I want to visit Bentonville sometime, but another event in the Western half of the country? Meh… Not to beat a dead horse, but they need something out east.
Fall is when I’m usually taking time off the bike and doing other things too, but that’s me.
5 Likes
Fall is actually my favorite MTB season but it’s my dedicated flat pedals, baggy clothes, anti-XC time of year. It’s my one block where I can completely ditch a plan or structure and ride purely for fun while coasting on leftover Leadville fitness.
I made the mistake of racing once in the fall and hated it so this one’s probably not for me… but then again I have always wanted to check out Bentonville one of these days.
1 Like
Seems useful.
1 Like
I did lutsen (Link to recap) and highly recommend it. The course is fun and straight forward, the town is great, and there are tons of great trails all over the place for the days after the race. Oh, the people rock!
3 Likes
Heres a link to my Leadville race recap from 2022
1 Like
Thanks Liam. I hope they are useful to people looking for a more long form view of the course. All 3 stages are up:
Stage 1 - Leadville Stage Race 2022 - Stage 1 - YouTube
Stage 2 - Leadville Stage Race 2022 - Stage 2 Columbine - YouTube
Stage 3 - Leadville Stage Race 2022 - Stage 3 - YouTube
or a playlist option: Leadville Stage Race 2022 - Stage 2 Columbine - YouTube
I’ve also had a request for an uncut version of Columbine so I may post that.
Some stage notes:
Day 1, I put on a windbreaker at Pipeline Aid and it covered my gopro for some of the ride to Twin Lakes so that’s not in the video. Lost are the singletrack down and most of the gravel road to TL.
Day 2, I cut quite a bit of the climb and hike, putting short pieces in where I thought they might be helpful.
Day 3 is the most complete course wise
I’ll be racing the 100 this year, likely out of the blue corral.
6 Likes
Stirring up this Leadville thread. My fundraising is coming along and I’m nearly to the goal. Can’t wait till Leadville. I’ll be shooting for sub-10 out of the white corral. Couple of questions:
-
As for TR plan, as I understand it Nate did a Century Plan for his 2018 Leadville? Is that still the recommendation? I’m in the middle of XC season right now, which will run through end of May. I assume there’s a lot of overlap in my current training but once that season wraps up I’ll need to shift my focus towards more of the sweet spot and sustained power efforts plus some longer rides.
-
For those of you who have been before, where do your spectators stand for the race start? Is there any chance of handing off your jacket/outer layers to them prior to shotgun blast?
1 Like
-
For TR specialty phase, Century plan is pretty good with a mid-week VO2 max and a mid-week threshold ride (low and mid-volume plan). If you have the time on weekends, would really focus on getting in some long outdoor rides on those days. Back to back on Saturday and Sunday are going to be very helpful even with keeping the intensity lower. The high volume Century plan starts adding in Anaerobic work and I’d avoid that. With riding XC now you should be plenty topped off in the anaerobic department and you really don’t need it for Leadville. Building FTP and TTE are the keys.
-
There should be no issue handing off a jacket to someone before the start on the side of the corral. I’ve handed mine off to someone about 5 - 10 minutes before the start.
1 Like
Apologies for the slight tangent.
Leadville is a bucket list event for me since I first saw the Race Across the Sky doc back in 2009. I was talking to my wife about saving towards a family trip holiday when we’re 40 and trying to tack it on.
Is Leadville ok to take your kids and wife too? Even if they have asthma? Or would I be best to try leave them at lower altitude?
The event is very family friendly. Lots of kids in attendance at the aid stations and finish line areas so could be a great experience for them.
In 2020, the year the race was not held, there were a lot of fires out west and the air quality in Leadville was really bad. Fires are a bit unpredictable but usually the air quality is good.
The air is dry but that isn’t necessarily an issue for everyone with asthma. Altitude can also be a factor for some, but this effects people different and a history of asthma does not equate to being more prone to altitude sickness.
1 Like
The town of Leadville is at 10,200 feet. Every time I have stayed there, I haven’t gotten good sleep.
The last time I rode in Leadville (Silver Rush 2021), the night before I stayed in Avon at 7,500 feet, and drove to Leadville the morning of the race (~1 hr).
So that’s an option vs staying at 10,200 feet.
There’s a ton of good real MTB trails in the Colorado / Utah area. Give yourself enough time before / after Leadville to ride them. While Leadville is for sure a cool race experience, its not good mountain biking.
3 Likes
Absolutely, my riding preferences have changed, but I can’t shake the desire to go and chase a belt buckle.
I’d really love to do BCBR, ST6, and maybe Breck Epic, but I don’t currently see a pathway to being able to afford to do any of those.
If you come out for Leadville and want to make a trip out of it, definitely ride in Breck even if you don’t have plans to do the Epic. There’s some great riding there, and it’s not far to get there from Leadville at all. If you want to drive further, Crested Butte is another great option. I’m also partial to Steamboat. All of those places have the added benefit of being good for a family trip outside of biking (fun mountain towns to explore).
Leadville is potentially on my target list for 2024 because I similarly can’t shake the desire to go for a buckle (and living in Denver, it’s a close race to get to), but I had a conflict to be able to target it this year.
1 Like
Because of lodging for a week in an expensive mountain town?
If so, I certainly can’t discount that, it’s a huge expense for a family. Given it’s already pretty damn expensive to travel out to CO though you could always go for broke and do Lead Epic where you do LT100 on Saturday and then roll directly into the 6 day Breck epic on Sunday.
That’s my current plan for this year if I can get back into Leadville via Silver Rush. Otherwise just Breck Epic. I live in CO though which greatly simplifies the logistics.
3 Likes
That’s an awesome plan, and definitely something I’d look to do.!
The problem with cost is mostly just getting to Canada or America. It’d be a $10k trip just on my own.
If I can also tie it into a once in our kids childhood trip it makes it seem more reasonable lol.
Maybe in 20 years when the kids leave home I’ll come do all the races guilt free.
1 Like
What are people running for chainring / cassette combos at Leadville? Would be helpful to know your w/Kg or target time too.
Right now I have a 34T and 10-52 on the bike. w/Kg should be 4-4.2 if things go well, and I’m targeting sub 9 hours. I have a 32T and 30T that I can swap on easily, and will be at the camp at the beginning of July where I’ll get to ride the course and try things out.
Intuition is telling me to drop down to the 32T as the amount of time I’ll be spinning it out over 30MPH will probably be much less significant than the time I’m creeping up steeper sections.
Comments?
3 Likes
I’m similar w/kg and have tried both. My preference is the 32t and I found it really helped late in the day, especially up Powerline, then those sharp short climbs near top of St. Kevin’s on the way back, and that last tough rocky section on the Boulevard.
I think the general consensus is going to be if you are in doubt between two chainring sizes, go with the smaller one for LT100.
4 Likes
I’d recommend 32T for you with a 10-52.
Almost everyone under 4W/kg should be running 30T or smaller. People get all worried about spinning out in a pace line and then have a gear where the need to walk half the climbs. Save a minute to lose an hour.
This is big pet peeve of mine because even in the front few corrals where people should be strong enough to clear columbine (or most of it) it only takes a few with bad gearing to impede the single rideable line and logjam everyone else.
Of course the goat trail is going to be a conga line for most people regardless, but a big contributor is bad gearing.
5 Likes
What percent of riders actually ride up the full Columbine climb? Just the first couple groups?
Breaking the climb into 2 parts, the main dirt road part and the goat trail.
Most everyone in Gold/Silver should ride the entire thing. I’d think Red is mostly riding, walking in a few spots of goat trail. My experience in Green is somewhat similar, more walkers in parts of goat trail, but people re-mount and ride other than 2-3 particularly brutal sections.
Purple and orange mostly everyone still rides the road part, but you end up walking progressively more of the goat trail. Towards the back of blue and white I see people even pushing their bikes up the road part of the climb. If you’re pushing your bike near the bottom, very unlikely you are going to make the cutoff.
If you ride it outside of race day I don’t find it to be that bad to ride the goat trail with proper gearing and ability to take any line you want. Of course that’s usually not with as much load beforehand, but the real problem is that there will be 2-way traffic for 95% of people and the walkers impede the few rideable lines there are in the scree. So once enough people start walking that you can’t safely get around them it cascades and everyone has to walk regardless of fitness/gearing.
This is not an issue on the Powerline climb inbound in my experience in green. It’s thin enough there and the trail/road is wide enough that you can get around. I was able to 100% clean powerline last year but had to walk the chunks of goat trail due to traffic. I don’t think riding Powerline saved me any appreciable amount of time, it’s purely ego.
6 Likes