Leadville, Colorado – Melisa Rollins, who has a long history with Leadville Trail 100, took a crown-jewel accomplishment on Saturday with a stunning solo win in the women’s pro field. She flew somewhat under the radar as a pre-race favorite despite winning the Leadville Stage Race a few weeks ago but rode away on the long Columbine climb, finishing four minutes ahead of Sofia Gómez Villafane. Michaela Thompson finished 22 seconds behind Villafane to round out the top three.
The racing quickly began to sort out after the usual fast start as Rollins, Villafane and Thompson all crossed the first time split in the lead along with Olympian and former World Cup racer Erin Huck.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever made the lead group before, so I looked at Sofia and said, ‘Dude, I’m here,” Rollins recounted after the race. That group swelled but then separated a bit heading into Powerline, led by Rollins. She had a small gap at the bottom of the descent but said she didn’t want to ride solo and waited up for Villafane and Thompson, and the trio rode together until the Columbine climb.
Behind, the chasers included Ellen Campbell, Sarah Lange, Deanna Mayles, and Chelsea Bolton, but the top three were already decided by this point barring a mechanical or fueling mistake.
Rollins made her move on Columbine, gaining three minutes on Thompson, who by the top was herself a minute ahead of last year’s winner, Villafane.
“When it started to pitch up, I was feeling really good and I decided that that’s where it was going to go, and I was alone the rest of the day,” Rollins said.
For the 22-year-old Thompson, a third place at Leadville during her first season in the elite Life Time Grand Prix series is a breakout performance. She said she’s changed her training and mental approach, focusing more on preparing for marathon-distance races, compared to the XCO training she was doing last season, when she finished 21st.
Thompson held strong in second position for most of the return trip back to town, but Villafane caught her in the final miles of the course. She said she drafted off of riders in the men’s field (which is legal at this race, despite a separate women’s start) which contributed to her catching Thompson. Villafane went as far as saying that Thompson was stronger and would have finished second if there was no co-ed drafting.
“I’m so surprised, honestly,” Thompson reflected after the race. “I know I’m capable of a lot, but I didn’t think it would go that smoothly. From the start I just was able to hammer the whole time.”
In a few weeks, Thompson will jump back into collegiate racing and studying while finishing out the rest of the Grand Prix schedule.
As for Rollins, her mom and stepdad have completed Leadville dozens of times, and her mom held the singlespeed record at one point, as reported by Velo. The family pedigree eventually resulted in Rollins racing Leadville for her first time in 2016 at the age of 20. In 2021, she placed sixth, but it wasn’t enough to get noticed by sponsors or teams. The next year was one to forget and she didn’t race here in 2023.
This year was different. Now riding for Team Twenty 24, Rollins said she specifically targeted Leadville from January 1, thinking about it every day. Even then, her pleasant state of shock after the finish suggests she may not have predicted at the start that she’d be on the top step of the podium in just a few hours, but she was ready when the gun went off and clearly executed a flawless race.
“I had no idea until I could the red carpet if I was gonna make it,” she said. “Then I lost it,” she said.
Brief results
- Melisa Rollins 7:10:10
- Sofia Gómez Villafane 7:14:03
- Michaela Thompson 7:14:25
- Erin Huck 7:20:14
- Sarah Lange 7:20:42
- Ellen Campbell 7:23:04
- Deanna Mayles 7:24:34
- Hannah Otto 7:28:48
- Crystal Anthony 7:30:21
- Haley Smith 7:31:42
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