When LifeTime quietly announced it was banning drop bar mountain bikes from two of its events, it created exactly the poop-storm of naysaying headlines you’d expect it to. Drop bars on mountain bikes has taken the torch from “the spirit of gravel” as the guaranteed way to generate hype – or controversy – in the world of gravel.
But there is a long history to drop bars in mountain bikes, specifically at Leadville 100. And there is, apparently, more to the story. than just a race organizer clamping down on racer’s fun and creativity.
History vs reality
First off, yes, drop bar mountain bikes have a long history (John Tomac in the 90’s) and a long history at Leadville. Long before Keegan Swenson made drop bars a winning move in Colorado, even before Cory Wallace tried the same, or Travis Brown back in 2009 or, well, there’s been over a decade and a half (at least) of riders testing out drop bars at Leadville.
While drop bars in Leadville have a long history, history isn’t the same as now.
Drop bars at Leadville have the keyboard warriors frothing
Now, it is not just one guy trying it. With more people experimenting (or feeling pressured to) with drop bars at Leadville and an increasingly professionalized peloton crashing Leadville every year since it joined the Life Time Grand Prix, the race is different than it was in the past. More top riders riding at faster speeds. Add in more mixed bars and you have a much riskier reality than 10, or even five years ago.
Some perspective from the riders
After the announcement generated a bunch of internet hype, Payson McElveen decided to weigh in with a bit of insider insight. The veteran U.S. gravel and mountain bike racer shared that the decision to get rid of drop bars at Leadville (and Little Sugar, for what its worth) was driven as much by riders as it was by Life Time.
“Sorry to disappoint, but y’all have it backwards,” McElveen shared. “This rule change was requested by the riders.” The U.S. racer added that “doing away with drop bars at Leadville had near unanimous support.”
There were a couple of motivators driving this request. Safety and fairness are among the top issues.
Safety first
On the safety front, there are two factors. McElveen says most riders “seemed to agree that having a mix of handlebar shapes wasn’t that sweet in a peloton going 40mph into a hole shot.” As mentioned, Life Time bringing Leadville into the Grand Prix series has meant a consistently larger, professionalized and very motivated field shows up at the iconic event every year. Speeds are higher, more racers are fighting for position, not just the win. That makes mixing bars, well, sketchy. Even for the pros.
McElveen added that pros riding drop bars also might set an inadvisable precedent for amateurs at the same event. While Keegan Swenson (or Canada’s Andrew L’Esperance and Sean Fincham) might be able to manage the spicier sections of Leadville on a drop bar bike, they are pros. And pros are very, very good at riding bikes. While they sacrifice time in the more technical stretches of Leadville, other riders might be sacrificing safety. Either their own or, again with mixed bars and changing speeds, others.
But is this any risker than Kate Courtney riding the road sections aero-tucked down on her fork crown (which was mounted with SRAM Blips so she could shift without reaching up to the bars), as she did to win Leadville in 2025? Well, yes. As McElveen points out, drop bars are most dangerous for the pros in the frantic opening kilometres of a race. By the time Courtney dropped her hands down the to the fork crown (admittedly still kinda sketchy), she was either on her own or alone with one other rider. That’s a completely different scenario. But if that type of tactic gains popularity, the UCI has already shown it can ban unsafe riding positions. Maybe Life Time will have to follow suit.
Fairness matters
McElveen added that the decision to get rid of drop-bars is also, among the pros, a matter of fairness. He credited Swenson with bringing up the issue of fairness, which is commendable as the reigning XCM world champ just moved from one of the best-funded teams to the other best-funded gravel team.
Why this is a matter of fairness requires getting a little nerdy (but not too nerdy, don’t worry). While gravel is rapidly getting more polished and professional, that doesn’t mean that everyone in the field at Leadville has a full factory ride. In fact, far from it. Many are racing as privateers with limited support. And racing a drop bar mountain bike isn’t always just a matter of swapping bars (and brakes, and shifters).
“Getting a drop bar MTB to work usually requires getting an extra frame and going down a size,” McElveen explains, adding that that is “a luxury not everyone on the start line has…especially younger up-and-coming riders.”
“I totally get the argument for bike setup innovation, Tomac glory content etc.,’ McElveen concludes. “But as our sport continues to professionalize in new ways, this seems like the right call for now.”