{"id":55382,"date":"2025-08-08T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55382\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:06:07","slug":"drop-bars-at-leadville-have-the-keyboard-warriors-frothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55382\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop bars at Leadville have the keyboard warriors frothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every August, Leadville becomes ground zero for weird bike builds. But this year, the drop bar discourse has reached new heights and the comment sections have gone full nuclear.
Canada\u2019s Haley Smith<\/a> and Andrew L\u2019Espeerance show up on drop bar mountain bikes, and just like that, the internet is broken. Add Kate Courtney\u2019s aero tuck to the mix\u2014hands on the fork stanchions\u2014and you\u2019ve got a full-blown UCI panic attack on your hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cStraight to UCI jail.\u201d
\u201cDrop bars? Where we\u2019re going, we don\u2019t need drop bars.\u201d
\u201cCan someone please stop this madness before someone loses their teef?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gravel logic, MTB race<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get real: Leadville isn\u2019t a typical mountain bike race. It\u2019s 100 miles of fire road and singletrack at an elevation that would have mere mortals sucking wind. It\u2019s about watts, elevation and endurance.<\/p>\n

So it makes sense that some riders are chasing every aero advantage they can get. Drop bars allow for more hand positions and better wind-cheating posture.<\/p>\n

Geoff Kabush, chimed in on Instagram, frustrated with the overreaction:
\u201cJesus Christ, Leadville journalists! Can\u2019t believe I have to post this photo of Travis Brown\u2019s 2009 Leadville bike again. Give the old guy some credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh the comments\u2026<\/p>\n

The comment sections are pure gold\u2014equal parts comedy and chaos. You\u2019d think someone showed up to Leadville on a Citi bike the way folks are reacting. People are personally offended by a set of curved handlebars. We\u2019ve got amateur aero experts citing wind tunnel data from their garage. Somewhere between the \u201cfork fairing\u201d conspiracy theorists and the \u201cbring back bar ends\u201d crowd, it\u2019s clear: nothing fires people up like someone going fast in a way they don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Let the pros be pros<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: Haley Smith isn\u2019t showing up to Leadville with some janky garage conversion. Neither is Lespy. These are race-tuned, purpose-built mountain bikes with drop bars, wireless drivetrains and the best XC tires money can buy.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t gravel bikes pretending to be mountain bikes. They\u2019re just mountain bikes evolving for the task at hand.<\/p>\n

The line between MTB and gravel<\/p>\n

Drop bars at Leadville aren\u2019t a gimmick. They\u2019re part of a larger shift, where bikes are tools, not categories. Where riders adapt their setups to the terrain. And where pros are going to keep pushing the envelope, whether the comment section likes it or not.
The future of mountain biking? It might have curves. Sometimes.<\/p>\n

Watch the drama unfold live<\/p>\n

For the first time ever, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB will be broadcast live. Catch every dusty climb and tuck-happy descent as it happens. Will the drop bar crowd dominate?<\/p>\n

Live coverage starts at 5:45am MST, Saturday August 9.<\/p>\n

Watch on the Life Time Grand Prix YouTube channel<\/a> or the Life Time app.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t read the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every August, Leadville becomes ground zero for weird bike builds. But this year, the drop bar discourse has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,1700,82],"class_list":["post-55382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-features","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}