Three days, ~103 miles and a shot at an LT100 MTB qualifier coin — the full Race Across the Sky course, split into stages.
Build Your Personalized Race Fueling Plan — $19General, evidence-based guidance. Numbers should always be personalized to sweat rate, body mass, fitness and weather.
Target 60–90 g/hr of mixed glucose:fructose (roughly 1:0.8) on all three stages. Trained guts can push 100–120 g/hr on Stages 1 and 3 (~4–5 h efforts); most riders stay at 70–90 g/hr on Stage 2 because Columbine's intensity suppresses gastric emptying.
17–34 fl oz/hr baseline, adjusted for the day's temperature and your sweat rate. Dry Rocky Mountain air roughly doubles insensible respiratory losses vs sea level — you will finish dehydrated if you drink to thirst alone.
400–1000 mg sodium per liter of fluid, tuned to sweat sodium concentration. Salty sweaters compound day over day: what you don't replace on Friday shows up as cramps on Sunday's Powerline climb.
3–6 mg/kg body weight per stage, split — e.g. one dose 30–45 min pre-start, second at the last aid before the key climb (Columbine on Stage 2, Powerline on Stage 3). Keep total daily intake under ~6 mg/kg to protect sleep between stages.
Stage 1: Carter Summit (mi 10) top-off, Outward Bound (mi 24) full reset. Stage 2: Columbine Summit (mi 11) — grab, don't linger. Stage 3: Outward Bound (mi 15.4) full reset, Carter Summit (mi 29.6) last-chance calories before the descent home.
1–4 g/kg CHO 2–4 hours before each 9:00 AM start, from foods you have rehearsed — oatmeal with banana and honey, white rice with jam, a bagel with jam. Low fiber, low fat, no experiments across the weekend.
Within 60 min of each finish: 1.0–1.2 g/kg CHO + 0.3–0.4 g/kg protein and 150 % of estimated fluid loss with sodium. Add a real meal within 2 hours (rice + protein + vegetables). Elevate legs, get 8+ hours of sleep, keep dinner low-fiber before Stage 3.
Set a 15-minute interval alarm on the head unit each day and treat carbs, fluid and sodium as an appointment. Perceived effort at 10,000 ft lies — the clock does not.
Every aid station along the Leadville Stage Race course, with crew access, drop-bag rules and the fueling action to execute at each stop.
Top off 1 bottle, take 1 gel. < 60 sec.
Full reset: bottles, 60–90 g CHO on board, layers off, 2nd caffeine. < 3 min.
Water + gel, layer up for descent. Do not linger at 12,497 ft.
Full reset: bottles, calories, 2nd caffeine before Powerline. < 3 min.
Force 1 bottle + 60 g CHO. Last-chance calories before the run home.
40 miles feels short. Riders who bury themselves chasing time on Day 1 pay for it on Columbine and lose 20–40 min on Sunday.
Beer and burgers at the post-stage dinner are great — after you have already hit CHO, protein and fluid targets. Reverse the order and Stage 3 collapses.
It is 2.5–4 hours mostly at or above threshold above 11,000 ft. Fuel it like a 4-hour ride, not a training loop.
Three stages amplify GI risk. Everything — bottles, mix, gels, chamois, shoes, pack — must be identical to what you rehearsed on long altitude rides.
The course rewards fast rolling but punishes thin sidewalls on the descents. 2.25–2.4 in tubeless with reinforced casing, pressure re-checked every morning.
35–45 °F at 9:00 AM with a rapid warm-up. Under-layering leads to shivering and suppressed appetite; over-layering leads to overheating and early dehydration. Arm warmers + vest + gloves is the sweet spot.
Crew and shuttle logistics differ every day (Twin Lakes finish Fri, Twin Lakes start Sun via shuttle). Print a one-pager with times, locations and drop-bag contents per stage.
Fly in the day before and Columbine will end your weekend. Arrive 5–7+ days early, or arrive the night before and accept the performance cost.
Get a practical planning document with the course breakdown, aid-station strategy, fueling and hydration worksheets, race-morning timeline, equipment checklist, crew notes, and space for your own plan.
Free calculators, checklists and articles to help you personalize your Leadville Stage Race plan.
Every athlete is different. FTP, finish time, body weight, sweat rate, weather, nutrition preferences and race goals all change what you should eat and drink.
FuelQ Pro builds a personalized race fueling strategy tuned to your ride — carbohydrate, hydration, sodium, caffeine and recovery, mapped to the course.
A Race Fueling Plan gives you a personalized strategy for this event. The free checklist helps you prepare the basics first: race-week setup, 48-hour prep, race morning, hydration, sodium, caffeine, aid stations, and backup calories.
