Alright… what’s the consensus? Do we think that TOGS are allowed for the Leadville 100? The leadville 100 podcast mentioned that they might be acceptable, but definitely don’t want to be told to rip them off the bike.
Would something like this work?
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I just don’t see how they’d police something so small, especially if you’re not in the top 20 of the race. When you’re using them, they’re basically covered up anyways. I could be wrong, but I really doubt they’ll be DQing people for TOGS.
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Technically, I think they’re not allowed. But I agree, almost zero chance you’d get DQ’d.
They specifically said any “extension” was disallowed. Things like controls, computer mounts etc. don’t count as an extension because they serve another (and very well established necessary) purpose. A TOG is designed as an extension to the bar to facilitate a different grip, so would be a no-no unless they specifically allow it, which I agree would be nice.
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That’s interesting. I had used a bottle adapter strap thing on my Spark on long marathon races and put it on the top tube in the middle. It works well, looks weird, but does work. However, the velcro straps are starting to not hold tight and considering how I love my USWE pack, for the long marathon races I may just run the USWE pack for at least the first half, then put a bottle in the jersey for second lap/half (25 miles per lap).
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I might risk it and run them. Provides no aero advantage, but helps with hand comfort and climbing a lot!
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Officially they are not allowed. Beyond that I guess it’s up to you.
I ran TOGS a few years back and couple years ran the small carbon inner barends. These were way more useful to me and actually made me feel safer as I had something to hang onto and therefore provided some stablity if I hit a bump.
Based on the rule changes I just going to do some bar tape on the inner portion of the bars to both hold on to, but also allow for puppy dog technique (which we know is less safe than using inner bar ends…)
Hopefully this rule gets tweaked again in the future as the all or nothing approach doesn’t seem like a great solution. I can see wanting to ban full on aerobars, as there were a handful of riders on them last year. But some the other bar extensions could reasonably be allowed.
I also don’t think it makes sense to make a rule and then come out and say it might not be enforced. This just adds to confusion and potential messiness.
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Agree with this. Ultimately I think it’s going to be less safe when we’re all trying to use grip tape, hockey tape, grips, or nothing and still use that inner part of the bar.
They should just go through and say everything’s disallowed, except for this list… (or something like that)
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I’d have no concerns running togs unless you have a shot at a podium. Even then, the only risk I’d see is if a disgruntled competitor reported you (which wouldn’t surprise me). I have always run the inner bar tape and will do that again this year.
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Disclaimer: targeted at the idea, not any individual.
UCI banned these as well in January of 2022 if i remember correctly. For race organizers to make this a rule, whether or not they enforce it, still means do the right thing, or be a cheater. I love my SQL inner barends because they are so comfortable, and controllable. I already took them off my MTB with Leadville coming up, to get used to riding without them (BTW, I hate it). At this point, they are PEDs (performance enhancing devices). Just because they don’t drug test on the vast majority of amateurs, doesn’t mean you can or should use drug PEDs. I see no difference here. If you sign up to follow the rules, follow them. Don’t make volunteers and race officials disqualify you, that’s not going to be fun for anyone. If you are hell bent on using extensions, go ride the course whenever you want, and save $500.00 bucks; just don’t do it on race day.
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I generally agree in principle, but when a member of lifetime goes on a podcast and basically says they won’t be enforcing it, I personally wouldn’t worry about it if I wasn’t at the pointy end. At least for the togs, which I’d argue are not “in the spirit” of the rule banning extensions. Even if I was fighting for a podium and lost to a person running togs, no way I’d want them disqualified. If they were running aerobars, that’s a different deal.
Events like leadville are more of a ride than a race for a large percentage of the field. Rules can be squishy for events like these, common sense should prevail. If the UCI was running it, they would probably disqualify some 11:59 finisher because their 90’s mtb has bar ends (and the person riding it doesn’t even know what bar ends are). All that said, I wish they would drug test all the age group podiums and maybe a random sampling of folks finishing top 10 in their age group. There are some crazy fast old folks out there. I’m sure a lot of it is just great genetics and training, but I think some of those guys are glowing.
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EZ PZ, put your computer on this (as it is designed to accommodate) and voila, a slightly over engineered computer mount that incidentally you can hang on to…
This is the same as bending your race number all up the wazoo to make it aero.
Most organisers specifically tell you not to and that it must be readable, then the likes of DJ tell you how you can be cleverer than the rest 
.
(Having said that, I don’t consider togs to be extensions. Inner bar ends maybe. My rule would be if it extends beyond the brake lever/shifter, same as the ITU rule)
I do wonder if he is regretting what he said and at some point LifeTime walks it back realizing that those comments turned things into a bit of a gray zone.
Exactly my thoughts. TOGS, something for me to rest my thumb on is not the same as me completely removing my hands from their normal position and moving them away from my brakes and onto inner bar ends or aero bars.
Exactly why I brought this up. TOGS do not exist for the same reason that aerobars do. In fact, they may make riding safer by providing better grip when inevitably switching up hand positions.
On the leadville podcast this week, they covered different types of grips. Togs were part of the discussion and they had a quick comment that Togs don’t fall under the extension rule and would be fine. That’s a podcast host and no affiliation with Lifetime, but this one seems like a no-brainer. If you like togs, I’d personally have zero concerns running them.
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I actually ended up getting the B-rad Everywhere Base. Haven’t yet tried it on a rough MTB ride, but I’m pretty confident it will work.
Ok - question for those of you who’ve raced Leadville (or other high altitude races) coming from sea level. I’ve never raced at Elevation, so my question is more about “feel” of putting out comparable power levels if that makes sense.
Let’s say I discount my Leadville FTP by 20% as compared to Sea Level to start (Which should be roughly correct on average based on Bassett’s research, and yes that’ll change as you head up Columbine, etc.) . Does riding at that new, reduced FTP (or a same percentage of it) feel the same at Altitude as riding your normal one would at Sea Level? When I think about it, my legs will be used to training at a higher power and used to putting out a higher effort - but it’s the lack of oxygen.
Feel the same? Legs feel better but gasping for air? I will get a chance to test this out end of June, but I’ve been curious…
Hope everyone’s training is going well, just did a road century on the MTB and have my first “Tune Up” event next weekend.
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For me when I first show up at altitude it’s heart rate and breathing that you feel first and become limiters rather that the legs.
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