2025 Leadville 100 MTB

Hey! Richard here back for my second race report and photo recap. This time tackling the 2025 Leadville 100 mtb. 

Notorious for its elevation gain and the fact that the race starts at 10,000 feet. Leadville is a bucket list ride for a lot of cyclist.

As this was my first Leadville experience I tried to bring a fresh eye to the race photos.The bigger challenge was keeping up with SILCA Athlete Keegan Swenson who set the pace for the day. We still managed to hit six locations.

Below is a ride-a-long photo recap of my day shooting the race with pro photographer Tilly Shull and Josh Weinberg from Escape Collective. Travis was keeping his eye on the dot tracker, timing and navigation.

The 2025 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race saw some incredible performances, with SILCA athlete Keegan Swenson claiming his fifth consecutive men's title and Kate Courtney smashing the women's course record in her first attempt. SILCA athlete Melisa Rollins followed her with second overall but first in the Life Time Grand Prix. They both set the two fastest times in race history. But to truly understand the significance of this grueling 100-mile mountain bike race, you have to look beyond the podium and into the history of the town that hosts it: Leadville, Colorado.

Leadville (the towns story), is one of dramatic booms and devastating economic busts. The town's origins trace back to the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in the 1860s, when prospectors flocked to the area in search of gold. However, it was the discovery of massive silver deposits in the mid-1870s that truly put Leadville on the map. The town's population skyrocketed, Leadville became one of the world's most prosperous and notorious mining cities, boasting a vibrant, and often wild, social scene.

The silver boom, however, was not to last. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 caused the price of silver to plummet, leading to a financial panic and the closure of most of the mines. Leadville faced a long, slow decline. While there were brief resurgences with other mining operations, like the Climax Molybdenum Mine, the town's economic fortunes remained precarious.

It was in this context of economic uncertainty that the Leadville Trail 100 was born. In the early 1980s, after the Climax Mine largely shut down, local resident Ken Chlouber sought a way to revitalize the town's economy. His solution? A 100-mile ultramarathon. The first Leadville Trail 100 Run took place in 1983. It was a modest event at first, but it quickly grew in popularity within the ultrarunning community. The mountain bike race, which follows a similar course and is now an iconic event in its own right, was added in 1994.

Like the town it represents, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB is a testament to grit, guts, and determination. The 104-mile out-and-back course starts and finishes in downtown Leadville, and takes riders on a punishing journey through the high Rockies, with climbs to over 12,500 feet. The course's most famous sections, like the difficult climb up to the Columbine and the absolute brutal ascent of Powerline at mile 80 in the race, have become legendary in the world of endurance sports.

This year's race was another chapter in this storied history. Keegan Swenson's fifth consecutive win further cemented his place as a legend of the race, while Kate Courtney's record-breaking ride added her name to the list of phenomenal athletes who have conquered the "Race Across the Sky." But for every elite athlete on the podium, there are thousands of others who, like the town's original prospectors, are driven by a quest to test their limits and find their own kind of gold, the coveted finisher's belt buckle. The Leadville Trail 100 MTB, and the town it calls home, continue to prove that even after a bust, a new kind of boom can be found.

As Travis and I were staying down the mountain in Copper, our wake up time was  4:00am to hit the start line by 5:00. Ready to catch the pros warming up and pre race routines. This time is always a bit chaotic. Alexey's mechanic was electrical taping his tracker on, Keegan was cool on his typical roller set up, tucked away for a bit of calm clarity. Lachlan was just cruising around for a bit of a road warm up. 

With the mens gap established, we had to hustle down the road to mile 34, Keegan was leading the group through the single track section, looking smooth on the drop bar mountain bike. One of the biggest challenges of shooting these races is when large gaps form, it often means you have to leave before the women come through. Or risk missing the lead at your next section. We decided to gamble, and we stayed here to get a view of how the women's race was unfolding. Still in a large group, they rolled through with about 10 of the top Grand Prix women. Eventual winner Kate Courtney was leading, a World Cup XCO mountain bike world champ she for sure had the advantage through this section. Chased closely by SILCA women, Melisa Rollins, Alexis Skarda, and Sofia Gomez Villafane.

Leadville is unique in that it is a true out and back course. The turn around is at the top of the biggest climb Columbine, right before this climb is an aid station that you can hit in either direction (going out or coming back). This area is a sort of controlled chaos with two way traffic the pros are heading home when the amateurs are still on the way out to the climb.

Keegan made his move on the climb opening up about a 5 minute gap to Simon and John. Unfortunately John was take out by a camera crew in this aid, while able to get up and race to second place, it's still a bummer to see such a big mistake by a pro photo crew. In some ways this is what makes gravel what it is, everyone on the same course racing. In other ways it might be some growing pains in a long arc of change to the sport.

Just due to the speed in which Keegan was going, in order to catch him anywhere else we had to leave before the women came back down Columbine. 

Not too long ago, the Powerline climb was the decisive point where the Leadville 100 was won or lost. However, in recent years, Keegan Swenson has consistently been so far ahead that he's already solo by the time he reaches it.

The Powerline climb is a notoriously brutal 3.38-mile section with an average grade of 7.4%, topping out at a punishing 25% in some places. Despite being solo, Keegan still holds the King of the Mountain (KOM) title from a couple of years back and set the 6th fastest time ever on that segment. This consistency at such high elevation is truly remarkable.

From Powerline we had to hustle back to the finish, earlier in the day it was looking like Keegan had a shot a breaking his own course record. Unfortunately a brutal headwind on the last stretch home took that away. Still coming in the with the second fasting time in race history, next his record year. Keegan has raced 5 Leadvilles and won all five. A nearly unthinkable