Life Time Grand Prix: Sofia Gómez Villafañe and Matthew Wilson take honours at Chequamegon MTB Festival

Sofía Gómez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) extended her Life Time Grand Prix lead while Matthew Wilson (Scott Sports USA) took his debut win in the series on Saturday with wins at Chequamegon MTB Festival in Cable, Wisconsin.

In the women’s race, Villafañe and 2025 champion Melisa Rollins were forced to chase back to the lead group following an early crash, just 25 minutes into the 40-mile race. Villafañe was up quickly and time trialled back to the front group. Sarah Lange launched an attack on the approach to the single-track section, then Villafane made an early pass to win that hole shot.

She was followed by Karolina Migoń and Cécile Lejeune and the trio took turns at the front. Across the top of the climb on Fire Tower climb, Villafañe went solo, crossing the finish line alone in a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 11 seconds, Migoń and Lange completing the podium 16 seconds behind her.

Speaking after the race, Villafañe, said: "Chequamegon is always such an unpredictable race. I found myself on the ground after a mud puddle due to losing traction and sadly taking out my good friend Melisa with me. I was able to make it back to the front of the peloton, but she was not.

"At Fire Tower, I made sure to lead as I knew I could likely be fighting for traction as well, and near the top I was solo as Karolina had to unclip due to losing traction. After that, I was solo and had a consistent effort to the finish.

"Chequamegon is a race where you can plan the way you want to race, but sometimes the course decides for you. I’m super happy to win my third Life Time Grand Prix event this year. I will be skipping Little Sugar and looking forward to the battle to come at Big Sugar."

The Life Time Grand Prix overall is still wide open heading into the final two events. Behind leader Villafañe, just 12 points separate the riders from second to sixth place, with Lauren Stephens in second place.

Leadville runner-up takes charge

In the men’s race, it was Martins Blum who took the early lead, opening an advantage of 1:30 over the rest over the first 13 miles.

Wilson was the man to give chase, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB runner-up launching an attack up Fire Tower climb. The New Zealander was brought back but continued his efforts, eventually moving clear with three other riders, all in the Grand Prix - series leader Keegan Swenson, Andrew L'Esperance, and Brendan Johnston.

The chasing quartet worked together to close the gap to lone leader Blum, and as the quartet made the catch, Wilson launched the race-winning move, surging clear to finish around a minute ahead of the chasers.

Johnston recorded a season's best result in the series finishing in second, with Swenson finishing just two seconds behind the Australian to round out the podium and retain his overall series lead.

"I tried to get away on the Fire Tower climb, Keegan and I got a good gap and thought we might be able to stay away, but unfortunately the whole group came back. But it gave me the confidence going into the final climb of the day," Wilson said.

"I gave it a nudge on the final climb, and four of us got away but I felt like I had the best legs in the group, so I kept riding hard, and I was able to get a gap and went full gas to the line and not look back.

"It feels so good after being so close to winning at Leadville; I was pretty determined to get a win. The only way to prove yourself after coming second is to win."

The fourth round had Swenson still in the lead, but the gap closed to eight points ahead of Johnston and Lange sitting in joint second and Chequagemon winner Wilson just two points further back heading into the penultimate round.

Results

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