'It's more a personal battle' - Sofia Gomez Villafañe locked in all year for significant climbing and 'wide open gravel' at UCI Gravel World Championships

Sofia Gomez Villafañe's proverbial ladder of success has led to more than 20 major off-road victories on three continents so far, over the past five-and-a-half seasons. This year she put a bullseye on Nannup for the UCI Gravel World Championships.

She has won multiple national titles for the two countries she represents with dual citizenship - as a collegiate racer in mountain bike and cyclo-cross for the US and MTB cross-country for Argentina. In 2021, she made history for Argentina as the first female to compete in XCO mountain bike at the Olympic Games since 2004, finishing top 25. With bigger stakes this season, she trained and raced for the ultimate rainbow reward.

"We've actually had it targeted as an event for almost a year. It's not a last-minute decision. It's not something that we sprinkled in," Villafañe told Cyclingnews.

Since moving from the one-hour power outputs of the World Cup MTB scene to long-distance off-road challenges in 2021, the 32-year-old has signature victories at Unbound Gravel 200, The Traka 200 and Cape Epic - winning each event twice. In North America, she has a crowded trophy case with seven Belgian Waffle Ride wins, a sweep of all three editions of Valley of Tears, a win at Leadville Trail 100 and many others.

The most significant mark of being 'the best' is to be a world champion, and a rainbow jersey remains elusive, in any discipline, for one of the world's most dominant off-road cyclists.

Twice before, Villafañe has competed at the UCI Gravel World Championships for Argentina, her best finish 12th on Italian races that did not compare to the high-elevation, long-distance courses to which she was accustomed in North America. So when the UCI Gravel Worlds announced the courses a year ago for Western Australia, Villafañe locked in.

"So the decision to target this year's World Championship actually got solidified in October, November of last year with my coach. We have been really needing to set some big goals behind the season," Villafañe told Cyclingnews before she left the US for Australia.

"I've been really committed to the Life Time Grand Prix. Knowing the past two years the [Worlds] courses really didn't suit me, we thought the courses in Australia might."

It's hard to realise that her first outing in an off-road endurance race was Crusher in the Tushar in Utah, where she didn't even have a gravel bike. With some tyre adjustments and a larger chainring, she won solo in the 69-mile event with more than 10,000 feet of climbing. A month later, she won solo again, this time at the mixed-surface Belgian Waffle Ride North Carolina using a Specialized Diverge borrowed from Katerina Nash.

Once she had all equipment set with Specialized Off-road and made the cut as part of the inaugural, invitation-only Life Time Grand Prix series for 2022, the upward trajectory began. She's won the Grand Prix three times and sits at the top of the leaderboard for 2026.

The trip to Australia means that Villafañe will have to miss Little Sugar MTB in Arkansas, as that round of the Life Time Grand Prix takes place on the same weekend as Worlds. It will be the one 'drop race' of the series for the three-time winner, leaving the 100-mile Big Sugar Classic on October 17 to determine final standings.

"We're getting to Australia early, so we're flying the 29th, getting there October 1st. So really giving the body time to adjust," she told Cyclingnews about travelling with her husband Keegan Swenson, also part of the Grand Prix and will represent Team USA at Worlds.

"And then the plan is to fly out Sunday evening because all the flights from Australia are at like 11 p.m. at night. Basically everything's packed as Keegan [Swenson] finishes, and we go straight to the airport, so we could arrive Monday late afternoon in Bentonville and have a few days to get the body recovered ahead of Big Sugar."

Elite women will again have a dedicated start on October 10 with 78 miles (125.6km). The race is the shortest distance for the women's race in the five-year history of UCI Gravel Worlds, the longest in 2023 at 141km in Veneto, but it has heavy climbing, 3,179 metres (10,429 feet) worth, and 84% on wide, dirt roads.

"It's being dubbed as the first real gravel World Championships in terms of a course. I think it's exciting for it to be somewhere new. The fact that it's outside of Europe adds a new element.

"I think you are gonna have hills and wide-open gravel, which is a little bit more like the American gravel that I'm used to. Yeah, I think it's gonna be a really good course."

Even an Unbound winner has to qualify for Worlds

The squeeze play for a week of October races, separated by 10,743 miles (17,289 kilometers), was set in motion in February in Spain, where Villafañe stayed to race a UCI Gravel World Series qualifier.

"When I went to Spain in February to race Santa Val, we added a UCI gravel race so I can make sure I could qualify and not have to go through the federation and all those things. It's definitely been a targeted race," she explained.

She swept both stages and the overall at Santa Vall. Then she took off after the first 16km of the 97km Castellón Gravel Race and won solo, giving her automatic qualification to Worlds.

"I'm pretty sure Argentina would have given me a spot, like they always have for whatever world championships I've had to do. But it was nice to earn it, have my ticket, and have some UCI points," she said, though she'll have work to do from the start grid.

"I mean, I think I'll be pretty far back because I've only done one [UCI gravel world series event]. We have riders that race almost the entire calendar, so it's better than zero, so I'll take it."

A second trip to Santa Vall this year was the barometre for her off-season training. She said workouts don't always "translate to good races".

"I mean opening up the season in Santa Val like I did, I knew we had, with my coach, done a lot of hard work in the base season. So to really be able to climb and attack the way that I did at Santa Val was very rewarding. I mean, Spain just treats me really well."

It may be easier to list what she didn't win rather than what she conquered, but we'll start with the Life Time Grand Prix. She won Sea Otter Classic Gravel and a second Unbound 200, then after seventh place at Leadville 100, she won Chequamegon MTB. Her spring in the US included wins at The Mid South and Valley of Tears and plus a second SBT GRVL in between summer Grand Prix races.

"I had a phenomenal start to the first half of the year, and then in the summer we kind of had to take a little bit slower. Then in the past like two weeks, I've been firing again. So I'm really hopeful that I'm showing up really well prepared," she said.

"For me, it's more a personal battle [at Worlds]. I just have never been able to put it together at a world championship level race."

It will be her first trip to Australia, and she said the biggest appeal was the hilly course. The competition includes Life Time Grand Prix rival Karolina Migoń (Poland), who is fourth in the overall standings. Rosa Klöser (Germany) has withdrawn from the Grand Prix but will be in Nannup as a formidable opponent, finishing second to Villafañe at Santa Vall but then better at Lauf Gravel Worlds with second, two spots better than Villafañe. And then there's a stacked Dutch team with her Specialized Off-road teammate Geerike Schreurs and former gravel World Champion and last year's silver medallist Marianne Vos confirmed to start.

That firing on all engines was evident yet again at the fourth round of the Life Time Grand Prix in Wisconsin on September 19, where Villafañe overcame a crash in the mud and fought back to win the elite women's race at Chequamegon MTB. This was her third win in four series starts to give her a firm 18-point lead in the Grand Prix overall standings, now just Big Sugar remaining on her calendar.

"Now I just need to stay healthy and hopefully have smooth travel down there, smooth adaptation. And really just have a stress-free environment come pre-race day because that's really what affects me the most. If there's stress around me, then I get stressed. But if it's chilled, then I'm chilled."

It's only been five years since she started racing gravel and didn't even have a gravel bike. She's proven with consistent performances, versatility across disciplines and competitive drive to be the leading off-road rider for these Worlds.

So far across her dominant season, Villafañe said wins at The Traka and Unbound Gravel 200 have been her highlights of the year, and "each race had its little moment to celebrate". When asked if there was a third so far, she just left that open, hoping to complete the answer to that question later with a rainbow jersey.

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