The men’s race of Big Sugar Gravel 2026 starts on Saturday, October 17, at 7:25 a.m. Central in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is the last race of the Life Time Grand Prix, and the series winner takes $50,000. Keegan Swenson leads and wins the series if he wins the race, six days after the Gravel World Championships in Australia.
When does the men’s race start and how to watch it live
The live stream on the Life Time Grand Prix channel on YouTube begins at 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. It is free to watch, and the men start at 7:25 at The Momentary, ten minutes before the women. The elite awards for the race are at 2:30 p.m. The series champions are crowned that evening at The Momentary, at a party the organizers call the Gravel Rave. Our watch page has the link to the stream.
How much prize money is at stake at Big Sugar?
The Life Time Grand Prix pays $350,000 to its final standings this year, half to the men and half to the women, according to its rules. The first ten of each are paid: $50,000 for the winner, $33,000 for second, $21,000 for third and $16,000 for fourth, down to $7,000 for tenth. In 2025 the series winners received $20,000 and the riders in tenth place $4,500, so the first prize is now two and a half times as large. To be paid a rider has to start five of the six races, start Big Sugar and attend the awards ceremony.
The race has a purse of its own: $30,000, with $5,000, $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 for the first five men and the same for the first five women, whether or not they ride the series. A rider who wins both the race and the series leaves Bentonville with $55,000. Over the whole season Life Time puts up $590,000, 55 percent more than in 2025.
What Keegan Swenson needs to win the series
A rider’s best five results out of six count, and the first series rider across the line in each race scores 30 points, the second 28, the third 26, and so on down. Swenson skipped the fifth race, Little Sugar MTB on October 11, for the world championships, where he finished sixth, so that is the result he leaves out. His other four add up to 110 points. The sums that follow are by our count, made from Life Time’s rules and its standings after Little Sugar.
Bradyn Lange was second at Little Sugar, 1:12 behind Cole Paton, and is now the nearest rider to Swenson. Life Time’s standings after five races give him 104 points with his lowest score left out, Brendan Johnston 100 and Matthew Wilson 94.
Lange can add at most 30 points at Big Sugar, so 134 is the most he can reach. If Swenson wins Big Sugar he finishes on 140 and takes the series. Third place among the series riders is enough as well, because it leaves him on 136. If Lange wins and Swenson is fourth, they are level on 134, and Big Sugar breaks the tie for Lange, who finished ahead there.
Swenson won the series in each of its first three years, from 2022 to 2024, and Cameron Jones took it from him last year. This season he was second at Sea Otter in the same time as Lange and fifth at Unbound, where he gave his wheel to his teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt, who won. He then won Leadville for the sixth year in a row and was third at Chequamegon.
Johnston, Lange and Wilson: $17,000 between three riders
Second place in the series pays $33,000 and fourth $16,000, and the three riders behind Swenson are ten points apart. Johnston was third at Big Sugar in 2024, 2:50 behind the winner, and fourth at Unbound this year. Lange won at Sea Otter in April, in the same time as Swenson. Wilson was at the front of last year’s Big Sugar with Matt Beers when he sliced a tire. He won Chequamegon in September and was second at Leadville in Swenson’s time.
Who has won the men’s race at Big Sugar?
Adam Roberge won the first Big Sugar in 2021, Russell Finsterwald the second and Torbjørn Røed the third. Alexey Vermeulen won in 2024, eight seconds ahead of Colby Simmons. Last year a forecast of hazardous weather led the organizers to cut the race to 53.9 miles, and Beers won alone in 2:12:52, 3:41 ahead of Griffin Easter and 3:46 ahead of Riley Amos. Beers has withdrawn from this year’s series. No start list for the race has been published yet.
How long is the Big Sugar course?
The organizer lists the 100-mile course 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 two checkpoints, Pineville at mile 40 and Rockford Grange at mile 78.