Leadville winner Melisa Rollins starts year at RADL GRVL with 'completely new everything'

Racing in 2025 begins January 24 in South Australia for Melisa Rollins, and with it, a "completely new everything" as the US rider makes the jump from Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY24 to an individual set-up for gravel and off-road pursuits. 

She debuts her full makeover as part of Liv Racing Collective in McLaren Vale on the 112km blue route on Friday. Embracing the privateer path, she also has support from SRAM, ZIPP, ASSOS, The Feed and Kenda to stay at the top of her game and add "more work" by securing her own sponsorships and becoming her own communications specialist. A victory at last year's Leadville Trail 100 MTB confirmed she was indeed at the top.

"Winning Leadville was life-changing," the Alpine, Utah native told Cyclingnews before she landed in Australia. She used that victory and a second place at Big Sugar Gravel to seal a second place overall in the elite women's division of the Life Time Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old conquered the Leadville altitude and stacked competitor start list in her seventh try. She said she has a bit of an advantage living in the mountain slopes of Salt Lake City, with an elevation of close to 4,500 feet above sea level, so the altitude of 10,154 feet for the start of the race doesn't completely cause chaos.

"I love that race. At Leadville, that's a unique one. When you look at the results of Leadville, people who live at altitude typically do better there. I have sort of an upper hand having known the course, I've done it so many times. This year I was fit and strong. There's an aspect to knowing that race and how it plays out that adds to finishing it."

The love for Leadville runs deep in her family as well. Her stepfather Elden Nelson has finished the race 27 times, while her mother Lisa has taken on 20 editions. Both were there in 2024 and celebrated at the finish line with their daughter on her signature victory. 

The US Continental racing team Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY24 has been Rollins' racing family for three years. She worked as a full-time chemist for a medical pathology lab in Salt Lake City before earning a living as a professional cyclist.

She joined VBR in 2022, which provided full support for gravel. She then raced a heavy road schedule in 2023 and 2024, last year earning top 10s on stages at Tucson Bicycle Classic and Redlands Bicycle Classic, finishing fourth in the mountains classification at UCI-level Tour of the Gila and taking sixth place at  US Pro Road Nationals in the ITT. Rollins still managed to compete in five of the six events in the Life Time Grand Prix, and win Iceman Cometh Challenge at the end of the season.

"Because road racing was a priority on that team, I was required to do some road stage races with the team. Outside of that, I got to take a schedule that I wanted, which was really cool because going into this year I didn't necessarily have a lot of focus on the Life Time Grand Prix. I did focus on Leadville, my 'A' race."

"Nicola Cranmer [team owner and manager] is really good at helping identify her athletes' goals and then helping create a schedule or a way, they can achieve them. So for me, personally, I identified my goal being Leadville. I spent 2023 stepping away from gravel and focusing on road racing, which was what we identified as a way to work on my weaknesses - I didn't have a lot of top-end speed. We focused on that. Then we came back in 2024 with a schedule that included road racing so I could compete well at Leadville, which paid off for me.

"I loved my time racing on the road and really believe it has shaped me into the rider I am today. While I may be pursuing a different path in 2025, I will never forget the one that got me here."

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The US Continental squad has supported multi-discipline athletes, from track, mountain bike and gravel, since their inception by Cranmer 20 years ago. 

"While managing multiple disciplines can present budget and logistical challenges, the benefits far outweigh the obstacles. I believe it fosters more well-rounded development, particularly for younger athletes," Cranmer told Cyclingnews.

"Take Mel, for example, when she joined us, she was strong but lacked top-end and explosive power. By encouraging her to race across disciplines, she grew into a more dynamic and versatile athlete. 

"Separate starts for men and women in gravel races highlight the unique strengths of women in the sport. Shorter gravel races provide excellent preparation for stage racing, when there is such a lack of road racing in the U.S., and vice versa - they complement each other beautifully in building endurance and tactical sharpness.”

Her former team booked her flights and accommodations plus offered mechanic support. Now the logistics are on her shoulders, but she calls the switch to privateering an "investment". While privateering "may be more work" in her assessment, she said it opens more opportunities to create relationships with businesses as well as consumers and individual supporters.

"I think that I'm almost as competitive with sponsorships as some of the other athletes because of my results. I don't already have a really strong following on social content, but still, I don't feel like I'm having sponsors turn me away because of that. I'm really excited for being able to create relationships with partners and [fans].

"Actually, my main sponsor is very interested in allowing me to do whatever I want to do, which is really cool. So whatever I am interested in, that is what they want to see me doing. Luckily for them, that aligns with me wanting to do the Life Time Grand Prix."

After RADL GRVL she expects to travel to Nebraska for The Mid South and was eager to explore more races now that she was not part of a road team, including mountain bike events 

"Oh, Leadville was crazy. Winning Iceman was really cool," Rollins said. "Personally, I thought that one, Iceman, was really amazing and fun. Leadville for sure was 100% more impactful for my career.

"From an outside perspective, I think the fact that the Life Time series happened to have made a [video] piece on me two weeks before [Leadville], I think it helped tell my story, which is obviously a really big piece in sort of having a fandom. Developing a story really helps people want to follow along. And I thought it was really good timing. 

"I have an inner dialogue of being an underdog at everything. I don't know when that script is going to change for me, because it probably should have at this point. I want to walk into a race feeling like I'm a competitor for the win."