Leadville 100 has all the time been a curiosity on the calendar of American off-road racing.
Within the heady days of the mountain bike increase, Leadville was the race the place riders shed each attainable gram, stripped their setups to the necessities, and leaned arduous into maximising climbing effectivity over the 105 miles of high-altitude terrain.
Over time, that singular focus expanded. Aerodynamics started to creep into the dialog, with tri-bar extensions making periodic appearances all through the 2010s, an period when aero positive factors briefly eclipsed all else. The 2x vs. 1x drivetrain debate adopted an analogous arc, as prime racers sought the elusive stability between sustaining pace on the flat center miles and powering by the steep climbs that bookend the course.
Now, the subsequent frontier is handlebar alternative. Among the many pointy finish of the sphere, the query is: do I follow conventional flat bars for higher dealing with and a extra pure mountain bike match, or swap to drop bars to squeeze out aerodynamic positive factors and undertake a gravel-style using place higher suited to the quick, open stretches?
Why this combine works at Leadville
Andrew L’Esperance’s Leadville 100 bike
(Picture credit score: Andrew L’Esperance)
Leadville is the largest, most iconic mountain bike race in the USA. The high-altitude course sits at 9,200 ft (2,804 m) at its lowest level and goes all the way in which as much as 12,424 ft (3,787 m) at its highest level: the summit of Columbine Mine.
Over its decades-long historical past, the race has seen nationwide and worldwide expertise cycle by and take a look at themselves on the distinctive course. Whereas a lot has modified within the biking world, Leadville’s course has remained pretty constant, outlined by its lengthy, powerful climbs, uncovered course and a surprisingly small quantity of singletrack path given its mountain bike title.
Due to this distinctive mix of terrain and calls for, unconventional bikes have lengthy been a part of the Leadville scene, with drop-bar builds resurfacing every so often. At all times close by, however not often on the pointy finish of the race.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, opinions and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
That began to alter most notably with Cory Wallace in 2022, who completed thirteenth with a drop-bar setup. Dylan Johnson adopted that up in 2023 with a top-20 outcome, earlier than Keegan Swenson rode a drop-bar construct to the highest spot of the rostrum in 2024, pushing the drop-bar subplot into the mainstream.
But, as this shift to drop bars coming concurrently gravel bikes’ massive tyre revolution, why not go a step additional and compete on gravel bikes?
“Suspension on a gravel bike is extra about consolation and vibration dampening over tough terrain to enhance effectivity, however this suspension on a mountain bike is not nearly consolation; it is extra about it making the bike transfer quicker,” Haley Smith stated of the important thing distinction between a gravel bike with suspension versus a mountain bike with drop bars.
Smith is an Olympic mountain biker and former Life Time Grand Prix collection winner. She’s spent the previous few months aboard a drop bar-equipped full-suspension mountain bike, and even raced it on the Migration gravel race in Kenya. For her, there’s a clear purpose to decide on a mountain bike with drop bars over a gravel bike with suspension, even when they could appear comparable on paper.
“The [Trek] Supercaliber goes to go quicker up and down at sure factors,” she stated. “The highest of Powerline could be very technical. If you wish to go quicker, the mountain bike would do it higher, as a result of, if its suspension features correctly, it preserves your momentum by rougher terrain.
“You want reliable suspension to have that impact. It’s essential have sufficient suspension to have the rebound, the damping, and the compression all functioning so that you can maintain ahead momentum.”
With the large rocks, dips, and excessive speeds of Leadville, momentum preservation is vital. Vast tyres thrive, full-suspension is ubiquitous, and a gravel bike just isn’t fairly the best device for the job. But, aerodynamics are on the opposite facet of the momentum preservation coin, and that is the place a number of the gravel tech is leaching over, even when the bike frames are nonetheless completely different.
The issues round making the swap
Cole Paton’s Leadville 100 bike setup
(Picture credit score: Cole Paton)
In the case of aerodynamics, drop bars on a mountain bike make plenty of sense, however there are downsides to think about as nicely. Most notably, within the dealing with.
Mountain bikes are constructed round a brief stem paired with huge flat bars, which implies they have a tendency to have an extended attain than a drop-bar bike, making the match with drop bars a tough switch. Plus, the dealing with of a drop bar considerably modifications the traits of a mountain bike on rocky terrain, with riders and the Life Time organisation stressing that this alternative is greatest saved for the professionals. And whereas it’s but to be seen how pervasive drop bars are within the newbie ranks, what is obvious is that ability stage will affect who will make the leap to drop bars.
“I used to be fully undecided on what I’d race the night time earlier than the stage race began,” Melisa Rollins stated. Rollins is the defending Leadville champion and simply took the win on the Leadville Stage Race final month as nicely, the place she examined a drop bar setup.
“I had two setups able to go: I had my mountain bike with flat bars, and I had a newly arrange drop bar bike as a result of I hadn’t fully dialled within the match.
“Keegan [Swenson] will snort as a result of he advised me at first of the yr I would in all probability must measurement down a body, and I did not. I attempted to make it work, however on the final second, I knew I needed to measurement down. So getting the match proper was not fully easy for me.”
Rollins is a first-rate instance of a rider proof against the drop bar shift. She dominated the race final yr with flat bars, and her major challenger, Kate Courtney, can also be sticking with flat bars as she drops into the race from the Cross-Nation World Cup circuit. Why not simply run it again and repeat what labored so nicely?
“I’ve by no means had entry to the flexibility to dive into any kind of marginal positive factors,” Rollins stated in response. “This yr, to be fully trustworthy, I’m on solely new tools, and it would not be like I am simply working issues again. Past my body, I am on fully completely different tools.”
With the shake-up got here the prospect to check the drop bars, which finally received out.
“I am tremendous proud of my setup, and to be trustworthy, the drop bars are freaking enjoyable,” Rollins stated. “I used to be a bit scared that I’d get dropped happening Powerline, and that was my solely apprehension about working the drop bar setup, however I am the very same pace, if not quicker, on each descent with drop bars.”
Radical departures from the norm are sometimes adopted final by the masters of the craft. Sean Kelly, as an illustration, famously raced in toe clips lengthy after the clipless pedal was commonplace within the professional peloton. In our instance, this implies the pure mountain bikers, those who begrudgingly race on drop bars when they’re the apparent alternative, would possibly resist the decision.
“I’ve raced it on a hardtail the final three years, and I’ve simply all the time gotten to the final hour and a half, and each bump hurts so unhealthy with that quantity of fatigue within the race,” Cole Paton, the 2025 marathon mountain bike nationwide champion, advised Biking Weekly. “I knew I wished to go full suspension indisputably. Then, the subsequent query was: Do I’m going with the drop bar or not?”
Kicking and screaming, Paton needed to relent. From his perspective, with a large financial institution of technical expertise few on the gravel scene possess, it was simple.
“The mountain biker in me was making an attempt to justify conserving it a mountain bike as a lot as I might,” he stated, “I actually did not need to construct this atrocious Frankenstein bike. However ultimately, I constructed up the drop bar out of simply curiosity, and it was similar to clearly a lot simpler to stand up to hurry and keep pace with the narrower bars.
“It is not even just like the drop bars essentially, it is simply closing off the chest cavity in a impartial using place the place you’re simply that rather more dynamic.“
Placing the drop bars by their paces earlier than the large dance
Haley Smith’s Leadville 100 bike
(Picture credit score: Haley Smith)
Over the past month, the hypothesis over bike setups has modified from idea to apply as racing has taken a again seat to coaching camps, course previews, and high-altitude publicity. Each day nearer to the race, and it appears a brand new rider was teasing drop bars on the “fallacious” bike within the “fallacious” place.
But this has been constructing for for much longer.
“I wished to do it final yr, however I used to be too afraid,” Smith shared. “I feel I am fairly good on the drop bar bike on technical terrain. For no matter purpose, I discover it straightforward to control that sort of bike and throw it round, so my fascination with it began a number of years in the past.
“I used to be set on using a gravel bike at Iceman Cometh, however I simply did not have the best gearing. So I’ve wished to do it for some time, however I simply did not have the belief in myself to do it final yr. However then, when Russell [Finsterwald] did it final yr, it gave me the boldness to do it. I wished to be one of many first ladies to do it, so we made it occur.”
A lot of the drop bar discourse has been constructed round an nearly reluctant acceptance that drop bars are simply extra aero, not essentially higher. Amongst a number of the riders we spoke to, after testing, they’re seeing extra upside than simply accepting them as a crucial evil.
“One factor I’ve realized is that the burden stability entrance to again on a contemporary mountain bike just isn’t essentially even,” Andrew L’Esperance stated. L’Esperance was one of many Life Time Grand Prix Wild Card winners and is a infamous tinkerer within the gravel world. He’s additionally Smith’s husband.
Whereas he comes from the mountain bike world, gravel has given him the license to think about issues in a different way. For Leadville, the drop bar venture began as an effort to maintain issues contemporary, however has ended with him being satisfied of the advantages on a number of ranges.
“With the drop bars, you may get plenty of weight on the entrance tire and get plenty of grip with that weighted entrance tire. I do discover it handles fairly nicely on easy, twisty single monitor as a result of you possibly can push that entrance tire and have plenty of grip.”
The selection to run drop bars finally comes right down to all of those benefits and drawbacks rolled into one system. For Smith, that system works greatest collectively for Leadville and has only a few, if any, downsides.
“Your physique place is extra aerodynamic, and it is simply simpler total,” she stated. “It requires a decrease metabolic value to carry an aerodynamic place, so it is each extra environment friendly and aerodynamic as nicely.
That’s the reason it excels right here since you do not actually have the identical trade-offs with the drop bar dealing with such as you do on technical trails. On these with drop bars, the steering is much more twitchy, and your drops get in the way in which of your knees, for instance. You do not want to do this at Leadville in any respect.”
Are there actual positive factors available, or is that this only a fad?
Now, when you’ve got learn by this complete story and nonetheless aren’t satisfied, you aren’t alone. Loads of professional riders, whether or not out of precept or sensible causes, will line up on Saturday with flat bars that resemble the cockpits of the many years of historical past which have made Leadville the occasion that it’s as we speak.
However be caught within the sand at your personal threat.
“I am simply doing what I feel is greatest for me to go quicker,” Keegan Swenson stated. “I do not suppose drop bars are greatest for everybody. Alexey [Vermuelen] and I talked in depth about this on our podcast we did whereas we had been up right here coaching – I feel folks can chase marginal positive factors, however ultimately, they will find yourself getting slower.
“I am simply doing it for myself to attempt to go quicker and discover no matter edge I can. It is not a gimmick or a trick. Certain, it is cool to be like, ‘That is the bike that I am racing, and that is all that is happening,’ however ultimately, I am simply doing it for myself, not for clicks.
Past Swenson, who just isn’t one to explode his mechanical benefit if he looks like he has one, conviction over the effectiveness of drop bars is even stronger.
“I feel within the males’s prime 10,” L’Esperance stated, “the bulk can be on drop bars.”
Curiously, on the ladies’s facet, there’s much less conviction over the drop bar pattern. Solely three ladies had been on drop bars on the Leadville Stage Race, whereas the boys had too many to depend on two arms. What’s extra, few doubt that Kate Courtney received’t be capable to compete along with her flat bars.
But for the boys, the tide appears to be going dramatically within the different path.
“On this bike, I am rather a lot quicker than on my hardtail mountain bike. I do plenty of the identical coaching loops right here in Durango, and on all of the descents, I am quicker on this bike. Sadly, it made the choice straightforward,” Cole Paton stated.
“It is similar to a mountain biker delight factor in me. That is like an iconic mountain bike race, and it’s aesthetic. I want we had been all racing mountain bikes – however to be aggressive, I do not suppose it is an possibility. I feel you are leaving plenty of positive factors on the desk with out doing it, and my job is to be as aggressive as attainable.
“I used to be simply not trying ahead to a coaching block on it trigger it is also like you must spend on a regular basis getting used to that place using these Frankenstein bikes, and I am prefer it limits me within the locations I need to go as a result of my mountain bike with flat bars is simply a lot extra succesful. It’s like, ‘Rattling, I’ve to trip this bike and sort of mellow out the locations that I’m going.’”
Within the peloton of American off-road racing, away from the UCI’s tendency to control and full of aggressive riders hell bent on technical positive factors, the Frankenstein bikes are right here to remain.
“However that is a part of the job as of late – you must trip all these funky issues.”