It feels different than riding at the equivalent altitude adjusted % of FTP at sea level for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that it’s impossible to ride a perfectly steady pace due to the nature of MTB. There will be sharp pitches, rock features you need to clear, etc. You can generally pace steady, but you’ll need to surge at times or walk a lot and when you do surge it takes far longer for your HR to recover from power spikes than it does at sea level even for a much higher power spike. This ultimately reduces your ability to ride at a steady power or RPE.
Outside of that, there numerous other small physiological differences that accumulate. You get dehydrated easier, you might not absorb calories the same way, there can be extreme temperature variations throughout the day which affect people differently.
Lastly the mental aspect has a bigger toll than most people expect. Not sure how else to say it beyond it can be very discouraging when you inevitably reach the point in the day where you feel like you are riding threshold and you look down and see you are riding what would normally be recovery zone power. That happens to lesser degrees throughout the entire day and is hard for it to never get to you.
There’s a lot of people who come from sea level and have a great race so I don’t want to come off like boogeyman. You can do a lot to prepare, but you kind of just have to do it to see what it’s really like.
For me, definitely legs better and constantly gasping for air. Almost drowning sensation when I first arrive. Gets better after 2-3 days for me, but I think it’s mainly just mental adjustment to the heavy breathing. But it’s very individual from what I understand. I assume how you react depends on what your aerobic bottleneck is. Some people say you shouldn’t be breathing hard going up that first St. Kevins climb. Count me as someone who suffers terribly on every climb on the course, feeling like I can’t catch my breath, hard to drink, etc… But I’ve learned that it’s sustainable for me. That’s targeting 220-230 watts with a sea level FTP of a bit over 300.
My limiter has never felt like Heart Rate or Breathing, and feel like I have a pretty high VO2 Max (although, from my Garmin, never really measured.) My limiter has always felt like it’s my legs when something gives out. @grwoolf - similar power levels here. Just did 6.5 hours at 219NP yesterday and that was manageable for me, tiring and a good workout, but a moderate effort for sea level.
On the good side - it’s 5 weeks until I get to actually ride the course. And then I’ve got an AirBnB reserved in the Fairplay area for 12 days before the race to just get used to altitude. (Side note - I’m there by myself right now working remote if anyone else similar is looking for a place)
The feel of putting out anaerobic power is not too dissimilar - because it’s anaerobic. But if takes much much longer to recover from an anaerobic effort. This is where people usually “get into trouble” - going anaerobic, then taking forever to recover.
Nice. I live in Breck. Trails are drying out quickly at about 10K and below. Frisco peninsula and Dillon ‘dump’ trails are dry and riding great. Any questions about what to ride up here or anything please reach out. Happy to help!
Anyone listen to the latest Leadville Pod and think that Fatty and Hotty’s advice regarding gearing was absolutely awful.
I get it, Fatty isn’t a technically proficient MTB guy and a bit of a Luddite in terms of tech (his words), but I really don’t think recommending 34T as the smallest chainring is a good idea.
Haven’t listened to that episode yet but surprised to hear that. I’m sure there were others on the podcast in the past that recommended lower gearing and certain @Nate_Pearson and @Jonathan have recommended smaller rings on the TR podcast.
Fatty ran single speed last year in the Stage Race and LT100, but I believe whether geared or SS he tends to stand up and grind out the climbs at a low cadence. I’ve had a chance to be out on course with him a few times and he’s always super easy to spot from a distance with the standing, rowing style he uses. Maybe that’s why he’s thinking 34t, but for anyone who likes to spin faster and isn’t at the pointy end of the race, a smaller front ring is going to help and limit walking on some of the steep sections.
Exactly. He’s a single speed grinder and he stands for nearly every climb weather he’s got gears or not. Absolutely wonderful guy, but last person I’d take gearing advice from.
I haven’t listened yet, but I’m running a 10-52 with 30T currently for all my training over the last month or so. I can spin 30 MPH on downhills if I really spin it out, and just don’t see that gearing being a limiter for me. Anywhere I have to put out any power, I’m not going to be going that fast. And if I’m going faster, I’m probably better off just putting the dropper down, getting aero and holding on. Conversely, I absolutely have enjoyed having the ability to spin and go easy enough to keep me below threshold on the real steep stuff.
I do seem to remember people talking about the efficiency of the 10T cog being worse (Maybe FB or the Slack Channel?), but not sure if that was a discussion point.
Spending some time in the car later, have it queued up to give it a listen.
The 10t results in the chain having to make a very tight bend and this is where efficiency is lost. The chainline in the smallest cog is also not as straight and this can drop efficiency as well. For Leadville, the amount of time you would be in the 10t vs the other cogs is likely pretty low so likely not too much of an issue.
Pro riders often talk about picking a front chainring that keeps them in the middle of their cassette as much as possible to maximize efficiency.
Keegan’s chainring strategy at Leadville last year was a bit different. He anticipated having a lead coming down Columbine and purposely chose a chainring one size up from what he thought his competitors would be using so that as long as he kept it turning over they would have difficulty catching him. But that’s Keegan…
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but if they recommend a 34 for the average participant, that’s bad advice in my opinion. Cadence is a very individual thing (and I know Fattie is a masher), but a 34 is way too much gear for the vast majority of folks in that race. Median finish time is over 11 hours (for those who actually finish), and there just aren’t many places where anything bigger than a 28 or 30 is going to help you much unless you are going under 8 hours. I guess if you are limited to an 11 cog in the back, a stronger argument could be made for bigger chainring, but I’d still advocate to err on the side of easier gearing at leadville. There is so much downside to being over geared, so little upside. The key to going fast in events like this isn’t going fast, it’s not going slow (ie - don’t blow up, cramp, etc.).
I agree. His theory was you’d be walking the tough bits anyway, but my thought was immediately if people chose correct gearing maybe that’s not a guarantee.
I’ve ranted it about it before, but “you’re going to walk anyway” is my #1 Leadville pet peeve. If people had proper gearing there wouldn’t be so much walking. I only care because it clogs up the choke points and everyone behind has to walk whether they were capable of riding or not.
That said people have different styles, I prefer to spin but I know some gear grinders out there who are never gonna change so obviously their gearing will be catered to their preferences.
fwiw I ride a 32T oval w/ 10-52 in the back. I found that was a good enough climbing gear even for goat trail and powerline while keeping me out of the 10t in the back on the road for the vast majority of time. I did not find that 32T-50 was a a good enough climbing gear, so that extended range of the extra 2 teeth made a difference for me. Or maybe all placebo.
Same setup I run and agree on the 50 vs 52 (might just be in my mind as well). At last year’s race, I had a slow leak on my rear tire, so I swapped wheels at twin lakes outbound and that wheel had a 10/50 cassette (rather than the 10/52 I normally run). Again, might have just been in my head, but I definitely struggled on the steep spots and debated afterwards whether the gearing contributed.
My sea level FTP is normally a little over 4w/kg for leadville and there is no way I’d run a 34 and I’d do a 30 except my PM crank doesn’t officially support it. Seeing folks that are out there for 11+ hours running a 34 (or even a 32) seems like madness to me, but if that’s what they feel comfortable on, more power to them.
The other factor here is drivetrain efficiency. One of the biggest contributors to inefficiency is chain line. As you move toward either end of the cassette, efficiency drops at an increasing rate as you get to the biggest and smallest gears (as the angle of the chain increases). So, even if you can spin a 52 with a 34 tooth ring, I suspect you are better off going with a smaller chainring and spending more time away from the inefficient bailout gears. Sure, there is a tradeoff on the other end, but I suspect we spend over 2x the time in the 2 biggest cogs compared to the 2 smallest cogs.
Actual time in gear. Time was 9h30m in 2022 all in, there was drama, 32t chainring (bike cannot take a smaller CR). I’ll let the time in graphic speak to itself, I’d use, and love a modern XC full squish bike with a 2x drivetrain.
broke Enve rear rim on Powerline descent, 52t cassette, and had to tube for the next several hours…
Then I crashed once for unknown reason
Crashed again, figured why not add to the drama
Swapped for backup wheel with 50t cassette at Twin Lakes inbound (yes, inbound)
Yeah, those numbers really surprise me. The 42 and 50 seem right (I’m assuming there could be a little walking time in that 50), but the 12 and 10 must have to be a bunch of coasting. And maybe there is significant time pedaling in those gears, I just can’t think of many places on that course I’m actually pushing the 10 for extended periods.
Drama, its over rated and expensive, jersey, bibs, helmet (at least the wheel got fixed). A lot of the time probsbly is coasting, and the walking up the goat trail and powerline bits are in the 50/52t as well, which is significant. I calced it all out with WKO, and only use the bailout gear for a few minutes, but it is 2x faster than the walking pace. But downhill time cruising Columbine and the road between Hagerman and Carter summit is fast, but not thet much actual time. Distance chart shows it below. I rode a fair amount of the course yesterday, Lower elevstion parts at least, and spent a lot of time in 10 and 12t land, pedaling.
From a CR perspective, IIRC, Keegan Swenson ran a 38t last year. Previously, Lachlan Morton and Alex Howes have indicated they ran 34T, (and walked parts of Powerline). I am pretty sure they are stronger than me, and most anyone (if not everyone) on this forum. I’ll keep using the smallest CR I can fit on my bike.
