Matt Beers solos to victory in shortened elite men’s race at Big Sugar Classic while Cameron Jones secures Life Time Grand Prix title

With a 'hazardous weather outlook’ forecast issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), the race organisers made the call just one-and-a-half hours before the elite starts to cut the route to half the distance.

Beers escaped early with from New Zealand's Matthew Wilson (Santa Cruz) and USA's Riley Amos when the first section of gravel hit in the opening miles, and the trio built a gap of two minutes in the first hour of racing before Amos was dropped, leaving two riders off the front.

Wilson then suffered a mechanical in the final miles leaving Beers to extend his lead on a 'very gnarly' 53.9-mile course.

“It was nice out in the front,“ Beers told Cyclingnews. “I knew the pack at the back would just be insane. And I'm really good at this type of effort coming from the mountain bike, so I knew I just had to go full gas and just commit 100%.

“I don't know what happened to Matt [Wilson]. I think he got maybe a puncture or something. I don't know, but I just knew that was my time. I just had to put my head down, and I think I was going really well on the flat, so I knew I could keep it to the end.”

Beers finished 3:41 ahead of the three riders vying for two spots on the race podium, with Easter overcoming leg cramps for the best of the rest.

"So the three of us were fully committed. The weather was also kind of causing confusion, and that's only going to help us with the chase," Easter told Cyclingnews.

"I was getting full cramps inside of my thighs, the calves, so I didn't know if I could stay in the sprint. When we came into the final 200, 300 metres, I jumped. I stayed on the right-hand side of the fence, just in case I could see out of the corner of my eye if anybody was coming past. But I was able to hang on and took second."

With his fifth-place finish, Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) clinched the overall men’s title in the Life Time Grand Prix. Heading into the sixth and final event, Jones trailed series leader Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz htSQD) by a single point, but his strong performance in Bentonville allowed him to overtake the three-time champion, who finished 11th.

"Yeah, I knew what I had to do, keep an eye on Simon [Pellaud] and Keegan [Swenson] and Torbjørn [Røed]," Jones said at the finish.

"And Keegan launched first, and I sort of went on his wheel, came around him, and it was a pretty long sprint. I was kind of waiting for people to come around me, but yeah, just knew it was on the line and dug deep."

How it unfolded

Storms were expected to strike across north-west Arkansas Saturday morning, with 'large hail and damaging wind gusts' part of the forecast followed by up to two inches of steady rain. Life Time implemented one of their contingency options early Saturday - cutting the 100-mile route in half, with half the route still taking on rough, dirt roads on the Missouri side of the counter-clockwise circuit.

The elite men began the fifth edition of Big Sugar at 7:25 a.m. local time followed by the elite women at 7:35 a.m., all fields using a two-mile neutral start from Bentonville City Square.

The original distance included more than 7,700 feet of elevation gain, and the 50-mile distance, which actually measured 53.9 miles, provided half the climbing as well, but still challenging chunky, loose gravel on rugged small roads and single-track with off-camber descents.

At stake was a share in a $30,000 single-race prize purse as well as a share in a $200,000 Grand Prix prize purse for the invitation-only Grand Prix competitors - the top 10 women and men earning the series cash.

Stefano Barberi set the early pace for the 85 elite men's starters. Not making the trip to Arkansas were Italy's Mattia De Marchi, who had competed at the UCI Gravel World Championships and USA's Andy Lydic, who was recovering from a broken wrist.

Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz) had a large target on his back as the leader of the Life Time Grand Prix, and he was near the front of the pack, marked by closest contenders Simon Pellaud, Torbjørn Andre Røed and Cameron Jones.

In the opening 20 miles, Michael Garrison was the first casualty of the rugged terrain, seen on the live broadcast working on a mechanical issue with his front tyre.

Meanwhile, Matt Beers of South Africa launched an attack and opened a gap with two other riders - New Zealander Matthew Wilson and USA's Riley Amos. They opened a two-minute gap as they completed the first hour of racing, heading to the state line crossing from Arkansas to Missouri.

After the single feed zone on the course, Amos was dropped from the lead group and the Beers-Wilson duo struck out with thunder beginning to boom in the distance, but there was no rain yet to fall.

After a tight single-track section headed back into Bentonville and less than 10 miles to go, Beers struck with a major acceleration and drove off alone.

Results elite men - top 10