Had me worried for a minute. Not that it isn’t bad enough - but while they’re pretty much letting it burn in the Wilderness near Powerline, one of their main goals is to keep it from jumping or rounding Turquoise Lake. That happens and it goes from bad to much, much worse.
Silver Rush cancelled as expected. One bit of info that came from Lifetime communications - it sounds like reroutes are at least on the table for the other events. I don’t know the area well enough to even speculate on what route options might be, but I’m thinking a re-route might be the only way any of these events happen this summer.
If there are re-routes, I suspect that means a lot of pavement which will frankly be a major let down.
Assuming that they get the fire under control, air quality and potential evacuations aren’t a risk - they’d probably have to eliminate Hagerman’s, Sugarloaf, and Powerline. Run Turquoise Lake Road from the intersection of Hagerman down to 5/5a and get back on course?
Definitely wouldn’t be the same race…
I’m not sure if the fire has made it down to hagermans from Sugarloaf, but assuming that it doesn’t - you could add an out and back up hagermans (it’s a decent climb if you skip the turn off to sugarloaf and goes a long way up the mountain). It would be sort of like the out and back up columbine, but should be much safer since it doesn’t narrow down like the top of columbine.
Looks like a good climb. Could be an option, but I think most or all of the fire activity on would need to be over if they are going to keep the route in the general area on the west side of 24 - maybe even all the way down to twin lakes.
I drove through Leadville yesterday. The fire had noticeably expanded south vs Friday.
I think they are making good progress towards containment in the highest priority areas tho.
I missed the turn off to sugarloaf in a training ride last year, it doesn’t take long for Hagermans to become crazy rocky. I saw one of those rock-climbing jeeps having some difficulty. It would certainly add some ‘real’ mtb racing to it.
The Forest Service has closed National Forest land through Sep 30th. This impacts much of the LT100 course - Kevin’s through Twin Lakes.
If there is a “reroute” - the race would need to stay on the east side of Route 24. It’s possible they might decide/try to use a variant of the Silver Rush course. But the traditional LT100 course, or a rerouted version of it, won’t be an option this year.
Come to think of of it - the Silver Rush is about 50 miles long. How about do 2 laps of that for the 2026 edition of the 100!
One clarification - while not looking likely right now, they could rescind this closure at any point they see fit. So technically if there’s a lot of rain and the fire gets put out and goes cold, the race could still happen on the traditional 100 course.
But, this is another step that makes it even less likely they’ll be able to use it.
Honestly - I’d rather see a Silver Rush Double than a cut back version of the 100 Course.
Agree - the order could be rescinded if the situation improves sooner.
If I’m in Lifetime’s shoes and I’m planning a reroute however, I would shift focus to seeing if a Silver Rush variant might work, vs spending time on a legacy 100 course variant.
2x Silver Rush would be brutal.
That’d be brutal. 16,000’ of climbing vs 12k for the normal course. In my opinion SR is almost as challenging as the 100, and that’s just for one lap, lol.
Rain today was very, very mild….supposedly there’s more in the coming days. I’m surprised they offered refunds for the SR50 cancellation.
Nearly half the course is closed, and there is no real way to connect what’s open near Twin Lakes and Columbine with anything that resembles the Leadville 100. A reroute that carries the name is a long shot, and Lifetime risks devaluing their most valuable race asset by doing it.
And frankly, the Forest Service has no mechanism to care about a bike race, however iconic or important it is.
This really sucks. Everyone here, and 1800 other people around the world have been training the entire year for this.
I just don’t see any other way for Lifetime to move forward other than do what they did with SR.
Hopefully for the race series, it has a good insurance policy to protect the momentum and good I feel LT has done for offroad bike racing.
The worst part is how this impacts the Leadville community. Last year was my first year, and I had no idea how much economic activity these races bring to the area throughout the year.
If they can find a way to put on a race that weekend that is safe for racers and not a burden on the community, I’d bet they do it. And I’d be there. And I bet a lot of others would go as well. The community needs the tourism $'s and I’m not really hung up on the course. There will be people going to Leadville that weekend even if the race is cancelled (assuming the fire is out and evacuations are lifted). I remember covid year, the town was busy that summer even when the race was cancelled. With a totally different course, I could see Lifetime giving people the option to defer (without paying again) for next year, but I bet a lot of people would participate on a different course.
They keep closures for longer than anticipated and can easily rescind them once the fire is contained and crews are not impacted. I would expect that for most of the course area other than sugarloaf. Also the order allows for permit holders to be allowed access, so they could allow it if not dangerous.
Monsoonal moisture arrives in 10 days and will hopefully douse a contained fire and cleanup can begin.
You’re right on these points.
I just don’t see how anything other than a very minor reroute is still the Leadville 100. They might call it something else. They could still hold a rad race and I’m positive people would attend. The town needs the economic drive.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed like everyone else.
The forest service is the only agency with experience with their own closure notices and timelines. It would have been just as easy for them to notice July 31st and the issue a new one extending it into August and September as needed. Instead they chose September 30th because,well, I have to assume that’s how long they estimate it takes to ensure safety, maintenance, access restoration, services etc, on the land they oversee.
I’d love to know what width Bjorn Riley is running at the World Cup. They look super narrow compared to everyone else, but he is also incredibly technically talented.
Update: found a bike check from 2025 saying his Scott has 700mm bar width, not sure if its the same for this year.
He’s running 650s right now.
I recently watch a YouTube video, can’t recall which, where he said something like 660-680mm. Can’t remember exactly but I’m at 700mm and remember being shocked how narrow he was.