Leadville Stage Race

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Cool race, but the big news is that Melissa Rollins and Kate Courtney (a local to us), just got 4th and 5th overall, overall. Not just women, everybody. That is badass on an entirely new level. https://www.athlinks.com/event/167004/results/Event/1076615/Course/2625200/Results?page=1

 

[jmdirt]

I'll hijack your thread to mention that several of the racers at Leadville 100 are using road pedals (to go with their drop bars I guess).

Three men up front at 1.5 hour mark...two...chit-chat heading to 'the climb'...and then there was 1...

Same for the women...now five...lots of talking...now six,,,games...seven...three...one

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbE8gIOTt60

 

[jono]

Are there any real disadvantages to using road pedals on a non-technical course like Leadville that is barely a "mountain bike" race?

 

[jmdirt]

Are there any real disadvantages to using road pedals on a non-technical course like Leadville that is barely a "mountain bike" race?

Only if sh*t goes sideways (literally and figuratively).

I'll flip your questions though: is there an advantage?

The advantage used to be the stiffer road shoes, but several companies offer the same construction in their top end dirt shoes now (basically the road shoe with rubber gription glued on).

Leadville is an endurance mountain bike race. Its not 'barely' anything, its just one of many formats, IMO. Would it be cool if it was 100 miles of technical single track? Sure, but that's not what Leadville is. I could argue that the WC courses aren't mountain biking anymore, but...

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats KS and KC!

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Keegan did as expected; it's the race which seems to suit him more than the others. High altitude with lots of climbing, and tricky descents - he's almost unbeatable there.

Kate was a surprise; obviously helped by the Leadville stage race a few weeks ago, which was basically a 'recce' for the event. But out on her own for so long was seriously impressive - really pleased for her; and her interview was good.
Back to the World Cup, MTB Worlds, and XC Marathon Worlds.......

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Something I knew about, but had never really seen was the descent off Columbine; that's a little 'interesting' to say the least. With riders still climbing up, there isn't much margin for error if you get it wrong......I think it's a little more technical than is given credit for.

 

[Wyndbrook]

I had a good long for me ride earlier today, but going aero with hands on the fork tops seemed to have passed me by.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I had a good long for me ride earlier today, but going aero with hands on the fork tops seemed to have passed me by.

It's something you often see in the Cape Epic - and from memory, Annika Langvad named it the 'Sussi'.....

 

[jmdirt]

As a dare, I rode a 1962 Schwinn Corvette in a regional TT and decided that hanging on to the front rack would at least get me out of the wind. I didn't regain feeling in my fingers (and some other bits) for at least an hour!

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

As a dare, I rode a 1962 Schwinn Corvette in a regional TT and decided that hanging on to the front rack would at least get me out of the wind. I didn't regain feeling in my fingers (and some other bits) for at least an hour!

My wife did Leadville, and got the buckle. She passed over 400 people from beginning to end. (she should have been in a faster coral, but some digestive tract issues at Tahoe Trail 100, led to a slower time there, and a slower coral at Leadville). Because it is a conga line if people start walking, there were sections she walked, that she could have ridden, but had to just join everyone else in walking. She's going back next year to try for the big belt buckle. It was a day of mad dashes to aid stations, for me.

I got to see Kegan once, Courtney 3 times. It was all impressive to see, and it was nice that Lifetime set up large screens in the feed zones, so we could all watch what was happenng.

My favorite part of Courtney using the fork is that she added SRAM Blips on the fork, so she could change gears while riding like that.

I'm definitely doing Unbound next year (I worked volunteer hours, so I get an automatic spot), and after being at Leadville, I'm going to get in the lottery for that. I'm not super fast, so 12 hours will be a serious undertakinng for me, but I think I can make it. I was at Twin Lakes Dam, when they made the cut-off time, and started pulling riders. There were a couple of people who were completely heart broken. It was a pretty aggressive cut off as well, as it came at mile 40, and was a 4 hour cut off time, that started with the first wave of age groupers, so those in the slower corals had to get to the dam in less than 4 hours. That race is a death march for sure. Not many people were discussing how great the course was, it's more about survival.

 

[jono]

My wife did Leadville, and got the buckle. She passed over 400 people from beginning to end. (she should have been in a faster coral, but some digestive tract issues at Tahoe Trail 100, led to a slower time there, and a slower coral at Leadville). Because it is a conga line if people start walking, there were sections she walked, that she could have ridden, but had to just join everyone else in walking. She's going back next year to try for the big belt buckle. It was a day of mad dashes to aid stations, for me.

I got to see Kegan once, Courtney 3 times. It was all impressive to see, and it was nice that Lifetime set up large screens in the feed zones, so we could all watch what was happenng.

My favorite part of Courtney using the fork is that she added SRAM Blips on the fork, so she could change gears while riding like that.

I'm definitely doing Unbound next year (I worked volunteer hours, so I get an automatic spot), and after being at Leadville, I'm going to get in the lottery for that. I'm not super fast, so 12 hours will be a serious undertakinng for me, but I think I can make it. I was at Twin Lakes Dam, when they made the cut-off time, and started pulling riders. There were a couple of people who were completely heart broken. It was a pretty aggressive cut off as well, as it came at mile 40, and was a 4 hour cut off time, that started with the first wave of age groupers, so those in the slower corals had to get to the dam in less than 4 hours. That race is a death march for sure. Not many people were discussing how great the course was, it's more about survival.

Nice report.

Did your wife (or you) have any issues with the air quality? We've been dealing with 100+ AQI levels for much of the summer where I live (thankfully largely cleared up in the last 10 days) and I haven't noticed much impact when riding, by most of my rides do not include burying myself for hours at a time.

But some people I know suffer just from being outside for an hour or two. Very individual responses, it seems.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Nice report.

Did your wife (or you) have any issues with the air quality? We've been dealing with 100+ AQI levels for much of the summer where I live (thankfully largely cleared up in the last 10 days) and I haven't noticed much impact when riding, by most of my rides do not include burying myself for hours at a time.

But some people I know suffer just from being outside for an hour or two. Very individual responses, it seems.

Yeah, that morning it was pretty bad, but it seemed to clear up as the day went on, because the wind blew in an blew out a lot of the smoke. We live in fire country as well, so we're used to being in AQI that is marginal to horrible. This was marginal, even at the start. You could smell it in the morning, but that pretty quickly went away, and visibility after the sun came up, wasn't bad, and I don't remember noticing smoke smell after I made it to the Outward Bound aid station.