Date |
Event |
Location |
Distance |
Women's Winner |
Men's Winner |
April 16, 2026 |
Sea Otter Classic Gravel |
Monterey, California |
90 miles |
||
May 30, 2026 |
Unbound Gravel 200 |
Emporia, Kansas |
200 miles |
||
August 15, 2026 |
Leadville Trail 100 MTB |
Leadville, Colorado |
100 miles |
||
September 19, 2026 |
Chequamegon MTB Festival |
Hayward, Wisconsin |
40 miles |
||
October 11, 2026 |
Little Sugar MTB |
Bentonville, Arkansas |
62 miles |
||
October 17, 2026 |
Big Sugar Gravel |
Bentonville, Arkansas |
100 miles |
Life Time Grand Prix 2026 information
This year's Life Time Grand Prix sees a fifth edition for one of the most prestigious off-road racing series for professionals cyclists, combining six US gravel and mountain bike events between April and October.
The 2026 Life Time Grand Prix offers a season-ending $350,000 total top-10 purse, shared equally among elite women and men, with the top points scorers banking $50,000 each. There will be $240,000 in prize money offered across the individual events, with Unbound Gravel 200 and Leadville Trail 100 MTB each handing out $60,000 for the top five, all prizes split evenly among the two pro divisions.
New for this season is a $2,500 bonus for every athlete who completes the full LTGP season (minimum of three finishes) beyond 10th place.
An invitation-only field will be comprised of 25 women and 25 men, final standings determined in the best five out of six scores. Rosters consist of the top five athletes from the previous year, the top U23 riders (one women, one man) and a wildcard selection made after Sea Otter and Unbound Gravel.
Life Time, a healthy lifestyle brand and athletic event producer, owns all six events that comprise the 2026 series. The first event will be April 16 at the Sea Otter Classic Gravel in Monterey, California, the pros having a dedicated 90-mile race on a Thursday ahead of other fields on Friday.
The final event will be October 17 at Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville, Arkansas, which remains a mandatory event and is also the tie-breaker if needed.
All six events are the same as 2025. Check out the individual races.
Life Time Grand Prix history
Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) and Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) won the series titles for 2025, which was a third overall win for Villafañe. Jones earned his way into the invitational-only field as a wild card, winning Unbound Gravel 200. He vaulted past three-time Grand Prix champion Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles-htSQD) in the final race at Big Sugar Classic.
Villafañe dominated the Grand Prix from 2023 to 2025, after going second the first season. Canadian Haley Smith (Maxxis Factory Racing) won the elite title for women in October 2022.
That first season, Smith and Swenson earned top prizes of $25,000 each.
Place |
Elite Women |
Elite Men |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Sofia Gomez Villafañe |
Cameron Jones |
2 |
Cecily Decker |
Simon Pellaud |
3 |
Melisa Rollins |
Torbjørn Andre Røed |
4 |
Alexis Skarda |
Keegan Swenson |
5 |
Cecile Lejeune |
Matthew Beers |
6 |
Lauren De Crescenzo |
Alexey Vermeulen |
7 |
Hayley Preen |
Bradyn Lange |
7 |
Courtney Sherwell |
Andrew L'Esperance |
7 |
Hannah Otto |
— |
8 |
— |
— |
9 |
— |
Brendan Johnston |
10 |
Sarah Lange |
Cole Paton |
Pos. |
Elite Women |
Elite Men |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Sofia Gomez Villafañe |
Keegan Swenson |
2 |
Melisa Rollins |
Matthew Beers |
3 |
Paige Onweller |
Payson McElveen |
4 |
Alexis Skarda |
Brendan Johnston |
5 |
Haley Smith |
Cole Paton |
6 |
Cecily Decker |
Russell Finsterwald |
7 |
Erin Huck |
Alex Wild |
8 |
Lauren De Crescenzo |
Torbjørn Andre Røed |
9 |
Hannah Otto |
Peter Stetina |
10 |
Michaela Thompson |
Lachlan Morton |
Pos. |
Elite Women |
Elite Men |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Sofia Gomez Villafañe |
Keegan Swenson |
2 |
Alexis Skarda |
Alexey Vermeulen |
3 |
Haley Smith |
Cole Paton |
4 |
Sarah Sturm |
Russell Finsterwald |
5 |
Lauren De Crescenzo |
Lachlan Morton |
6 |
Jenna Rinehart |
Peter Stetina |
7 |
Paige Onweller |
Brendan Johnston |
8 |
Crystal Anthony |
Alex Howes |
9 |
Hannah Otto |
Howard Grotts |
10 |
Deanna Mayles |
Konny Looser |
Pos. |
Elite Women |
Elite Men |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Haley Smith |
Keegan Swenson |
2 |
Sofia Gomez Villafañe |
Alexey Vermeulen |
3 |
Sarah Sturm |
Russell Finsterwald |
4 |
Rose Grant |
Cole Paton |
5 |
Emily Newsom |
Peter Stetina |
6 |
Alexis Skarda |
Andrew L'Esperance |
7 |
Hannah Otto |
Rob Britton |
8 |
Evelyn Dong |
Adam Roberge |
9 |
Paige Onweller |
Alex Howes |
10 |
Melisa Rollins |
Lance Haidet |
Sea Otter Classic Gravel 2026
The Sea Otter Classic Gravel race in Monterey, California returns for a second year with a 30-mile circuit, ridden three times by the pro fields. This replaces the Fuego XL mountain bike event that was included in the series the first three seasons at Fort Ord National Monument, near the Pacific Ocean in northern California.
Keegan Swenson won the opening men's round once again in 2025, scoring the top LTGP points and begin a fourth season at the top of the Grand Prix leaderboard for elite men. Haley Batten soloed to the victory at the women's event but it was runner-up Sofia Gomez Villafañe who was the first Life Time Grand Prix Series rider over the line to take the series lead.
Unbound Gravel 200 2026
Unbound Gravel 200 continues as 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. Last year a northerly route through the Flint Hills was taken, and the 2026 has yet been confirmed.
In 2025 New Zealand's Cameron Jones won the pro men's race at Unbound 200 while Karolina Migoń of Poland claimed the pro women's victory.
Leadville Trail 100 MTB 2026
Leadville Trail 100 MTB brings the series to a high-elevation mid-point of the calendar in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. 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 more than 12,000 feet of elevation gain. It is one of the most challenging, one-day mountain bike endurance events on the calendar.
Swenson has dominated the race for five consecutive years, winning again in 2025. Former cross-country MTB World Champion Kate Courtney set a new course record for women, beating defending champion Melisa Rollins, who took the Grand Prix top points.
Chequamegon MTB Festival 2026
The second mountain bike competition in the series is Chequamegon MTB Festival. The 40-mile point-to-point course across northern Wisconsin starts in downtown Hayward and followed parts of the famed Birkie Cross-country Ski Trail across forest roads and snowmobile trails with short, punchy climbs to the finish line in Cable.
US riders Melisa Rollins and Alexey Vermeulen won elite titles in 2025, both going solo across the line.
Life Time Little Sugar MTB 2026
Little Sugar MTB is not a new event, but last year was added to the Grand Prix lineup. The 100km race in northwest Arkansas is known for grinding climbs, tight descents and rough, rocky limestone surfaces across the Ozark Mountains.
Cameron Jones and Sofía Gómez Villafañe scored the victories, and top Life Time Grand Prix points, in 2025.
Big Sugar Gravel 2026
The Life Time Grand Prix culminates in Bentonville for the now-traditional Big Sugar Classic fiinale, a 104-mile gravel race. In 2025 the route through northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri was cut to 50 miles due to inclement weather.
Grand Prix riders Matt Beers and Villafañe scored victories, which confirmed Villafañe as the elite women's series winner for a third time.
On the men's side, series leader Swenson was ousted from the overall by Cameron Jones, as they had been separated by a single point, with Jones finishing seven places better in Big Sugar than his rival to take the overall title.
