Gomez Villafañe, Beers win at BWR San Diego

Matt Beers tops the podium while Sofia Gomez Villafañe captures yet another major race win.

Beers channeled his inner Pogaçar and maybe even MVDP, too by taking a solo flyer with more than 60mi to go, holding off a splintered chase group on the final climb lead by Alexey Vermeulen and Petr Vakoc. Obviously at home on more than just his MTB, this road-centric gravel race asks for high-speed climbing as much as slippery singletrack. Both former World Tour pros, Vakoc and Vermeulen were followed by Pete Stetina and Brendan Johnston in 4th and 5th.

With a 4th place, Stetina wrapped up the BWR Overall Series Title.

Gomez Villafañe overcame an early flat and won by more than 15mins over Courtney Sherwell and young rider, Caroline Wreszin. This was Sofia’s 3rd victory at the BWR series after the Arizona and Utah stops, each adding to her other wins at Valley of Tears and last weekend’s Life Time Sea Otter Classic, Fuego XL MTB race.

Whiskey Off Road, Epic Rides

Alexis Skarda scored some redemption after her aggressive racing at Sea Otter failed to result in the head-to-head throwdown she’d hoped for, finishing just ahead of Hannah Otto. Chilly but dry, fast conditions following the rain-out of the downtown crit meant for fresh legs and everything on the line.

Keegan Swenson continued his winning ways after a close battle with Cole Paton 2nd and Alex Wild in 3rd.

HIGHLANDS GRAVEL CLASSIC

Jenna Rinehart wins ahead of Maude Farrell and Flavia Oliveira Parks. Crystal Anthony 4th in the UCI Gravel Worlds Qualifier.

TOUR OF GILA

Lauren Stephens takes the Overall and Mountains Jerseys at the Tour of Gila, with two stage wins and never finishing off the podium. One of the longest running and most-difficult road stage races on the calendar, TTT, long climbs and altitude push riders to the limit. Victory confirms Stephens as one of the US top road riders even as she takes on the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Sea OTTER CLASSIC

All of last weekend’s action from the Life Time Sea Otter Classic can be found on our @lifetimegrandprix YouTube Channel. Be sure to like and subscribe so you won’t miss any of our other event broadcasts coming at you this season!

LTGP Fuego XL Recap

The opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda (LTGP) launched Friday with the 66-mile Fuego XL MTB race. Now in its third year and with an expanded prize list of $300,000 split equally amongst Men and Women riders, the LTGP pits sixty of the world’s best athletes against each other and against the backdrop of seven of the most iconic courses in the U.S. Last year’s overall winners, Keegan Swenson and Sofia Gómez Villafañe return in 2024, seeking to defend their titles. New for this year in the series is a slightly narrowed field, with separate start times for men and women across all events, and a revamped points system.

Race Favorite Out Of Contention

While the singletrack was hero dirt in places, the upper ridgelines and fast, double track featured extended sections of soft, loose sand. Leaving room to the rider in front would help with visibility, but could easily bite if the dust obscured any easily hidden rocks or ruts. Russell Finsterwald, 2nd the previous year, later suffered a large slice across the tread of his tire at an inopportune time, removing him from contention. 

Barely 15 minutes into the race, the lead pack had taken shape with the aforementioned Swenson and Vermeulen, Beers, Vakoč, Brendan Johnston, Bradyn Lange, Payson McElveen and others. Over the next two hours, Beers and Johnston would lead the charge of this group, with Swenson and Vermeulen keeping a close eye on every move, expending energy at key points to position themselves for the singletrack. Elsewhere, Finn Gullickson, Bradyn Lange, Sean Fincham, Toby Roed, Marcis Shelton among others constantly fighting to make contact, Howard Grotts managed to close a sizable gap on the climb after the first feed to make the front group of a dozen favorites. 

RATCHETING UP THE PRESSURE 

The start of the second lap saw a strung out paceline with Swenson riding second wheel in defense of his title and while the group swelled slightly early on in the second lap, it was about to be torn apart. With roughly ten miles to go, Swenson applied pressure and whittled the front group down to the trio of himself, Vermeulen, and Beers. But even that trio wouldn’t stay together as Keegan distanced himself on the last descent before the final singletrack climb to Lookout Ridge. Beers was gapped and despite a huge effort to close the margin, he was ultimately overhauled as Vermeulen countered clawing out a 20 second advantage to Beers, but Swenson had flown. They would finish in that order, although the closing miles saw a furious chase by Cole Paton and Brendan Johnston to round out the top-5.

Race Notes

Like Finsterwald, Bradyn Lange suffered a massive sidewall tear that required two car-sized tire plugs to repair, but managed to cling to a top-20 spot and the 16th place LTGP points. And showing the promise of the future generation, two young riders held their own in the front group for much of the day: Marcis Shelton, 20, of Mill Valley, CA and first-year LTGP rider Finn Gullickson out of Boulder, CO.

Women’s Elite

In the women’s race, despite reveling in the separate start – a feature at every LTGP event this year, there was a feeling of familiarity in the air…namely who was going to dethrone the defending champ…Sofia Gómez Villafañe? Strong riders like Hannah Otto, Haley Smith, Alexis Skarda, and even Villafañe’s teammate at the Absa Cape Epic, Samara Sheppard, all stood ready to try and wrest the crown and LTGP series points away from Villafañe.

From the start, Villafañe sought to stamp her authority on the race by attacking in an effort to be first to the singletrack. The result was more than anyone bargained for including Gomez-Villafañe herself, with a substantial gap of over two minutes to the chasing groups of Alexis Skarda, Hannah Otto, Jenna Rinehart, Samara Sheppard, Erin Huck, and Haley Smith. Eventually, from the chaos of the initial effort, a chasing group formed behind the defending champ with Sheppard, Otto, and Smith taking turns to try and reel in Villafañe.

Near the end of the first lap, it would be Skarda, the reigning U.S. National Marathon MTB champion that would throw down the gauntlet and bridge a near 2 ½ minute gap to Villafañe, joining her just before the climb to Lookout Ridge. The two would roll through the start/finish, trying to keep the four chasers of Sheppard, Otto, Smith, and Huck at bay, while a second group would ebb and flow with riders like Sarah Sturm trying to bring things back together.

Finishing closely behind her was Hannah Otto, moving up significantly from her 9th place finish last year to 3rd this year, and LTGP overall winner, Haley Smith in 4th. Skarda, who had staked it all on her epic bridge to Villafañe, faded to 5th.

Also in the top-ten and new to the LTGP were Erin Huck in 7th and South African Hayley Preen in 9th.

The Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda now moves to the second stop in the series, Unbound Gravel in Emporia, Kansas in early June. Between now and then riders will have the chance to retool and think about how best to topple Villafañe and Swenson, both of whom have dominated in either MTB or gravel disciplines. With everything from a 200 mile Unbound Gravel to the high altitude crusher or Leadville 100 on the horizon, will someone from the LTGP roster challenge them, or will it be someone that keys on a day of glory outside of the series? Tune in and follow along to find out!

With the Sea Otter Classic in just one week, all eyes were on the challenging, technical roads in Northern California’s tough Sonoma coastal mountains.

Lauren De Crescenzo and Keegan Swenson win “The Growler”, a new 140mi professional road race, created by the Bike Monkey, the promotional group behind the long-running Levi’s Gran Fondo. 

De Crescenzo took off with 80mi to go on a day marked with constant, cold rain, winning by 12mins over Lauren Stephens with Sarah Sturm in 3rd. 

Belgian Lawrence Naesen pushed Swenson all the way to the line, losing in a tight sprint to the US Gravel National Champion overall winner of the ‘22 and ‘23 Life Time Grand Prix. LTGP rookie, Petr Vakoc continues his successful spring campaign with 3rd just 17 seconds back.

ICYMI: Round #1 of the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda BEGINS ON FRIDAY

Take a look back at the previous two editions of the Sea Otter Classic, Fuego XL endurance MTB race in two episodes of “Call of a Life Time”, the widely acclaimed docu-series chronicling riders competing in the ground-breaking off-road race series. 

With the new season starting up, make sure you follow our new approach to bringing you world class race coverage by following @lifetimegrandprix on YouTube

Gomez Villafane and Stetina take BWR UT

Continuing to build on her run of victories this spring, following Valley of Tears and BWR AZ, Villafane took the win with a huge gap over Courtney Sherwell and fellow LTGP rider Emily Newsom

On the men’s side, Pete Stetina grabs a big win over Canadians Roberge and L‘Esperance in chilly temps on the truncated course in Cedar City, UT

BWR Utah Women’s Top 10*

1. Sofia Gomez Villafane, 5h 19m 03.53s
2. Courtney Sherwell 5h 32m 14.25s
3. Emily Newsom 5h 32m 58.89s
4.  Hannah Otto, 5h 33m 48.50s
5. Caroline Wreszin, 5h 37m 42.37s
6. Cecily Decker, 5h 39m 39.71s
7. Whitney Allison, 5h 40m 02.14s
8. Eva Poidevin, 5h 45m 21.15s
9. Cassia Boglio, 5h 46m 59.34s
10. Diana Penuela, 5h 49m 04.68s

BWR Utah Men’s Top 10*

1. Peter Stetina, 4h 53m 48.30s
2. Adam Roberge, 4h 54m 33.58s
3. Andrew L’Esperance, 4h 55m 14.26s
4. Julien Gagne, 4h 55m 14.54s
5. Torbjorn Andre Roed, 4h 55m 14.69s
6. Joe Goettl, 4h 58m 31.09s
7. Kyle Trudeau, 4h 58m 34.07s
8. Cobe Freeburn, 4h 58m 35.21s
9. Bjorn Larson, 4h 58m 38.57s
10. Griffin Easter, 4h 58m 40.78s

*LTGP Athletes indicated in BOLD

UNBOUND Gravel TRAINING CAMP

LTGP athletes Kristen Legan and Heather Jackson joined the Life Time team in Emporia, KS to put on the annual UNBOUND Gravel Training Camp — where riders from across the country come to learn from the best about how to tackle the World’s Premier Gravel Race. 

Boulder-Roubaix

LTGP rookie and Boulder native, Finn Gullickson took a wind-shortened version of one of America’s original mixed-surface races.

Moab Rocks

Deanna Myles and Michaela Thompson finish in 3rd and 6th overall respectively behind uber-decorated and longtime pro, Katerina Nash

PoDcast Mentions

Hannah Otto and Kristen Legan, both featured in this year’s Life Time Grand Prix, join hosts Kristi Mohn and Kathryn Taylor on the Girls Gone Gravel Podcast

 WEEKEND ROUNDUP

With not much racing over the weekend, check out Jenna Rinehart’s chilly, winter ride while searching for the Easter bunny and a MONSTER ride from Payson McElveen in Northwest Arkansas

FROM THE GROUND UP

From the Ground Up Project got underway for it’s 3rd year at a skills camp in Bentonville, AR and lead by LTGP perennial favorite Alexey Vermuelen.

 Absa Cape Epic Wraps up

Matt Beers and Howard Grotts (Toyota-Specialized-NinetyOne) claimed the overall title after 603km (375mi) and 16050m (53,000ft) of climbing. Beers becomes a 3x winner while Grotts takes his 2nd Cape Epic title, 6yrs after his first.

ORANGE SEAL PRO CUP

LTGP athletes Bradyn Lange and Sean Fincham had good showings at the Orange Seal Pro Cup in Temecula, CA, with Lange securing a 3rd place and Fincham 6th in the Elite Men’s XCO

Dry and Dusty conditions for MidSouth Gravel

Lauren de Crencenzo takes top step in the women’s race while 2024 rookie Torbjorn Roed sprints for the win

Life Time Grand Prix Athletes Headline Cape Epic

Cape Epic kicked off over the weekend with reigning LTGP overall winner Sofia Gomez Villafane joining ’24 rookie Samara Sheppard. But they’re not the only story: the renowned MTB stage race has 10 LTGP riders competing from across the globe.

DEFENDING CHAMPS OFF TO A HOT START TO 2024

Swenson and Gomez Villafane are off to a fast start in ’24 with wins at Valley of Tears. LTGP rookies Chase Wark and Finn Gullickson rounded out the men’s podium while veterans Jenna Rinehart and Emily Newsom rounded out the women’s.

SOLO WIN IN NORMANDIE

LTGP rookie Lauren Stephens solos to win stage 3 of Tour de Normandie on her road bike.