The 2024 Life Time Grand Prix Season Wrap Up
By Carson Beckett
Writer, Pro Cyclist
The 2024 Life Time Grand Prix (LTGP) served up another riveting off-road racing season. With the dust (literally) settling from the finale at Big Sugar, we’ve taken a moment to reflect on the season as a whole. Here is a race-by-race highlight of how the LTGP shook out.
Sea Otter
Let’s start from the season-opener in California at one of the most famous industry events in the world: Sea Otter. This high-speed MTB event is always a show as the athletes look to see where everyone’s fitness is at after the winter.
The women’s race was fiercely competitive, with Sofia Gomez Villafañe, forcing a strong pace from the start. Alexis Skarda (The Feed HPT) made a notable effort to claw back up to her during the latter half. However, Villafañe's pace was unmatchable as she pushed over the Lookout Ridge climb and into the finishing stretch. Skarda ultimately suffered for that effort and finished fifth.
In the men’s race, Keegan Swenson, took control early on, leading a group of 15 riders before breaking it up into only three. The trio of Matt Beers, Alexey Vermeulen (The Feed HPT), and Keegan worked much better together to keep the lead. Ultimately, Keegan broke away in the final kilometers to win by 49 seconds. Alexey Vermeulen displayed impressive MTB skills to match Beers’s and secure second.
Sofia and Keegan start the year out on top of the LTGP.
UNBOUND
The athletes didn’t have much time to settle after a punchy Sea Otter Fuego XL. They had to quickly pivot for the biggest and longest event in the series: UNBOUND.
As the second stop on the series, UNBOUND Gravel looms large as not only the World’s Premiere Gravel Race but also as a key point in the series to secure (or lose) points. Not only that, it would draw the most competitive field yet with international athletes and world champion Matej Mohoric.
At this year’s event, the status quo was broken as Lachlan Morton of EF Education-EasyPost decided to shake things up. After attacking once, and getting off-course, he attacked again pulling only Chad Haga with him. The two stayed away for the rest of the event and Morton claimed his first men’s title after a daring breakaway.
Meanwhile, in the women’s, we saw an unprecedented group race to the finish. Rosa Maria Klöser secured the women’s title with a thrilling 9-person sprint finish.
On the women’s side, Haley Smith (The Feed HPT) moved up into the overall lead with a 4th place finish.
Keegan Swenson was able to run the table on points for the LTGP last season, but with a less-than-perfect day for him at UNBOUND, the race for the overall has gotten very tight.
Crusher in the Tushar (CANCELLED)
Leadville Trail 100
The Race Across the Sky. Leadville is here!
At the 2024 Leadville 100, we saw more bike modifications and equipment changes than in previous editions. Drop bars on MTB? Sure. Gravel bikes with forks? Why not. Road cranksets for huge gearing? Yep. The current L100 is no longer the L100 of the past – it’s a full-tilt race for speed.
The race is iconic for its high-elevation nature. Keegan Swenson had a less-than-ideal start to the day with a puncture fairly early on, but he rallied after fixing it and forced everyone to sit back as he led off into the high altitude. He secured another victory as he rode off to set another amazing sub 5:50hr time, building a cushion on his overall lead. John Gaston and Cole Paton (The Feed HPT) trailed tightly together for 2nd and 3rd place on the day.
Melisa Rollins (The Feed HPT) won the elite women’s L100 MTB after a daring attack on Columbine. She pressed on solo the rest of the day, and left defending champion Sofia Gomez Villafañe for second, just 3:53 behind Rollins after recovering from an 11-minute deficit. Michaela Thompson (The Feed HPT) took third, finishing only 24 seconds behind Villafañe after being overtaken late in the race
The men’s overall is still settled as is, but it became tight at the top of the women’s with Sofia moving back into the lead.
Chequamegon
Another stark shift in event demands is the L100 to Chequamegon transition. Now, they head to the Northwoods of WI where a fast, punctual, short MTB race awaits.
On Saturday, both the women’s and men’s elite races were decided in sprint finishes. In the women’s race, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, Alexis Skarda (The Feed HPT), and Savilia Blunk (The Feed HPT) broke away from the lead group on the Firetower Climb, and Gomez Villafañe kicked across the line ahead the other two.
In the elite men’s race, it came down to a huge bunch sprint into the finishing chute. Keegan barely edged out Alex Wild and Sean Finchamp.
The Chequamegon win solidified Swenson’s lead in the Grand Prix series. He was sitting four points ahead of Lachlan Morton, with Cole Paton (The Feed HPT) and Payson McElveen tied for third place.
In the women’s Grand Prix, Gomez Villafañe’s win at Chequamegon also strengthened her lead in the series.
The Rad
The penultimate event sends athletes out to Trinidad, CO for a 110mi gravel race with a fairly simple course layout. This means things were going to be real hard when they got hard.
This race was pretty simple: Keegan and Lauren De Crescenzo took commanding leads on the main climb and soloed to the finish.
For De Crescenzo, this victory marked her third win at The Rad. The Colorado native clinched the inaugural event in Trinidad in 2021, astonishingly finishing second overall. She successfully defended her title last year as well. Additionally, this was only six weeks after she fractured her collarbone at SBT GRVL.
De Crescenzo's impressive time of 5:41:10 outpaced Sofia Gomez Villafañe by eight minutes, who secured second place. Cecily Decker claimed third, while Alexis Skarda (The Feed HPT) and Melisa Rollins (The Feed HPT) completed the extended podium.
The Rad victory solidifies Swenson's overall lead in the series. He had a perfect score of 105 in the overall standings, calculated from his best three scores out of the five races to date. Additionally, he had 35 more points in reserve, which he could utilize after Big Sugar Gravel.
Like Swenson, Sofia Gomez Villafañe also looks to have the overall Grand Prix title locked up after The Rad Paige Onweller (The Feed HPT), who finished seventh at The Rad, was sitting in second, 13 points back. However, Alexis Skarda, who was fourth on the day in Trinidad, only trails Onweller by one point.
Big Sugar
The final showdown headed to Bentonville, AR, where cycling is as present as a Walmart Supercenter. The finalé is Big Sugar, a 100mi+ rolling, chunky, and punchy gravel race around the AR/MO state lines.
After a rollercoaster summer, Alexey Vermeulen (The Feed HPT) took to the line with nothing to lose. He raced like it, too. Alexey broke away with 45mi to go, initiating a long-range mission with Colby Simmons in shotgun. Alexey made a statement and got to enjoy a roll into the finishing chute – both for Big Sugar and the LTGP as a whole.
In the women’s race, Sofia Gomez Villafañe sprinted away from Melisa Rollins (The Feed HPT) and Cecily Decker in the final two miles to secure a final victory in the LTGP series.
Overall
Keegan Swenson and Sofia Gomez Villafañe were crowned the overall champions of the 2024 Life Time Grand Prix. The Feed’s HPT athletes crushed, taking 2nd-5th + 8th and 10th just in the top 10 women’s standings. For the men, 4th and 5th were HPT athletes as well as many others outside of that.
This season introduced key upgrades, including a $300,000 prize purse shared equally between men and women, staggered start times, and a revamped scoring system. With participants from many countries now, the series has become a major international competition, showcasing the increasing strength of off-road cycling in North America.
Photo credit: Slowtwitch News