'I'm capable of doing it again' - Defending Leadville 100 winner Melisa Rollins uses Leadville Stage Race win to erase doubt

Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) called her win last year in Leadville, Colorado, "life-changing". She had some doubt creep into her mind this year about defending her title at the Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik, but recent results have boosted her confidence to accept the tag as 'race favourite'.

That one signature victory was then followed by a podium at Big Sugar Gravel and second overall in the Life Time Grand Prix series last fall. This year, after a podium at RADL GRVL and healing quickly from a broken left wrist, she finished sixth at Sea Otter Gravel and was 14th overall at Unbound Gravel 200. Then she piled on a string of recent victories - SBT GRVL, Firecracker 50, Leadville Race Series.

"My confidence is really good heading into Leadville. The altitude here can humble people, and I’ve been humbled here before, but I'm feeling as good as I can be," Rollins told the media at Tuesday's virtual Life Time press conference.

"I had a pretty good Sea Otter. I didn't have the best Unbound, and then you start questions, was last year a fluke? We don't know.

"I'm just happy the field is elevating and I'm really excited to be able to be a part of it, because as a racer, that's all I care about. I just want to be in the race. The winning part is really cool, and I of course want to win, but at the end of the day, I just want to be in the race."

For more motivation, she only needs to look at her mother and father. Both have competed at Leadville 100 since she was a young girl. Nine years ago Rollins lined up at her first Leadville race as a sophomore in college, inspired by her parents. She finished second in her 20-29 age group and was 36th overall for women.

"It will be my dad's 27th time doing it, I think. What makes the race really special this year is that it's my mom's 20th time doing it. When I finish, or when we both finish, it'll be a big celebration."

At last year's Leadville 100, Rollins powered up the base of Columbine in a lead trio with former champion Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) and Michaela Thompson, a 22-year-old rising star of gravel. Across the top and on the descent, Rollins moved away solo and won ahead of Villafañe by 3 minutes, 53 seconds, and Thompson another 24 seconds back.

She said she expected the long climb to Columbine Mine to be a decisive mid-point of the race again.

"Columbine, I think the race has blown apart there almost every year. Whether it sticks or not depends on what you've done up to that point."

Like men's four-time winner Keegan Swenson, she lives in Utah, but on the opposite side of the Wasatch Front near Salt Lake City, where the elevation is close to 4,500 feet above sea level. She can ride at higher elevation throughout the year, which helps her avoid some chaos at Leadville, but she still transfers a few weeks early to Leadville.

She used the Leadville Stage Race as part of the conditioning for high altitude, like she did last year. And like last year, she won the stage race. This time across the three days, she finished 22 seconds faster than mountain bike legend Kate Courtney, and just one minute ahead of Villafañe and Lauren Stephens. She'll see them all again this Saturday, as well as an all-star list of other contenders.

"I definitely feel a lot of stress coming into this race, probably more than I ever have, and maybe more than I expected. I'm just happy to have proven that I'm capable of doing it again by how the stage race went," Rollins said about winning Leadville Stage Race at the end of July.

Rollins is riding for Liv Racing Collective this year, so he has a completely new setup. She said she had two setups before her stage race start, one with flat bars and one with drop bars, and didn't decide on drop bars until the night before.

"I had two setups ready to go. I had my mountain bike with flat bars, and I had actually a newly set up drop bar bike because I hadn't completely dialled in the fit. Keegan will laugh, because he told me at the beginning of the year to do this setup, I'd probably need to size down a frame. And I didn't," she said with a laugh.

"I was a little bit scared that I would get dropped on Powerline going down, and that was my only apprehension to running the drop bar setup. But I'm actually exactly the same speed, if not faster, on every descent with drop bars. To be honest, the drop bars are freaking fun. It's like new bike day all over again.

"I'm super happy with my setup. I think it's amazing. I don't know that the bars matter that much, but I think this race gives a very unique opportunity to try out a setup. I'm really excited to be able to do that, especially after not really ever looking into it last year."

Life Time Grand Prix

Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who has won the women's Grand Prix overall twice, shares the women's standings with Cecily Decker after two events. Decker was the top series rider at Unbound Gravel 200 (second overall) while Villafañe was the top series rider at Unbound Gravel (second overall).

Cecile Lejeune trails by 15 points in third place. Rollins is tied with Hayley Preen in fourth, just one point behind Lejuene.

Leadville Trail 100 MTB is the third stop of the six events on the calendar this season.