Fort Lewis rising senior Michaela Thompson may be relatively new to the gravel scene but her prowess on two wheels on Saturday masked her inexperience. The 22-year-old was strong all day at the 105-mile Leadville Trail 100. She had her best finish this year in the Life Time Grand Prix series with a third-place finish.
Thompson finished with a phenomenal ride with a time of 7 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds. Melisa Rollins won the women’s race with a 7:10:10 and Sofia Gomez Villafane finished second with a 7:14:03.
“I'm feeling overall, really excited about it,” Thompson said. “Honestly, I talked to a lot of people, and I put a lot of preparation from the beginning of the year into this race as my A+ race going into it. I put in a lot of training the month before that was directed toward it and felt pretty prepared for it. But honestly, it was a big surprise coming through the line in third. Having a really smooth day, like I did up in Leadville, with no mechanicals, no problems, just great sensations for the whole seven hours or so. It felt really good to have that.”
It was Thompson’s second race at Leadville and she said she was much more prepared for it compared to last year.
The women had their own start this year which slowed the pace at the start compared to last year, according to Thompson. All the women could see where they were in relation to each other instead of chasing after some men ahead.
Thompson was very happy for the women’s start and said the women stuck together until the first climb. Thompson was up at the front from the start and the front group of her, Rollins and Gomez Villafane broke away with a strong and steady pace for the first half the race.
From about mile 50 to mile 94, Thompson was in second place. Toward the end, Gomez Villafane continued to get closer and closer. Thompson was pushing her hardest but Gomez Villafane eventually caught her. Thompson tried to stay on her wheel but she either lost focus or didn’t have the legs and the gap continued to grow. Thompson said at the end Gomez Villafane had a gradual pace increase she couldn’t match.
Thompson came into this season with low expectations for the Life Time Grand Prix series since she’s relatively new to gravel. She’s sitting in 11th place in the standings and she hopes to place in the top 10 at the end of the year.
Campbell has best result of 2024 Life Time Grand Prix with sixth place finish
Ellen Campbell also had a nice race. She finished sixth in the women’s race with a time of 7:23:04. Campbell impressed in the Leadville stage race a few weeks ago and her preparation paid off. She was no lower than sixth at any of the race split markers.
“This was my third time doing Leadville, so I had done it twice and in the first year, I surprised myself, just having no expectations and just really not knowing what was going to unfold,” Campbell said. “Last year I was just inside the top 10 and I was a little bit hungry for more after last year. I knew that I could have a really good race there. Just given the terrain, given the altitude and the time of the year. I don't know. I just like it.”
Campbell said she worked a lot on focusing on certain races and giving herself more confidence. She had to overcome the fear of blowing up early in the race and wanted to come in with a riskier approach of going harder than she had before in the beginning. Campbell had to come into the race with her head held high, knowing the first part of the race would be the toughest for her.
The women had their own start which helped Campbell. The ladies dictated their own pace and it was more controlled. This helped with a lot of women’s confidence including Campbell’s. She knew where she was pace-wise and where she was place-wise. She could see the front and it was less chaotic than the mass starts with the men.
Campbell was in the top five for most of the race until about the last 10 miles. Erin Huck was at the front but she had a flat tire which sent her flying down the timing charts. Early on in the race, Campbell could see Huck and Thompson had good rhythm and composure.
As Campbell was at the end of her race, she could see Huck closing quickly. Campbell realized she couldn’t do that pace until the end of the race and Huck passed by her and another rider to finish fourth.
“I don't regret not being able to hang with her,” Campbell said. “I don't regret watching her ride away from me because at that time, she was at a different level. She could have won the race. We rode together as long as I could sustain, but I decided to ease up because I knew I couldn't last another 15 miles at that pace … It was actually really cool to see. Obviously you want to do well, but when your competitor, your friend, has a mechanical and they feel really good, it's like a bummer because you have these magic legs and the bike is a limiting factor. So it was cool to see her come back from such a big mechanical.”
Campbell is in 18th in the women’s Life Time Grand Prix standings. She is doing the Breck Epic Mountain Bike Stage Race in Breckenridge. It started on Sunday and finishes on Friday.
Sturm suffers injury, finishes 15th
Sarah Sturm has had a great year on both the Gravel Earth series and the Life Time Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the good vibes came to a halt early in the race. Sturm suffered an injury and finished 15th.
Less than 10 miles in, Sturm knew something was wrong in her left leg. She tried to fight through it and it only got worse as she climbed up Sugar Loaf into Powerline. Eventually, that leg locked up and she could only push with her right leg. She found out after the race it was a muscle injury in her glute and psoas in her left leg.
“When everything happened and it was clear that there was something wrong, I mentally went through a lot of options, of how bad is this,” Sturm said. “Could I keep pedaling? I just made smaller goals for myself. It changed from trying to win the race to, ‘Let me try to get to this next aid station and reassess’ … If there were any shooting pains, or feeling that I tore my muscle, obviously that would have been all she wrote. But it was sort of just bad enough where I could kind of keep pedaling with one leg.”
Sturm hoped it would get better but realized that was a stupid thought. She made it up columbine climb and after that realized the race she thought she had was over and her new goal was to make it to the finish.
She pushed all the negative thoughts out and instead focused on her support crew and the work she had put in to get to that point.
Sturm ended up finishing 15th and without the injury, thought she would’ve had a great chance at a podium with her full-suspension bike without a dropper post. She thought she could’ve been on for a podium at Leadville as climbing at altitude is a strength of Sturm’s.
Sitting tied fourth in the women’s Life Time Grand Prix standings, Sturm thinks it’ll take a few weeks of good rehab of her injury and she hopes to finish the season strong.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
