Keegan Swenson and Melisa Rollins Take Wins at a Record Setting Leadville 100

Keegan Swenson and Melisa Rollins took wins at the 2026 Leadville Trail MTB 100, with the amended course offering drastically different races for the men and the women.

For Rollins, it was a massive come-from-behind victory after crashing early and overhauling the entire elite field to bridge up to Cecily Decker. On the largely flat run back to Leadville, it was a combination of Rollins’ strength and a late flat from Decker that made the difference for Rollins, taking her second Leadville win.

On the men’s side, the changes to the course produced the tightest edition of the race in recent memory. It came down to a sprint between Swenson and Matt Wilson. Wilson, a Kiwi who has made a big impression on the US off-road over the last two years, was a thorn in the side of Swenson all day, cresting Columbine just 30 seconds behind the world champion. The group swelled to seven after the climb, but after a flurry of late action, it was once again Swenson versus Wilson.

Wilson led out the sprint, but Swenson came by right in the last 25 meters to sneak his front wheel in front of the Kiwi for his record-tying sixth Leadville win.

Keegan Swenson wins his sixth, but it is far from the same story

The race rolled out of Leadville at 6:00 AM under cool, gloomy skies, but the racing quickly heated up, with the absence of the Powerline climb and descent changing the dynamics of the day. With fewer key set-piece points, the pace was blistering heading to the first climb up St. Kevin’s. That hectic charge resulted in a few crashes, including 2025 Life Time Grand Prix champ Cam Jones, but the climb proved to be the first selection.

Around 15 riders made it across the top together, but without more climbs or technical terrain following St. Kevin’s, the group swelled to almost 40 when the race came through Twin Lakes at mile 37.

Ultimately, the big challenge of the day was always going to be Columbine. Drew Dillman tried to get a jump on things before the climb, but when the gradient got steep, Keegan Swenson went to work. By the time he emerged above tree line, the marathon mountain bike world champion had dropped everyone except Matt Wilson.

Quinn Simmons, who came into the race as the big challenger to Swenson, lost contact about halfway up Columbine and struggled to match the pace of the lighter, off-road-specific riders on the high-altitude terrain that took the peloton up to 12,500 feet. Ultimately, he came across the line in ninth, nine minutes down.

Wilson, who has had a breakthrough season winning a wide range of races including the Whiskey Off-Road and Cry Baby Hill at the Tulsa Tough criterium series, pushed Swenson as close as anyone has on Columbine since he started winning the race in 2021. For the last two miles of steep, high-altitude climbing, it was a grunt match with Swenson pushing the pace and Wilson yo-yoing just a few seconds behind him.

Just behind them were a few groups of top marathon riders in the North American scene, led by Leadville specialist John Gaston. Gaston is racing his last Leadville after making a huge impact on the race as a skimo athlete who races just two events each summer.

With the bigger groups tracking relatively close behind Swenson over the top of Columbine, it appeared that the lack of early climbing affected the difference the world champion could make on the long climb up Columbine. At the top, Wilson was just 30 seconds down while a solid group of four were a further 30 seconds back, setting up a back half of the race that would look quite a bit different from the previous dominant performances from Swenson, who has won all five of his Leadville wins solo.

After the descent, the front of the men’s race came together with around 40 miles to go. By that point, it would be a group of seven that would go on to fight for the win: Swenson, Wilson, Gaston, Bradyn Lange, Simon Pellaud, Cole Paton, and Andres Seawald.

The group was far from cohesive, but things stayed together until the race hit 15 miles to go, when the course kicked up a steep paved climb. It wasn’t a true attack, but as Swenson started to drop the hammer, it was clear that there were a lot of poker faces in the front group. Over the top of the climb, Gaston was the only one who could match Swenson’s acceleration.

Nevertheless, behind the two leaders, the gap stabilized at around 15 seconds. Wilson and Lange, in particular, continued to drive the pace, and once they got to the St. Kevin descent, the two former XCO racers bridged up to the two leaders, making it four riders to contest for the win. Attacks dutifully followed, ultimately leading to an attack from Wilson pulling Swenson off the front.

In the sprint, Swenson forced Wilson to lead into the final 150 meters before he launched, pulling up next to Wilson and drag racing him to the line. In the end, all the difference was half a bike length, with Swenson’s wheel nudging ahead.

Men’s results

Melissa Rollins pulled off a massive comeback, as a late flat hinders Cecily Decker

While the men’s race was a bigger field heading into the main Columbine Climb, the women’s race shattered early and was a battle of ones and twos for the vast majority of the 100 miles of lightning-fast mountain bike racing.

An early crash proved to be key as it held up several key riders on the way to the St. Kevin’s climb, including 2024 champion Melisa Rollins. Rollins was the last rider to get going and was forced to chase through the splintering peloton as Cecily Decker forced the issue out front. With Sarah Lange in tow, the two climbers made the key split of the day over the top. One key rider who was missing from the front early on was Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who was well off the pace by the top of the St. Kevin’s climb.

Rollins was able to fight back to reach the first chase group, but she was working with a gap of around a minute to the leading duo, as the women started the long flat trek to Twin Lakes and the start of the Columbine climb. Rollins was joined in the chase by Lauren Stephens and Paige Onweller as they tried to mount a comeback across to the leading duo.

Lange, a former runner, was strong on the climbs, but she struggled to hold the pace of Decker on the technical sections. Decker was forcing the issue all day, trying to build a buffer over Stephens and Rollins, as the chasing duo managed to drop Onweller through the process of chasing along the way. Ultimately, Decker’s pace was too much for Lange, who was dropped before the base of Columbine.

On the Columbine climb, the race quickly became an individual pursuit up to the 12,500-foot summit. While Lange was caught in the middle, it was clear when Rollins kicked Stephens off her wheel that it was all about Decker versus Rollins. Decker still had a substantial gap over the top, but Rollins pulled back time on the descent and methodically pulled herself across the gap.

With 38 miles to go, Rollins finally caught Decker, setting up a one-on-one battle to the finish with the duo of Stephens and Lange a full seven minutes behind.

That gap meant that it was a one-on-one stalemate between the two Americans until the final climbs around Turquoise Lake. The two stayed together on the climb, with Rollins doing the majority of the work. Nevertheless, Decker held strong and was set to duke it out with Rollins over the final few miles back to the finish.

Ultimately, the descent down St. Kevin’s proved to be decisive as Decker flatted, opening the gap to Rollins. She had enough of a gap to finish second, but was clearly dejected after crossing the line. It was a massive ride for the New Mexican, but surely after several podium results, Decker was looking for her big breakthrough win. Behind, Stephens was able to shake Lange in the final and came across third, boosting her standing in the Life Time Grand Prix overall and making up for her disqualification in 2025.

Women’s results