Looking at time diff. He might not be at the pointy end. Only one rider was. Stuyven still ended as no 6 in Glasgow.
He was on domestique duty but Stuyven always leave something in the tank for his own change. Both on national and trade teams. WC was for sure his best race of 2023
Finally back home, I’ll give a quick race recap for me. Very strong, finished great (probably feeling too great) and paced a little too conservatively by how I felt coming through the finish. Final time, 9:02:28. Everything really went pretty perfectly, except not finishing about two and a half minutes faster 
Hindsight is 20/20, but I know in retrospect I had that time (and probably more) in me but not going to get upset about it.
The only part of the day that my legs were feeling a little tired were the bypass coming back up to pipeline, and from pipeline to powerline where @wik04 and I got caught out alone instead of in a bigger group. Powerline I didn’t feel bad actually, but was a little bit worried about blowing up so didn’t really press.
Came down Sugarloaf and then dropped the hammer from Hagerman’s through the finish passing a whole bunch of people. Felt strange to be feeling the strongest of the entire race in the last 10-15 miles. My NP for the climb back to Carter Summit was still dead on my climbing target for the day, and my NP coming up the Boulevard was 20W higher…
One thing I know I have to get better at is the faster / chunkier descents. Where flowier sections like the singletrack or carter didn’t bother me, I probably left 10+ minutes out on the course when it came to Columbine and Powerline, and the chunky as hell Sugarloaf descent. Probably both a technique thing, but I’m also wondering if I didn’t have my fork tuned right as there were sections I felt like I was risking losing control of the bike. Next year… (Edit: Wish I didn’t add this one up, but lost my crew last minute so was using drop bags. Spent 4:20 combined in the TL aid station in/out. Damn.)
I already have my coin and entry for 2024. Too early to start next year’s thread? 
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Nice riding with you again @BCM and likewise it seems easy to say my 9:05 finish could be painful given how close it was. But honestly, I think I’m more of a 9:30 guy and the conditions were just so much faster this year that I ended up 9:05. They ran out of big buckles because like 200 more people than usual finished sub 9. After I recover and forget about how much traveling to and from Leadville sucked, I will probably want to give it another go so we’ll see next year. I really had fun riding and was never praying for it to end or anything like that even though it was hard. The event is just so fun to be a part of.
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I used TR for training (loosely) but never paid any attention to progression levels. However, I used the polarized plans and added duration to the long rides. Therefore, I likely had very high endurance levels. I could ride Zone 3 all day. My IF on race day was .7 and that didn’t feel like what I was capable of (more like .75).
While true that this year was an anomaly with perfect dirt and tail winds, I also didn’t have a great race physically. That being said if I had an extra 35 watts of FTP it would have been a lot easier and the likelihood of going sub 9 is much higher.
My reason for bringing this up is that with appropriate planning, acclimation and endurance a big buckle is feasible with less than 4 watts/kg.
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Congrats on the big buckle. Agree that 4w/kg sea level FTP is just a guideline and there are lots of examples of folks doing sub 9 with less. From what you’ve said, it sounds like you probably respond to altitude better than many, probably helps that you already live pretty high. And your 242 FTP at 5300 is not that far off from 4w/kg when adjusted to sea level. I was probably right at (or even slightly below) 4w/kg sea level this year and ended up with an 8:41 finish. Only 8 minutes faster than 2021 on very similar power and good execution both days. So, the course/wind made times faster, but not crazy faster (at least for me). Besides the course and wind, the cool weather also helped the folks who struggle in the heat. All that together made for some really fast times, particularly inbound. I expect Keegan’s record is going to stand for a while unless we start seeing stronger group/team dynamics at the pointy end.
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Same here, but maybe we should give until September? 
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Congrats on the big buckle! I have seen about 5-15 minute faster times from my friends who have done it before several times.
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Video from EF/ Lachlan Morton below. I was in leadville for over 2 weeks prior to the race (often camped on the road leading to St. Kevins) and I saw Lachlan pre-riding the course a bunch. Bummer that he didn’t do better, but sounds like he had some bad luck early. Bike setup is interesting, especially running a 42t chainring.
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A friend of mine rode it (unfortunately had to drop out after struggling through ~60 miles with altitude sickness). His wife was crewing for him. When she got to one aid station, a nice family/friend group loaned her a chair and was very hospitable to her. Turns out, it was Lachlan’s crew!
Also, I saw that Rich Froning did it in 8:32:58! He/CrossFit may not be your cup of tea, but I’ve enjoyed seeing him get more into biking.
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I’m curious about chainline for both Lachlan and Keegan. The Highball can support up to 38t, and as best as I can tell the Scalpel HT a 36t.
Re: Keegan’s setup, looks like a XX SL crankset and Red PM spider. My best guess regarding chainline on that combo would be 51.5mm, as the outer ring on a Quarq spider is supposedly at 48.5mm (on wide spindle road cranks) and I think transmission cranks have longer spindles to allow boost offset rings (3mm) to yield a 55mm chainline.
Looks like he didn’t use the CR bolt covers, so he could have CR bolt spacers in there for another .5mm of outboard spacing. So maybe 52mm in the end.
I thought the standard transmission chain line was 55mm? I imagine the 36 and 38T mad are at 52mm.
I remember asking someone else who had a 40T on and they had spaced it out (i.e. superboost chain line on prior AXS)
I made these to list my times at each point based on a 10hr, 11hr or 12hr pace. It was super helpful as I rode at my zone 2 heart rate for the first 28miles and then knew where I was pacing. Then was able to adjust my efforts from there.
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So a post race update. I tested a week before the race at sea level to 276ftp, 3.38wkg. With this, I rode average heart rate of 130, right in the middle of my Zone 2 (127-138). I hit the halfway point and felt great and pushed it hard to the finish for an 11:13 finishing time, and my belt buckle!!
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The transmission groupsets are made for boost bikes and accommodate the 55mm chainline by pushing out the cassette 2.5 mm vs. the “old” Eagle groupset.
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Exactly, so running a 38 or 40 in a superboost chain line location would work fine. The frame clearance is most likely set at 52mm
Standard Transmission CL is 55mm.
SRAM didn’t change the chainring offset for Transmission rings (compared to boost setups), they just use wider spindles. Both use 3mm offset rings, but on a boost crankset you get a 52mm CL, on a transmission crankset you get a 55mm CL.
Things get funky if you then put road (2x) or power meter spiders on any of the above, as the resulting chainline depends on crank, spider, chainring position, etc.
Standard, late model SRAM road crank with 6mm offset chainring = 45mm chainline
Wide, late model SRAM road crank with 6mm offset chainring = 47.5mm chainline
Standard, late model SRAM mtb crank with 6mm offset chainring = 49mm chainline (original 1x MTB standard)
Standard, late model SRAM mtb crank with 3mm offset chainring = 52mm chainline (Boost)
Wide, late model SRAM mtb crank (55mm specific cranks or Transmission cranks) with 3mm offset chainring = 55mm chainline (new MTB standard)
Some of the chainlines above are rounded for simplicity.
There’s generally nothing with using a “narrower than specified” chainline with any modern drivetrain, it’s usually a matter of chainstay clearance – and manufacturers pad those figures like they do for tire clearance.
55mm chainline used on boost frames WITHOUT Transmission drivetrains works, but kinda sucks.
56.5mm chainline (superboost) on boost frames with Transmission drivetrain would similarly suck, but not as bad – certainly okay for a specific race.
and no one talks about Lachlan’s 42 and AI offset…
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Leadville was pretty special this year with the great weather conditions and historical efforts across the board (from Keegan FKT to the amplified number of sub-9 finishers). I know Leadville is often criticized as being overrated (I can think of both Jonathan and Nate firmly stating it was not a race they were interested in ever doing again); that said, I thought this year was magical and really cemented home to me how special of an event it really is. Is everything perfect about the Leadville 100? Nope, but it’s certain of those elements that make it so unique and special. Thanks everyone on here that shared the course with me that day!
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Yeah, it’s a different kind of event if you are coming from sanctioned road racing (or even MTB racing) background. This was my 3rd year at leadville (4th counting stage race in 2019) and count me as someone who is now totally bought into these mass start events with folks from all walks of life. As much as I know events like leadville and unbound are big commercial/corporate profit machines, there is an energy and vibe at these events that you just don’t get elsewhere as an amateur. And while Lifetime is a big company, I’ve found that the lifetime folks I’ve met who run these events are just as passionate about cycling as the racers. Yes, I remember Jonathan’s assessment from when he did leadville. Clearly it wasn’t his kind of racing at the time, but it sounds like he’s been changing his tune. He’s recently talked about a return to leadville and also tackling Unbound. With the interest in the Lifetime Grand Prix and other similar races in the US (Steamboat, the BWR series, etc.), I think it’s good for TR to be more engaged in this stuff (and gravel racing in general). Having Jonathan or other TR folks doing these events is good PR and makes for great podcast material in my opinion. As much as I like the pro perspectives on these races on the podcasts, it would be good to get more amateur perspective.
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