The women’s race of Big Sugar Gravel 2026 starts on Saturday, October 17, at 7:35 a.m. Central in Bentonville, Arkansas, and ends the Life Time Grand Prix. Sofia Gomez Villafañe has won the race two years running and the series three years running. A third win here gives her a fourth series and its $50,000 first prize, and Cecily Decker is 13 points behind her.
When does the women’s race start and how to watch it live
The women start at 7:35 a.m. Central at The Momentary, ten minutes after the men. The Life Time Grand Prix channel on YouTube shows both races live and free from 7:10 a.m. Central, which is 8:10 a.m. Eastern, 1:10 p.m. in the United Kingdom and 2:10 p.m. in central Europe. The elite awards are at 2:30 p.m., and the series champions are crowned that evening at The Momentary, at a party the organizers call the Gravel Rave. The link to the stream is on our watch page.
What do the women race for at Big Sugar?
The women’s field of the Life Time Grand Prix is paid $175,000 for its final standings this year, the same as the men’s. The winner takes $50,000, second place $33,000, third $21,000 and fourth $16,000, and the tenth rider gets $7,000. Gomez Villafañe received $20,000 for winning the series in 2025.
To be paid a rider has to start five of the six races, start Big Sugar and attend the awards ceremony. Big Sugar itself pays the first five women $5,000, $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, whether or not they ride the series, so a rider who wins both leaves with $55,000.
What Sofia Gomez Villafañe needs to win the series again
A rider’s best five results out of six count, and the first series rider across the line scores 30 points, the second 28, the third 26, and so on down. Gomez Villafañe missed Little Sugar MTB on October 11 for the Gravel World Championships, where she finished sixth, so that is the result she leaves out. Her other four add up to 109 points. The sums that follow are by our count, made from Life Time’s rules and its standings after Little Sugar.
Cecily Decker is second in Life Time’s standings after five races with 96 points, Stephens third with 92 and Hayley Preen fourth with 90. Decker can add at most 30 points at Big Sugar, so 126 is the most she can reach. A win at Big Sugar gives Gomez Villafañe 139 and the series, and eighth place among the series riders is enough as well, because it leaves her on 127. If Decker wins and Gomez Villafañe is ninth, they are level on 126, and Big Sugar breaks the tie for Decker, who finished ahead there.
Gomez Villafañe has won three of the four races so far: Sea Otter by two seconds from Stephens, Unbound in a sprint of five, and Chequamegon after an early crash. At Leadville she was seventh, almost half an hour behind the winner. Her plan was to leave Australia on Sunday night, as she told Cyclingnews: “we could arrive Monday late afternoon in Bentonville and have a few days to get the body recovered ahead of Big Sugar.”
Lauren Stephens was six seconds short last year
Last year’s race was cut to half distance because of the weather forecast and ended in a sprint of 11 riders. Gomez Villafañe won it in 2:36:23, Stephens was second at six seconds and Stella Hobbs third at 12. “I surprised myself today,” Stephens told Cyclingnews then. She was not part of the series in 2025. This year she is, and she was second at Sea Otter and third at Leadville.
Decker, Rollins and Onweller have been on this podium
In 2024, over the full distance, Gomez Villafañe won by 15 seconds from Melisa Rollins, with Decker third at 39 seconds. Rollins won Leadville this August. Decker was third at Unbound, a second behind Gomez Villafañe, and second at Leadville. Paige Onweller lives in Bella Vista, where Little Sugar starts, and won Big Sugar in 2022. She is seventh in the series with 80 points and did not start Little Sugar.
Moriah Wilson won the first women’s race in 2021 and Kasia Niewiadoma won in 2023. No start list for this year’s race has been published yet.
How long is the Big Sugar course?
The women ride the same course as the men, which the organizer lists at 101.8 miles, or 163.8 kilometers, with about 6,400 feet of climbing. It starts and finishes at The Momentary and loops through northwest Arkansas into McDonald County, Missouri, on what the organizer calls “rarely maintained roads with loose, rocky gravel.” Support crews may meet riders at Pineville, at mile 40, and at Rockford Grange, at mile 78.