Watching the video, It was pleasing to see John G. give them a clear piece of his mind after the crash.
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Yeah, I agree. That said, immediately after finishing, I was so relieved I managed to make my goal of getting the big buckle so I never had to do it again. Today, Iâm already thinking about entering the lottery again. Funny how that works!
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I got a buckle (little one!). Will post up an in depth post later once I can use the iPad as trying to type on here at the moment on my phone is a pain(think it is an iOS 26 beta bug!)
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I hit Twin Lakes inbound on target pace to the minute. I think I rode with small groups most of the way to Outward Bound and my time there was 1 minute behind target pace. Itâs a blur now though and I honestly barely remember much of it.
I also finished 49 minutes after leaving Carter Summit and I gave it absolutely everything I had left. Bummer about being so close but congrats on the strong finish. Scrolling the results, looks like someone missed the big buckle by only 4 seconds. A few times during the race, I made peace that I would be ok ending a bit over 9 hrs if I gave it my all⌠but 4 seconds wouldâve crushed me.
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Gaston would have finished sub six, gone back to hibernation in Aspen, win an Olympic medal during the â26 games, dust off his bike in June, and continue to wax all these grand prix pros at the ripe age of 39. Truly astounding. Iâd be shocked if he goes back.
Anyway, apologies for any sort of derailment. Kudus to everyone giving it a go and enduring the conditions this year. Major props.
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Right on the iPad now so can type properly.
firstly a fantastic event - so much support throughout the course. Coming from the U.K. and doing events there it was amazing in comparison. My wife had a great day in Leadville, chatting to loads of people, everyone was really friendly and she enjoyed the atmosphere. We are glad we made the effort to come over to the US for the event. Enjoyed the expo and the athletes brief.
so to my dayâŚ
set of in blue and had a good start. Was pretty cold so looked forward to hitting the climb and warming up a bit. Had a good ride up St Kevins, down the road and up sugarloaf. Enjoyed the Powerline descent. Didnât need to worry about- was much easier without people coming up.
Got to outward bound about 3-4 mins down on my 9 hour pace. Then I seemed to lose time on the next section. Couldnât get in a group p, had to stop to pee and then was in a queue going down the Singletrack before twin lakes. I was at about 9:45 ish pace I think by the time I got to twin lakes. Neutral aid was great, got my drop bag quick and started towards columbine. Had a good climb for 6 miles then hit the goat trail and joined the people walking up.
Columbine down was also fine but I started to get stomach cramps. It wasnât as bad as I thought with the two way traffic. Then struggled into the wind heading up the hill to twin lakes. Got through twin lakes picked up a bottle and then hit the head wind and the stomach cramps got worse.
Managed to use a porta potty at pipeline and felt a bit better but soon came back by the time I got to outward bound again. I was still on for just over 10 hours. From then on it was just a struggle to finish. Did not feel comfortable at all. Weirdly felt the best on the climbs as I was basically doubled over but the flats were horrible.
Got to the point I was bloated I couldnât take anything in for the last 90 mins. I limped home bleeding time after powerline and finished on 11:30. But mission success - I got a buckle which isnât guaranteed!
so what went wrongâŚI think it was the nutrition at altitude. I couldnt practice this. I practiced the nutrition but had no opportunity at altitude and ended up so bloated and uncomfortable. I only walked the goat trail and a bit of powerline though.
I think the altitude was worse than expected we went to 8600 ft for three days and felt good and then went up to copper mountain but def felt worse at copper mountain. Hadnât appreciated the impact of the air quality and dust either!
but at the end of a day it was a success. If I hadnât travelled so far and invested so much I donât think I would have finished but no way was I quitting even in such discomfort. Buckle collected and once you have got it you appreciate how much everyone puts into riding that course. I would do it again but it just isnât practical from the U.K. more than once due to the cost (unless we win the lottery!). Time to relax for a few days in Breckinridge before heading a bit South and the flying back to the U.K. overnight on Friday.
would recommend copper mountain to stay at especially with a family. Lots to do and only a 30 min drive.
Oh no not convinced my power meter was calibrated correctly - average of 92w which doesnât seem enough to get me around in that time. Well under my target of 180w.
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She posted on Facebook she was DQâd for taking a bottle at an aid station. 
Anyone know what happened with Lachlan Morton? Shows he made it to Carter Aid, but nothing after that.
Not his fault as they stepped out in front of him. However, maybe cut your speed a bit for self preservation knowing feed zones are always chaos. Looked like he was full gas.
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Thatâs a half mile long straight downhill where everyone is straightlining it. Wide 2 lane washboarded gravel road. Crews on both sides. Gaston was the second person to come from the uphill after Keegan. The dude just walked out without looking uphill.
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Apparently crews are only allowed to provide support in 4 designated aid stations, and she grabbed a bottle from a crew member at an aid station other than those designated.
She claimed to be unaware of that rule. I find it a bit hard to believe that she didnât read the rules ahead of time, particularly one so important it would ultimately result in a DQ. Thatâs a pretty common rule at basically every large race of this format..
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Iâd honestly have been surprised if they did any VO2 efforts recently. When youâre riding 25hrs a week and doing threshold/SS/tempo efforts you will maintain your VO2 pretty well. Theyâve also been spending tons of time way up at elevation so you wouldnât really get the same adaptations from the workouts anyway.
At least for me, once racing starts in like April Iâll do maybe 3 VO2 workouts for the rest of the year.
They take so much out of you if done properly, once youâre at a super high level you donât get much (anything?) out of one off VO2s and need a bit more of a concentrated block, and you are maintaining and touching those efforts all year through races. Iâm sure theyâll do a bit more of them in the next couple months going into Chequamegon but it would likely be a bit more anaerobic with some VO2 touch up.
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Ignorance is not a very good defense⌠especially for a pro.
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Exactly, high volume maintains VO2max just fine, and you probably shouldnât be looking to drive VO2max higher in the weeks building up to a 6-12 hour event, relative to training other things more relevant to your performance at that point, which is why I asked the question.
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Yep, thatâs why this question has been asked about specialty phases for ultras. TR just doesnât have them.
I think if youâve spent any length of time in these TR Leadville/Unbound threads, youâve seen that many of us arenât following the AI plan, because VO2/Threshold that close to an ultra just isnât the best stimulus, but the model isnât aware enough to do it automagically.
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I kind of thought that was why you asked that question, and I fully agree with your assessment.
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Threshold is probably fine. Especially for mid-week when you might not have time to do long SS blocks when maybe 4x15 Threshold is more feasible time-wise. But VO2s not so much.
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I was just wondering if anyone had power data for the major climbs at Leadville? I want to better understand the requirements of riding these climbs. People make them sound like the hardest climbs around, how true is that?
Put it simply altitude and when you encounter particular climbs, ups the difficulty.
In my opinion the first âhardâ climb is near the top of Columbine, just past the mine access road up to the Twin Lakes Overlook. It pitches up hard, usually has a rut or two plus traffic coming down on the left when youâre going up. Oh yeah itâs at 12,000 feet. /3657 meters. This is where people are walking.
The second hard climb is Powerline Inbound. Itâs 80 miles into the race, youâre gassed at altitude, and it varies from 15-20% for half a mile.
When I did my pre-ride last year I walked at least part of both of those sections.
So just on the terrain and grade, no, theyâre not impossible for a TR user. I ride stuff like that here in the SF Bay area all the time, and Iâm 93kg. The altitude and race day are factors that donât register until you get there.
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9:27. First time.
I did this too. Purple corral. Paced conservatively up through Kevins and Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf and Powerline descents were painfully slow. Iâm a confident XC descender and got behind groups that nearly slowed to a stop on some areas. Donât know how much time I lost, but by going conservative at first and then slow on those descents, I figure I lost ~10 min to what I could have done.
My biggest failure was getting caught in no manâs land between OB and TL both in and out. I couldnât find any cohesion with the few groups that blew by me or that I passed. These collective 30 âeasy" miles crushed me with the head and cross winds.
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