'For the love of it' – Kate Courtney races Fuego XL at Sea Otter and blows away competition, while Hannah Otto reveals new FKT atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea – Gravel Bits

Two days after battling in the pro gravel race at Sea Otter Classic, Kate Courtney (She Sends Racing) and Andrew L'Esperance (3T Bike-Maxxis-Pearl Izumi) won elite races in the Fuego XL mountain bike competition.

Courtney, the reigning UCI Marathon MTB world champion, finished more than 18 minutes ahead of Emma Langley (Ventum-DT Swiss). The two were part of the 90-mile gravel race on Thursday, Courtney finishing fifth and Langley, part of the Life Time Grand Prix, 20th overall.

"I did my first bike race ever at Ford Ord with NorCal League my freshman year of high school. Nine years later, I was back to race XCO in the rainbow jersey. And yesterday, I got a chance to race the rainbows again in XCM," Courtney, now 30, said on Instagram.

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"Nothing is more special than the opportunity to compete on the trails and in front of the community that shaped my career from that very first start line."

L'Esperance took the elite men's win in a close sprint against Cameron Jones at Fuego XL. Both are part of the Life Time Grand Prix like Langley, and in the gravel opener, L'Esperance finished eighth and Jones 12th.

Fuego XL, a 70-mile race with mainly single-track, had been part of the Life Time Grand Prix lineup from 2022-2024. That event was replaced by a new gravel event in 2025 for the series, but it remains a popular competition at the five-day Sea Otter Classic festival in Monterey, California.

'Nowhere to hide' for Hannah Otto on FKT atop Mauna Kea

US off-road racer Hannah Otto (Scott Sports USA) confirmed with a film launch last week that she set a new Fastest Known Time record on Mauna Kea last October, riding the 55-mile sea-to-summit road on the Big Island of Hawaii in 5 hours, 43 minutes, and 50 seconds.

She beat the previous record by nearly 30 minutes. However, a relentless headwind saw her effort fading with 15 miles to go and she turned a three-minute deficit into a record-breaking performance.

The route is considered by many as the hardest road climb in the world, with 13,700 feet of climbing and reaching an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, and becomes even more difficult near the top. As the air thins with the high altitude, the final 10-plus miles turns to gravel near the summit, where Otto renewed her energy.

"It is long, exposed, and there is really nowhere to hide once you are in it. Setting the FKT was special, but more than anything, I am proud of how much went into the effort and how we were able to see it through," Otto said in a press release about the record and the film, Infinite Pursuit.

The Utah-based rider uses the FKTs as training for endurance racing, and last year added The Kokopelli Trail near Moab to complete the Triple Crown of rides, along with the White Rim and Whole Enchilada routes, all three in the western US high desert terrain.

Along with Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Alexis Skarda, Otto is among the trio of women who have finished in the top 10 all four years of the Life Time Grand Prix. She started her fifth campaign at Sea Otter Classic Gravel last week, finishing 15th overall.

Paige Onweller overcomes hospital stay for insect sting before Sea Otter Gravel

The start of Paige Onweller's fifth season as part of the Life Time Grand Prix began with a trip to a local hospital, where she was treated for a severe allergic reaction to an insect sting. It was determined she could race Sea Otter Classic Gravel, but she was not at 100%, being depleted physically and mentally from the ordeal. The Trek-Driftless rider would complete all three laps, finishing 14th in the elite women's field, 11th among the Grand Prix field.

"I definitely dug a bit of a hole racing as I was not fully recovered from the hospital admission. LTGP events are a challenge because had that been a different gravel event outside of the overall series, I likely would have not raced," Onweller told Cyclingnews, referring to the looped course which gave her an option to bail if necessary.

"Never have I ever … suffered that much on a bike. Never have I ever … been more proud of an effort, independent of a result. I kept fighting and unlocked new levels of suffering I didn’t know possible," she added on social media about her first time being hospitalised in the same week as a race.

Onweller's coach, Dennis Van Winden of Orange Seal Academy, spoke about the incident on the Life Time live stream of Sea Otter Classic last Thursday. He noted that she did not have an EpiPen on her non-racing bike during a training session when the sting, or bite, by an unidentified insect occurred.

"She called me from the ICU and told me what was going on. She got anaphylactic [reaction], so she was pretty scared. Luckily, the ambulance came pretty quick," he explained, saying she had treatment at the site and went home, but then had another episode that evening and went to hospital.

Van Winden said the academy emphasises health first, fun second and performance third, so he was surprised Onweller took the start a few days later.

"After several easy days, I am hoping to be good to go for Levi's this weekend and then back on track," Onweller added. A runner-up at Valley of Tears and fourth at The Mid South, Onweller is also expected to compete in The Growler at Levi's GranFondo this Saturday, followed by Belgian Waffle Ride California on May 3.

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