Leadville Trail 100 MTB: Keegan Swenson recovers from puncture and dominates males’s race for fourth consecutive win

Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) used a strong assault on the Columbine climb and recorded his fourth consecutive victory on the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race in Colorado on Saturday. The victory additionally padded his lead within the Life Time Grand Prix males’s standings.

A puncture within the early miles of the high-elevation endurance check, this 12 months 104.3 miles, compelled Swenson to enter chase mode. He used the ascent of the race’s main climb to jettison from all contenders for an additional solo victory, in a time of 5:49:08. It was the second time Swenson completed beneath the six-hour mark, final 12 months avoiding mechanicals and setting the course file in 5:43:29.

John Gaston (STRAFE-Specialized) broke away from Cole Paton (Giant Bicycles) after a head-to-head battle within the ultimate 20 miles and earned second place and his third podium at Leadville. Gaston completed 15:32 behind Swenson, whereas Paton crossed the road one other 1:50 again.

The Leadville Trail 100 MTB offered by Kenetik is a part of the six-race Life Time Grand Prix, and have become the third occasion within the off-road sequence when Crusher within the Tushar was cancelled in July. Swenson leads the lads’s total. 

Among the Grand Prix rivals, Paton picked up second-place factors whereas Lachlan Morton (EF Education-StraightforwardPost) was the third-best Grand Prix rider with fifth total. Other Grand Prix riders within the prime 10 have been Payson McElveen, Russell Finsterwald, Matthew Beers, Torbjørn Røed and Alex Wild.

How it unfolded

The begin in Leadville started on the large peak of 10,152 toes within the Rocky Mountains for a thirtieth 12 months. The elite males started at 6:15 a.m., a five-minute hole in entrance of the elite ladies for the primary time, and went straight to work on piling up a complete of 12,480 toes of elevation achieve over the 100-plus miles. This 12 months the course was barely longer, coming in at 104.3 miles, because the early section of the route has been redirected with some added singletrack and eradicated a bit of pavement.

The majority of the out-and-back course remained the identical, with the signature climb to the summit of Columbine Mine, the height topping out at an elevation of 12,499 toes above sea stage, marking the half-way level and turnaround. Thus, the race has been dubbed “the race throughout the sky”.

The opening dozen miles to the Carter Summit, on the north facet of Turquoise Lake, Røed set the tempo of the etite males, driving in entrance of Swenson, Morton and Gaston. A minute again was Howard Grotts. The subsequent bunch, 35 seconds again, included eight riders of Beers, Peter Stetina, Sean Fincham, Kyle Trudeau, McElveen, Paton, Bradyn Lange and Petr Vakoc.

Gaps have been forming on the base of the Powerline climb 10 miles later, with Gaston out entrance by 10 seconds over Røed and 37 seconds over Swenson, who then needed to cease to restore a puncture. By the time he was again on the right track, he was driving in 14th place headed to the only monitor part with 73 miles to go.

Once the sunshine poked over the Rocky mountains temperatures started to warmth up, as did Swenson’s tempo. On the Twin Lakes part headed to the Columbine climb method, Swenson rode in fourth place. He tagged on with Røed and Russell Finsterwald with a full minute to make as much as Gaston on the entrance of the race.

Over the subsequent 4 miles Swenson had handed the final man in his method, Gaston. By the time he started the climb of Columbine, Swenson had hit the afterburners in his large engine and blasted away for a six-minute hole forward of the chasers.

Off the descent of Columbine and returning previous Twin Lakes, Swenson constructed a 6:14 margin to Gaston. Cole Paton used the descent to catch and go Røed and was simply 22 seconds behind Patton, with Røed one other two minutes again. A trio of riders – Morton, Grotts and McElveen – have been within the hunt one other 1:30 again, with Morton having recovered from a flat tyre.

By the time Swenson hit the washed out, dust highway up Powerline on the return journey to Leadville, he constructed his margin to the Paton-Gaston duo to 10 minutes.

From the ultimate dust part with two miles to go and onto the pavement of the Harrison Road straightaway to the end, it was a well-known sight of Swenson driving solo for the victory.

The climb up Powerline proved decisive within the battle for second place, as Gaston pulled away from Paton to take second place.

Results – males’s prime 10