There may have been a sense of having been here before for Matthew Wilson (Scott Sports USA-Shimano) as he was out front in prime position for a top result in the final stages of the race at the Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB on Saturday. The rider from New Zealand had, after all, looked every bit a sure thing for the podium in Bentonville at Big Sugar last year, when he was out front with Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road), only for a sliced sidewall to curtail his run.
On Saturday in Colorado, however, the Life Time Grand Prix podium result that he had been searching for finally came when the 24-year-old delivered a Leadville debut to remember. He took off from the four rider break with Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-Road) in the last three miles of the 102-mile race. This time Wilson stayed in the race for victory right to the line, coming second to six-time winner Swenson in a sprint finish.
"Finally had everything go to plan on race day and was able to get the result I knew I was capable of since Bentonville last year," said Wilson in an Instagram post ."Tough to come that close, but I can't complain about coming 2nd to the king of Leadville, Keegan Swenson, on my first time at the event."
What's more, the rider who first earned himself a wildcard spot at the Life Time Grand Prix last year and then backed it up with another in 2026, did it on the comeback from a broken hand, sustaining a fracture a fracture while pre-riding the course for SBT GRVL at the end of June.
His form in the run in to that race had been clear, and not just off-road where he had won Lost and Found just before heading to SBT GRVL. Wilson was third at the New Zealand Championships road race at the start of the year and also washed off his gravel bike after Unbound and rode it to victory at a Tulsa Tough criterium.
But it was in yet another discipline, mountain biking, that the versatile rider broke through to secure his first Life Time Grand Prix podium.
"I've known I've been able to do it for a while, but just to actually get it done, it feels pretty good," Wilson said in a post race interview on the livestream.
It means that he has not only proven that he can deliver at the top level in races this season, but gives him a better chance to do it next season as well as it also puts him in a far better position to secure a top ten place in the overall.
For 2027 a place in the first ten riders would mean avoiding uncertainty and getting automatic selection instead. Heading into the final three races of the season Wilson is sitting in sixth overall, equal with Cobe Freeburn.
Both the Leadville form and indications of what could have been last year, had mechanicals not intervened, bode well for what could unfold next if – and that's always a big if – everything runs to plan.
In 2025 Wilson was 11th at Chequamegon MTB and went into the Little Sugar MTB and Big Sugar Gravel with high hopes. After reaching the single-track near the front of the field at Little Sugar, a double flat and cracked rim ended that race and then it was the tantalisingly close run at Big Sugar, when the gash in his tyre ended his chances of a top placing.
This year, however, offers another opportunity as the proven series podium performer now goes in pursuit of another.
Chequamegon MTB Festival is the next race in the series, on September 19, then it is Little Sugar MTB on October 11 before the Big Sugar Gravel finale on October 17.
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