Drops!

Travis Brown's race bike for Leadville, rumors are he will be pacing the front group with this bike! 

via twitter/Manuel Prado

As we've already reported, several Trek-supported riders are on hand in the high country of central Colorado to keep the pace high as Lance Armstrong takes his second stab at the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race.

Trek rider and test pilot Travis Brown has worked off road with Armstrong in the past, notably in 1999 when Armstrong dabbled in some Colorado mountain bike races, including the Mercury Tour stage race. Ten years later, Brown was among the first to get the call when Trek started building a team of horses to keep the pace high in the opening miles of the Leadville 100.

The course is not particularly technical, incorporating gravel roads, jeep roads and double track, especially early in the race. The out and back nature essentially precludes the inclusion of any significant singletrack, but the elevation (often well over 10,000 feet) and long climbs make for plenty of difficulty.

Always an innovator, and familiar with the course, Brown built a special bike for the special occasion and the demands of the course.

Travis Brown’s Trek Top Fuel
Possibly not since the days of John Tomac in the early 1990’s have we been treated to the sight of a mountain bike with drop bars.

But knowing the gravel roads, having a history in cyclocross, and never one to shy from a potential technical advantage, Brown pulled it off and mounted an aluminum, Bontrager Race Lite road bar to his Top Fuel. It’s paired with a 90mm Race X-Lite aluminum stem, mounted with +7 degrees of rise. The net result is a comfortably upright stance with a short front center. The road bar offers multiple hand positions for climbing, fast cruising, and stable descending in the drops.

The road bar is not the only skinny-tire fitment on Brown’s Trek. He’s got a 180mm Dura Ace 7800 triple road crank and front derailleur mounted on the Top Fuel. The bike is typically spec’ed with a 2-chainring crankset, and there’s just enough clearance for the Dura Ace triple. Brown fitted 30- and 39-tooth chainrings, plus a custom carbon fiber outer chain guard from his cyclocross parts stash.

In order to run the Dura Ace 7800 front derailleur, which relies on bottom-pull cable routing, Brown used a Trek/Bontrager cable clamp adapter to convert the mech for the top-pull configuration of the Top Fuel.

Of course, with a road bar comes the need for road shifter/brake levers, and SRAM picks up the story with Red road parts, mated to a XX rear derailleur and 11-36 cogset. The road levers preclude hydraulic disc brakes, so Brown bolted on a pair of Avid BB7 Road cable-actuated mechanical disc calipers to bite into XX rotors.

What little remains of his parts pick is relatively standard: a 2010 RockShox Reba fork at 120mm travel; Bontrager XXX-Lite carbon wheels (with a Bontrager XR-1 Team Issue rear tire and Jones XR front); a FOX RP23 rear shock; Crank Brothers pedals; and a Bontrager saddle.

Stay tuned for continuing coverage from Leadville.

(velonews.com)