Great job!! Definitely teared up at the end. Love these series!

Kristen and her family are as amazing in real life as they are in this show. I've had the privilege of coaching her kid in NICA the last few years and now she's inspiring me and my kids. On an unrelated note, my allergies were really acting up on this episode.

Thanks for each of you for sharing your heart and your life. I’m an avid cyclist, and I do it for health reasons. It’s a great time to pray friendships, all the reasons you expressed. Excited to follow your journey and I know you can do it. I don’t feel overwhelmed, because you’re a beginner, everybody’s been there and cyclists understand and want to encourage you, I’m cheering you on from Virginia

What a great accomplishment for all of these participants. They all conquered so many emotional and physical obstacles on a very grueling ride for even the fittest cyclists. I'm a cyclist of 40 years and at 72 still enjoy riding and know how difficult the ride must have been for them. They each had a warrior mentality defeating many nasty demons each mile. Prayers for continued success!

Things can change. If you just believe in yourself and work hard, things can change.

Way2go everyone. Way 2 stay tough Kristen! I broke my femur 100 yards from the finish at Iceman this year (still finished) , and I swore I wasn’t doing another race but after watching this and seeing the no quit attitude I’ll think I’ll jump on the bike as soon as I can. Thank you for the motivation and inspiration!!!

Awesome song at the end anyone know the name

Ah man, love this content ❤

Who else caught the participants being dropped off at the bike shop by the SUV that conveniently drove into and blocked the nice separated bike path at 4:30? Poor form.

HOLY Crap! Thank god my Subaru hub wasn’t that head to get off!

Amazing and inspiring! Thank you for sharing their stories

Gloves save hands.

I have to applaud the participants, and the people who put this series together. This is an inspirational series of videos! I live in Colorado, and these videos highlight one thing that really bothers me about the bike industry. Gearing. From 8:15 to 8:35 in the video, "...and then Kristen and Richard were both walking their bikes up it and they're having a harder time from sea level, but..." The altitude was a factor, of course. If people are pushing their bikes uphill, the gearing is too high. It's that simple. Lower gearing can help a person regulate their heart rate and breathing. A pro I watch on KZbin profiled one of his gravel bikes, a mountain bike with a 40 tooth front chainring and a 10-52 cassette. Divide 40 by 52, and you have a ratio of 0.77. I'm going to assume the participants had 46/30 cranks coupled to 11-34 cassettes. This gives a ratio of 0.88. The beginners have harder gearing than the pro who completed Leadville in under 10 hours. This is an industry problem. Yes, I know you can now run mountain bike cassettes with the premium, electronic groupsets, but this does not represent what a true beginner is going to purchase. I believe the sea level participants would have performed better at Steamboat if they had gravel bikes equipped with lower gearing, or decent hardtails with a good, fast-rolling XC tire. With a Chisel hardtail, at the very least, Richard would have gone farther than he did, in less time. Kristen would have probably cut time off her ride. I'm not saying mountain bikes are better gravel bikes, I'm saying give people the right tool for the job. So here's a thought for next time-give beginners a mountain bike, or a gravel bike with Microshift Advent X/Sword. Toss the 40T chainring, and replace it with a 34 or 36 tooth chainring. A 34/11 gearing combination with a 45mm tire will bring you to 19.3 mph at just 75 cadence. Unless someone can ride in the dirt, uphill, at 20 mph, this gearing would be fine. Downhill? Pedal to 21-22 mph, and coast.

I don’t feel so bad, even Ryan and Alexey were crying.

I love this... We always have the opportunity to write a better story ....to choose to do and believe in yourself... This is heartwarming and inspiring....thank you all...

As an avid cyclist who lives at 450 ft above elevation I'm feeling major empathy for Rich & Kristen. Fitness just doesn't translate automatically to higher elevation. That's the reason the pro's do 6 weeks of altitude training before a race!

Wonderful series. Love it.

I've been riding for almost 10 years and clipping in STILL terrifies me. Love this episode. Richard you are all time and it's been so fun to watch your journey!!!

Loving this series. Inspiring and perfect to watch on the trainer grinding out the indoor miles.

Well done! great video and so inspiring.

Fuck yeah.

What a great series! Im hooked..

Some ppl credit their strength to a tough up bringing or hard life events, others make excuses and dwell on the events they choose to classify as negative. There are positives about anything like almost dying on the bike, some ppl enjoy that. Embrace the pain and trauma

Am I supposed to be crying watching this? Amazing series! Congrats to you all!

This season was so inspiring. They all are, but this group really bonded, and you were cheering for them every step of the way.

So proud of my new extended family- so blessed that you all have become brothers and sister to my heart, Brandilee. Love Momma Kathy

I ain't no sissy....but there's some kinda lump in my throat. Love this !

I'm in the verge of watching episode 4 shortly

Been watching this so far....but one thing I did not see on this episode 123 .....is nutrition coaching or training also is all the bike set up is single or double and want cassette range ?

I am a long time cross country and endurance mountain bike racer, and the riders in this challenge are more inspiring than anything I’ve seen. Riders with all kinds of challenges. Just an awesome group of people and a great video. Thanks for making my day and inspiring me to keep on pedaling. Let’s Fn Go!!!!!

What a fantastic performance from all 4 of you, well done from South Wales, UK.

Amazing series, well done all on a fantastic program. The cyclist and crew have all been awesome

This years went a lot better than last year. 3 out of 4 finishing is great. I know a lot of people had issues with last years when none of the riders made the time cutoff for Columbine that they chose too difficult of an event for a beginner with 6 months of training.

YES!!! and YESSS again!

Most of us peeps need to learn the eating principles of portion control. So tired of seeing overweight people being normalized and wanting us to feel for them on why they can’t ride or walk up a fucking hill. Eat right and lice right, get it, and prosper.

Holy shit. What a group of badasses.

In awe ❤

Pretty amazing stuff here

Just ran across your channel and watched season 1. Awesome concept. Are there any videos of season 2 other than this one?

Thanks to everyone involved in this production. All the riders should be super proud of themselves. #neverquit

Good things come to those who wait.

Thanks for the video. Amazing work all the way around.

Amazing moment

So damn inspiring. You all crushed it! Kristen is a monster! Crying with you all.

So inspiring! Great job by everybody

As an avid cyclist, I'm pretty numb to the idea that some of these things are challenges so I start this series every year with a level of jaded indifference. Then we get to the last episode and you break me down EVERY SINGLE TIME. The experience is very similar whether you're first or last finisher. It's hard. You're out there long enough to have periods where you don't feel great and doubt yourself. Then things come around and you catch a second or third wind. We're all trying our best, we're just doing it at different speeds. What matters is pushing yourself and not giving up. Kudos to all the riders.

How have i just now heard of this show?!?!?! Where do i sign up???

This series came out at the correct time!! I’m currently in the recliner for 12 weeks after a bad crash while training for an xc race!! As a 50yr old, I’ve been struggling with giving up biking. Rich was a true motivation of encouragement to keep riding!!🤘🤘

Damn that was a good deal more emotional than I expected. So happy for all four to go way past what they thought was possible. That's what it's all about!

Amazing job to you all!!! You are all a big inspiration for me to keep following my dreams❤