100 MTB lottery system to gain entry into the legendary event. In 2011, the Leadville Qualifying Series will consist of three races and will expand to eight races by 2013.

The three 2011 qualifying events will be held in June and July in California, Colorado and the Northeast. In 2012 and 2013 additional races will be added in Texas, the Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and one more in California.

Each qualifying event will provide 100 race entries into the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race with half of the entries awarded to athletes based on age-group and elite-field performance and the other half selected from the pool of finishers who beat a qualifying time standard.

We’re excited to add a qualifier system to the epic Leadville Trail 100 MTB event,” said Ken Cooper, vice president, Life Time Fitness Endurance. “Many mountain bikers dream of participating in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB. For some, that dream now can begin at a Leadville Qualifier.”

AEG and Life Time will partner on sponsorship sales and activation for the Leadville Trail 100. Life Time will also have a presence at the Amgen Tour of California as it produces a group ride for age-groupers in conjunction with the kickoff of the Tour in Lake Tahoe on May 14 and participates in the Amateur Time Trial on May 20.

“We are delighted to help Life Time Fitness continue to grow the Leadville Trail 100. The Leadville Trail 100 is a legendary race and we are thrilled to be playing a role in its next phase of growth,” said Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports. “Getting a Leadville belt buckle is a life-list achievement for many riders and we look forward to helping serious cyclists achieve this goal.”

Lottery entry for the 2011 Leadville Trail 100 MTB event closes January 31, 2011. For more information visit www.leadvilletrail100.com.

Writers Note

In my eight years as a rider/racer I have grown to respect the Leadville 100. As I progressed as a rider, I even entertained the thought of entering the event - challenge of a lifetime kind of thing. But the recent development of the event has taken a once super cool race and dragged it down. So much so, it really isn't on my list to do anymore. It all began when I plunked down my hard earned money to watch the first installment of " Race across the Sky". It wasn't the daunting climbs or the 14,000 ft elevations that intimidated me, it was that the race lost it's way. It was no longer about the event and how it came about and why, It became about Lance. The race sold its soul.

Before all the Lance Twitter followers bombard me with comments (which can be added below) - let me be the first to tell you that I am all about corporate america coming into MTB racing. (Yes, Lance is corporate america) That is the only way to grow the sport so our cycling athletes can make a living. I also applaud the town of Leadville for taking a proactive role in trying to revive their economic situation. But Lance is not bigger than cycling and Leadville's myopic use of the star only detracted from the real story - the event.

The final nail in the coffin occurred when a friend shared his 2010 entry application rejection letter with me. This isn't about not getting selected - although it is pretty obvious that who you know has a magical way of making your entry gain acceptance among the thousands they receive. This about how you handle people - the ones that make up the race - the customer. To shorten the story for you readers, I will summarize the letter. After graciously thanking you for your entry and $15 application fee - the letter proceeds to imply that you might wish to invest in a $1500 Carmichael training package with the inference that it will help you in next years lottery drawing. A bit taken back, I had to pass the letter around to several friends to be sure I wasn't reading something into the letter that wasn't there. They concurred with my findings. So now you have paid for the privilege of applying for a race and joining some mailing list somewhere. At that point the race was no longer legit, no longer about the ride, nor was it playing fair. It was everything that MTB riding is not.

So, lets hope that AEG and Lifetime Fitness can turn return this event to back into everything it used to be. Real.