My Leadville 100 Bike Setup & Gear

By Sean Fanning • Fri Dec 12 2025

This is the third part in my Leadville Blog Series. Earlier posts available here.

The Quick Hits

This post won't be as data driven as the last (or the next), but I hope it gives some context on the equipment that I used both in training and for the race. Believe it or not, there was no good "here is what to carry on race day" list for Leadville. Perhaps this also won't be a definitive list but I'll share my rationale for why I carried what I did (or didn't), how I did it. I hope this is helpful!

Choosing a Bike

My Racepace cofounder is the bike nerd on our team. I'm sure he could go into every nuance of build specs, components, geometry, tradeoffs, etc. I can not.

I am much more the sucker for advertising, brand, and what is cool.

What I can say is that I walked into a Trek shop looking to ride a Supercaliber.

Later that day I planned to walk into a Specialized store and ride an Epic.

I was ~10 weeks out from Leadville and was told there was a single Supercaliber available in the next month and inventory after that was unknown. I called Specialized and got a similar answer on inventory. So on the spot I bought the Supercaliber. Did I get sold by a particularly persuasive sales guy? Perhaps.

But I do love the bike!

I went for a M/L frame. At 5'10'' I am on the bubble of M and M/L. I opted for the (very slightly) larger frame as my inseam was squarely between the two but I wanted a longer reach (and proportionally my arms are long for a 5'10'' person).

One big regret I have is not getting a fit before choosing a bike. The Trek has worked out terrific for me, and I ride it most of any bike in my quiver now. This took a lot of trial and error in the first few weeks to get right and led to some overuse issues that I could have skipped if I hadn't been cheap (right around the time I bought the bike I left my job to start Racepace and didn't want to spend any more money than I needed to - but don't skimp on bike fit). I specifically ran into issues with crank length, saddle, and dialing in reach just right.

Modifications

I changed five big things: wheelset, tires, saddle, cranks, chainring:

Bought Industry Solix XC Carbon vs. the stock wheelset
  • This was the most obvious place for me to shed some build weight
  • I answered why I bought these wheels here (vs. Enve M5)
  • If I didn't have a good deal on these, I'd have gone with the Controls
  • Factor in the cost of tires, rotors, and a cassette if upgrading
Opted to put on a 170mm crank vs. the 175mm that came stock
  • I run 172.5mm on my road bike and 170 on gravel which is what came stock on both. I didn't notice the 175 until after a 5 hour ride wrecked my glutes and created some hip joint soreness. I switched the next day.
Mezcal XC Race 29x2.35 (front and rear) vs. the stock tire from the Trek

I decided to make tires simple. A lot of riders get analysis paralysis and waste time reading about tires (and the latest fueling or training methodology) when they can/should be riding. I wanted low rolling resistance first with puncture resistance a close second. The Mezcal ranked highly in those areas so I opted to use it front and rear with OrangeSeal sealant. I could have overthought this but I didn't want to. With the benefit of hindsight I would do this different next time.

A few pros from the day:

  • I didn't flat despite smashing around a bunch
  • I never felt like I was hurting for grip

A few thoughts:

  • I didn't descend well and lost a lot of time - was it my tire choice?
  • Mezcal/Barzo combo I have now is really nice and feels fast
  • Front could’ve been Barzo / Aspen / Rekon Race for confidence
  • I have since also ridden Aspens and notice no difference

Leadville vets accept now that 2.35-2.4 tires > 2.25 for fatigue resistance in Leadville (I think). 2.4 tires trade a small amount of early-race snap for better fatigue resistance and late-race performance, while 2.25s feel quicker initially but cost you more energy over long, rough races like Leadville. So I chose 2.35.

I chose the Favero Assioma as my power meter

This was influenced by my road bike power meter crapping out around the time I bought the Trek. I had a 12 year old pair of PowerTap P1 pedals that stopped working. I wanted flexibility to have power on the Trek and my road bike so opted for the pedal. I bought the dual sided pedal, single sided is fine in my opinion.

I have also had some HARD pedal strikes and they've held up - 10/10 recommend

Added a 34t chain ring vs. the 36t that came stock

My bike came stock with a 36t chainring - if you're an amateur I think 34t is the right choice for Leadville. I cleaned Powerline's steep section pushing 40-50rpm at my target power. I never felt undergeared on flats.

  • My cassette was a standard 10-52 SRAM Eagle 12-speed
Side load bottles cages for extra clearance

Also added two Specialized side-load bottle cages; the M/L fits one 880ml bottle on the down tube and one 600ml bottle on the seat tube as well.

  • I used the HydraPak 880 and 600 bottles
  • I expect I could fit up to 1000ml on the down tube but haven't tried
  • Make sure you get one L and one R load if you want same side access

Everyone has a friend with a pro deal on something (you don't need to be a pro to get a pro deal). Ask around before buying because deals can be found.

Raceday Inventory

Fuel

I kept it pretty simple on race day:

  • Maurten carb products almost exclusively: 320s, 320 CAF, 160 gels
  • Precision Hydration 1000
  • Took 2 extra Maurten 160 gels - CYA in case of dropped bottle
  • Fun stuff
    • Had my crew carry gummy bears, Coke (opened the night before so it was flat), and Uncrustables - I didn't end up taking any of these
Preparing my fuel on the evening before the race

Part 5 of the Series, My Leadville Fueling Strategy (coming soon) has more.

Tire Pressures

The question I get asked a lot about is tire pressure. Don't listen to my view on tire pressure (another area my cofounder would be a great person to talk to). I like my tires a bit firmer. This is not scientific it is just what I like and what feels good. I chose to run my front at 18psi and rear at 19.5psi. Silca recommended this, however; their calculator doesn't get sophisticated enough to contemplate a massive temperature swings which impact pressure (elevation impact is de minimis). Tire pressure was an afterthought and so this was a gut decision on race morning thinking that as it warmed and I got higher in elevation they'd firm to my liking (the race starts around 40 degrees and rises to high 70s/low 80s).

As I said I descended poorly. I should have spent more time on tires.

Equipment

I stored everything I carried in an ALMSTHRE bag or in my jersey pockets.

In the bag I had:
  • Multi-tool
  • Extra Dynaplugs for the frame mounted insert tool
  • CO2 and an inflator (not attached)
  • 2 extra Maurten 160 gels in case I dropped a bottle (didn't use)
  • Two extra cleat screws - I have a recurring issue with my cleats screws coming undone. It might be an issue with the Specailized shoe. I didn't want to risk have an issue with a cleat, so brought 2 extra screws. Weight weenies would lose their mind over the 2-3 second loss, I didn't.
  • Chain tool + two quick links

Note, I packed the top tube bag with intention. What would I need first if I had to open the bag up? What could take a few seconds to find if needed?

On the bike I had:
  • 2 Dynaplugs mounted under bottle cage
  • Garmin 850 Bike Computer
    • I did not load the course map into this, more to come in a later post
  • A paper pace chart taped on
My fuel and pace chart
In my jersey I had:
  • Gels for the current fueling segment (read more in the next post)
  • 1 Tubolito
  • CO2 and an inflator (pre-threaded for easy use)
    • I brought two heads because I have had o-rings fail on me before - I didn't want to be left high and dry if my inflator broke
  • A single dollar bill, because I read somewhere that it could be used as a tire boot in a pinch - I'm glad I didn't have to figure out if I needed it
On me I had:

Some closing thoughts

  • Get a bike fit done as soon as you can, ideally before you select a frame to buy so you're sure its the right brand and size for you. Equipment fit and nutrition are probably the two things that you simply shouldn't skimp on.
  • Comfort on the bike should be a priority and investing in the right gear is not an area to cheap out on after you've done months of training. You don't really want to get 4 hours into the race and have your Amazon bib shorts start chafing you so bad that you lose time trying to make it stop. My shoes and jersey/bib were expensive but they were what was comfortable for me.
  • Practice using plugs and your CO2 before race day so you know how to use them effectively. No sense carrying something if you can't work it. You can use an old tire and pierce it with a knife to practice using plugs/air.
  • The race number is annoying to fit around cables and with some changes I made I had a lot of extra slack in the cables creating a mess to work around, in hindsight I should have cleaned this up for more space for the number.

Anything else you want to know? Total cost of the setup? More details on a choice I made? Would love to hear from you. If you're training for Leadville or any race we'd love to work with you, you can sign up for Racepace today.