Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) used a powerful attack on the Columbine climb and recorded his fourth consecutive victory at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race in Colorado on Saturday. The victory also padded his lead in the Life Time Grand Prix men's standings.
A puncture in the early miles of the high-elevation endurance test, this year 104.3 miles, forced Swenson to go into chase mode. He used the ascent of the race’s major climb to jettison from all contenders for another solo victory, in a time of 5:49:10. It was the second time Swenson finished under the six-hour mark, last year avoiding mechanicals and setting the course record in 5:43:29.
John Gaston (STRAFE-Specialized) broke away from Cole Paton (Giant Bicycles) after a head-to-head battle in the final 20 miles and earned second place and his third podium at Leadville. Gaston finished 15:41 behind Swenson, while Paton crossed the line another 1:51 back.
The Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik is part of the six-race Life Time Grand Prix and became the third event in the off-road series when Crusher in the Tushar was cancelled in July. Swenson leads the men’s overall.
Among the Grand Prix competitors, Paton picked up second-place points while Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) was the third-best Grand Prix rider with fourth overall. Other Grand Prix riders in the top 10 were Payson McElveen, Russell Finsterwald, Matthew Beers, Torbjørn Røed, Alex Wild and Zach Calton.
How it unfolded
The start in Leadville began at the massive height of 10,152 feet in the Rocky Mountains for a 30th year. The elite men took off at 6:15 a.m., a five-minute gap in front of the elite women for the first time, and went straight to work on piling up a total of 12,480 feet of elevation gain over the 100-plus miles. This year the course was slightly longer, coming in at 104.3 miles, as the early segment of the route has been redirected with some added singletrack and eliminated a chunk of pavement.
The majority of the out-and-back course remained the same, with the signature climb to the summit of Columbine Mine, the peak topping out at an elevation of 12,499 feet above sea level, marking the halfway point and turnaround. Thus, the race has been dubbed “the race across the sky”.
The opening dozen miles to the Carter Summit, on the north side of Turquoise Lake, Røed set the pace of the elite men, riding in front of Swenson, Morton and Gaston. A minute back was Howard Grotts. The next bunch, 35 seconds back, included eight riders of Beers, Peter Stetina, Sean Fincham, Kyle Trudeau, McElveen, Paton, Bradyn Lange and Petr Vakoc.
Gaps were forming at the base of the Powerline climb 10 miles later, with Gaston out front by 10 seconds over Røed and 37 seconds over Swenson, who then had to stop to repair a puncture. By the time he was back on course, he was riding in 14th position headed to the single track section with 73 miles to go.
Once the sunshine poked over the Rocky Mountains temperatures began to heat up, as did Swenson’s pace. On the Twin Lakes section headed to the Columbine climb approach, Swenson rode in fourth position. He tagged on with Røed and Russell Finsterwald with a full minute to make up to Gaston at the front of the race.
Over the next four miles, Swenson had passed the last man in his way, Gaston. By the time he began the climb of Columbine, Swenson had hit the afterburners in his big engine and blasted away for a six-minute gap ahead of the chasers.
Off the descent of Columbine and returning past Twin Lakes, Swenson built a 6:14 margin to Gaston. Cole Paton used the descent to catch and pass Røed and was just 22 seconds behind Patton, with Røed another two minutes back. A trio of riders - Morton, Grotts and McElveen - were in the hunt another 1:30 back, with Morton having recovered from a flat tyre.
By the time Swenson hit the washed out, dirt road up Powerline on the return trip to Leadville, he built his margin to the Paton-Gaston duo to 10 minutes.
From the final dirt section with two miles to go and onto the pavement of Harrison Road straightaway to the finish, it was a familiar sight of Swenson riding solo for the victory.
The climb up Powerline proved decisive in the battle for second place, as Gaston pulled away from Paton to take second place.
