Steve Peat. Photograph: Kathy Sessler / Santa Cruz Syndicate via Guardian.co.uk.

The LA Times just ran a two part article profiling mountain biker turned Tour de France dominator Levi Leipheimer. As you may recall there was some trash talk between Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong before the Leadville 100 this year but Levi crashed during the Tour de France and wasn’t able to compete. Here’s what Levi had to say to the LA Times about Lance and the Leadville 100:

“(The Leadville 100 is) basically a road race. It’s long and not that technical and it’s all above 10,000 feet. I think I need to challenge him (Lance Armstrong) to something more technical.”

That sounds like a throw down. Maybe these two should enter La Ruta to settle things once and for all

The Guardian published a profile of downhiller Steve Peat that’s a good read if you have some time. It seems Peat wants to dispel the myth that downhill mountain bikers are lazy because they rarely climb. Here’s what he had to say:

“You need to be fit to be a downhiller even though it looks as if you don’t do much work. You’re pedalling out of corners, pedalling into your line, the terrain is rough, the bikes are heavy so you need to train and be fit definitely. My bike comes in at around 37lbs and that’s on the lighter side.”

Finally, IMBA needs our help on several trail issues in Colorado including proposed changes at Apex Park in Golden (see this forum thread). There are also changes being proposed to wilderness and roadless areas in Colorado that could impact mountain bikers. Hit IMBA.com to see how you can help!

While all eyes will be on Lance Armstrong and his comeback at this year’s Tour de France, the man himself seems to have something bigger on his mind: winning the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. In a Velonews interview talking about the Tour de France, Lance had this to say:

This is all a build up for Leadville. Honestly. Levi’s coming to Leadville. Levi (Leipheimer) talks more shit about Leadville than he does about the Tour. I’m like dude, you better step off me when it comes to Leadville. We gotta worry about Weins. I hear Weins is killing himself.

Of course “Weins” is Dave Weins, six time winner and course record holder for the Leadville 100 MTB race. You can watch the Lance Armstrong interview here for yourself and decide just how sarcastic he’s being (you’ll need to fast foward through some boring road racing news to hear it). In any event, from what I understand Lance will be racing at Leadville which is just a few weeks after the Tour ends - a grueling schedule for sure, even for a super athlete!