Picture 1 of 2
Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) and Haley Batten (Specialised Manufacturing facility Racing) gained the professional races of the inaugural Life Time Little Sugar MTB offered by Mazda, held in Bentonville, Arkansas on Sunday. The elite divisions competed on a marked, largely-singletrack course of 99.3 kilometres (61.7 miles) and 1,998 metres (6,558 ft) of elevation acquire throughout north-west Arkansas.
The highest 5 finishers for women and men earned equal shares from a $65,000 prize purse, made potential by Life Time and OZ Manufacturers as the most important single-day prize payout in US mountain bike racing to this point.
Utah’s Swenson referred to as it an ‘epic battle’ as he held off South African Matt Beers in a dash end, each crossing the road in 4:25:16. Cole Paton completed third, 19 seconds again. It will be 4 and a half minutes later earlier than Bradyn Lange crossed the road in fourth, and Sean Fincham in fifth.
Olympic mountain bike gold medalist Tom Pidcock suffered a flat tyre and rolled in for twenty fifth place from the 32 elite males who completed. He got here to Arkansas off a World Cup XCO victory in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Québec.
“So near cracking the American code,” Beers posted to his Instagram feed. “As we all know Keegan Swenson is a tough man to beat. My day was removed from easy like most individuals, this place eats tires. However you simply gotta discover that inside canine and never quit. However, such a sick day ripping trails with all of the lads.”
Batten rode solo the ultimate two-thirds of the elite girls’s title race to take the victory in 4:53:22. She was 11 minutes quicker than second-placed Savilia Blunk. Sofia Gomez Villafañe completed third, just a little greater than 16 minutes off the successful tempo. Katerina Nash was one other eight minutes down in fourth, and Crystal Anthony completed fifth.
“It’s arduous racing, it’s fairly relentless. I assumed [going into the race] there’s not a lot climbing, it’s fairly rolling, however once you’re on the market it’s relentless,” she stated after the end, calling it “a day properly spent”. Each Batten and Blunk completed within the prime 15 on the last World Cup XCO race of the season every week in the past at Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Lots of the rivals now swap flat bars for drop bars to compete in subsequent weekend’s Large Sugar Gravel in Bentonville. That 100-mile off-road contest serves because the seventh and last spherical of the Life Time Grand Prix, the highest 10 professional girls and professional males sharing equally in a $250,000 prize purse.
Swenson doesn’t want a prime outcome on the seventh and last sequence contest to safe the general title for a second yr, as he mathematically wrapped up the championship by successful the primary 4 races.
Beers is presently seventh total within the Grand Prix, whereas Paton is third. Russell Finsterwald, who’s shut behind Paton in fourth within the Grand Prix, completed eighth at Little Sugar.
From the ladies’s subject in Little Sugar, Villafañe is the top-ranked lady within the Grand Prix, and like Swenson, she additionally locked up her total victory with 4 consecutive wins and a 3rd place, so solely wants to start out Large Sugar. Anthony is sixth total within the Grand Prix. Alexis Skarda, who’s second total within the Grand Prix, completed ninth in Little Sugar, and Jenna Rinehart, who’s eighth within the Grand Prix, completed seventh Sunday.