Lutsen 99er held on June 29th 2024 is officially Sold Out. Waiting list is open though.
What did that take all of a week? Yeesh. Lifetime really needs something farther east as a Leadville qualifier.
Course for the 99er has been posted on Ride With GPS
Looks quite a bit different than from prior years. No repetitive loops to get the distance, but still has that climb to get up into the forested areas, then the rest of the 6,100’ of elevation is death by a thousand cuts.
I guess the first order of the day is don’t blow up on the first 3 mile/800’ climb. Now I’m happy to have a 6.8 mile 2100’ climb in my back yard. 
1 Like
I saw that - at least there won’t be traffic issues from the loops?
Any locals familiar with the new route?
1 Like
Forgot to chime in earlier, I’ll be there. I think that the shorter distances all finish on High Climber, so there’ll probably still be traffic there.
I’ll be there. I did it in 2022 and it looks like a very very different course. Also, maybe I’m just remembering wrong, but having to do sub 7 just to get out of the white corral at Leadville seems real fast. Maybe it’s always been that fast. Idk.
As for the first climb, it was a welcome task after freezing down the descent to the lake. I’ll be honest, the new starting location looks better.
based on Strava posts from 22/23 they were the same. This…this looks quite different.
This year has very little overlap with last year. Basically, the big hill to start, and then the high climber singletrack to finish. Start location is the same as last year at the golf course.
Longer too - 103 miles vs 86 last year I think? So, who knows if Leadville corral times are updated yet.
They probably won’t be able to update the times til after the race to see how fast people do it. This is a very different course for Lutsen from anything before.
2 Likes
Yeah, but there’s also an element of me that feels like Lifetime could pull something like “Aww, F**k it…” and just leave the qualifying times the same…
1 Like
Well folks are going to have to be really cookin’ if there’s no adjustment at all.
1 Like
Does anyone have any lodging recommendations. I am driving up from Milwaukee, WI and do not want to pay a crazy amount for lodging.
I probably paid too much but did so with distance to the start/finish and spousal approval.
Lodging around Lutsen sucks. Last year I had a room over an hour away with no air conditioning and still paid too much.
1 Like
Lodging is the single reason I will probably not do Lutsen again. Last time I did it we were over an hour away and it was still $300+ a night. Makes for an early morning and long ride after the race filthy…
Lots of places are very expensive because they are mostly setup for ski vacations and sleep 8+, so the only way to really get the price down is to have a big group together. Finding a 1 bedroom or studio is going to be tough unless you’re willing to go with a dry cabin, (no plumbing, out door toilet)
If you are willing to do a dry cabin the selection goes up quite quickly. The trick is getting electricity.
Grand Maris has a lot of stuff, but it’s a 25-30 minute drive to the starting venue.
I’ve often wondered how many people decide to stay in Duluth and get up very early.
Even staying in Two Harbors is a 1h 10m drive.
And remember Lutsen Lodge, the resort across 61 from the golf course just burned down last week…
Sea Otter Fuego XL is in the books.
Lutsen is the next Leadville qualifier on tap.
Unless someone chimes in on this thread I’ll likely stick with the Schwalbe Racing Brothers (Ray/Ralph), but will bump from the 30t I ran at Sea Otter (8,934 feet of climbing over 68.5 miles) and go to at least a 32, maybe a 34 depending on how my climbing legs come along in the next 2 months. I’ve done laps at Sea Otter on a 34. It wasn’t fun, and I wasn’t going to be able to do 2 laps, but I did not die even if I questioned myself many times.
1 Like
If you look at the course, there’s really no extended climbing except for the initial climb. Some short / punchy stuff. I don’t think you need a 32, but I also don’t think there was anywhere on the course I spun one out last year. I’ll be running a 34, but running that for Leadville too.
I’ve never used Schwalbe’s - I ran 2.2" Race Kings at Lutsen last year, will be doing it again this year.