We Noticed: No Kona for Sanders, Garmin’s Smart Band Debut, Dropbar Tri Goes Mainstream and More
Some interesting things happening (or about to happen) in the endurance world.
Course Change at Leadville
The Leadville Trail 100 MTB is two weeks out (Aug. 15) and it’s going to look nothing like the race Keegan Swenson has been quietly owning for years. The Willow Fire chewed through 6,800+ acres west of town starting in late June, and roughly 70 miles of the classic course sits inside a Forest Service closure that doesn’t lift until September — meaning it doesn’t lift before raceday, full stop.
The stage race already rerouted around Sugarloaf and Powerline using pieces of the Silver Rush 50 and the Trail Marathon course, so expect the 100 to do something similar. However it shakes out, put an asterisk on this year’s results.
Will Kona Be the Same Without Lionel Sanders?
Apparently this is big news as Lionel’s Kona bid is done for 2026. Kalmar was the last stand — final race in the qualifying window — and the start list is out with no Sanders on it. No surprise given the injury that’s basically eaten his whole season, but still stings for the guy chasing that one result that’s eluded him twice. He’s not sitting on the couch though — he’ll be back racing at 70.3 Northern California on Aug. 16.
Meanwhile the internet did what the internet does: Morgan Pearson dropped a “who cares” on the news and got dragged in the replies for it. Except — and this is the part nobody in the comments seemed to remember — Pearson has said in multiple interviews that Sanders is one of his biggest inspirations in the sport. So this isn’t beef. It’s one throwaway line getting way more legs than it earned. Move along.
Good Dirt Riding: FoCo Fondo
Putting this on your radar now: FoCo Fondo. We were onsite this year helping with the live broadcast and honestly, the vibe alone sells it — five distance options (12 to 118 miles), a $15,000 USD purse split evenly across men’s/women’s/non-binary, based out of New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins. They call it “Gravel Graceland” and they’re not wrong.
Whoop What? Garmin Launches the CIRQA
Garmin’s not in the smart band game now. The CIRQA dropped this week. The unit is an automatic activity detecting, 24/7 health and stress tracking, up to 10 days of battery, and no subscription required product. I’ll believe the “no subscription” part when I see how long that lasts, but on paper this reads like Garmin taking a swing at the market share of the Oura/Whoop crowd rather than just our multisport data nerds who already own three of their watches. Curious where this goes. We do have one on hand and will be diving in to it. Until then you can watch Triathlon’s New Captain America tell you about it.
The retired Captain America had a pretty good post about it as well.
Quintana Roo Keeps Expanding Drop Bar Triathlon
Quintana Roo has somewhat quietly added a forward offset seatpost onto their Service Course road bike and quietly created the category “Dropbar Tri.” The Sliding saddle rail clamp that comes on all the other triathlon bikes is now available for the road bike owners this will now get them an effective seat angle range of 74-82°, and the new bikes are spec’d to run clip-on extensions — so on paper you’ve got a road bike that can pull double duty as a tri bike without buying a dedicated rig.
Shut Up and Take My Money: Daniela Ryf’s Tri Camp
Daniela Ryf is finally running the camp people have been begging her for. Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, capped at 15 athletes, four days, and it’s actually her running it — swim, bike, run, strength, mindset, plus video analysis. Her quote says she’s handing over “everything I’ve learned at the top of the sport… directly and openly, in a small, exclusive group.” Five Kona titles worth of knowledge for 15 people. If you’ve got the means and the timing works, this is about as good as access gets.
For more information check our her link in bio or you can go to the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz page here
Women Do Wheelies Too
XCO World Champion Puck Pieterse from the Fenix Permiertech squad shows off her riding skills like a boss lady (and while revealing those new Dura-Ace wheels from Shimano). #yougogirl
Stay Warm Kevin!
Last but not least its that time of year again when a couple of hundred of the craziest endurance athletes take on the race that is not for you. If you’ve got FOMO watching our Norseman content drop this week — that’s on you. Our own Kevin MacKinnon is out there right now with some great, articles and stories on our social pages . Go look.
You can follow that race coverage on YouTube or Instagram.
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