Life Time Grand Prix 2025 overview
The Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda returns for a fourth edition in 2025, combining six US gravel and mountain bike races for an overall payout of $380,000 on offer.
The Life Time Grand Prix will have $200,000 dedicated solely to the top 10 overall men and women in the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix. Prize money will be split evenly between men and women, and awarded to the top 10 based on the highest cumulative points following the conclusion of the sixth and final race of the series. All six events will now offer individual prize money with $30,000 on offer at each stop for the top 5 women and men.
The invitation-only field size for 2025 will be reduced from 60 to 50, this year comprised of 25 women and 25 men competing in a best five out of six off-road events. From an application process, 22 women and 22 men will be selected for the initial series roster on November 7, 2024, with three women’s and three men’s wildcard spots confirmed after Unbound Gravel 200 has concluded on May 31, 2025. The wildcard spots will be selected from the original applicants and competed at the first two events in the series.
Life Time, a healthy lifestyle brand and athletic even producer owns all six events that comprise the 2025 series. The first event will be April 11 at the Life Time Sea Otter Classic presented by Continental in Monterey, California, but instead of the Fuego XL MTB race from previous years, a new gravel race will be in the lineup. Life Time Little Sugar MTB is the other new event, held in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 12, with the finale one week later in the same area for Life Time Big Sugar Gravel, which remains a mandatory, tie-breaker event. Gone from the calendar are Crusher in the Tushar and The Rad Dirt Fest.
Athletes score points at each event, with five of six event starts required. If all six events have been contested, the lowest points earned from one of those events can be dropped. Big Sugar Gravel is mandatory for all riders. All entry fees for events are paid by Life Time for these competitors.
The 2023 campaign saw a record $300,000 prize purse being split equally among the top 10 women and men, separate start times at each race, and a revised scoring system. Only three events offered separate prize money last year, with
the Chequamegon MTB Festival offering the highest amount of $10,000.
Life Time Grand Prix schedule 2025
Life Time Grand Prix history
Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz-SRAM) and Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) dominated the third year of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda series and defended the overall titles from a year ago. Swenson won four events out of six completed while Villafañe won three.
For Swenson, he has won all three editions of the off-road collection of races, and for Villafañe it was her second consecutive title. The pair took $30,000 each, which was the top share among the top 10 riders from a $300,000 prize purse.
Canadian Haley Smith (Maxxis Factory Racing) and USA's Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) went into the history books as the first pro champions of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda series in October 2022.
That first season, Smith pulled ahead in the elite women's rankings after the fourth event in the series, Leadville Trail 100 MTB. Swenson mathematically secured his victory at Chequamegon MTB Festival, the fifth stop in the series. Each rider earned a top prize of $25,000.
In the second season of the series, Swenson swept wins in the first four events to earn a solid hold on the men's standings, which earned him a second title. Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) won three of the first four events outright on the women's side and took the most points at Unbound Gravel 200 among series contenders, and she held the top spot through Big Sugar for her first Grand Prix title.
Sea Otter Classic Gravel
New for 2025 is the gravel race at Life Time Sea Otter Classic presented by Continental in Monterey, California. This will be held on Friday, April 11 on a 30-plus mile circuit completed three times for the elites. Like the Fuego XL mountain bike event contest before, this gravel race will also take in the rolling single-track at Fort Ord National Monument, near the Pacific Ocean in northern California.
Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) won Fuego XL for a third consecutive time in 2024, while Sofia Gomez Villafañe won the women's division for a second time.
Unbound Gravel 200
Located in the Flint Hills of Kansas, the Unbound Gravel 200 is the signature event for the Life Time Grand Prix. The demanding 200-mile event is the longest race in the Grand Prix. The course is renowned for sharp rocks, primitive roads and steep pitches in and out of gullies through the Tallgrass Prairie, with a start/finish in Emporia, Kansas. The 2025 route will roll north for a second consecutive year, this time on May 31.
In 2024 Lachlan Morton won the pro men's race at Unbound 200 while Rosa Klöser claimed the pro women's victory, with the first Life Time athlete Paige Onweller in third.
Leadville Trail 100 MTB
The Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB takes place on August 9 in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It is the first of three mountain bike events in the series. The challenging out-and-back, 104-mile course begins at 10,152 feet in elevation and uses rough forest service roads plus double and single track to pack in a total of 13,129 feet of elevation gain. It is one of the most challenging, one-day mountain bike endurance events on the calendar.
Swenson became a four-time winner of Leadville in 2024, while Melisa Rollins (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24) won the women's race for the first time.
Chequamegon MTB Festival
The second mountain bike competition in the series is the Life Time Chequamegon MTB Festival. The 40-mile point-to-point course across northern Wisconsin begins in downtown Hayward and follows parts of the famed American Birkie Cross-country Ski Trail across forest roads and snowmobile trails with short, punchy climbs to the finish line in Cable. The race will be held on September 13.
In 2024 Villafañe found the top step of the women's podium, while Swenson took the men's victory.
Life Time Little Sugar MTB
Little Sugar MTB is not a new event, but new to the Grand Prix. The 100km race in northwest Arkansas is known for grinding climbs, tight descents and rough, rocky limestone surfaces. The scenery includes caves, waterfalls and ledges across the Ozark Mountains.
Last year Villafañe and Christopher Blevins won the elite 100km races. While Villafañe had a solo victory, Blevins used a sprint to edge Matt Beers and Swenson.
Big Sugar Gravel
The Life Time Grand Prix culminates for a fourth time at Big Sugar Gravel. The 104-mile course covers rugged terrain in northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri, famous for the chunky white gravel and 7,000 feet of elevation gain. The start/finish is in Bentonville, Arkansas on October 18, a week after Little Sugar in the same area.
Grand Prix riders Brendan Johnston and Lauren De Crescenzo used second-place finishes to grab the highest points among series contenders at the 2024 race.
