The six-event Life Time Grand Prix series is set to end on Saturday at Big Sugar Gravel in Arkansas with last year's overall winners Sofía Gómez Villafañe (Specialized Off-Road) and Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz htSQD) back at the top of the leaderboard, once again.
However, ahead of the finale after a difficult run at Little Sugar MTB last weekend, Swenson now has a fight on his hands to claim his fourth series title and keep his, so far, undisputed run going.
“Little Sugar didn’t go as I’d planned and it ended up being a pretty eventful day," said Swenson in a Life Time media release, which would have normally been the perfect fit for the UCI Mountain Bike World Champion in the marathon cross-country event.
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"I suffered from repeated punctures and a few riders very generously offered me their wheels. I basically just did everything I could to stay ahead of Simon [Pellaud] and Torbjørn [Andre Røed] as they are right behind me on the overall leaderboard.
"That was my goal - trying to make it to the finish line - and it became very much a day of survival."
In the end Swenson, finished 10th of the Life Time competitors at Little Sugar, with Pellaud three spots back while Røed posting a DNF. However, there was no reeling in Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) as the Unbound Gravel 200 winner clinched another powerful victory and as a result lobbed alongside Pellaud in second, both just one point behind Swenson.
Røed is then just another point back and there are 30 points up for grabs for the winner at Big Sugar, the rewards dropping two points for each place down to sixth and then from seventh on it goes down a single point for each spot. The best five of the six events will be taken into account for the final tally, and the 16 points from the last two events of Chequamegon and Little Sugar MTB, may have kept Swenson in the top spot but with a significantly diminished margin.
"Since then I’ve been trying to recover as much as I can so I’m ready to go again at Big Sugar on Saturday.”
Swenson hasn't finished on the podium before at Big Sugar Gravel, with the three-time Grand Prix champion dropping his result from the scoring the last two years. He has never before had so much at stake at the 100-mile (161km) race starting in Bentonville, Arkansas. That, is something his rivals are all too aware of.
"I'll also be out reconning the course as much as I can - focusing on the most important sections - and then, we’ll see what I can do," said Pellaud, who had to battle through back problems at Little Sugar. "It’s going to be a fun finale at Big Sugar and a great end to the series.”
Decker and Rollins battle for second and third
Villafañe's top spot is safe so as long as she is on the start line of the compulsory event it will be three titles in a row for the rider who made it to the podium of every event in the series so far this year, winning Sea Otter Gravel and Little Sugar.
The battle in the women's category is instead for second, with US riders Cecily Decker and Melisa Rollins just two points apart. The situation helped Rollins by her third at last week's Little Sugar, which Decker missed because of a back injury after Chequamegon, "and couldn’t get enough time on my mountain bike to be adequately prepared for it".
Rollins snared third at Little Sugar, despite describing her singletrack racing skills as still "very much a work in progress".
"To get third last weekend is honestly one of my proudest results, because going into it, I was super scared and not in a good headspace. Over the last three weeks I’ve crashed around 10 times, and even ended up getting stitches which were taken out right before Little Sugar," Rollins said.
"Honestly, my attention is only just turning to Big Sugar now, and I’ll obviously be doing everything I can there to end my season on a high."
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