U23 Life Time Grand Prix Program
New in 2025 Life Time Grand Prix is adding a U23 Program. This new initiative is designed to identify and nurture young talent by providing opportunities to gain invaluable experience and compete alongside top athletes in the nation’s premier off-road cycling series. Open to cyclists aged 18-22.
The program’s top male and female finishers in the overall series will each earn a spot on the highly coveted 2026 Life Time Grand Prix roster.
The new program will require athletes to compete in four of the six events that make up the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix series. Athletes will be scored on a separate U23 leaderboard, with the best four race results counting towards their overall standing. Two drop races are allowed, and a minimum of four starts are required for eligibility. In the event of a tie, Big Sugar Gravel will serve as tiebreaker.
2025 Scoring
- Life Time Grand Prix U23 Development athletes will be scored amongst themselves, with a separate leaderboard throughout the season.
- Best 4 out of 6 races will be scored, allowing for 2 drop races.
- 4 starts are required.
- In the event of a tie, an athlete’s performance at Life Time Big Sugar Gravel will serve as the tie breaker. This does not require Big Sugar, but the tiebreaker will go to the athlete who performed better at Big Sugar. While both a DNS and a DNF are scored 0, a DNF would still beat a DNS in a tiebreaker. For example:
- If two athletes are tied on the final leaderboard and at Big Sugar one athlete was a DNS and one athlete was a DNF, the tie breaker would then go to the athlete who was a DNF.
The point system will be similar to the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix scoring. The points range could vary slightly from the Life Time Grand Prix scoring depending on the number of athletes in the program, but will be similar to the below scoring structure. The final point structure will be determined on or before April 1, 2025.
| Place | Points |
| 1 | 30 |
| 2 | 28 |
| 3 | 26 |
| 4 | 24 |
| 5 | 22 |
| 6 | 20 |
| 7 | 19 |
| 8 | 18 |
| 9 | 17 |
| 10 | 16 |
| 11 | 15 |
| 12 | 14 |
| 13 | 13 |
| 14 | 12 |
| 15 | 11 |
| 16 | 10 |
| 17 | 9 |
| 18 | 8 |
| 19 | 7 |
| 20 | 6 |
| 21 | 5 |
| 22 | 4 |
| 23 | 3 |
| 24 | 2 |
| 25 | 1 |
Requirements & How to Apply
Requirements
- Meet the age requirements.
- Minimum age: Must be 18 on or before 12/31/2024
- Maximum age: Must not turn 23 before 1/1/26
- Register for at least four out of the six Life Time Grand Prix events.
- Athletes wanting to do Life Time Leadville MTB 100 presented by Kenetik will need to enter the lottery, open 12/1/2025 – 12/15/2025.
- Accepted athletes planning to do Life Time UNBOUND Gravel presented by Shimano will receive a reserved entry spot for UNBOUND 200.
- Complete the U23 Development Program application by 1/31/2025.
- Acceptance will be based on proof of past performance. U23 athletes will start in the pro/elite corrals at each of the events and these athletes will need to show proof of performance.
- Athletes will be announced 2/7/2025.
- Best 4 out of 6 races will be scored, allowing for 2 drop races.
- 4 race starts are required.
- An athlete can be in the U23 Program and go for a 2025 Wild Card spot. However, if an athlete earns and accepts a Wild Card spot they will be removed from the U23 program and leaderboard.
Event Line-up
- Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel presented by Continental – Friday, April 11, 2025
- Life Time UNBOUND Gravel 200 presented by Shimano – Saturday, May 31, 2025
- Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik – Saturday, August 9, 2025
- Life Time Chequamegon MTB Festival – Saturday, September 13, 2025
- Life Time Little Sugar MTB – Sunday, October 12, 2025
- Life Time Big Sugar Gravel – Saturday, October 18, 2025