In addition to safety, they may also be banning drop bars for marketing reasons. If I was in Lifetime’s shoes, I’d want to preserve the positioning of Leadville as a MTB race, not gravel. And pics with a bunch of riders on drop bars would change the perception towards gravel.
On safety, I agree that wider flat bars are safer all else equal. Especially if you don’t rack up a lot of hrs practicing MTB descents on a drop bar setup - which is probably most people other than pros.
Good riddance drop bars. A woman I passed descending Powerline looked extremely unsafe/uncomfortable on them. I think Leadville would be much improved for safety as well if they completely removed the open lottery. Take all of those lottery slots and add them to deeper automatic slots at each qualifying event and/or deeper lottery slots at each qualifying event.
I recognize this ‘leaves out Europe’ but maybe there is an opportunity to put one qualifier there as well.
This way everyone has earned their way in (the qualifiers themselves require grit/fitness/skills to just finish for most people) and shown they have some level of competency. Would really feel like a championship race.
Agree with this. They have moved away significantly from this in recent years. The main reason now to do a qualifier (unless you are top 3 age group) is to get a better corral spot for the LT100 that you already have entry for.
32 chainring with a goal time of 8:30.
Not racing it this year but did last year with a 32t x 10-52t and finished 8:51, walking about 5 min up the Columbine goat trail and about 7 min up the bottom of Powerline… everyone around me was also walking both. There were definitely times I wished I had a 30t but if I race again, I’ll probably run 32t again. No way I’d ever run anything bigger.
5 finishes with 4 big buckles and have always run a 32 w/ 10/52. Actually, the one year I didn’t break 9, I had a 10-50 cassette for much of the race (because I had to swap wheels at twin lakes). But it wasn’t the missing teeth that made the difference, it was the flat proceeding the wheel swap and mental screw ups I had that year. But the 2 missing teeth were still in my head all day…
There are a few spots I’m wishing for a 30t chainring, but I think a 32 is the right call for me. And a 32t is the smallest option for my PM spider anyway.
Hmmm, as I feared….I think I’ve been messing this up. I’ve only ridden/raced the course on a 34t and it’s not like I’m some powerhouse or anything. Never even thought to consider a 32 until I looked at my sram data from the race and saw what gears I was using the most and how much. Going to try a 32 this year and I’m guessing that will mean less walking. Thanks and keep answering the poll above so we can get more data points!
I think more important than the less walking is the fact that you’ll have fewer spots where you’ll be grinding the **** out of your quads.
For example, St Kevin’s is no joke for the first 10 minutes and saving your muscles just a little that early in the day goes a long way.
As a newbie, can you explain why 2 different tires and why running different pressures. Will be doing LT 100 this year but am a new to mtn biking… I’ve run historically. TY in advance.
Only reason is the 2.2 in rear is slightly lighter and better rolling resistance. I like having a slightly larger tire on front to help with traction and have done this in the past. Also, I typically run 1-2 psi higher in rear since that is likely what will take the hardest hits and cause a pinch flat. You are less likely to pinch flat on the front due to front suspension and easily being able to lift the front wheel before hard hits. Having lower pressure in front will also make cornering/traction feel much better and helps further absorb the small bumps/rocks.
With that being said…I was going off memory above and believe I was inaccurate in saying a ran a 2.2 in the rear. Looking back I had been running a 2.2 in the rear most of last year before LT100 but I believe I swapped it a few weeks prior for a 2.4 as I was concerned about possibly flatting again. Looking in my notes I ran 19 rear and 17.5 front for PSI which I set that morning before going to the corals.
I probably over think this stuff and as a newbie I would just stick with a lightweight rolling resistance 2.4 tire front and rear. There are lots of great tires but the Race King / Dubnital I would guess is the most popular tire for LT100.
This took up a lot of headspace for me last year and I had pre-rode on a 32, 34 and 36 with 10/52 cassette. I could ride everything on all 3 chainrings but was concerned about Powerline at mile 80 so went with a 32. I was able to ride everything except for slight bobble on goat trail which I walked 20 feet.
The SRAM AXS site is really good to look at to see time in various gears on rides….especially at Leadville. I had a fast Leadville time of 7:35 and spent 43 minutes in the 52. The two gears with the highest amount of time were the 10 and 12 at 56 minutes each, followed by the 14 and 52 at 43 minutes each. The 32 worked for me and I was able to hang in my fast group outbound but there were spots that I was spun out. Based on my time in gears, if I did LT100 again I probably would go with a 34 but for most I would stick with either a 32 or 30.
I’ve done it on a 34T and a 32T all with 10-52 - was back to a 32T last year for my fastest finish. 8:42, 4.4w/kg ish. I’m sticking with the 32.
Agree with @DamonM and I think @grwoolf made me realize this. At least with SRAM if you connect your shifters to your head unit, it logs gears, and then you can go back and do the gear analysis afterwards.
What I realized about the time I spent in the 10 cog - I was spinning, but I also wasnt’t going as hard as I was in the 52
The fact that someone who finished around 7:30 (wow💪) used a 32t, shows that the vast majority of riders should be on that or smaller. Pretty sure on podcasts, Johnathan has suggested 30t for most.
As an LT100 expert who’s raced it exactly once, my take is…
Based on target finish..
-sub 8 hrs: 32-34t
-sub9 hrs: 30-32t
-10+ hrs: 28-30t
Of course, incredibly strong riders should go larger. And riders who favor to stand and grind on climbs may prefer larger.
I think this is about right. I think sub 7 goes to 34 or 36 and I go both ways on it. The 36 is good for my strengths, 34 makes weaknesses cost less. Even with the 36 I’m in the 10 for a lot of the time, so it does have a benefit.
Pacing strategy question: Carry the weight of extra fluids and have fewer aid station stops? Or carry less fluids, and stop more frequently for refills?
I’ve used Best Bile Split to run both scenarios, and it tells me I can save 2:42 (gross savings) by not carrying around a full 750ml bottle for certain sections of the course, and instead make 4 extra stops to refill the bottle. More details below.
Assuming the time for a stop at each aid station to get a water refill from volunteers is 0:20 (includes slowing down; getting water refill; getting moving again), this is 1:20 total time for stops
Netting out for 1:22 total saved time.
Has anyone already contemplated this decision, and put it into action in past LT100s? What will you plan to do this year?
Details on the stops:
Stop 1 at Outward Bound. Save 0:45 by not carrying the bottle up Kevin’s and Sugarloaf climbs.
Stop 2 at top of Columbine. Save 0:53 by not carrying the bottle up Columbine.
Stop 3 at Outward Bound. Save 0:25 by not carrying the bottle between twin lakes and outward bound.
Stop 4 at Carter Summit. Save 0:39 by not carrying the bottle up Powerline and the road climb to Carter summit.
These would be 4 additional stops vs my “default” strategy of starting the day carrying more fluids, and refilling just at twin lakes (out and in).
Generally I don’t really worry about this until the week before the race, but personally I think the fastest would be to grab quick bottles at Outward Bound, Lost Canyon (TL Alternate), Lost Canyon, Outward Bound. In the morning it’s cool enough though that you can make it all the way to Lost Canyon without nearly the amount of fluids.
Literally takes no time at all to ditch bottles and get more.
Same goes for dropping a pack and getting a new one if you have them pre-filled for just marginally slower. But, much easier to drink from a pack in certain sections.
Top of Columbine is an emergency stop for me. You’re not drinking or eating from there back to Lost Canyon anyways unless it’s a pack.
You’ve put more analysis into it than I have, but here’s a few thoughts -
Stopping at outward bound in the morning is a bit of a gamble if you are already in a good group. In my experience, most people aren’t stopping before twin lakes or lost canyon in the morning (at least for the folks riding ~9 hour pace). There will certainly be other groups (possibly a better group) catching you if you are solo for a bit after stopping at outward bound, but that’s the most important stretch on the course to be in a good group. Also, it will still be cool that time of the day and you probably won’t need an entire bottle to reach twin lakes or lost canyon from Outward bound.
I wouldn’t skimp on fluids going up columbine and I’d argue that it’s somewhat pointless to grab a bottle at the top. Properly fueling and hydrating on the columbine climb is hard, but I think it’s the key how you will perform later in the day. And you really only need to bring enough fluids to get you to the top. There is basically no good opportunity to drink on the way down until you are very close to lost canyon (and it’s only ~20 minutes), so grabbing fluids at the top is a bit of wasted time IMO.
I totally agree with stopping at outward bound on your way back. The stretch from Outward bound to carter is the toughest/longest segment of the day and can be the hottest as well. Unfortunately, that means loading up right before powerline, but that’s the way it is (unless you want to cheat like all the folks getting bottles at the bottom of the road climb, drives me nuts every year).
Yeah! I botched my nutrition badly as well, and that added around 15-20min I reckon. I was slightly ahead of pace all the way to the bottom of columbine, but I just got too light on carbs and fluid and it started to take its toll.
I thought I had my support crew dialed in to be at Pipeline Alternate and Twin Lakes Alternate going out, then Twin Lakes Alternate, Twin Lakes, and Outward Bound coming back in. A last minute health issue for a crew member meant I’d only have crew at Outward Bound and Twin Lakes. Might not seem like a big difference, but with my timing on course with the aid stations, it meant I had to change things up and run richer mix in areas and leaner in others, and go dry in spots because that health issue came up the night before I had to fly out and my nutrition was already sorted.
But I have a more robust/flexible crewing and nutrition plan formed for 2026 with multiple people already assigned to specific aid stations so I can right those wrongs, hehe.
