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The South African Beers took the GC lead with a 2nd place finish on Stage 2, hoping to back up his overall victory at the inaugural Gravel Burn last year. Interestingly, Beers did not win a single stage, instead outmatched every day by Mattia De Marchi, Filippo Colombo, Eddy Le Huitouze, Travis Stedman, Griffin Easter, and Hugo Drechau.

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Almand is a professional ultracyclist, and he visited every NFL stadium on his cross country journey. The feat was a partnership with Extreme Networks, a technology provider to the NFL, who approached Almand with the idea in March. He was on board quickly, and began preparing amid his senior year.

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Johnston and Wilson went on an early breakaway at the beginning of the 100-mile gravel race, perhaps testing the legs and intentions of their competitors, but got caught early on. Meanwhile, series leader Keegan Swenson suffered an early flat tire, forcing him to chase.

Another bid was made by Kongstad, John Berstelmann, and Hayden Christian, but a lead group came back together with about an hour left of racing.

On the outskirts of town, Henry Nelson put in a dig, hoping to escape solo while the Grand Prix riders played games, but he was caught with about a mile to go. The sprint was fierce, with Kongstad securing the win ahead of Blums and Paton.

Swenson chased and secured 13th among the Grand Prix racers, which was good enough to take the Life Time Grand Prix overall victory by just one point. Johnston finished second overall, while Wilson took third. The top-10 overall are eligible for the prize purse and automatic qualification for next year’s series.

Big Sugar Gravel 2026 men’s results

1. Tobias Kongstad

2. Martins Blums

3. Cole Paton

4. Cole Davis

5. Matt Wilson

6. Drew Dillman

7. Brendan Johnston

8. Andreas Seewald

9. Henry Nelson

10. Daxton Mock

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In the women’s race, Charlotte Clark went on a solo mission in the first half of the race, earning a small gap, but a lead group of 9 had formed with 40 miles to go. Among the leaders were series leader Sofia Gomez Villafane, Gravel National Champion Paige Onweller, Stella Hobbs, and Sarah Lange.

With about 5 miles to go, Hobbs went on the attack with the chase group whittled down to Villafane, Hayley Preen, Karolina Migon, Kylee Hanel, and Cecile Lejeune. Hobbs was ranked 16th in the Grand Prix overall so she was motivated to be aggressive to take maximum points on the line.

Hobbs rode to a solo win, the biggest of her career, while the sprint for the remaining places came down to Villafane, Migon, Preen, and Hanel. Preen led it out but was outpowered by Villafane for second place.

Villafane secured another victory in the Life Time Grand Prix overall. Hanel won the U23 overall, earning her a spot in the elite field for next year.

Big Sugar Gravel 2026 women’s results

1. Stella Hobbs

2. Sofia Gomez Villafane

3. Hayley Preen

4. Kylee Hanel

5. Karolina Migon

6. Cecile Lejeune

7. Paige Onweller

8. Sarah Lange

9. Lauren De Crescenzo

10. Emma Langley

Stay tuned for a full takeaways article from the entire 2026 Life Time Grand Prix season tomorrow.

I’m always interested in the behind-the-scenes of our sport’s biggest races. That’s why I caught up with Luke Bodensteiner, the general manager of the Soldier Hollow venue. Luke is a 2x Nordic skiing Olympian who went on to work at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. He has worked at Soldier Hollow since 2019, which is run by the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.

The first part of this article is free. After the paywall, Luke discusses upcoming winter events, youth participation in moutain biking and skiing, and lead up to the 2034 Olympic Games in Utah.

Thanks for reading,

Ryan

Why was Soldier Hollow interested in hosting the UCI Mountain Bike World Series?

I’ll give you a little history on it. About six years ago, just from a kind of strategy and business perspective–obviously we have a strong winter business here with skiing, tubing, and biathlon–and decided we needed to create more activity in the summer. We leaned into mountain biking as a complement to what we do on the ski side. We had been hosting high school mountain bike races here since the start of the Utah League.

This place, when it was built for the Olympics, was not built with mountain bike trails. So the first trails were put in by a guy named Scott Peterson, who was a venue manager out here, who had a daughter who rode in the high school league and built them some trails to train on, and then hosted high school races out here. Those have since grown to be 1,200 to 1,300 kids per race, and we hold two to three of those races a year.

Soldier Hollow had also hosted what is known as the Soho Bike Fest, which is a UCI race that happens in the early summer. That was actually an independent run race by a guy named MJ Turner who lives in Park City, and he was using the venue to run Bike Fest. He had aspirations of turning that race into a World Cup someday, but it’s a big event to run for a kind of private organizer. He was going to stop running it six years ago, and we said, “Well, this is such a great event for Soldier Hollow, and it’s in line with what we want to do in the summer,” so he gave that race to us. We started organizing it six years ago.

Two or three years ago, we were tapped to do the Pan American Championship out here. Part of the reason for that was we were hosting the last UCI race in America of the Olympic qualification for Paris, and USA Cycling was looking to get another quota spot for one of their riders. They said you know the best thing we could do for them was to take on the Pan Am Championships. We actually ran the Pan Am’s in conjunction with Bike Fest that year, and then literally a day after Pan Am Championships, Brandon Quirk, who’s the CEO of USA Cycling, who had been out here, was like, man, you have such an incredible venue for mountain biking. You really gotta, you know, think about taking on a World Cup. And so he connected me with Chris Ball, who’s in charge of the World Series, and we took off from there. Signed the deal to be out here with World Cup just over a year ago.

Read more about World Cup venues

• Q&A: How Lake Placid landed the MTB World Cup

• Lake Placid declines to renew UCI World Cup contract

• 2027 UCI MTB World Series calendar leaked

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We are one step closer to the end of the season as Life Time Grand Prix racers completed the penultimate round of the series this morning in Arkansas. Little Sugar brought all of the technicality and sharp rocks we’ve come to expect from the 100K mountain bike race, and it was mountain bike specialists Cole Paton and Candice Lill who rode to solo victories. Continue reading for my full analysis of the race, what it means for the overall, and a peak at Big Sugar Gravel next weekend.

Cheers,

Ryan

The mountain bikers came out to play

The course at Little Sugar certainly suits the mountain bikers in the series. The men’s race saw XCO World Cup names like Dan English, Owen Clark, and Ivan Sippy in the mix, who all finished in the top 11. Cole Paton, the Marathon National Champion, was able to establish a gap and win by a margin of over a minute ahead of Bradyn Lange and Marathon World Champion Andreas Seewald.

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Van Rysel has previously made road, gravel, and triathlon bikes, and similar to Ventum, is entering the mountain bike market with a 32” bike. The RCR-XC will initially only be available to the Decathlon-Ford team, and there is not yet a publicly-known launch date for the broader consumer market.

According to press materials, Van Rysel said the bike was developed using real world race data. The brand’s engineers studied race data from the Paris 2024 Olympics and ensuing World Cup races with the goal of creating a bike that can perform at the most elite levels of the sport.

“Wherever the athlete spends the most time in the race is where there is the most time to be gained through design,” said Luis Moro, Van Rysel MTB Product Manager.

Van Rysel claims that the new bike is 230g lighter than the race bike currently used by Decathlon-Ford. The brand also said that wind tunnel testing showed a saving of 15.5 watts at 35 km/h to the 2025 bike.

“We didn’t set out to build just another mountain bike, but one of the fastest in the world: the RCR-XC is designed to win the biggest races,” Moro said. “To fuel that ambition, we applied V|R’s successful scientific method, based on data and wind tunnel testing, to off-road riding, with no compromise. This frame is the result of co-design: the dynamics of a 32-inch at a lower weight than a 29-inch, validated by the best riders in the world.”

Photos of the bike show it specced with Zipp Wheels, Vittoria Mezcal tires, a SRAM drivetrain, RockShox suspension, and a unique aero handlebar.

The launch also revealed that World Cup overall winner Luca Martin and his former Cannondale Teammate Cole Punchard will join the French Decathlon-Ford program. It’s the first major transfer news of the season, and the first indication of where riders will land after the shuttering of Cannondale Factory Racing. Martin and Punchard will join the likes of Sammie Maxwell and Savilia Blunk for the 2027 season and beyond.

The red kit of Jordan Williams is classic Specialized: professional, sleek, and fast. The 22-year-old from the UK won his first elite race back in 2023, his first year out of the junior category. In the years since, he has struggled with injury and the usual mountain bike racer woes. At Lake Placid, he trailed Vermette by less than 100 points.

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In the women’s race, Laura Stigger, Alessandra Keller, and Sammie Maxwell were all among riders who took turns at the front, keeping the pace high especially on the big descents in the second half of the lap.

Midway through the race, a front group of Keller, Maxwell, Stigger, Frei, Martina Berta, Gwen Gibson, and Nicole Koller established an elite front group. Berta upped the pace with three to go before Maxwell jumped ahead leading into the singletrack climb.

It was down to three racers for the final lap with Maxwell, Berta, and Frei dueling up the climb. Frei got ahead and then Berta stalled on an uphill rock garden, forcing a dab from Maxwell as well. Berta chased back to Frei and the Swisswoman won in a photo finish sprint.

Jenny Rissveds simply had to finish the race to clinch the overall title, and that’s what she did with an 11th place finish. The overall title is a career first for Rissveds, who counts an Olympic title and World Championship wins to her name.

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Jenny Rissveds and Sina Frei were locked into battle during the women’s race as the overall title was up for grabs. Frei had to finish better than 4th to keep her narrow edge over Rissveds, and the two competitors kept the pace setting responsibilities as Berta loomed in third.

The Italian national champion gained a small advantage on the final lap, made it through the slick rocks and muddy turns, and finished just a second ahead of Rissveds. A third place for Frei clinched the overall victory.

“This is really amazing,” Frei said at the finish. I don’t really know what to say, but it’s like just insane that I could manage it, to keep it from the first race to the last race. I think because of that I can be really proud, and yeah, it was fun to race here.”

Luca Schwarzbauer got off to a fast start in the men’s race, and a couple laps in it became evident that Luca Martin was struggling with broken shifting. The Cannondale rider was the presumed overall title winner, given the absence of second place overall Adrien Boichis. The Specialized rider was on. version of the startlist, adding some mystery to his presence at the season finale.

There were no decisive attacks until Schwarzbauer and Vidaurre broke away with three laps to go, a bold move so early in the race. The two friends worked well together to fend off the chasing bunch. Vidaurre escaped from the German on the final lap, keeping his advantage to the line.

“Before this I used to hate short track with my life,” Vidaurre said, “but actually, when you are in a good shape and just being with a good guy like Luca in the front just makes the race so special.

“More than a win for me, just going solo with Luca…it’s just an insane way to win. I was thinking if I don’t win, actually I don’t care. We’re just putting a show here and it’s so good and I just enjoy it so much, so happy to get my first win like that.”

Luca Martin’s overall victory culminates a season of dominance and excellence for the Cannondale rider, whose team is folding after this race.

Vidaurre’s win in a boone for Specialized, which has illness in it’s camp this week with Haley Batten and Christopher Blevins sitting out the short track race.

Racing continues in Lake Placid with the XCO tomorrow and Downhill on Sunday.

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The Mountain Bike World Series wraps up this weekend in Lake Placid, New York, with XCC and XCO racing at Mt Van Hoevenberg and downhill Whiteface. It will be exciting racing until the end with overall titles still to play for the elite men’s downhill as well as the elite men’s and women’s XCC and XCO contests. Of course, it’s the final chance to win or land on the podium until next spring. It’s the last time the World Cup will visit Lake Placid, at least in the near future. Keep reading for my full preview of all disciplines, exclusive to paying subscribers.

Enjoy,

-Ryan

A new schedule

The schedule of events is slightly different this weekend compared to the usual double-header XC/DH weekends. Usually, XCC would start the weekend on Friday with downhill on Saturday and XCO on Sunday. This time, XCO is on Saturday and DH is on Sunday. It’s a relatively minor change, but it could be enough to throw riders and their support teams off their usual routines. As for why? My best guess is maybe there was some scheduling issue with Mt Van Hoevenberg on Sunday. Another theory is the downhill will finish earlier in the day Sunday compared to XCO racing, allowing for more time for post season celebrations.

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No hometown advantage for Goldstone and Iles

No rider was more hyped this week than Jackson Goldstone—the recently-crowned World Champion was going to race on home soil. Ditto for Finn Iles, who found success earlier in the summer before getting interrupted by injury. What could have been an exceptional weekend for the Canadians ended in disappointment as neither rider made it through qualifying. Another big name to get taken out in qualifying was Troy Brosnan, who crashed into a tree at the bottom of the track.

Ostgaard secures junior title

Aletha Ostgaard had an excellent day on track, winning the junior women’s race by more than 9 seconds while securing the series overall title. The American has been a dominant racer this season, winning a total of five races aboard her Canyon bike. In the junior men’s race, Camden Rutherfurd was victorious by a margin of 5.6 seconds.

Holl is unstoppable

Vali Holl has won almost everything possible this season, but that didn’t slow her down in Whistler. The World Champion was noticeably smoother than the other elite women on track, and none of the other women could match her. The closest was

Heartbreak for Stevens-Mcnab

Lachlan Stevens-McNab was the first rider to really kick things off as the elite men’s race got toward the bottom of the order. He blitzed down the track, landing in the hot seat while winning every split time along the way. Minutes later, news came over the broadcast that he was disqualified for leaving the track during his run.

The rule Stevens-McNab violated states that if a rider leaves the marked track, he must reenter the track in the exact spot. In this case, McNab was offline by just inches and likely didn’t even realize that he left the course. He also likely didn’t gain any advantage by the infraction, but the rules are the rules.

As the DQ was announced, there was also a course hold to helicopter an injured spectator off the hillside, adding even more drama to the atmosphere.

Keifer’s spectacular crash

The most spectacular crash of the day goes to Henri Keifer, who was closing in on Amaury Pierron’s benchmark time. The German was pedalling into the final drop on course, and it looked like he got caught up in a rut, throwing both feet off his pedals. His seat bounced off the drop, and launched into the air with both feet unattached from the bike. Luckily, he got up quickly and appeared to be relatively OK.

Commencal no match for Vermette

Pierron was one-upped in the hot seat by Commencal teammate Max Alran, but then it was fastest-qualifier Asa Vermette’s turn down the mountain. The American was a bit slow through the first split, but then he opened his burners and smoked the rest of the course, winning by a margin of 4.3 seconds. That placed Vermette in the lead of the overall with a close margin of 96 points as the contest heads to Lake Placid next weekend.

On another interesting note, it looked like the Whistler crowd was primed to storm the finish bowl a la Les Gets, but the security had the finish on lockdown, which was good to see.

Continue reading for Ryan MTB’s stories to watch as the action heats up on Whistler’s 1199 downhill track.

No pressure for Vali Holl

Vali Holl wrapped up the World cup overall title in the elite women’s category at Les Gets, and she once again secured the rainbow jersey at Val di Sole. That could mean that the Austrian approaches the next two races with more of a relaxed attitude, or it could mean that she stays on the gas all the way until the off season. Lisa Baumann, Anna Newkirk, and Gloria Scarsi are still battling for the remaining podium spots in the overall, while Gracey Hemstreet will be feeling good on home Canadian soil.

Jackson Goldstone is back

Jackson Goldstone finally got the result he was hoping for at the World Championships after mixed results this summer. The rainbow jersey combined with a hometown track will certainly boost his confidence all weekend long, as will the knowledge that he won on a similar track at Crankworx in July.

In the overall, Finn Iles sits in third position and is another hometown favorite, though he is coming back from injury. Ahead of him in the overall is leader Jordan Williams and Asa Vermette is in second. Amaurry Pierron isn’t far off in fourth, and Goldstone rounds out the top 5 overall.

Will Loic Bruni race?

French star Loic Bruni has been out with an injury since Loudenvielle, but he is eager to get back on track. He told the Downtime Podcast that he hopes to be back for Whistler, but there’s no guarantee. That podcast was recorded in August, so we’ll have to wait and see if we spot Bruni on track.

Belt drive bikes have finally proven themselves

With Harriet Harnden’s win in Les Gets, we finally have confirmation that belt driven bikes with a gear box drive system are capable of winning at the elite World Cup level. Plenty of riders got close, but there’s nothing like a win to prove a technology, plus Harnden claimed the 100,000EU prize purse put up by Gates. It will be interesting to see how the Aon race bike and other belt drive systems continue to perform.

The schedule for this weekend is pushed back by a day, with qualifications on Saturday and finals on Sunday, all Pacific Time.

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I’m just back from watching the day’s elite XCO races, which were of course won by Martina Berta and Martin Vidaurre. Overall, I’m very impressed with the SoHo World Cup. Here are a few reasons why, and some analysis of the races.

The venue is excellent

Soldier Hollow was built to host high level Nordic events, so it’s nearly a plug-and-play operation for Warner Bros. Discovery to come in and host a World Cup. Everything feels right, from the pits, to the expo, to the finish bowl. If I had one complaint about the layout, it would be that the media center is up a steep hill from the finish.

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Soldier Hollow was electric. The only thing that could have raised the Utah spectator’s spirits more would have been an American win, but there’s always tomorrow.

This weekend was poised to be a big one. The first World Cup in the western half of the United States since 2005. Reading between the lines of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series calendar, it appears that race organizer Warner Bros. Discovery is eager to tap into the American market. Luke Bodensteiner, general manager of the venue, told me as much in an interview yesterday.

The introduction of Soldier Hollow to the circuit is the first step toward more World Cups in the West. Durango will host some in the lead up to the 2030 World Championships, while Lake Placid pauses their participation as a venue.

The fans couldn’t be more stoked, many of them student athletes in the Utah High School Cycling League.

The first taste of racing came from the U23 women, with Makena Kellerman and Bailey Cioppa the best shot for the USA Cycling National Team. The fans responded as the lead women suffered up the punchy kick up the hillside then danced through the rock gardens at the back of the course. Kellerman almost got it, but Rafaelle Carrier out punched her at the last second.

Nicolas Halter, the U23 men’s World Champion, showed his sprint to win in the rainbow jersey. That was just the appetizer.

Utah came to see the pros, especially Haley Batten, who grew up just to the north of here. Red Batten t-shirts from Specialized dotted the crowd. All of the Americans were popular, including National Champion Savilia Blunk, as well as European superstars Evie Richards and Jolanda Neff.

Batten and Gwen Gibson immediately put on a show when they went into the early break, but they got swallowed up and joined the group to prepare for the inevitable sprint. Except a fast finish never materialized.

The Italian National Champion Martina Berta took a final lap flyer. She was so far ahead when she passed through the start finish that I thought she could be a lapped rider. On a course that was tough to get away on, Berta got away and stayed away, taking her first XCC victory and becoming the first Italian woman to win a World Cup XCC.

Then, the elite men were up to top off the day of short track racing, and Bjorn Riley was a popular man. If Gen Z has a mountain bike mascot, it’s Riley. With his stars and stripes jersey, wild sunglasses, and artsy Instagram edits, Riley makes wearing spandex cool.

And the Utah crowd was packed with teenagers. During the men’s race, they started climbing up the scoreboard, watching the chaos of the rock garden from 30 feet in the air. Their cheers got stronger as the storm brewed overhead.

On the pavement rise before the finish, the speed and fluidity of the racers reminded me of speedskaters. Nordic skiing would be a better metaphor, Soldier Hollow hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics Nordic events and hosting plenty of training and racing since.

With 2 laps to go, I found a vantage point of the finish. The man we saw cross the line was Alpecin-Premier’s Sam Gaze, his blue kit accenting the dark sky.

The fans wanted Bjorn, though. Six shirtless fellas had his name painted on their chest. Their volume rose when Riley acknowledged them. Warner Bros. TV cameras loved it too. Riley Amos grabbed a chainsaw from the fans, revving it and reveling in the home country glory.

For years now, American mountain biking has been on a comeback trail after sagging in the 2000’s. Plenty of racers contributed, with Christopher Blevins reaching a peak last year with his overall victories.

American MTB has arrived home, and Soldier Hollow is here to witness it.

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That offers an interesting juxtaposition when a brand wants to be secretive about something.

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