Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz-SRAM) and Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) dominated another year of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda series and defended their overall titles.
Both riders opened with victories at Sea Otter Classic's Fuego XL mountain bike race, the first of seven scheduled rounds of the off-road collection of US races. While both faltered at the signature Unbound Gravel 200, not making the top 10, they remained consistent the rest of the way for the top spots, earning $30,000 each from the $300,000 prize purse divided equally among the top 10 riders in the invitation-only field.
Swenson won three of the last four races, Leadville 100 MTB, Chequamegon MTB Festival, The Rad Dirt Fest, while Villafañe scored victories at Chequamegon MTB and Big Sugar Gravel. In 2023 they both won Crusher in the Tushar, but that event was cancelled due to area wildfires this year. For the Grand Prix overall the best four scores were combined from the six races that did take place.
The final moves in the overall ranking took place at Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville, Arkansas. Melisa Rollins finished second Saturday at that gravel race and jumped ahead of Paige Onweller and Alexis Skarda into second overall.
Cecily Decker used her third place at Big Sugar to make the big jump from 13th to sixth overall. Also moving into the top 10 to earn prize money were Lauren De Crescenzo, going from 11th to eighth, and Michaela Thompson, changing 14th to 10th. Haley Smith, Erin Huck and Hannah Otto remained in the top 10.
Sarah Sturm and Sarah Lange did not fare as well as they had hoped at Big Sugar, and their final results bumped them out of the top 10 to 11th and 12th, respectively.
“I’m super excited to defend my title from last year. Three wins and two-second places, this season I’ve just been really really consistent," Villafañe said in a Life Time press release.
"I came out of a bit of a lull in the summer feeling like maybe I wasn’t at my best in Leadville, but I’m starting to figure out this endurance stuff. Hopefully I’m back next year! Shout out to all the girls out there who are really stepping up the game, and I’m super proud to be out there with all the girls.”
The Life Time Grand Prix launched three years ago, and Swenson has been the overall champion for men all three times. He locked up the three-peat with the victory at The Rad Dirt Fest at the end of September, but put in a strong showing at Big Sugar with fifth place.
Matthew Beers and Payson McElveen were the closest in points to Swenson and used the final results at Big Sugar to decide who got the $24,000 runner-up check. Beers finished fourth in Arkansas in a five-rider sprint, two spots ahead of McElveen, and in turn the South African took second overall in the series, McElveen going third.
The balance of riders in the men's top 10 did not change names, only positions for prize money. Brendan Johnston and Cole Paton rounded out the top five, with the second half of the 10-rider podium filled out by Russell Finserwald, Alex Wild, Torbjørn Røed, Peter Stetina and Lachlan Morton.
Big Sugar Winner Alexey Vermeulen finished two points behind Morton for 11th place, and just missed the final payout.
"It was a great season. Coming into this race without any pressure and having the win already secured was awesome," Swenson said. "Third year in a row so I’m very happy. I’ll fill out the application for next year too.
"The calendar for next year looks good, I’m really excited to have Little Sugar in there - a real mountain bike race like that is really cool, and prize money for individual events will really change the racing and make it even more dynamic and exciting for everyone - it’ll be good.”
Organisers for the Life Time Grand Prix have announced a seven-event schedule and series modifications for 2025.
The invitation list will be reduced from 30 to 25 for elite women and elite men, and the prize purse will be adjusted to $200,000 for the series, but add a total purse of $180,000 for the six individual events. The Rad Dirt Fest and Crushar in the Tusher are off the schedule next year, and Little Sugar MTB has been added, with the series going to a best of five races among the six.
