The women’s race of Little Sugar MTB 2026 starts on Sunday, October 11, at 8:10 a.m. Central in Bella Vista, Arkansas. Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who won the last two editions and leads the Life Time Grand Prix, is at the Gravel World Championships in Australia. With a win Lauren Stephens comes within one point of her, in a series that pays its winner $50,000.
When does the women’s race start, and can you watch it?
The elite women start at 8:10 a.m. Central, ten minutes after the men, from OZ Trails Bike Park in Bella Vista. The finish is at The Momentary in Bentonville, and the elite awards are there at 3:30 p.m. The race is not streamed live: Life Time broadcasts four of the six Grand Prix races this year, and this is not one of them.
The timing page, which lists 42 elite women, shows the results live, and an episode on the race follows a few days later on the Life Time Grand Prix channel on YouTube. Big Sugar Gravel, the series final on October 17, is shown live.
What is the prize money for the women at Little Sugar?
The first five women share $15,000 on Sunday: $5,000 for the winner, then $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000, the same as the men. The Life Time Grand Prix pays men and women equally as well, $175,000 to each field this year. The series winner takes $50,000, the runner-up $33,000, third place $21,000 and fourth $16,000, and the tenth rider still gets $7,000. Gomez Villafañe’s check for winning the 2025 series was $20,000.
How close Lauren Stephens can get to Sofia Gomez Villafañe
“I will be skipping Little Sugar and looking forward to the battle to come at Big Sugar,” Gomez Villafañe told Cyclingnews after she won at Chequamegon in September. A rider’s best five results out of six count, so this becomes the race she leaves out. Her other four add up to 109 points. Stephens has 78 with her lowest score left out, and by our count from Life Time’s rules a win on Sunday brings her to 108.
Stephens lost the opening race at Sea Otter to Gomez Villafañe by two seconds and was third at Leadville. A year earlier she had been disqualified from third place at Leadville for taking a feed outside the zone.
Cecily Decker is two points behind her on 76, and second and third place in the series are $12,000 apart. Decker, a former alpine racer with the US Ski Team, led at Leadville for more than 55 miles, had a flat tire in the last 12 and finished second. She has no result from Chequamegon, so she has no race left to leave out, and she did not start Little Sugar last year.
Melisa Rollins and Alexis Skarda were on last year’s podium
Gomez Villafañe won last year by attacking in the first 10 kilometers and riding alone. Alexis Skarda finished second at 2:57, Melisa Rollins third at 5:12 and Hannah Otto fourth at 5:54. All three are entered. Rollins won Leadville in August, 4:47 ahead of Decker, for her second title there. Sarah Lange was fourth at Leadville and third at Chequamegon, 15 seconds behind Gomez Villafañe.
Karolina Migoń: “the only race that I’m afraid of”
Karolina Migoń of Poland finished second at Chequamegon, level with Lange on time, and is fourth in the series with 68 points. In April she told Cyclingnews: “So the only race that I’m afraid of is Little Sugar.” She added: “Maybe I will skip it [Little Sugar] if I feel it’s too hard and I can get injured.” She is on the entry list and on the call-up list in the organizer’s technical guide. Cyclingnews placed her at the Gravel World Championships on October 6, so whether she starts in Arkansas is not certain.
Haley Batten won the first Little Sugar in 2023 by 11:12, and Gomez Villafañe won in 2024 by 1:30. Whoever wins on Sunday is the third woman to do so.
The 100K course starts at OZ Trails Bike Park this year
The women ride the same 100K as the men, listed at 103 kilometers, or 64 miles, with about 5,800 feet of climbing. In 2025 the race went from Coler Mountain Bike Preserve to downtown Bentonville. The trails are those of the Little Sugar, Back 40 and Slaughter Pen systems, with bluff lines, caves, waterfalls and a rock section the organizer calls “the iconic Ledges.” Drop handlebars are banned. Crews can help elite riders at mile 26 and mile 47. The National Weather Service forecasts sun and a high near 88 degrees Fahrenheit.