Leadville 2025 thread

Save the weight in your bags. How is your wife getting from Outward Bound to Twin Lakes? I hear using the shuttle for timing is very questionable.

I always carry a jacket just in case. I pack it down really tight (compressed/wrapped with gaffer tape inside a baggie) and stick it in my downtube storage. Easy to rip open in emergency. I also have one of those hotel plastic shower caps and nitrile gloves with it. Never had to use any of it in the race, but they weigh almost nothing and can hold in a lot of heat if things go bad. The bad weather usually doesn’t last long, but you never know.

1 Like

It will be in drop bags so neutral aid will be carrying it out there!

1 Like

If you’re behind me or overtaking me, my bike will have the RAF roundel on the seat tube, just like my profile image. Say hello.

rode from the bottom of st kevins to powerline and back in the rain yesterday… it was soooo cold even with my rain jacket… the powerline descent with cold hands was not so fun. lol

1 Like

You will be wearing a jacket while in the corral. I did that last year and dropped it by a garbage can before my wave was released. When I got back to town the pile was still there along with my jacket. It’s a matter of how much cold can you take before you get to St. Kevin’s. That first climb will warm you up, but how cold are you willing to be on the way there? If you have a wind vest on there’s a good chance you’ll want to take it off around the bottom of Powerline, but keep it handy for the Columbine descent.

Granted all of this is highly dependent on the weather of the day.

The last 3 years, I started with summer jersey/bibs and no arm warmers. I know I’ll be freezing my butt off even if wearing arm warmers and vest until I hit Kevins, so I just chose to suffer for those 15 minutes before the climbing starts. And honestly, it’s just the initial downhill out of town that hurts really bad (~8 minutes). Once you get on the dirt road heading toward Kevins, there is enough effort required that it’s only a little miserable. And once I’m on Kevins, it’s totally comfortable. It’s so dry and sheltered from any wind on those climbs that it’s very comfortable climbing with temps in the 40’s. When I pre-ride columbine, I’ll often head out at dawn and go with arm warmers and vest, but they come off in the first couple miles as I’m getting warm on that first drag out of twin lakes. I’ll keep arm warmers with me just in case on race day, but haven’t needed them the last few years. Never raced with a vest, but have the rain jacket if things go sideways. But agree that it’s all weather dependent. It was a little misty/foggy at the start either last year or year before and I remember thinking how bad it would have sucked if it was full drizzle/rain.

1 Like

I’ll try and remember if I’m not suffering too much :rofl:

This is what I have used in the past for fueling. I just have an alert every 15 minutes to drink and every 30 minutes to down a gel or a bar (though I find it really hard to eat anything solid)

I start with C90 mix in the morning as it has less sodium and switch to C30 mix after at Lost Canyon inbound on the way back (mixed as C90 which adds another 300mg sodium per hour)

1 Like

that BiCarb has crazy sodium!

1 Like

Alerts are good, but can be tough to follow them exact based on challenging sections of the course. I find the first good opportunity to grab something after the start is after that first steep part of Kevins where it turns left and flattens out a little bit. And then once you get to carter aid, there’s that long stretch down the road and back up. And then grab something on Hagermans and then again on top of sugarloaf. I try to eat 3x an hour, but it’s usually not evenly spaced and more dependent on chill spots on the course. Once you descend powerline, it’s pretty easy to grab food on schedule until you reach upper columbine.

1 Like

Agree…I found it easier to take a drink from my USWE pack until Kevins flattens out then I took a gel. Sometimes it can be hard opening a gel in that first hour so I took your advice and bought two of the 250ml soft flasks for my gels as I think they will be easier to use.

Now family is starting to ask about tracking me during the race. When I log into Chronotrack I see ā€œSpecify your mobile and social connections here. We will send your live race updates to these connections for enabled eventsā€. I read that to mean I can add my Mom’s cell number and she’ll get a text when I ride over a timing mat. Am I correct?

Any site that people can look at (for people who wouldn’t want texts) to see how I’m doing? I’ve told them check out Velonews when they post I beat Kegan… but in case they want faster updates… :grinning_face:

Do you mean Athlinks?

I thought LT events use this??

They may be the same. The URL says chronotrack, but logos at the bottom show both.

I assume they are the same system, just 2 different ways to get the data. Put the text numbers in Chronotrack for the push updates. Once we are closer to race day, they will update the website with a URL to Athlinks where results can be viewed in real time. This is the main LT100 page, you have to scroll down a bit to expand to see results section/link. It’s linked to 2024 right now (and prior), but they usually update the link for the current year at least a week before the race.

Getting my heat training in lately. Actually hasn’t been crazy hot (low 90’s), but the humidity has been brutal. I’ve been trying to dial in my sodium intake and I totally imploded on my long weekend ride with cramps only 3.5 hours in. But I felt good today with about 10k feet of tempo climbing and zero cramps (but leaving a trail of sweat with every pedal stroke). I almost pulled out my phone at one point to take a video of the sweat trickling out of the bottom of my shoes, off my elbows, hands, chin, nose, ears. I’m so sick of riding with squishy shoes. I always track my fluid consumption and weigh myself before/after and I sweated ~11 liters (24 lbs of fluid) on my 6.5 hr ride today (and I was taking it pretty easy between the climbs). I’m about ready to lose my mind, but just one more week in the swamp and then it’s off to the dry mountain air.

3 Likes

Heat here has been back and forth. 100 and humid, back to the 60’s low 70’s and rain. Back in the 90’s and humid today. I’ve been supplementing heat training with one of those Amazon Infrared Bag Saunas, will probably even throw it in the truck and bring it with me to stay ā€œtopped offā€ while in Leadville.

I hit the road a week from Saturday, can’t wait.

2 Likes

for those who are doing hydration and carbs separately, are you using individual gels, flasks? I was thinking of those soft flasks to make it easy to ā€˜sip’ on my gels as I ride vs powring down 50g at once. I’m using an USWE pack because I want to be cool, so how are people attacking their flasks? USWE has chest pockets which would work, but no stores around me have them so I’d have to order them and want to see if that’s the solution most people are doing.

I used flasks at Silver Rush for the first time. On one hand it is easier to take in the carbs quickly. On the other it is harder to dial in exact amounts and you have to carry the empties in your pocket. I carried them in my jersey pockets.

I will use them for Leadville.