Life Time Grand Prix 2023

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Life Time Grand Prix 2023

Even before the final races of the year had unfolded it was clear who the series victors would be, with Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) and Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) both delivering a dominant performance through 2023.

Villafañe, who was runner-up in 2022, started out with top series points across the first four elite women's events and then a third place at the Chequamegon MTB Festival locked in her the overall win with two events still to run. That meant the Argentinian-born rider who grew up in California had the luxury of relaxing and enjoying the ride in the final event, Big Sugar Gravel.

In the elite men's races Swenson was even more dominant, winning the opening four races – Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL, Unbound, Crusher in the Tushar and Leadville 100 MTB – before clinching the series with a second place at Chequamegon MTB. The US national gravel champion then, like Villafañe, skipped The Rad Dirt Fest and finished with a fourth place at Big Sugar.

Swenson took the series victory for the second year with 174 points, ahead of Alexey Vermeulen on 165 and Cole Paton with 161. Villafañe finished with a total of 173 points, with Alexis Skarda second with 160 and 2022 winner Haley Smith in third place with 157 points.

History

In 2022 the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda combined six off-road races from across the US to form a new invitation-only series, culminating with a $250,000 prize purse distributed equally to elite women and men at the final event in October. The competitors were comprised of 60 athletes, a balance of 30 women and 30 men selected from an application process. 

Cash prizes were divided equally to the top 10 men and top 10 women, based on the highest points accumulated at five of the six races. All events in the Grand Prix are owned and operated by Life Time, which has a stable of 13 off-road events across the US.

Each of the six events in 2022, three existing gravel races and three mountain bike races - operated individually with their own prize purses. A new Fuego XL 80k cross-country MTB event at Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California opened the series in April. The final event was held October 22 in Bentonville, Arkansas with the second-edition of the Life Time Big Sugar Gravel.

Last year multi-time US mountain bike champion Keegan Swenson won four of the six events to secure the men's overall title, which began in April with a victory over Russell Finsterwald in the Fuego 80K MTB at the Sea Otter Classic. The series runner-up was Alexey Vermeulen, five points ahead of Finsterwald in third.

Canadian Haley Smith held her advantage from the fourth event in the series, Leadville Trail 100 MTB, and secured the women's overall title. Sophia Gomez Villafane was tied overall points with Sarah Sturm in the series, but claimed the second-place prize with her seventh-place Big Sugar finish, two spots better than Sturm.

Series changes in 2023

The Life Time Grand Prix expanded the series in several ways for its sophomore season - a greater number of events and a larger field of competitors. 

A wildcard event, the Rad Dirt Fest in Trinidad, Colorado, was added to the six founding off-road events for the 2023 series calendar. The series will again open at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California in April, this time with a longer Fuego XL cross-country mountain bike race, 100km instead of 80km. 

The second stop, Unbound Gravel 200 on June 3, is the first of four gravel races in the series, followed on July 8 by the 69-mile Crusher in the Tushar in Utah. There are back-to-back mountain bike events, Leadville Trail 100 MTB in Colorado on August 12 and the 40-mile Chequamegon MTB in Wisconsin on September 16. The final two events are back to gravel, Rad Dirt Fest (110 miles) in Colorado on September 30 and Big Sugar Gravel (100 miles) in Arkansas on October 21.

The prize purse will remain at $250,000, but the standings to decide the top 10 women and men, with equal payouts, will be tallied by points earned from any five of the seven events. The final event in the series, Big Sugar Gravel, is mandatory for all competitors, serving as a tiebreaker if needed. Life Time will also cover entry fees to series events for the selected athletes. 

The other major change for 2023 is the expansion of the field from 60 to 70 invited athletes to compete in the second year of the Life Time Grand Prix, 35 pro women and 35 pro men.

Life Time Grand Prix 2023 event calendar and winners

Fuego 100k MTB

The Fuego XL 100k MTB race returned to launch the calendar for the Life Time Grand Prix, now with seven events spread from April to October. The Fuego XL event, April 22, was extended for 20 additional kilometres of rolling single-track with two laps at Fort Ord National Monument in Monterey, California. It is part of the Life Time Sea Otter Classic presented by Continental. 

Unbound Gravel

Located in the Flint Hills of Kansas since 2006, Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft was held on June 3 as the signature event for the Life Time Grand Prix. The event offered five ride distances, with the grueling 200-mile race the longest race in the Grand Prix. The course is renowned for sharp rocks, primitive roads and steep pitches in and out of gullies through the Tallgrass Prairie in the middle of the US. 

Crusher in the Tushar

The Life Time Crusher in the Tushar presented by The Creamery was held July 8, a 69-mile gravel race situated in the Tushar Mountains of Utah. In 2022, the course featured a 60/40 gravel-to-tarmac split with 10,400 feet of climbing  in arid, high desert terrain. It is the third stop of the Grand Prix.

Leadville Trail 100 MTB

The Stages Cycling Leadville Trail 100 MTB took place on August 12 and was the fourth overall event, but the second of three mountain bike events in the series. Like past years, it covered an out-and-back, 104-mile course of rough forest service roads plus double and single track dirt tracks with a total of 13,129 feet of elevation gain. The mass start for women and men in the Rocky Mountains mining town began at 10,152 feet, making it one of the most challenging mountain bike endurance events on the calendar. 

Swenson became a three-time winner of Leadville in 2023 and continued as the men’s leader in the Life Time Grand Prix. Sofía Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) took a solo victory on the women's side. The pair used top LTGP points to solidify top spots in the series standings.

Chequamegon MTB

The final of three mountain bike competitions in the Grand Prix was the Life Time Chequamegon MTB Festival presented by Trek, held on September 16. The 40-mile point-to-point course began in downtown Hayward in northern Wisconsin and followed parts of the famed American Birkie Cross-country Ski Trail across forest roads and snowmobile trails with short, punchy climbs to the finish line in Cable. 

Taking his first victory in the Life Time Grand Prix was Alexey Vermeulen (Jukebox-Shimano-Q+M). On the women's side, Ruth Winder emerged victorious. 

Rad Dirt Fest

The newest entry to the Grand Prix was the Life Time Rad Dirt Fest presented by Wahoo, which took on September 30 in Trinidad, Colorado. The start line of th 110-mile "Stubborn Delores" route sits at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level, then added 10,000 feet of elevation gain in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range and the towering Spanish Peaks. 

The 2023 course, the sixth event in the Grand Prix, was 50 miles shorter than the 2022 edition, and provided close to 90% maintained gravel roads. It was the first year for the race to be part of the Grand Prix.

Big Sugar Gravel

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Set in the rugged highlands of the Ozark Mountains in Northwest Arkansas and Southern Missouri, Big Sugar Gravel presented by Mazda was founded by Life Time in 2021. It was the finale of the Life Time Grand Prix for a second consecutive year, the long course providing 104 miles and 7,000 feet of elevation gain across white powder roads. 

Keegan Swenson had locked up his second consecutive Grand Prix title earlier in the year with four race victories. With a third place at Big Sugar, Alexey Vermeulen finished third at Big Sugar, just ahead of a sprint with Swenson, and secured second place in the series. Cole Paton, who was fifth at Big Sugar, finished third in the series.

Like Swenson, Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) earned the women's overall title earlier in the season with top points in the first four races, including second place at Unbound Gravel 200. She completed the race in 35th.  Alexis Skarda (Santa Cruz Bicycles), who was seventh at Big Sugar, took second overall in the series, while last year's winner Haley Smith (Maxxis Factory Racing), ninth at Big Sugar, finished third overall. Newly-crowned UCI Gravel World Champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) won Big Sugar, but was not part of the Grand Prix.