Saskatoon’s Oskar Stack-Michasiw rolled across the finish line of Big Sugar with a big result. The Mach1 Performance rider is the 2026 Life Time Grand Prix men’s under-23 champion.

Big Sugar capped off a full season of LTGP racing in dramatic fashion. Not just for Stack-Michasiw, but for the entire field. In the elite men’s season overall, just four points separated the top three racers after six events. In the elite women’s race, the final overall podium came down to a single point. And, for Andrew L’Esperance, a single point separates him from automatic qualification for the 2027 LTGP season.

Not how Swenson wanted to spend his day in Bentonville
Swenson starts off on the back foot, finishes on a podium

For Keegan Swenson, Big Sugar started off with what could have been big trouble. Specialized’s gravel star was left chasing after struggling to fix a flat early in the race. Swenson would finish the race 24th, more than 3:30 back from the day’s winner.

That would be enough to reclaim the overall title in the LTGP series, though. But only by a single point. His challengers, Brendan Johnston and New Zealand’s Matthew Wilson, finished 7th and 5th, respectively. After a long wait at the finish line for confirmation of results, Swenson takes his fourth LTGP title in five years with 123 points to Johnston’s 122 and Wilson’s 120 points.

“I’m stoked to have won the overall as it was a rough day for me. I flatted early on and it took a while to get that sorted, but I just put my head down and chased all day. I wasn’t sure how it was going to shake out in the front, and I was just hoping that the guys that were close to me on the standings weren’t having great days as well. I’m super psyched to have done it,” Swenson said after the finish. “It’s been another good year for me and this Series is awesome, so to cap it off with another overall win in the Grand Prix is super good.”

Stack-Michasiw wins the under-23 overall

Almost exactly one minute behind Swenson, Oskar Stack Michasiw crossed the finish line in Big Sugar. That was enough for 29th in the elite race and, much more importantly, the top spot in the LTGP’s under-23 rankings. Through consistent results this year, the Saskatoon racer moved up from fourth overall in 2025 to win the U23 standings for 2026. That guarantees Stack-Michasiw entry into the 2027 elite LTGP series.

On the under-23 women’s side, Kylee Hanel had an even better day. The U.S. racer finished fourth in the elite women’s race to cement her season overall title in the under-23 women’s LTGP standings.

Andrew L’Esperance Photo: Gravel Burn
L’Esperance on the wrong side of the maths

Andrew L’Esperance rolled into Big Sugar in a three-way tie for ninth overall. With the top 10 racers earning automatic qualification for the 2027 season, there was more than pride and prize money on the line in Bentonville on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the Canadian, his 17th place finish leaves him a single point shy of 10th overall. Cobe Freeburn takes 9th overall with 90 points, Alexey Vermeulen 10th overall with 89, and L’Esperance 11th with 88. Highlighting just how competitive the season is now, Cameron Jones was a single point behind L’Espy, with 87 points. That leaves L’Esperance to qualify for 2027 through the Wild Card system, if he chooses to.

Gomez-Villafane makes it four in a row

Specialized leaves the 2026 LTGP with two overall winners. While Swenson won the men’s race by a single point, Sofia Gomez-Villafane claimed her title with a more commanding 21 point advantage. That makes it four LTGP overall titles in a row for the U.S.-based Argentinian. Gomez-Villafane has now won every season of the Life Time Grand Prix since Canada’s Haley Smith won the inaugural season in 2022.

“I’m excited to defend my Life Time Grand Prix title and I knew I had to put a lot of races together to make it happen. Both Melisa [Rollins] and Cecily [Decker] getting injured really helped me with that, and I’m so thankful to the coaches I have, and my off-road team.”

Stella Hobbs and Tobias Mørch Kongstad take big wins at Big Sugar

Gomez-Villafane won the overall, but finished second on the day at Big Sugar.

“Stella [Hobbs] was really pushing the pace and I was like ‘This girl has winning legs today’, and I couldn’t follow her when she attacked. The group I was in tried really hard to bring her back but we couldn’t, so I was super happy to take the sprint for second place.”

The win goes to Stella Hobbs. The Montana racer soloed home to finish 1:44 ahead of Gomez-Villanfane in Bentonville.

“This is my favorite race on the calendar, it has been since I started doing it in 2023,” Hobbs said after her win. “I wasn’t feeling so sure of myself during the first half of it, but by the second half it started to play out the way it has done for me historically, and I remembered how much I love the terrain.”

On the men’s side, Kongstad takes the final LTGP win with a strategy that was both gutsy and tactical. After going out on the attack early with a long breakaway trio, the Dane was caught back into the main group at a crucial moment in the race.

‘When we were brought back by the others it was just before a super steep climb, so I tried to manage my effort on that so I was not fully cooked for the finish,” Kongstad explained. He would eventually win a bunch sprint for the win, despite his long effort early in the race.

“I played a tactical game, saying to guys ‘hey I’ve been in the breakaway all day’. That’s also racing, sometimes you need to play your cards right,”Kongstad said. “And then in the sprint, I just tried my best, and sometimes your best is enough.”