As Life Time continues its efforts to professionalize North American gravel racing, it is seeking to set limits on who can call themselves a pro (and register for Life Time events as such). Earlier this summer, the series announced it would introduce a vetting process for who is allowed into the Pro start corral at Life Time Grand Prix races. Now, details of that vetting process are available.

Life Time had set out the process to qualify for a Life Time Pro Number at all 2027 Grand Prix events. These are for athletes not already pre-qualified for the full series. Crucially, this also appears to sets limits on who can line up for the two races at Sea Otter that are required to earn a wild card spot in the Grand Prix.

“We love that our events bring together athletes of all ages and abilities, and create opportunities for people to challenge themselves. At the same time, mass participant events like UNBOUND and Leadville are fast and can be tightly packed, particularly at the front of the field,” says Michelle Duffy, Director of the Life Time Grand Prix. “Establishing clear, performance-based criteria for the Pro start helps ensure riders competing at the front have demonstrated the experience and ability to race safely at that level, while providing a transparent pathway for athletes to earn their place.”

Today’s announcement makes the vetting process more clear, but also more vague. There is a long list of specific results at specific races that “may” earn a rider pro status for the year. Or the same might not. Who knows.

Opaque selection committees and vague standards

While it’s nice to see some sort of standard applied to who can roll up to a pro start line, I guess, there’s still a lot of wiggle room here.

“At these races, your finishing place counts, not your time,” LT states above its list of outside events. “The selection committee may approve you if you finished at or above the place shown, overall in your field.”

With final word going to Life Time’s selection committee, it seems less like the clear and objective selection process Life Time is claiming and more like they’re just looking for the right to pick and choose who gets to be a pro at their events. Or maybe I just haven’t had enough coffee this morning. But saying a result “may” qualify a rider as a pro also implies it may not. That’s not a clear process. And Life Time’s official announcement and selection process page do not provide any further details on why a result may not meet the standards. So riders looking to get into the series are left guessing. Which… sucks.

The list of outside events that might earn a rider qualification, and the results required at those events to be considered by the committee are, well, a bit inconsistent. A top five at Cape Epic is not the same as a top 5 at the Valley of Tears gravel race in Texas, for instance. VoT sounds fun, but getting a result Cape Epic is significantly harder.

Another twist? Any result at any UCI-sanctioned XCO or XCM event will, apparently, be considered by the committee. Which is nice, as it opens up a much wider geographical spread of potentially qualifying events. But it’s also wildly inconsistent. I don’t understand how simply finishing, say, a UCI C2 Canada Cup merits the same consideration as fifth place at Cape Epic.

Subjective standards aren’t standards

All of that could be forgiven if, again, these were hard standards. But they seem to be just the starting point to being considered by the committee.

All of this is still way better than the first year of Life Time Grand Prix racing, where racers had to submit their social idea presence as part of the selection process. But LTGP needs to evolve to stay relevant. And if it wan’t to claim to be the face of professional gravel racing in North America, it needs to act professional.

If Life Time really wants to make gravel professional, they need to take the subjectivity out of selection. That requires relinquishing the tiniest bit of control over the selection process.