The Leadville 100 is a gravel race

[rice rocket]

Everyone who's run the drop bars and commented said they're just as fast on the chunky sections, as long as you're willing to let go and get bounced around a bit.

Certainly ups the chance for puncture or injury, probably not something you want to do unless you're actually racing for money.

[benb]

Originally Posted by EB

The other issue for bike makers is that if they fully converge their short travel and hardtail models with their gravel bikes, they will confuse the marketing teams, so I expect we will still see arbitrary distinctions between "gravel race" bikes and XC bikes. Probably based around axle and bb standards.

Pretty sure the bean counters would put a hard stop to ever fully converging the lines as that would give at least some riders a chance to buy one bike when they should be buying 2 bikes.

It's always about more bikes.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by fourflys

I assume they meant oldest race still being raced?

Ah good point. Though the Checuamegon 40 was 1983

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by EB

For Leadville 100, it seems like most (all?) of the riders doing this are tip of the spear, to gain an aero advantage in the paved section. I'm not sure this setup would work well for pack fodder, given how sketchy some of the later descents are at Leadville, with the out-and-back setup where you have riders coming up at you while you go downhill on the same rutted af trail.

This. It's the same as UCI XCO pros riding twitchy XC bikes with "bald" tires. They can keep the bike upright over terrain that some of us can't ride at all on any bike setup.

I like the idea of a drop-bar mountain bike, but I'd use it for actual gravel. And I'd probably be just as fast on a super-light flat-bar hardtail.

[azrider]

Keegan interview regarding the bars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlQFmR0R_5w

[mickey.d]

Originally Posted by azrider

Yeah not sure the hate either for a race that's still held in pretty high regard amongst MTB community. It's a fantastic race. The overall atmosphere from "majority" of the town, the other racers,and vendors is all very positive. Ken and Merilee are ever-present from check in, to pre race meeting, to riding the course on 4 wheelers offering support.

It's a challenge just like any other endurance race AND it's done at 12,000' of elevation.

You should try racing it and THEN share your opinion.

My .02

Leadville has never been “held in high regard” by the mtb community.
30 years ago, like many, many people i was deep in the heart of the mtb community- and that community was about National racing- XC, Slalolm, Trials, DH. Nobody 30 years ago was excited to ride on dirt roads. We already had real tracks then, on highly differentiated, purpose built modern bikes.
Until Thom Weisel (the Amgen money man who owned the Postal Service cycling team) wrestled control of USAC from membership in 1998, the us National Series was the envy of the world. Nobody except locals or endurance freaks like John Stamstead had the slightest interest in ever racing on a dirt road for hours on end.

Each year from 1998 to 2004 Weisel and his minions in management did more and more to sabotage domestic MTB racing, until they finally killed off the national series forever in 2007. Whatching Armstrong and his un-indicted co-conspirators take up leadville as a hobby should enrage people. If you are banned for life, you are banned for life. No quarter

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by mickey.d

Whatching Armstrong and his un-indicted co-conspirators take up leadville as a hobby should enrage people. If you are banned for life, you are banned for life. No quarter

Related question... it appears Lifetime uses USADA for doping control - does this mean the Grand Prix athletes are on full bio passports like the UCI athletes, or some subset/smaller level of control?

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by mickey.d

Whatching Armstrong and his un-indicted co-conspirators take up leadville as a hobby should enrage people. If you are banned for life, you are banned for life. No quarter

I honestly give zero consideration or concern on what he does with his time. If someone was enraged by this, I would encourage them to consider how they manage their feelings and where they put their energy.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by Alistair

Related question... it appears Lifetime uses USADA for doping control - does this mean the Grand Prix athletes are on full bio passports like the UCI athletes, or some subset/smaller level of control?

You can see the USADA athlete test history here https://www.usada.org/news/athlete-test-history/ though it doesn't distinguish between blood collection for passport vs urine collection. The Grand Prix Athletes are in there with everyone else, though tested much less frequently than UCI road/mtb/track riders.

I think anyone who's tested is theoretically subject to the bio passport, but not every test is a blood test and if you're never blood tested, you're not good have a bio passport.

[gdw]

"Leadville has never been “held in high regard” by the mtb community.
30 years ago, like many, many people i was deep in the heart of the mtb community- and that community was about National racing- XC, Slalolm, Trials, DH. Nobody 30 years ago was excited to ride on dirt roads. We already had real tracks then, on highly differentiated, purpose built modern bikes.
Until Thom Weisel (the Amgen money man who owned the Postal Service cycling team) wrestled control of USAC from membership in 1998, the us National Series was the envy of the world. Nobody except locals or endurance freaks like John Stamstead had the slightest interest in ever racing on a dirt road for hours on end."

The MTB community was more diverse than you remember and there were more than a few folks interested in endurance racing in the 1990s. Leadville was the first 100 miler and drew so much interest that it became difficult to get an entry. The Cascade Creampuff and Shenandoah 100 on the west and east coasts were started shortly afterwards and were popular regional events. 24 hour races were also big back then as well.

[azrider]

Originally Posted by mickey.d

Leadville has never been “held in high regard” by the mtb community.
30 years ago, like many, many people i was deep in the heart of the mtb community- and that community was about National racing- XC, Slalolm, Trials, DH. Nobody 30 years ago was excited to ride on dirt roads. We already had real tracks then, on highly differentiated, purpose built modern bikes.
Until Thom Weisel (the Amgen money man who owned the Postal Service cycling team) wrestled control of USAC from membership in 1998, the us National Series was the envy of the world. Nobody except locals or endurance freaks like John Stamstead had the slightest interest in ever racing on a dirt road for hours on end.

Each year from 1998 to 2004 Weisel and his minions in management did more and more to sabotage domestic MTB racing, until they finally killed off the national series forever in 2007. Whatching Armstrong and his un-indicted co-conspirators take up leadville as a hobby should enrage people. If you are banned for life, you are banned for life. No quarter

Ummm.....yeah, we'll just agree to disagree

[dmitrik4]

Leadville looks like a cool race; if I still lived in Denver I’d be looking to try it.

Originally Posted by benb

Pretty sure the bean counters would put a hard stop to ever fully converging the lines as that would give at least some riders a chance to buy one bike when they should be buying 2 bikes.

It's always about more bikes.

It’s literally the reason bike manufacturers exist, so