Rider Highlight: Matt Gilhousen qualifies for Leadville!
Matt Gilhousen recently competed in the Lutsen 99er, Men’s 40-49 geared category which had pretty intense conditions this year. He dug through and finished great, qualifying for Leadville in a couple of weeks!
Brief event/course description:
Lutsen is one of the Leadville qualifiers located in extreme northern Minnesota overlooking Lake Superior. The 99 mile course has roughly 7,000 feet of climbing and a mix of road, gravel, snowmobile trail and single track. The start of the race is a ~3 mile road climb with the last 5 miles being single track with a 700 ft fire road climb up to the Lutsen Mountain ski resort. This year it rained most of the day which created for some epic conditions with a temperature of 55 degrees.
How’d the race go down for you?
The race went pretty well. My performance physically was almost identical to last year but my placing and time was lower/slower which I presume was due to the conditions. I was about 25 minutes off last years time and finished 38th down from 12th overall out of ~500 riders. That said, it still qualified me for Leadville as they gave out far more coins per age group. Brian Jensen and Bill Stolte had a good day as well, Brian finishing 2nd and Bill 9th overall.
Which coach do you work with and how did your training help you prepare for the event?
Adam Mills. I started my training for the event a little late this year and technically was not as fit however he managed to get me ready with the time I had available. As always, Adam did everything he could to make sure I was prepared.
What advice do you have for someone up and coming in your cycling discipline?
Try to keep it fun…train more and suffer less.