Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) sprinted away from Melisa Rollins (Virginia’s Blue Ridge-TWENTY24) in the final two miles of the 104-mile Big Sugar Gravel elite women’s contest and rode solo across the line for the victory in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Rollins trailed 15 seconds to take second place, while Cecily Decker (Scuderia-Pinarello) secured third place, another 24 seconds back. 2022 Big Sugar champion Paige Onweller had chased the three breakaway riders in the final 10 miles and settled for fourth. Lauren De Crescenzo completed the top five.
“Once you turn onto Slaughterpen Road there are a couple of pitches and on the first one we dropped Cecily and then there’s one last kicker that brings you back up to the top,” said Villafañe in a race media release. “I put down a little bit of acceleration and picked up a little bit of a gap and held it to finish!”
Villafañe, Onweller and Rollins entered the seventh and final race of the Life Time Grand Prix off-road series in the top four, with Villafañe holding an usurmountable lead. With win, 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, as in the last few years I’ve tended to fade and crumble at the end and Big Sugar has always kind of kicked my butt,” Villafañe said after emphatically breaking that pattern.
How it unfolded
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 through the first time check at mile marker 20.
Once passing through the bluff’s section outside Pineville with one-third of the distance behind them, the front group had whittled down to 13 riders. The chaser group, 2:03 back, included Lauren De Crescenzo, Jenna Rinehart, Crystal Anthony, Deanna Mayles, Whitney Allison and Maude Farrell.
Falling off the pace was Sarah Lange, riding alone five minutes behind the leaders. Lange entered the event tied for seventh overall (with Sarah Sturm) in the Grand Prix.
At the halfway point and the race headed on the northern-most section in Missouri, nine US riders remained in the front group – Sturm, Alexis Skarda, Melisa Rollins, Flavia Oliveira Parks, Erin Huck, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, Cecily Decker, Paige Onweller, and Stella Hobbs.
Just one minute back with 48 miles to ride, De Crescenzo was closing down the gap in a solo effort. She had Michaela Thompson just in front of her, and another 22 seconds back were a trio of Allison, Rinehart and Farrell hammeringin the chase.
Passing across the longest sustained climb of the race, a five-mile ascent in the Flag Spring Conservation Area of Missouri, De Crescenzo and Thompson made contact with the leaders, now 11 strong three-and-a-half hours into the race and 38 miles to go.
Huck attacked as the race re-entered Arkansas with 24 miles to go, but was soon rejoined by seven others, the lead group including Onweller, Rollins, Villafañe, Decker, De Crescenzo, Skarka and Hobbs. Thompson dangled 30 seconds back and other contenders were scattered another 15 seconds back, including Rinehart and Sturm.
Over the next 12 miles with a lot of descending, the trio of Villafañe, Rollins and Decker broke free as they gained 40 seconds over Onweller. It proved to be decisive, as the rest of the previous lead group began to fade, trailing Onweller by 1:14 and only 8 miles to go.
Two sharp, uphill kickers left the lead trio to decide who had the legs remaining at the finish line in Bentonville. Decker was the first to resign and then Villafañe took the final sprint to secure the race win and series victory.
