It certainly looked amazing. Finsty did an IG post of Power Line and it looked smooth as anything.
Was it a conscious effort to improve the course conditions this year, or just luck of when the weather hits and when the scheduled maintenance occurs 
?
Did DJ run his drop bar mtn bike? He had a really good result.
I don’t think powerline was significantly different today than it’s been the past 2 years.
I think it was mainly the weather. The entire course benefits from light rain and a good portion of the course was “hero dirt” today. Okay, not really hero dirt, but not loose and sandy like many sections can be when dry. The winds today certainly helped Keegan since he was solo and normally that’s tough coming back from twin lakes without a group. At a ~9 hour pace, we had rain at one point that was borderline too cold/wet for me. I started with vest and arm warmers in my back pocket, but never pulled them out. It was raining hard enough coming down sugarloaf that I couldn’t couldn’t make out all the rocks and had to go pretty slow. That’s the only place where the rain really slowed me down.
I remember him flying by coming down columbine, but I didn’t even notice what he was riding. I was camped along the course most of the week and I’m pretty sure I saw him go by on a drop bar bike, but I’m not positive. I did see a few drop bar bikes on course today (not mtb/suspension), but I didn’t notice any significant increase in numbers from past years.
Yes he was on a drop bar bike and cruising down Columbine when I saw him. Maybe starting a trend?
He was at the BOTTOM of at about the same time this year. Absolutely flying.
He built up the drop bar HT last year and did a bunch of testing. He determined it was slower than a flat bar HT with aero extensions so that’s what he rode last year. With the aero bar ban he retested and is back to the drops. It is an actual MTB (Factor Lando) though not a gravel bike.
Anybody have a link to the full results for the race
Edit: found the link
https://www.athlinks.com/event/370068/results/Event/1022514/Results
Indeed! Broke a new one by 15 mins 
His Santa Cruz contract alone is quite high.
DJ was on his drop bar mtb. Was riding it for a week or so in Breck.
Sofia absolutely smashing it as well. What a ride she had!
Looking forward to a post-race podcast with Sofia and Keegan 
Man, all the talk about “Keegan is good, but _____ rider is better because he’s World Tour” or “World Tour is a whole different ballgame” is so tiresome.
Keegan is absolutely the best at the races he does, it’s unlikely that someone could just show up and beat him. That list of contenders is much smaller than you think.
Lachlan was World Tour.
Howes was World Tour.
Stetina was World Tour.
Alexey was World Tour.
Vakoc was World Tour.
Logan Owen was World Tour.
You also had the likes of Andreas Seewald (2021 UCI Marathon World Champ) in this race.
He is absolutely racing the best cyclists in the world at any given high profile race he does. Sure, there are World Tour riders who could beat him at road. But World Tour road is not the end all, be all of all cycling. That’s like saying Greg Minnaar is good, but he’s not racing the best because Pog doesn’t do DH.
But Sepp Kuss should quit WT and come back to the dirt. 
Given this discussion occurs every time Keegan dominates I vote for it to be its own discussion thread so those who enjoy beating dead horses can do so in one continuous thread
Made it back home and just looking at how the race played out. Hard to wrap your head around how dominant Keegan was when looking at numbers -
There was a big group of men together at twin lakes and then Keegan just pedaled away from the race. He put about 9 minutes into the others going up and down Columbine. His AP going up columbine was about 340 watts (over 400w if adjusted for altitude). And of course, he got the all-time strava KOM on that segment.
So, you’d think the chasing group would have the advantage heading back to pipeline and claw back some of that time. Nope, Keegan put another 7 minutes into that group riding solo and another KOM. 303 watts for almost an hour (again, at ~10k feet).
So, you might think the chasers were maybe holding back a little so they could be fresh for the decisive powerline climb and make up some lost time. Nope, Keegan put another 3 minutes on the chasers putting out 330 watts on the powerline climb. Yeah, another all time KOM on that climb 80 miles into the race (with a good portion solo).
And he capped it all off by putting another 5 minutes into the chasers from the bottom of sugarloaf until the finish, averaging ~300 watts for the remainder of the race.
You look at the ~25 minute gap between Keegan and 2nd place, and you can see it was a dominating performance. But looking at the numbers and the way he did it, I’d argue the performance is even more impressive than just looking at the outcome. Would a WT rider like Pidcock (w/ off-road skills) be able to smoke Keegan on a course like Leadville? I think Pidcock would have the edge with all the climbing, but I think Keegan would keep in close.
Yes, there are “next level” riders in the world stage but I don’t know if anyone could have beat Keegan this year. He was dialed in.
I just saw Sophia won the women’s race running 47mm Specialized Tracer gravel tires. I always knew Leadville was a gravel race.
I figured that it could be helpful for others getting ready for this race. I wrote the above question early in the season and thought that I should try to answer it as my future self.
I peaked at 242 watts for FTP this summer and weighed 152 pounds going into the race for 3.52 watts/kg. I live at ~ 5300 feet of altitude and rode the course 3 times (broken over several days each time) before the race. I did train large volumes averaging 11 hours per week for the year leading up to the race and rode multiple rides over 5 hours on my mountain bike. My peak week was 18 hours of riding.
Two weeks before the race I did the Stage Race and my Garmin gave an alert that my FTP was 227 watts at that altitude so I believe I was either acclimated or an individual who is less affected by altitude. I say this because it is somewhat higher than the 10% deficit expected and I never had a 20 minute section where I was pushing any where near my maximum.
I did everything that I possibly could to optimize my equipment including wearing a race suit, aero socks, and an aero road helmet. I waxed my chain, had fresh bearings all the way around (but not ceramic), and used race king tires with inserts.
I didn’t have an ideal race or great legs on the day. I had to stop to inflate a soft rear tire. I also got nauseated which hadn’t happened on any training ride with the same nutrition. Some how I managed to finish in 8:55. I guess thank goodness for the weather although I was cold and completely soaked for the entire ride up and down power line.
First and foremost, congrats on the big buckle!
Out of curiosity were you using TR for your training and if so what were your progression levels? I think the progression level system highlights that there are many methods to estimate FTP and all FTPs are not created equal. A “low” FTP with a comparatively high aerobic capacity and ability to ride high endurance or tempo zone all day can serve you better for this race than a higher FTP with a more brittle power profile.
Lastly, while it in no way takes away from your accomplishment this year represents a statistically significant outlier due to the weather. A lot of the conventional guidance for expected pace vs power from typical years was excepted this year so riders in future years should consider that before extrapolating too much based on this years results.
Since comparisons have been suggested, check out Jasper Stuyven’s Strava for the road Worlds a week or so ago.
He was on domestique duty and was not at the pointy end of the race finale. During the race JS spent 50min not pedaling, but still avgd about 6h20 @ 320w, np around 360w if my memory serves. Significant chunks of time over threshold and in the anaerobic/neuromuscular levels. So the race was surge, recover type. That was a legendary hard race and I find those numbers totally mind boggling.
Why couldn’t one discuss numbers and even compare a bit? It doesn’t diminish anyone at all, IMHO. Obviously Swenson power was very, very high. I think Cancellara avgd 280w for his 2010 De Ronde win. Different dynamics for sure in the road races, but to be in the same ballpark for a similar duration says something in and of itself.
