Sep. 8, 2009
by Bill Kirk
bkirk@eagletribune.com

Andover, MA.– It's all about the belt buckle.

When Joe Gagnon got to the starting line of the Leadville Trail 100 MTB mountain bike race, all he could think about was how to push himself hard enough so that he finished the 100-mile course in less than 12 hours. Do it in under 12 hours and he would secure the giant, silver belt-buckle that now sits on his desk in his Dundee Park office at Exit41, where he is CEO.

"I needed to make it under 12 to get the Leadville buckle — it's quite a trophy," he said.

While he made it, it's unclear whether it was worth it.

Leadville, Colo., sits at elevation 10,152, which is about 10,000 feet higher than Andover, Mass., meaning the air for a flatlander like Gagnon is woefully thin.

No matter.

Gagnon, who lives and trains in Andover, joined 1,500 other racers, including seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, at the starting line at 6:30 a.m. Aug. 15, when it was 37 degrees and sunny.

Over the next 11 hours and 29 minutes, he would experience weather extremes — rain, mud, snow, heat and wind — and mountainous terrain that would carry him up over 14,000 feet in elevation, but never below 10,000. In all, he climbed 12,600 feet, and, of course, descended that as well.

And therein lies the hard part.

In a write-up of the race for friends he did shortly after it was over, he touted his climbing skills, but lamented his descending abilities.

"Riding up hill, easy (well sort of) — not bragging but on one climb I passed 100 people," he wrote. "Riding down hill (reality sets in) I was passed by 100 people. And so it went for the whole race."

Gagnon said that during the race, he's never been more focused, despite having done triathlons and spent many hours in the saddle of a road bike, climbing the French Alps, among other locales.

"During Leadville, I thought about nothing," he said. "You had to stay so focused on riding. You couldn't think about anything else. It was that all-consuming. Going downhill was extraordinary, doing 30 mph, over rocks. If you fall, the only thing that saves your life is your helmet. But the rest of you is destroyed."

Fortunately, he never fell. Which isn't to say he felt great after the race was over.

"It took over a week to recover," he said. "My hands were destroyed. I couldn't pull on my socks."

He attributed it to the pounding his hands and arms took while flying over rough terrain for 11 1/2 hours.

Other than that, the ride was an epiphany of sorts.

Now, he said, "I'm not afraid of anything," including the full triathlon he's training for in November in Arizona. Certainly not the pressures of growing a young, venture-capital backed company.

"It was epic," he said. The only drawback is — what comes next?

"Once you did it, do you run out of challenges?" he asked. "There is a ride across Costa Rica, from the Pacific to the Caribbean. I could do that. It's a five-day thing."

But there's nothing like the Leadville ride, he said, adding, "I will do it again."

"What I learned is that I can continue to explore the outer reaches of what is possible for me," he wrote in his essay about the race. For others contemplating such a feat, he advised: "You can do more than you think you can and you are better than you think you are."

Certainly not the best, however.

While Gagnon finished in just under 12 hours, Lance Armstrong, the winner, did the race in 6 hours and 28 minutes.