Cam Jones crosses the line in Bentonville, Arkansas. (Photo: Dan Hughes)
Updated October 12, 2025 02:01PM
Cam Jones and Sofia Gomez Villafañe took emphatic wins at the Little Sugar stop of the Life Time Grand Prix.
The two riders used similar playbooks, surging early and holding off a select few chasers, to take key victories in their hunts for the Life Time Grand Prix overall title. For Cam Jones, this was his second Life Time win of the year after a similarly aggressive Unbound win, while Gomez-Villafañe notched her first win of the 2025 Grand Prix after consistent showings thus far.
Little Sugar is one of a few remaining endurance races on the calendar that both attracts a professional-level field and is predominantly on singletrack. In reality, the Whiskey 50 in Prescott, Arizona, is the only race that can come close to Little Sugar, and even that vaunted race doesn’t quite have the same pull as the second-to-last stop of the LifeTime Grand Prix. All of that led to a lot of excitement around the 100km race around the many trails of Northwest Arkansas, filled with tight switchbacks, short steep climbs, and lots of extremely sharp flint rock — the same kind of material that slices up tires right up the road at Unbound.
That rock played no small part in the proceedings as major favorites in the men’s and women’s peloton were hindered early by punctures and other mechanicals. While we don’t know for sure, it seemed that both Keegan Swenseon and Melisa Rollins, two of the race favorites, were early victims and had to spend a large portion of their days fighting back into contention. Nevertheless, in Arkansas, flat avoidance is not just about luck, and those at the front of the race proved their worth on multiple fronts, producing strong, clean runs that paid off dividends in the tight battles for the overall title.
Behind Jones, the rest of the men’s top ten looked very different from the past few races, as the singletrack demands of Little Sugar gave the better bike handlers an edge. Bradyn Lange was a case and point of this, with the US Gravel National Champion taking second behind Jones. In a similar vein, Andrew L’Esperance was third, clawing back through the field with his deep mountain biking experience.
The race also produced some under-the-radar riders notching big results, with young riders like Caleb Bottcher, Kyan Olshove, and Cobe Freeburn pushing their way into the top ten.
Behind Villafañe, Alexis Skarda came closest to challenging for the win, with the American finishing second. Throughout the race, she proved to be the only one in Gomez-Villafañe’s area code as the race behind her splintered. Rollins proved not to let the early issues hold her back too much as she worked her way all the way back to third by the end. It was an impressive comeback considering she was down in 15th, nine minutes back from the lead, at mile 30.
Behind the top three, it was a slew of top mountain bikers who made their mark, with Hannah Otto finishing fourth. That was another note on her strong CV of marathon mountain bike results, including a national championship earlier this year. Similarly, Michaela Thompson put together he best result since her podium at Leadville last year with a strong fifth-place performance, closing out the top five.
Cameron Jones after winning the 2025 Little Sugar mountain bike race. (Photo: Dan Hughes/Life Time)
Once the racing got underway, Cam Jones took the reins early in the race and made his power everybody else’s problem, leading the peloton into the trails and never looking back. Bradyn Lange was the closest follower early on, as the US Gravel National Champion has been on a tear lately, with Matt Beers, Sean Finchamp, Andrew L’Esperance, Matthew Wilson, and Michael Garrison the only riders to be in contact through mile 6. The lead group would only diminish from there with the next 54 miles of mostly singletrack, prying the race apart bit by bit.
The big names missing from the front were Keegan Swenson and Cole Patton, the marathon mountain bike World Champion and National Champion, respectively. Swenson seemed to be dealing with flat tires, while Patton was facing challenges with his freehub body. Both riders managed to get back into the fight for the top ten of the race, alongside Zach Calton, who also appeared to suffer from mechanicals, but none of them would get back to fight for the win among the riders who went off the front early.
Among that original group of seven, three split off the front around the 30km mark as Jones kept pushing a furious pace. He took Beers and Lange with him before going solo on his own before the halfway point. Even though he gapped Lange and Beers, Lange was able to stabilize the gap under a minute and hold it there through the arduous middle section of the race. Lange is renowned as the best bike handler in the US endurance peloton, and used that to match up with Jones’ skill and obvious strength as the Kiwi mashed his way around the course.
Behind, the big change came from L’Esperance overtaking Beers and setting off in pursuit of Lange and Jones. L’Esperance was a Wild Card winner at this year’s Life Time Grand Prix, but that belies his ability in the marathon discipline, where he has been a top rider for the last decade. This set up the finale of the race as Jones, Lange, and L’Esperance did battle through the green tunnels that kept the competition out of sight, even with gaps hovering around the minute mark.
Ultimately, Jones was just too strong for the rest of the field, and that minute gap grew as the race worked its way into the final 20 miles of the race. Lange kept it reasonably close, but he wasn’t able to get back on the wheel of the flying Kiwi. Jones won with a time of 4:17:00, 2:38 ahead of Lange. In the battle for third, Beers pushed L’Esperance, but in the end, the Canadian prevailed, nabbing the final place on the podium at 6:01 back and 1:13 ahead of Beers. Calton capped a nice comeback with a fifth-place finish on the day.
“I just had awesome legs, Jones said of his race. “The plan was to be in the single track as far forward as possible so I could ride my own pace and not get caught in traffic. For the first five minutes at the start of the single track, I was behind Matt Beers, but after that, I led the whole time.”
“Just like Unbound, it was good to ride my own race, ride my own line on the downhills. I think I overcooked the first half a little bit. I was suffering from a few cramps before halfway, so it was good to have a bit of a buffer and sit up a couple of times before managing the gap to Bradyn.”
Men’s top ten:
Cam Jones – 4:17:00
Bradyn Lange – 4:19:38
Andrew L’Esperance – 4:23:01
Matt Beers – 4:24:14
Zach Calton – 4:26:05
Caleb Bottcher – 4:26:06
Cole Patton – 4:26:08
Sean Finchamp – 4:26:11
Kyan Olshove – 4:26:20
Cobe Freeburn – 4:30:04
Sofia Gomez Villafañe crosses the line in Bentonville, Arkansas. (Photo: Dan Hughes)
The women’s race went off just a few minutes after the men’s, and early on, a similar pattern emerged as Sofia Gomez Villafañe was off the front early, driving the pace and prying a small collection of top riders away through the first singletrack moments.
Through mile six, only Alexis Skarda could match Villafañe, as Samara Sheppard, Michaela Thompson, Hannah Otto, and Ruth Holcomb were the next closest, but they were already sliding back. Villafañe was taking the fight to the rest of the field and kept pushing as those in her wake slowly fell away from her wheel.
Alexis Skarda pushed Villafañe all the way home in the women’s race, where she was the only rider who managed to stay in touching distance to the flying Argentine. While Villafañe got away from her relatively early in the day, Skarda remained close enough to hang around in case Villafañe got hung up with any mechanicals. Ultimately, that never materialized, but second was a nice consolation prize for the rider who had a tough go of it this year, with a crash in her first race of the year at BWR Arizona interrupting the preparation for the races to come.
The race, for the most part, was settled fairly early in the day, with the top five at mile 30 almost exactly the same as the top five across the finish line. The only major change was Melisa Rollins making a massive charge up the rankings in the second half of the race. Clearly, Rollins was beset by multiple flats early on, ultimately pushing her all the way down to fifteenth through the midway point.
Over the next 32 miles, Rollins showed just how strong she was, rampaging through the rest of the top contenders. Finishing third, only five minutes back after being nine minutes down at the halfway point, shows how much of a fight she would’ve put up with a clean run.
Nevertheless, flat avoidance is part skill, and the rest of the top five deserve credit for making it through the long singletrack route with a clean mechanical record, especially the winner.
“I found myself solo after the first grass hill, and I saw that Melissa was a bit buried, so I decided to push and see what happened,” Villafañe said of her race. “This summer we had a big push with Keegan going for Leadville and the World Championships,” “I feel like I had to give him a lot of myself to take care of things around the house because I really thought he could accomplish those goals.
“Once he got those done, it was time for me to be a bit more selfish and ask him to contribute a bit more. It’s been an interesting season, up and down physically and mentally, but this week I have been really relaxed. It has been really calm with just Matt, Brad, and I, so it’s been really calm.
“It all just kind of clicked together.”
Women’s top ten:
Sofia Gomez Villafañe – 5:08:32
Alexis Skarda – 5:11:29
Melisa Rollins – 5:13:44
Hannah Otto – 5:14:25
Michaela Thompson – 5:14:45
Samara Sheppard – 5:16:46
Crystal Anthony – 5:18:59
Haley Smith – 5:20:44
Maude Farrell – 5:21:24
Deanna Mayles – 5:24:31