FLCC> Max effort: local fourth at Leadville 100

[Mark Rishniw]

Very COOL!!!!!  He's not allowed back for the 
Pink Slipper, tho'.  He might actually win it!

Soon-to-be-airborne Twinkie

At 06:22 AM 8/16/2007, Milton Taam wrote:

><URL: 
><http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070815/SPORTS/108150048/0/FRONTPAGE>http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20070815/SPORTS/108150048/0/FRONTPAGE  
> >
>
>LEADVILLE — The best story to come out of last 
>Saturday's Leadville 100 mountain-bike race 
>wasn't that living fat-tire legend Dave Wiens 
>won for the fifth year in a row, or that Wiens 
>did so after holding off embattled 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis.
>
>No, the best story was the one about a 
>24-year-old local ski patroller named Max Taam, 
>the fourth-place finisher whose remarkable 
>accomplishment went virtually unnoticed in the 
>midst of the hoopla surrounding the duel between Landis and Wiens.
>
>See, before Saturday, Taam had never even 
>competed in a mountain-bike race longer than 25 
>miles. He didn't even start racing competitively 
>until last year, when he won his first overall 
>crown in the local Aspen Cycling Club summer series.
>
>Which is to say that no one - especially Taam - 
>expected him to stay on Landis' back tire for 
>nearly half of the grueling Race Across the Sky, 
>let alone finish fourth behind two other riders 
>whose last names need no introduction.
>
>Wiens, 42, is a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame 
>member and former World Cup winner from Gunnison 
>who has so dominated the Leadville 100, 
>organizers should consider renaming it after 
>him. Landis is, well, Landis. While his 2006 
>Tour victory hangs in doubt as he and the rest 
>of the cycling world await the ruling in his 
>doping arbitration case, what was never in 
>question was Landis' desire to win in Cloud City.
>
>He trained religiously for the Leadville race, 
>even renting a local house for three weeks of 
>riding at altitude. Finishing behind the 
>31-year-old Landis was Vail's Mike Kloser, 
>another MTB Hall of Fame member who entered his 
>first Leadville 100 specifically for the shot to 
>pedal against the former Tour winner.
>
>All three riders expected to be out front, vying 
>for a win in what was the fastest Leadville 100 
>ever. Taam admittedly had much more modest aspirations.
>
>"Really, I had no idea what to expect, but I 
>think I exceeded any possible expectations I 
>might have had," said Taam, a compact, 
>easy-going former college rower blessed with 
>legs like an NFL fullback. "I didn't even know 
>until a month ago that I would be racing. The 
>past month it was my focus, just riding 
>different sections of the course, but because 
>I'd never done it before, I didn't know what more I could do.
>
>"Next year, I'm trying to do a little better in it."
>
>Wiens - who crushed the old course record of 7 
>hours, 5 minutes and 45 seconds with his winning 
>time of 6:58:47 - personally told Taam that he expects the same.
>
>The race winner congratulated the unassuming 
>local by mentioning that one day he, too, will 
>know what it feels like to win the Leadville 100.
>
>"That was pretty cool," said Taam, who fell off 
>the pace of the lead three in the race's second 
>half to finish in 7:31:28. "I rode with all 
>three of those guys for the first 40 miles, and 
>talked to all three afterward and they were pretty impressed."
>
>Before Saturday, Taam said his competitive 
>racing aspirations centered around his road bike.
>
>He won the state's Category 3 criterium earlier 
>this summer in Longmont, a victory that followed 
>up his Category 4 state title in the same 
>criterium the previous year. Since then, he has 
>raced in Category 2 races on the Front Range. 
>His best result this summer was 23rd out of 90 
>starters at the Bannock Steet Criterium on Aug. 5 In Denver.
>
>His Leadville finish felt slightly more rewarding, Taam joked.
>
>"Before this race, long-term wise I was focused 
>more on road racing, but after Leadville it sort 
>of made me re-think that, racing against guys of 
>that level," he said. "I think I'm going to see 
>where I can take [mountain biking] as well."
>
>The sky is the limit, it seems.
>
>Nate Peterson's e-mail address is 
><mailto:npeterson at aspentimes.com>npeterson at aspentimes.com
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