Three days, no buckle…even less drama.

The 2026 Leadville Stage Race was not one of the 28. Neither is the Leadville Trail 100 MTB on 15 August. Both are preparation — the same hundred-mile out-and-back that appears twice in the counted campaign, ridden a year early for the sake of training and experience.

Unfortunately, fire closures rerouted the course this year. Day 1 became nearly 5,000 feet of climbing in under thirty-eight miles, in the heat, and it took us 5:10. We had driven in the day before, which at 10,152 feet comes with consequences. By that first finish line the buckle was already gone — eleven hours was the cutoff, and Day 1 had spent most of it.

So we rode Day 2 and Day 3 easy. Day 2 was the same course as every year, and Columbine turned out to be the easy day rather than the hardest, as is typical…at least for me. In the end, our cumulative time was just over thirteen hours, by a few seconds.

The part worth writing down is the waiting. Michael waited for me on Day 1. I waited for him on Day 3. Ridden separately, we might have been half an hour faster, and that is the whole of it — half an hour, against the entire point.

Because the point was to start together and finish together. Cape Epic is ridden in pairs: you are timed as a team, and you finish as a team. In March 2027, that stops being a preference and becomes a rule. July was a great rehearsal.

No coin, no problem. We’re already in the 100 with a sub-12:00 goal. Next year will be a different goal and story!