Each few years, riders expose how effectively Leadville Path 100 MTB might be raced. The high-altitude, endurance mountain bike race in Colorado has gained extra consideration since changing into a high-stakes spherical within the Life Time Grand Prix.
So when riders expose effectivity, like current winners Keegan Swenson and Kate Courtney setting course data, Swenson doing so in 2024 for the elite males and Courtney final 12 months for the elite girls, the dialog shifts from celebrating efficiency to defending id.
This 12 months’s id disaster? Handlebars.
Chances are you’ll like
The flat-bar versus drop-bar debate didn’t erupt as a result of riders all of the sudden forgot the best way to mountain bike. It occurred as a result of Leadville quietly rewarded effectivity, punished impatience, and exists in a grey zone between gravel, street and mountain bike.
When five-time Leadville winner Swenson first received the race on drop bars two years in the past. It wasn’t a gimmick; it was an announcement. When Dylan Johnson, a three-time US Nationwide Extremely Endurance Sequence winner, ran the numbers and confirmed that smoother pacing and aero effectivity may save actual time over 100 miles. It wasn’t principle; it was drag coefficients.
Payson McElveen, who has completed within the high 5 5 occasions with two podiums, appeared on the security considerations. Totally different bars imply completely different braking factors, completely different descending speeds, and completely different threat tolerances. In a fast-moving pack all the time above 10,000 toes, unpredictability issues greater than marginal aero positive aspects. From that lens, standardising tools isn’t anti-progress, it’s pro-safety.
She’s not fallacious. We’re arguing about handlebars as a result of the course itself is sending combined alerts.
The ‚VIP assembly‘
I used to be within the room when the handlebar dialogue occurred, which is now known because the ‚VIP assembly‘. No conspiracy, simply 15 Life Time Grand Prix racers making an attempt to unravel an actual drawback. The request for a rule change was initiated by us, the riders utilizing the course.
Chances are you’ll like
So how do combined handlebar setups change the dynamics of riders transferring by way of one particular race, Leadville Path 100 MTB, particularly when altitude and fatigue strip away margins?
McElveen articulated security considerations about completely different tools, particularly with braking on descents.
Others within the room, with out the identical sources as the highest riders, raised a unique situation in regards to the change to a drop-bar setup, which isn’t trivial. It’s costly, logistically difficult, and infrequently requires further help that not everybody has entry to.
„Among the many many strategies, getting rid of drop bars at Leadville had close to unanimous help,“ McElveen wrote on his Instagram feed to clear the air a few weeks in the past.
„And, perhaps much more shocking to a few of y’all, it was Keegan Swenson who introduced up the consideration of equity. Getting a drop bar MTB to work normally requires getting an additional body and taking place a dimension, a luxurious not everybody on the beginning line has…particularly youthful up-and-coming riders.“
As for me? I’m not a mountain biker by commerce. I used to be a roadie who picked up the self-discipline within the latter a part of my profession so I may compete within the Life Time Grand Prix. I like the broader platform of flat bars as a result of I really feel extra management over the bike. On the identical time, I don’t wish to be racing subsequent to riders within the drops. It’s the identical approach I really feel using subsequent to a time trial bike on my street bike on a gaggle trip: completely different hand positions, response speeds, completely different brake modulation.
By the tip of the assembly, there was no formal vote. It was extra of a vibe. The room swayed in the direction of banning drop bars.
Standardise the tools. Standardise the dealing with. And should one of the best legs win. However does that logic maintain up?
Life Time is the UCI of gravel, whether or not we prefer it or not
Cecily Decker completed third at Leadville on drop bars, utilizing the highest end result to complete second total within the Grand Prix in October. She wasn’t within the assembly, nonetheless. She didn’t have a vote. And she or he didn’t get to weigh in on who did. Her frustration wasn’t in regards to the determination itself, however about illustration.
“I used to be not current on the ‘tremendous secret assembly’ of athletes when the choice was made, nor did I elect any representatives to be current. So far as the protection concern, contemplating drop bars, I’m not conscious of any incidents that had been triggered instantly or not directly by drop bars,” she stated.
That critique is honest. The reality is, Life Time is a non-public, for-profit firm that owns each race in its off-road collection. They will make no matter guidelines they need. They aren’t required to ask for athletes’ enter.
However in a self-discipline with out a true governing physique, these choices inevitably tackle extra weight. When guidelines are framed as athlete-driven, the method issues. Broader athlete enter, clear communication, and precise voting.
As an alternative, the method appears a bit ambiguous: a handpicked group and casual consensus.
Breaking the course down, part by part
Picture 1 of 1
Let’s really have a look at Leadville piece by piece. This leads me to say that if the entire course demanded it, riders would self-select flat bars in a single day. No conferences required.
Begin to St. Kevins: chaos, adrenaline, unhealthy choices
Flat bars shine right here, not as a result of they’re quicker, however as a result of they’re acquainted. Riders surge, cowl strikes, and really feel in management. Drop bars encourage steadier pacing however can really feel awkward in a chaotic group.
A lot of the injury completed right here has nothing to do with handlebars and the whole lot to do with ego. Flat bars make that simpler.
St. Kevins to Pipeline: the primary check
Lengthy dust roads make for prime speeds. Nothing technical. Aero issues. Clean pacing issues. Riders on flat bars sit up, push extra watts, and burn matches.
This isn’t mountain biking. It’s a rolling FTP check at altitude
Pipeline to Columbine: the place self-discipline wins
On Columbine, flat bars really feel good – an open chest and higher leverage for standing bursts. Drop bars reward restraint. Sit, spin, and don’t panic.
Neither setup wins right here. The rider does. However one setup encourages persistence greater than the opposite.
Columbine descent: the protection argument
That is the place the protection argument hits the toughest. Descending drained, free, and oxygen-deprived on drop bars requires focus. Flat bars decrease the psychological tax. Fewer variables. Fewer moments the place one mistake cascades right into a heart-rate spike you by no means get better from.
If there’s a single part that justifies standardisation, it’s this one. Riders are descending drained, free, and oxygen-deprived after reaching the very best level of the race (12,424 ft / 3,787 m).
On drop bars, that descent requires precision. Hand place, brake modulation, and line selection all matter whereas fatigue eats away at every.
When fatigue, velocity differentials, and opposing visitors converge, security depends upon minimizing variability throughout fields. Flat bars try this. Drop bars don’t. In essentially the most chaotic and consequential descent of the race, standardisation will not be about limiting efficiency. It’s about lowering threat when riders have the least capability to handle it.
Pipeline return and Powerline: fatigue exposes the whole lot
Powerline doesn’t care what bars you select. It solely asks whether or not you revered the primary 80 miles.
The ultimate pavement drag: the place the argument comes again
If you happen to’re solo, exhausted, and using right into a headwind, aero isn’t theoretical. It’s survival. Drop bars save watts. Flat bars value them. That’s physics.
So, do drop bars provide a bonus? Typically. In particular locations. For particular riders.
Easier resolution for flat bars
What is the easy resolution if Leadville actually desires riders to simply use flat bars? Add extra singletrack.
Add technical sections favouring mountain bike dealing with. When terrain makes drop bars unattractive, there isn’t any must ban them.
We adapt our bikes to the course. If we would like Leadville to be a real mountain bike race, then the course has to demand mountain bike tools. Proper now, Leadville invitations optimization, then acts stunned when athletes optimize.
Drop bars didn’t break Leadville. They uncovered it.
They uncovered a race that wishes the soul of mountain biking, the velocity of gravel, and the mass-participation of a gran fondo – all of sudden. That stress is not going to disappear with the rule change. It simply strikes to the subsequent piece of kit somebody decides is “an excessive amount of“.
Payson is correct about security. Cecily is correct about voice. Alexis is correct about perspective.
The handlebar debate isn’t actually about handlebars. It’s about whether or not programs dictate our tools selections on race day or the race organizers set forth an opaque set of opinion guidelines.
Till that query is answered, this received’t be the final time we argue about what belongs on a motorbike on the Race Throughout the Sky or another race that exists exactly as a result of it isn’t regulated by an official governing physique.
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