I wasn’t necessarily calling anyone out, hell, I wrote it.
I think the point of it is this, some of the descents are pretty brutal if you’re not used to them. Columbine is ~20 minutes and 3000’ of Elevation. Chunky as hell at the top, people coming the other way. People can and have crashed, broken wheels, and injured themselves. I boiled my rear brakes on a training ride. And, it’s 20 minutes long after you just climbed the damn thing ~50 miles in. Here’s a pro’s view of the descent (Remember, stay right during the race as people are coming right back up this same trail.)
And then there’s Technical, Steep, Sketchy parts on St. Kevin’s, Sugarloaf, Powerline, and then small parts where people crash and take themselves out of the race like Clavicle Hill.
If you’re an experienced Mountain Biker, or Really Experienced on a Gravel Bike, No Worries, it’s not bad and that’s where the “Glorified Gravel Race” comes from. But if you’re primarily a roadie, new to MTB, don’t go in thinking it’s a “Gravel Race”. Don’t worry about it, you can be safe and finish, but you will lose a ton of time, so spending time on an MTB and getting comfortable will be helpful.
What were you running? I’ve bumped mine from a 160 to 180 and plan on running Shimano XT or XTR discs and finned pads just because they do such a good job of shedding heat. Granted a thicker disc could withstand more, but I’m really not sure which is going to be better for me.
I know I need more time on the chonky descents, but I have a local climb and descent that has some steepness up & down as well as some chonk and erosion to deal with. I’m thinking this is going to become a regular route for me just to get my brain programmed. (I may tweak the start/finish)
180F, 160R CLX Rotors. This year I’ll be using HS2. Calipers are flat mount or I’d upgrade - haven’t found a good upgrade.
Some tips:
Brake fluid absorbs water over time which lowers the boiling point, so it takes lower temps for a pedal to go soft. (SRAM uses actual DOT4, not mineral oil)
Going to elevation can cause any air in the system to expand, which can cause a soft brake lever.
Old brake pads don’t have as much thermal mass and don’t brake as efficiently.
Long story short, you’ll be fine if you have new fluid, new pads, clean rotors, bed them properly, and bleed your brakes / replace fluid before you go. Even better if you do it once you get to altitude.
Columbine is one of those places you just end up dragging the brake. Can’t always just lay off it and brake more intermittently.
I’ll have a fresh tune up and brakes for Tahoe Trail, then it’s right to Herber City for a week and then on to Copper. Bringing tools, equipment, and supplies to service brakes as well as spare wheels & rotors. So it will be fresh fluid, pads, and rotors all bedded in before race day.
It can get steep and long out here. Even that sim I shared has a 5+ mile descent that just doesn’t really let up. Good for getting one’s brain tuned in and surfacing equipment issues before the gun goes off.
All great tips, especially the bleeding part. Any bit of air in the system will become a problem at altitude. Every year, there are a ton of people freaking out about this issue and scrambling last minute to get their brakes working properly. I’ve heard of people literally walking down columbine after their brakes failed during the race. They usually don’t fail completely, but require lots of pumping and can’t be relied on, very unsafe.
A couple tips I’d add on technique -
Don’t ride your brakes continuously unless you absolutely have to. I know it’s easier said then done when you are tired and trying to control speed, but scrubbing off speed in chunks builds up less heat vs. dragging for extended periods. Letting the bike run a bit between difficult spots can also make you faster (as long as it’s within your comfort zone).
Use your front brake. I see a lot of folks heavily favoring the rear and just dragging it constantly. Split the work front/rear wherever possible (which is most places at leadville). Yes, there are a few places where it’s so slick/loose/fast that the front brake is a little scary (last bit of powerline), but you should still use some front brake on those sections when going straight. Don’t put all your heat into the rear rotor, spread the load.
I’ve only done the Rattler once but I wouldn’t say that I felt the Rattler was technical in the way I typically define it: risk of injury or incident.
It’s a good event but it’s so different to what I’m used to in Colorado where we have long climbs and long and what I consider proper technical descents. At Rattler I could just never get into a rhythm because it’s constantly up, down, turn in what was often loose sandy soil.
I found that hard because I am not at all good at tight turns in sandy soil so by definition I should consider that technical… but my definition of technical is more based off of what is my probability of getting hurt not “am I good at this”.
A lot of the riding I do, and in some sections at Leadville too you could get seriously hurt or die due the combination of very high speeds, some areas of loose rocks or ruts, and possibility of going off trail and hitting a tree or off some ledge. It’s not hypothetical, someone literally died in 2021.
I can’t see anyone dying at Rattler, more like I’d just fall over into sand because I sucked at cornering.
That’s why I fundamentally don’t agree with the statements that Leadville is so non-technical and nothing to worry about. It is not a mile per mile technical race, but there are some legit high risk sections if you are taking them at maximum possible speed.
The most technical race I’ve ridden in Colorado is the Grand Junction Off-road. That course is way more technical than Leadville in the traditional sense. And after the race, you see plenty of people at the finish line with cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
But in Leadville - which is less technical in the traditional sense - every year (I think) people get carted away in ambulances.
Does anyone have experience to share regarding the “Mandatory” Athlete Meeting? I wasn’t planning on arriving in Leadville until after that meeting on Friday morning. Is it truly mandatory?
Long response here. Thanks to all for the helpful information. You all are helping tremendously. A few follow-up questions below. Again, thank you!
That’s what I’m talkin’ bout.
Oooooh… Do tell! More info here would be handy. I can sleuth on Strava/YT/etc and investigate if I know what sections you’re talking about.
Thanks for calling this out.
For sure 100%. We’re both of the mind that FS XC MTB are faster than people give them credit for in many cases. We usually err on the side of more suspension and more MTB-ish on the spectrum from roadie/gravel bike to DH MTB, when selecting our race weapons.
So, so true. SO true. Even within the spectrum you’ve defined there, there is an enormous amount of difference between each step where other definitions could very easily populate the continuum and remain completely discrete stop along that continuum.
This is great news. Usually in a race, Michelle will rip sketchy descents full of rock. But if they’re narrow/turny … maybe not. Any particular Strava segments that are known for their tech?
I saw that upon review of Sofia’s data. Realized it shortly after I wrote it. Great point.
She/we may spend 6-8 weeks there for altitude reasons. Just need to navigate teen child life since we’ve adopted so to speak. (guardian, same diff, just more complicated with other parents)
Great term! Stealing.
That’s a thing??
Love this for Michelle. She’ll rip that. Turny?? Narrow? Thanks for the vid. Watching now.
Best place/shop/person for this in Leadville?
I’ve heard this since my dad told me it when I was a child. Do we know for sure this is true? Why is it true? Airflow during non-braking? I’ve just always been curious. I mean, I believe it, and I practice it in everything from MTB’ing to driving our 42ft RV, but I have no hard evidence and no data indicating it’s true. I’ve always been curios what temperature %diff it can make when performed optimally.
Ahh, yes, the killer of expression of fitness for triathlete/MTB’ers like my wife.
I appreciate your disambiguation of the term “technical.” Thank you!
It’s really about how much heat the overall system can store before the performance drops. When you modulate the brakes even those short brakes can shed some heat rather than constantly introducing more heat into the system.
That said if the discs have more mass (like the video below) which will just allow you a rider to put more heat into them before they top out, or are better at shedding heat like say the Shimano steel & aluminum sandwich in their XT/XTR rotors (I’m sure there are others) which may allow them to shed more heat than a standard rotor could in the same period of time during modulation.
So in a sense you could ride the rear all the way down, but the amount of heat you can put into the system is finite. You can get there fast or you can get there slow, but there’s still going to be a limit.
I think that if you “let off the brakes periodically instead of dragging them” as the advice goes, you’re likely just going to be braking less overall than if you’re dragging brakes the whole time. Braking later and hard is probably just faster and therefore produces less heat in the brakes.
Not a gravel race. Discussed above, but literally nobody rides a gravel bike for a reason other than a couple misguided people every year who severely regret their choices. I am in the camp of a Full Suspension Bike is Best.
The big ones are the Sugarloaf Ascent / Descent, Powerline Descent / Ascent, and Columbine Ascent / Descent.
For Columbine - video is above. Top is chunk, steep above treeline, bottom is fast and sometimes washboard fire road with hairpin turns down the mountain with people coming the other way.
Powerline is consistently the steepest and most technical, just not as long and high as Columbine. Plenty of YT videos out there.
Sugarloaf isn’t as much of an issue on the ascent, just mildly chunky in parts, but the descent is late in the race, fast, and you’re extremely fatigued by that point.
Then there are small sections here and there - e.g. Clavicle Hill is a very steep descent on Pipeline that sort of sneaks up on you. Some off camber sandy turns here and there. None of them super “Hard” but every year people crash.
Point of reference, I was having trouble actuating my dropper post by the end of the race my thumb was so tired. Fatigue - mental and physical becomes a real issue, and bike muscles / endurance can be a limiter.
Leadville tech isn’t narrow, tight, turny. It’s definitely biased towards open and faster / chunkier. The descents are places where people flat and occasionally destroy a wheel if they make bad equipment choices or aren’t good at line selection at speed.
Cycles of Life on Harrison Ave - They’re popular though. Schedule early if you can.
This is absolutely a thing, although it’s hard at certain points of the course. I almost had a guy plow into the back of me on Columbine when I tried to do a faster / harder speed check because I was trying to pay attention to this. Heard an “Oh F**k” behind me, fortunately I didn’t cause a crash
Same thing in motorsports - basically it’s a lot more efficient and you build less heat if you brake late and fast/hard, and then get off the brakes. If you’re continuously dragging, you’re continuously building heat instead of giving your brakes time to cool.
Heat though is an interesting thing, if you have the right compound and the right rotors, you WANT some heat in them as the braking performance is much better. But, dependent on use case. I’ve taken a normal street car on the race track with normal brake pads that normally last years, and destroyed a new set of pads to the backing plate in about 90 minutes. Where with proper pad compound, they’re designed to work red hot and there are plenty of pictures of race cars with their brakes red hot glowing in the dark…
Back to bike content - SRAM seems to be figuring this out with their latest Maven brake line.
If you read some of the details here about heat, rotor size, pads - it’s not BS. In their tuning tips they actually help people choose the appropriate rotor size to get enough heat, without getting too much (e.g. don’t always go bigger rotor and thicker rotor as you could get worse performance - depends on the scenario)
Not exactly answering your question here, but more of a tip for the others: At the race expo, there will be tents where you might get a free bike checkup (and a quick fix if necessary) the day before the race. If you’re like me, just popping up in town to do the ride with no extensive mechanical preparation, at least make use of that opportunity.
My personal experience. I just finished my “openers” on the boulevard and was killing some time at the expo. I ride Canyon Lux, and Canyon had their tent over there. I figured, why not? Even though I had zero complaints on my bike that I rode just 30 minutes ago. Guess what, they’ve found a loose bolt in rear suspension pivot. Guys took the rear half of the frame apart, cleaned, greased, and reassembled the whole thing for me. For free. THANK YOU, Canyon! Look was doing their thing for the pedals/cleats as well. I’m sure others were doing something similar.
These guys saved my ass at Silver Rush. They had a mechanic at the turnaround aid station, and I washed out and bent the derailleur hanger on the descent just a few miles before. Posting this to praise the good folks at Cycles of Life, that’s all
I tread dangerously near a non-existent camp where full sus xc mtb beats gravel bikes in gravel races. So very much the same page here. Full sus for sure at Leadville.
Is “chonk” roughly 1.5x the rock size of “chunk”? Or more like 2x? Technically speaking. I watched that video. Definitely chonk.
That video was super helpful understanding how it’s very non-tech DH riding, and yet I could easily kill myself. I identified at least two spots I’d have overcooked and ended up flying through the trees off the ledge at 35mph.
Just confirming my understanding because this seems really important. You mean that for the entirety of this race, practically speaking, you can expect someone to be on the left side of the trail. Correct? Asking because that definitely changes descending strategy. Are there ever issues of athletes overtaking (either down or up) and ending up crashing into each other? How sparse is the spacing, typically?
