There had been a big gap between races in the Life Time Grand Prix series after Crusher in the Tushar was canceled in July due to forest fires.
With over two months between races, Durango resident Cole Paton was ready to fight at the front of the 2024 Leadville Trail 100 from the start on Saturday.
Paton finished third in the men’s race as the top Durango athletes in the expansive Leadville Trail 100 field.
After 100 miles on single track, fire roads, paved roads and other tricky surfaces, Paton came home in third with a time of 6 hours, 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Keegan Swenson won the race with a 5:49:08 finishing time and John Gaston was second with a 6:04:50 finishing time.
“I'm super happy with it,” Paton said about his performance. “It was a big relief for me, especially just because I've been preparing so much for it this summer, being apart from Savilia (Blunk) and missing out on her Olympic race so I could be at altitude. It was a big relief. I'm really happy with my performance. I got the absolute most out of myself on the day and that was really all I could ask for. It was really nice to also clock my best time by a few minutes and score my best result there.”
Leadville is a long and grueling race with some huge climbs as riders take on about 12,000 feet of elevation gain with a peak elevation of 12,600 feet.
Paton was committed to riding his own pace and he wasn’t worried when the leaders split away at the beginning. He said it was hard to do that and have the confidence in himself that he had the right pace. But he did and he’s proud of that.
This year’s race was different for Paton because the leaders had such a strong pace in the first two hours that everything blew apart. Swenson drove the pace and this helped Paton later on when some of the riders trying to stay with Swenson early fell off toward the end.
After this, Paton was riding alone for a few hours until he caught up with second-placed Gaston and passed him at the Columbine climb.
Paton’s setup of a lightweight, hardtail with a rigid post and narrow tires really helped him on the climbs.
But he was fatigued from how bumpy it was at the end of the race and Gaston passed him on his full suspension around 10 miles from the finish and Paton came home third.
Paton is in eighth in the Life Time Grand Prix series men’s standings with three races to go.
“It's so hard to know how it's actually going to play out until maybe the last round and even until the last round is over,” Paton said. “I scored second place points at Leadville, which is exactly what I needed to do. I'm going in the right direction. I'm really excited for the next few rounds and it's going to be really tight this year. We have a lot of strong riders and some really different race demands coming up in these next few rounds.”
Paton’s next event will be the Chequamegon Mountain Bike Festival on Sept. 14 in Cable, Wisconsin. This is the next event in the Life Time Grand Prix. He’s planning on heading back to Washington where he’s from so he can do some training at sea level. This should help him with more of a sprint race that Chequamegon is.
McElveen continues consistency with ride to fifth
Payson McElveen had a good ride at Leadville. After winning the Leadville stage race a few weeks ago, McElveen finished fifth in the men’s race on Saturday in the Leadville Trail 100. He crossed the finish line at 6:09:33.
“This fifth place feels better than other fifth places, I must say,” McElveen said. “Of all the Grand Prix races, Leadville is the one that was sort of the most uncertain for me … I've had good rides at Leadville in the past, but it had been a few years. Even though the end of the series and my season as a whole has been going really awesome this year, I definitely had doubts going into Leadville. It was really good to put those doubts to rest for myself and take a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year.”
McElveen found himself in the middle of the pro riders at the beginning of the race and wasn’t in a position to move up when Swenson and the leaders broke away on the first climb.
The 31-year-old gradually made his way up through into the top 10 after feeling really comfortable on the Columbine climb. He made up the positions he lost at the beginning of the race on his high-tech full-suspension setup. It had a battery-operated motor that toggles between settings based on the terrain and power put into the pedals.
McElveen linked up with Lachlan Morton during the Columbine climb and they rode back together. McElveen didn’t have the pace he needed to beat Morton and finished behind him by three seconds.
Swenson leads the Life Time Grand Prix men’s standings with 94 points but McElveen isn’t far behind in second with 87 points. He’s very happy to be in second in the standings.
Next up for McElveen is the Steamboat Gravel race in Steamboat Springs on Sunday.
Other male Durango riders in the field
Howard Grotts finished 13th and crossed the finish line at 6:20:46. He was riding in the top 10 for the first 80 miles and then fell back at the end.
Grotts wrote on Instagram that he has mixed emotions about the race. He was happy to be racing again after some injury issues.
“But the race itself left something to be desired,” Grotts wrote on Instagram. “Maybe my attempt at an aero-ish bike setup wasn't a good idea because my body just kind of "crumpled" out there. (Or the running's got me spoiled with its postural correctness). Luckily stems and cranks and whatnot can be swapped and get that torso upright and CDA as high as possible.”
Henry Nelson finished 20th with a 6:28:36. Former Olympian Todd Wells finished 31st with a 6:43:24 at 48 years old.
Samuel Hart finished 36th with a finishing time of 6:51:18. Jack Odron finished 42nd with a 7:02:15 and Cody Cupp finished 55th with a 7:11:39.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
