After suffering a broken elbow in March, a partially torn triceps in April and getting hit by a car on a training ride in May, Melisa Rollins wasn’t about to let an early crash take her out of the Leadville Trail 100 MTB.

“I just know this is such a long day and you can come back from pretty much anything,” Rollins said after claiming her second win in three years at the event on Saturday. Rollins got caught up in a pile-up 4 miles into the 102-mile race, her first donning the U.S. Marathon Mountain Bike national champion jersey and a matching custom red, white and blue bike.

“I ruined the paint, immediately,” she said with a smile. “First ride. It’s fine.”

Rollins made it up to her sponsors, however, hoisting the Liv steed above her head after breaking the tape in 5 hours, 58 minutes and 43 seconds.

“I know early crashes are not the best, but I’ve put so much into getting here — and I love this race and I knew I was ready,” Rollins said. “And I was not ready to give up four miles in.”

Three-time defending Bighorn Gravel champion Cecily Decker controlled the race for most of the day. The former U.S. Ski Team athlete tested the field up the initial St. Kevin’s climb; only Sarah Lange was willing to follow her torrid tempo.

“I really wanted to push the pace on [St.] Kevin’s [outbound], see who else wanted to go fast,” Decker said. “I think if Melisa didn’t have that crash, she would have been right up there right away.”

Instead, it was Decker and Lange who broke away alone across the valley to the base of the infamous Columbine ascent. Rollins, Lauren Stephens, Hayley Preen and Alexis Skarda formed the chase group. Decker — who went faster up Columbine than Leadville 100 course-record holder Kate Courtney during her Stage Race win last month in Leadville — increased her lead on Lange over the 7-mile, 3,100-foot climb to the turnaround. Rollins passed Lange, too, and said she felt she was about a minute behind Decker at the top. Rollins cut that deficit in half by the bottom and bridged the gap shortly after Twin Lakes.

With 15 miles left, the cyclists exchanged haymakers up Turquoise Lake Road all the way to the top of St. Kevin’s.

“Someone would throw an attack, the other person would throw an attack and it was like, pretty equal,” Rollins said.

“Yeah, we had a pretty epic battle towards the end,” added Decker, who suffered a flat at the bottom of St. Kevin’s. After being at the front for the better part of 90 miles, Decker settled for second, crossing the line almost five minutes after Rollins, who immediately embraced the clearly dejected 28-year-old.

“It’s really hard to just put into words. We all work really, really hard and I just put so much into this one race, and it sucks,” Decker said to organizers at the finish. “Yeah, it’s hard to just have it all go in one instant. It would have been really cool to just be able to fight with Melisa to the line.”

Rollins said both her 2024 win and this year’s title “felt like a battle.”

“This one hurts a little bit more,” the 30-year-old said in the mixed zone as her team delicately worked on multiple bloody wounds. “I’m just really glad we got to race, because I didn’t think we were.”

The Willow Fire forced organizers to reroute the race away from Sugarloaf Mountain, which eliminated the steep Powerline section. Lauren Stephens, who finished in third (6:10:14), said race dynamics were consequently “a little more predictable.”

“Powerline towards the end of the race is such a brutal climb — everything can change,” she added. “And not having anything like that, it’s pretty well set after Columbine.”

Stephens and her team were all equipped with Sena BiKom headsets.

“It straps inside the helmet and you can talk through a mesh network within line of sight,” explained her husband, Mat. “You can also hook it up to the app to communicate even further. We use them on group rides, coaching — especially on mountain bike trails.”

“I’m only talking basically when they can see me,” Lauren Stephens said. “Instead of yelling at me, they can just talk like a normal person.”

The innovative tech came into play during Saturday’s race. When Stephens caught Lange after the Columbine descent, Mat clearly communicated that the gap to the leaders and chasers was both about five minutes.

“We talked through, ‘Ok, tactically, let’s not chase solo for 20 miles and get caught anyway,'” Mat Stephens said. “What if she had not had that information and pushed anyway?”

“I knew after Columbine that I was racing for third and that’s how I rode my race,” Lauren Stephens said. “My goal was to win, my expectation was to race to the finish line and that’s what I did.”

While Life Time banned drop bars at this year’s Leadville Trail 100 MTB, perhaps, headsets will be the new thing at pro gravel events.

“We’ve started to see more,” Mat Stephens said. “There’s not a lot of teamwork opportunities, but the bigger the front peloton gets in these races, the more teamwork you might be able to see.”

Almost 40 Eagle County cyclists competed in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB. The top local male finisher was former pro road cyclist Cristhian Ravelo. The 33-year-old Avon resident came through in 6:29:51, placing eighth — not counting the 64 elite male finishers. The top local female finisher was Vail’s Gretchen Pavelich. Not counting the 39 elite female finishers, Pavelich, 25, placed 28th in a time of 8:10:53.