With the Leadville Trail 100 MTB coming up on Aug. 12, cyclists had a chance to ride that same 100-mile course over the weekend in three sections during the Stages Cycling Leadville Stage Race.
Former Fort Lewis College cyclist Sofia Gomez Villafane currently leads the Life Time Grand Prix’s overall standings, which includes the Leadville 100, but decided to do the stage race to prepare for the Grand Prix event.
“Had such a horrible Leadville Trail 100 last year that this year I basically signed up to do it twice,” she said. “Excited to test some equipment choices and trying to find out what my red line is at 10,000 feet.”
The race started with a 40-mile stage featuring 4,000 feet of climbing on Friday.
Stage 2 on Saturday was a 22-mile out-and-back to the course’s high point of 12,513 feet, and it also had 4,000 feet of climbing.
The race concluded Sunday with a 43-mile stage that had 4,800 feet of elevation gain.
About 320 riders competed, but no woman and only a few men came close to matching Villafane. She won the stage race by nearly 30 minutes in 6 hours, 55 minutes and 24 seconds. Lauren de Crescenzo of Longmont finished second in 7:25:22, while Durangoan Trish Thomas grabbed the third spot on the podium with a time of 7:56:55.
“Had a blast racing this weekend at the Leadville Stage Race,” Villafane said. “What a great way to see the course and relieve some stress ahead of the big race.”
Villafane’s time was the fourth best in the event, with only the men’s podium riding faster. Meanwhile, Thomas finished 43rd overall.
The men’s race was also much closer. Beckett Ledger of Durango was part of a three-way battle with Sami Inkinen of Aspen and Skyler Taylor of California for the top spot on the podium.
The three cyclists were the top-three finishers on all three stages. Ledger won Stage 2 by 50 seconds with a time of 1:38:03. Taylor won the other two stages, but Inkinen finished second on all three to take first overall with a combined time of 6:25:48. Taylor finished second in 6:25:50 while Ledger finished third in 6:26:51.
Mike Hurst of Durango also competed and finished 22nd in the men’s division in 7:28:01.
Holly Guymon, meanwhile, won the nonbinary division in 11:51:40.
“It was truly a spectacular Leadville weekend and race,” said Tamira Jenlink, Stages Cycling Leadville Stage Race event manager. “Our athletes from the front of the pack to the back laid it all out there, and gave us a tremendous show of skill, fitness and fierce determination! They not only dug deep, but they also 100% did not quit, and we had one of our highest finish rates yet for this event. Well done Leadville race family.”
A sub-11-hour total finish time is required to be considered an official Stage Race Finisher, and 231 of the competitors hit the mark.
colivas@durangoherald.com
