![\"Leadville](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/lange-bike-drop-bars-0745-1.jpg\")
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Tech features<\/a><\/p>\n Drop bars, full suspension, and a Columbine descent KOM. <\/p>\n Caley Fretz<\/p>\n The Leadville Trail 100 goes off Saturday, August 9. Escape Collective’s Josh Weinberg is on the ground and will have more coverage Friday and Saturday. To kick things off, here’s a look at a bike at the front of the drop-bar trend.<\/p>\n It’s not that I don’t believe Bradyn Lange, but Capital-J journalism requires fact-checking, and this is an important fact. The Strava KOM down Columbine, the longest of the Leadville Trail 100’s descents, is now his, he told me. And he took it on this mountain bike with drop bars. <\/p>\n Lange estimates that at least 15 of the elite racers at this weekend’s Leadville will line up on some sort of drop bar configuration. The significant shift is unsurprising after Keegan Swenson’s success with the setup<\/a>, but it still marks an interesting moment for those following the shifting equipment used in the Race Across the Sky. The assumption has long been that drop bars were worth running in spite of the downhills, not because of them. If Lange’s KOM claim is correct, that shifts the calculation even further in drop bars’ favor at this unique event. <\/p>\n Lange is not lying, of course<\/a>. There are half a dozen segments that take in most of the Columbine descent, but Lange has the KOM on the one that, to my eye, best matches the actual top and bottom of the descent as used in the race. He has 12 seconds over Trapper Steinle, a Colorado-based amateur racer, and went 29 seconds faster than Swenson did in 2023 (albeit Swenson’s time was during the race, so he was dealing with traffic coming up at him on the out-and-back section to the race’s turnaround point). <\/p>\n “I spent a while playing with geometry calculators and stuff online before building or trying anything,” Lange said of his choice. His goal was to mimic his road setup down to the millimeter in reach, drop, and pedal\/saddle relationship. He ended up with a Pinarello Dogma XC (he’s sponsored by the Italian brand), which is a useful starting place because it was designed for also-roadie Tom Pidcock and features a particularly short head tube. But he still had to size down, from a large to a medium. <\/p>\n From there, he did a bit of stem length experimentation, settling on a 60 mm option with a -12\u02da bend before taking it to the trails. “I think a lot of people will chuck on drop bars last minute, and will not get it right,” Lange said. “It’s a bit more complicated than it looks, but once you get it dialed, I love it. It’s so, so fast.” <\/p>\n Here’s a look at the rest of Lange’s setup. <\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Caley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/CF_PROFILE-150x150.png\")
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