Leadville Trail 100 2019 – EF Gone Racing

“I can tell you what to do… I fire that shotgun to start the race and you put your nose on the handlebars and you start pedalling, and you keep pedalling until Merilee tells you to quit. That’ll be the finish line.” After Dirty Kanza and GBDuro, Rapha and EF Education First Pro Cycling’s alternative racing calendar set its sights on the Leadville Trail 100, one of the world’s toughest one-day mountain bike races. An out and back 100-mile course that never drops below 10,000 feet above sea level, Leadville is a lung-busting, heart-breaking hit-out for its 2,000 participants. Newly minted USA road race champion Alex Howes and GBDuro conqueror Lachlan Morton were the two EF riders to take to the startline. What follows is the story of their race, and of an old mining town saved by a race and its riders.