FLCC> Max effort: local fourth at Leadville 100

[Amanda and Mark Shenstone]

Milton, thats really an incredible accomplishment! 
Amazing! Way to go Max!!

Mark

--------------------------------------------------
Amanda and Mark Shenstone
Graceful Gardens
PO Box 100
Mecklenburg, NY 14886
607.387.5529
http://www.gracefulgardens.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Milton Taam
  To: FLCC at icycle.org
  Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 6:22 AM
  Subject: FLCC> Max effort: local fourth at 
Leadville 100


  <URL: 
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 
npeterson at aspentimes.com




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