For each of the past three years, Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz) has not just won Leadville 100 MTB, he has smashed records. Last year he stormed across the rocky, high-elevation terrain in his first sub-6-hour effort, finishing in 5:43:31 and crushing the record time by 15:06.
These performances are not just about winning times, but the margins to major contenders. Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) was second to Swenson at Leadville in 2021, eight minutes off the winning pace. Swenson was 14:30 faster than second-placed John Gaston in 2022, and last year 14:29 faster than runner-up Alexey Vermeulen. Last year Morton recorded his personal best time at Leadville, 2:49 faster than 2021, but finished ninth and just over 33 minutes back of Swenson.
Other than just “cross the line in front of him”, Morton said it won’t be easy to knock Swenson from the top spot at Leadville since the race may be the toughest one on the calendar to match his dominance.
“I'd say Leadville is probably the hardest race to compete with him. It's definitely very much a fitness test. There are limited opportunities to invent a tactic where you can get an advantage over him,” the reigning Unbound Gravel 200 champion told Cyclingnews and several media last week during a Leadville pre-race virtual press conference.
“I think it would take someone on a pretty special day, and probably Keegan on a not-so-special day, to beat him just wheel to wheel. You never know what can happen. There's always the chance that people have bad luck, and opportunities arise, so you don't wish that on anyone, but it's definitely a reality of the kind of racing we do.
“At the end of the day, it's a bike race. There's six hours of different things that can happen out there, so you kind of just got to show up with your best self.”
Likewise, Payson McElveen (Allied Cycle Works-Red Bull) confirmed Swenson goes into Leadville as the man to beat, and for McElveen, provides a path to move into the overall lead of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda off-road series.
As was the case in the past two years, Swenson enters the 2024 Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik as the overall leader of the Grand Prix, but only by one point over McElveen. Close behind are the duo of Matthew Beers (Specialized) in third and Morton in fourth.
“I've kind of had to distance myself a little bit from what Keegan can do on this course, because it's frankly, just kind of hard to wrap my head around. If you look at his performance on the various segments compared to the rest of the field, it's sort of like he's doing a different sport than the rest of us on this course,” McElveen told reporters in the same virtual press conference.
The recent winner of the 100-mile, three-day Life Time Leadville Stage Race, McElveen was fourth in Leadville in 2021, 13:42 behind Swenson, and then improved his time by almost 7 minutes in 2023. But he still lost big ground, finishing 11th to the record-setting Swenson.
Swenson opened the door for a close Grand Prix leaderboard with a 15th-place finish at Unbound Gravel, the 200-mile behemoth won by Morton, while McElveen earned top points as the second-best Grand Prix finisher in eighth overall.
“Fortunately, as far as the Grand Prix overall goes, it's best four of six, not every race counts. I’m really excited for races like Chequamegon [MTB in Wisconsin] and [Rad Dirt Fest] in Trinidad, where maybe on paper I have a bit better opportunity to go toe to toe with him,” McElveen admitted.
“In regards to how you beat him at Leadville, I'd echo what Lachlan said. You'd have to have some pretty serious things go wrong, at least at this stage. I just kind of keep chipping away at it and trying to get better on this course, and just pay attention to my own performance more than comparing myself to someone who's quite a generational talent at 10,000 plus feet.”
McElveen, a Colorado resident, used the stage race to prep for Saturday’s ‘race across the sky’, which is characterised by 12,480 feet of elevation gain over 100 miles, the start in Leadville at 10,152 feet above sea level. He said the stage race was “a reminder of just how unbelievably hard the 100-mile course is, and it put a good dose of respect back in my mind”.
After Crusher in the Tushar was cancelled in mid-July due to wildfires in that area of Utah, which then eliminated the scheduled third stop of the Grand Prix, Morton travelled to Leadville for a look at the course and to look at new equipment. After years in Boulder, Colorado, Morton now lives in California, and he went home to train in July, then returned to Leadville 10 days before the competition.
“I haven't approached it this way before, because I had the luxury of living in altitude up until this year. I think it'll be fine. It's so high that there's only so much adaptation that happens. It's kind of remembering what it feels like, how to race it, and just generally getting comfortable with that feeling of having less oxygen available. I'm interested to see how it goes,” Morton said.
“It’s a race that draws you back year after year because there's always something you can improve on. Ultimately, you're going to ride up Columbine for whatever it is, 45 minutes or an hour, and whoever's got the legs is going to get to the top first. It's tough.”
The Leadville Trail 100 MTB is now the third of six races in the Life Time Grand Prix Series, after the Crusher in the Tushar cancellation. The elite men will start at 6:15 a.m. MDT on Saturday.
For the first time, on the 30th anniversary of the mountain bike race, the elite women will have a separate start, five minutes behind the elite men. Coverage will provided on Instagram channels for the Life Time Grand Prix and Leadville Race Series (@ltraceseries).
