What a ride it’s been for Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) at the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix. After risking wildcard entry and going all-in at Unbound Gravel 200, where he took the win, he backed it up with another victory at Little Sugar MTB last weekend, jumping to second on the series leaderboard.
Going into Big Sugar Classic, the sixth and final race of the series, Jones knew exactly what he had to do to clinch the overall title - just finish ahead of his three key rivals. Jones was tied with Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling), sitting just one point behind three-time series champion Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz htSQD), and one point ahead of Torbjørn Andre Røed (Trek Driftless).
“I’d done all the numbers so I knew who I had to beat and couldn't see any of them in front of me in the finish. So yeah, do what I had to do,” Jones told Cyclingnews after finishing fifth at Big Sugar in Bentonville, Arkansas on Saturday.
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With that in mind, he didn’t let the news of the course being shortened by half, from 100 miles to 53.9 miles, due to severe weather, impact his strategy.
Three riders, Matt Beers, Matthew Wilson and Riley Amos, broke away early in the race, posing no threat to the overall standings while Jones maintained his focus, knowing he had to outperform his closest competitors.
“I wasn't too concerned to hear the shorter course. And I feel like I was as aggressive as anyone there. There were a few, quite a lot of people, trying to attack the whole time, but there's only certain people I was concerned about. I was pretty aggressive as well, made a good few moves of my own, and that kind of ended up bringing back most of the groups, apart from the two Matts up the road, who, yeah, no one was catching them,” Jones said.
“The people that were up there in the front weren't going to beat me in the series. And so, I just had to concern myself with the people who could, and try and make their life as hard as possible.
And then it was a question of positioning as the group made its way back to Bentonville as the skies opened up with the forecasted heavy rain.
“Then I just made sure I was positioned at the front before any of the hills and up there towards the front, so going into the sprint. And then once I launched it, I was just trying to think about what was on the line and went as deep as I could to the end,” said Jones.
The threat of the incoming storm and shorter course did force a change in his setup.
“I took a couple of CO2s and gels out of my pocket and chucked a water bottle in my back pocket. But nah, just the same. It was probably a bit less of a technical course, but setup is already as fast as you can get. So good on any conditions."
Jones’ setup included his Scott Addict Gravel RC with 2026 colour-way, 50-tooth chainring, Schwalbe G-One RX PRO 50 tyre on the front and a 45 in the back, and 'probably' he said 23psi in the front and 26psi on the back.
“Big, long, low stem, aero cockpit. I got these little like sprint shifters under my bike computer, second shift when I'm in a time trial position today.”
And yes, Jones did go into time trial position. “The course was less technical than the other one, so I did a few times, like at the start, at the end,” he said. “Might as well be as efficient as possible.”
Jones crossed the line in fifth place, a bit over four minutes behind the race winner Beers, and more importantly, ahead of ninth-placed Pellaud, 10th-placed Røed and 12th-placed Swenson. The wildcard turned big winner scored a $20,000 US cheque for his elite men's title, a portion of the Life Time pay out of $200,000 in prize money shared by the top 10 men and top 10 women.
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