Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) sprinted away from Melisa Rollins (Virginia’s Blue Ridge-TWENTY24) in the final two miles of the 104-mile elite women’s Big Sugar Gravel competition and crossed the finish line alone for the win in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Rollins was 15 seconds behind and took second place, while Cecily Decker (Scuderia-Pinarello) secured third place, a further 24 seconds behind. 2022 Big Sugar champion Paige Onweller had chased down the three breakaways in the final 10 miles and settled for fourth place. Lauren De Crescenzo completed the top five.
“As soon as you turn onto Slaughterpen Road, there are a few pitches and on the first one we dropped Cecily, and then there is one final kicker that puts you back on top,” Villafañe said in a media release about the race. “I did one. I accelerated a bit, got a small lead and held it until the finish!”
Villafañe, Onweller and Rollins started the seventh and final race of the Life Time Grand Prix Off-Road Series in the top four, with Villafañe holding an insurmountable lead. With the victory, Villafañe confirmed her second overall Grand Prix title, having won three of the six races in which she competed.
“My big goal this season was to win the first race of the season and the last race of the season because the last few years I tended to fade and break down at the end and Big Sugar always kind of kicked my ass “,” Villafañe said, after emphatically breaking this pattern.
How it developed
With a separate start 10 minutes after the elite men, 26 of 48 riders in the elite women’s field remained together at the front until the first time control at kilometer 20.
After clearing the escarpment outside Pineville and a third of the distance behind them, the lead group had dwindled to 13 riders. The chasing group, 2:03 behind, included Lauren De Crescenzo, Jenna Rinehart, Crystal Anthony, Deanna Mayles, Whitney Allison and Maude Farrell.
Sarah Lange fell off the pace and was five minutes behind the leaders. Lange entered the event in seventh place overall (with Sarah Sturm) in the Grand Prix.
At the halfway point, with the race taking place in the northernmost section of Missouri, nine U.S. riders remained in the lead group – Sturm, Alexis Skarda, Melisa Rollins, Flavia Oliveira Parks, Erin Huck, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, Cecily Decker, Paige Onweller, and Stella Hobbs .
Just a minute behind and 48 miles to go, De Crescenzo was able to close the gap single-handedly. She had Michaela Thompson right in front of her, and another 22 seconds behind, a trio of Allison, Rinehart and Farrell were hammering away at the chase.
De Crescenzo and Thompson traversed the longest climb of the race, a five-mile climb in the Flag Spring Conservation Area in Missouri, and came into contact with the front runners, who were now eleven strong riders, after three and a half hours and 38 miles remaining.
Huck attacked when the race arrived back in Arkansas with 24 miles to go, but was soon caught back by seven others, the lead group, including Onweller, Rollins, Villafañe, Decker, De Crescenzo, Skarka and Hobbs. Thompson was 30 seconds behind and other competitors, including Rinehart and Sturm, were another 15 seconds behind.
Over the next 12 downhill miles, the trio of Villafañe, Rollins and Decker managed to break free and gain a 40-second lead over Onweller. It proved crucial as the rest of the previous lead group began to fade and were 1:14 behind Onweller with just 8 miles to go.
Two sharp, uphill kickers left the leading trio to decide who had the legs left at the finish line in Bentonville. Decker was the first to retire and then Villafañe took over in the final sprint to secure the race win and the series victory.
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