Leadville, The 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Podcast p/b Shimano

When it comes to the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race, tires are the most hotly debated tech topic. The participants' page and other forums are littered with discussions on what tire to run, what tire is best, what tire is the lightest, and so on. These discussions can be somewhat beneficial but what most of them lack is real data. Well we found one tech head who is putting XC tires to the test to come up with actual numbers that characterize a tires’ rolling performance.    John Karrasch of Cahaba Cycles is our guest and expert for this episode. John has been on a quest to find the fastest off-road tires. Some of the tires he’s been testing are gravel tires but most are the kinds of tires a Leadville Racer would run: XC mountain bike tires. The Vittoria Peyote, the Continental Race King and Dubnital, and the Maxxis Aspen and Aspen ST are all tires John has tested in the field. He’s been feeding GPS, power, speed, weight, and wind resistance data into a program to come up with rolling resistance figures.    We’re not gonna lie, this is pretty heady stuff. But by the end of the interview we boil it down to the tires that roll the fastest and hopefully point Leadville racers to a handful that will do best at Leadville.    Mentions in this  episode:    John’s Instagram - flexfitbyjohn   Rolling resistance effect on power and speed - gribble.org  

After 190 episodes of the show that breaks down, builds up, gets you ready, and freaks you out for the highest and hardest one day mountain bike race in the country, we've reached our red carpet, our 6th and Harrison. We want to wrap up by talking about other places you can learn about this race, our top advice, and our favorite episodes.  Everyone, we've loved doing this show and are grateful for our extraordinary audience. We'll see you at the starting line!

Two of the big, recurring themes on this show have been fueling and hydration. It’s an eating and drinking contest disguised as a bicycle  race after all. In this interview, Hottie is joined by Andy Blow of Precision Fuel to take a sweat test and get some insights into the hydration equation.

Melisa Rollins joins us for an hourlong deep dive into what it's like to love this race as much as we do, and to truly give it everything you've got. For everyone who has turned themselves inside out racing the LT100 and wondered, "what if?," this episode is for you.

After the race, it's time to share stories. While we can't tell everyone's, we CAN share quite a few. In this episode, we hear from nervous racers before the gun goes off (and how their races went), how the new course segments, shuttling and crewing rules worked out, have a great finish-line conversation with the LT100 racer on a handbike, talk with the first winners of the LT100, get to know the two people who have finished all 30 of the LT100MTB races, and (believe it or not) more. 

As we get close to the main event, we complete our conversation with Jeff Waldmuller, whose story should inspire every racer on the course. Be sure to listen to last week's episode (S7E23), and then enjoy this one as you put your feet up and rest up for the big race.

We've got 2 great interviews in this episode. First, Andy Blow—Founder/CEO of Precision Fuel & Hydration—joins us to talk about his well-considered framework for endurance fueling, as well as how you might want to include Precision products (available on-course this year) in your plan. And then, part 1 of a two-part interview with Jeff Waldmuller: as you're getting close to race day and looking for inspiration, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better story. 

It's one thing to tell people abstractly how they ought to do the LT100. It's a completely other thing to actually describe your own plan. In this episode, Fatty & Hottie detail how they're going to walk the walk in 2024, from bike setup to clothes setup to nutrition to split times to crewing plan.

Guest Nate Whitman, 21-time Leadville race finisher, shares insights on race planning, crew strategy, altitude acclimatization, and gear tips for the race. Discussions on safety updates, Envy's evolution, custom kits, training strategies, muscle cramp remedies, and optimal gear management.

In times past, we used to say you could safely ignore power numbers at Leadville. The tech and understanding of power meters have come a long way since then, and now, properly incorporated, a power meter can really benefit your race. In this episode, Coach Hunter Allen, who has worked with Jeremiah Bishop and dozens of other Leadville athletes, will help you get our FTP converted to something we can use at 10,000 feet and help us pace the race using power.