Levi Wins at Leadville - "That Was So Damn Hard!"

Published Aug. 14, 2010 at 8:55 p.m.

{gallery}riders/levileadville{/gallery}This should settle the old "which is better...the road rider or the mountain biker?" argument.

Levi Leipheimer, in his first competitive off-road race and only two weeks after finishing the Tour de France, blew away the field in the annual Leadville 100 on Saturday, beating runner-up Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski by nine full minutes.

Todd Wells finished third with six-time winner Dave Wiens in fourth in the grueling Colorado mountain race.

How good was Levi today? His time of 6:16:37 is more than 12 minutes better than the course record set by Lance Armstrong...another road rider...last year. Lance pulled out of this year's Leadville 100 earlier in the week, citing a lingering hip injury he suffered at the Tour.

But this was no walk in the park for Levi. As he said via Twitter today, "That was so damn hard! One of the harder days I've ever had on a bike."

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