Kate Courtney (She Sends Racing) did not simply win on her debut at Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB introduced by Kenetik, she put her title within the document books with a brand new course document of 6:48:55.
The previous cross-country mountain bike World Champion rode solo for greater than half of the 100 miles at excessive elevation and smashed a decade-old document by 10:23, which was set by Annika Langvad in 2015.
Second place for Rollins boosted her score in the Life Time Grand Prix, moving from a tie in fourth to solo third. The biggest move among the Grand Prix field at Leadville was Cecily Decker (PAS Racing), who finished fourth, seven minutes ahead of fifth-placed and former Leadville winner Sofia Gomez Villafañe. Decker now sits at the top of the elite women’s leaderboard with 86 points, two points ahead of Villafañe and 14 points ahead of Rollins.
How it unfolded
The elite women’s field set off on a crisp, dry morning from Leadville at 6:10 a.m. MDT, organisers releasing the elite men 10 minutes ahead of them. Starting from an elevation of 10,152 feet above sea level, the highest altitude of any incorporated city in North America, the pace was high from 6th Street for 12,480 feet of elevation gain over the 100 miles of racing.
Nine women rode together at the front of the race as they headed to Hagerman Pass in a major transition area from pavement to gravel. Courtney, Rollins and Stephens were there, along with Decker, Villafane, Ruth Winder, Alexis Skarda, Sarah Lange and Michaela Thompson. In the chase solo was Paige Onweller, with a string of riders behind her.
With 40 miles completed and passing through the aid station at Twin Lakes, Lange and Edwards had dropped from the front bunch. Soon Haley Smith and Hannah Otto gained significant time and connected with Edwards for a strong chase.
The front group of seven soon fragmented once Courtney amped up her effort for the Columbine climb, Stephens and Rollins working together in second and third positions. However, Stephens fell on a steep section of the singletrack and had to walk the bike to find a suitable place to remount, but dug deep to rejoin Rollins by the time they were on the descent. Well ahead, Courtney had crossed the summit above the tree line alone and was long gone on the descent in front of the duo.
On the return past Twin Lakes, Stephens was 3:32 adrift of Courtney but had a 27-second gap on Rollins. Behind them Decker rode 2 minutes ahead of Skarda in fourth, while Villafañe gave chase to Skarda riding 1:30 behind her.
For a time Stephens and Rollins worked together, until Stephens stole away on the Powerline climb and held a 1:37 margin crossing Carter Summit with just under 10 miles to go. Rollins then went deep to catch Stephens and make the final pass on the Boulevard to ride in second place for the final four miles.
Villafañe used a hard effort on Powerline to move ahead of Skarda, but could not close down Decker.
And well ahead, Courtney celebrated a solo victory.
Results
|
Pos. |
Rider (Team) |
Time |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Kate Courtney (She Sends Racing) |
06:48:55 |
|
2 |
Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) |
00:10:21 |
|
3 |
Lauren Stephens (Aegis Cycling Foundation) |
00:11:44 |
|
4 |
Cecily Decker (PAS Racing) |
00:20:53 |
|
5 |
Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) |
00:27:57 |
