Lauren De Crescenzo just posted a great article about this issue. Of course it’s not brand new, the decision to ban drop bars happened weeks ago, and got everyone riled up a bit. Then it died down until this new article posted (click here to read it yourself it might be behind a paywall for some). And since it’s written by someone who was in the secret meeting, and who has raced all the Lifetime races, I was interested to hear another take. It sounds like most everyone, but not everyone, ultimately agreed to ban the drops.
Here’s an interesting thought, what if Blevins showed up to the short track with drop bars (which he can’t they are already banned…) and with his skinny gravel bike tires he already used, won every Short Track race of the season easily. Would we start seeing the younger amateur racers trying this around the country? Maybe. It would sure look weird. Tradition and looks are a real thing to be considered in sports and in everyday life.
Ultimately, Lauren’s final solution seemed like a great idea. Add more singletrack and true mountain bike trails to the course, making it less “smart” to do the drop bar thing in the first place. Leadville is on a mountain, and on mainly dirt, but is it a mountain bike race otherwise? Doesn’t matter. When thousands of dorks like me are trying to ride the same course as the best pros in the country, then maybe it’s better to just keep it wide open and tame. I’d hate to be the old fart holding people back on singletrack, at that scale!
