Lauren Stephens wins SBT GRVL with solo breakaway

Stephens bests last year's champion Sofia Gomez Villafane

Gravel national champion Lauren Stephens won SBT GRVL today, improving on a second place finish at the race back in 2019.

New this year was a refreshed course that took riders to the west and south of Steamboat Springs and featured chunky terrain than previous editions of the race. Unlike other gravel races, the women’s field started with the men leading to mixed packs of riders throughout the day.

The Texan set out on a solo raid across Colorado’s mountains that shattered the rest of the field into small groups. The Texan was pursued by Lauren De Crescenzo, Sofia Gomez Villafane, and cyclocrosser Maghalie Rochette more than a minute back. In the first 40 miles, Crescenzo suffered a flat tire and fell back into about 20th position on the road.

Stephens continued putting time into her rivals, gaining 6 minutes on Villafane who was joined in the chase by Cecily Decker. Behind them was Melisa Rollins, Paige Onweller, and Anna Hicks. Crescenzo also caught back to the chase group.

Stephens only bolstered her lead through the day, winning by a margin of 13 minutes ahead of Villafane.

“I’ve been training like crazy for this so I’m really glad that I was able to pull it off today,” Stephens said at the finish. “You get nervous when you put all this work in. Skipped Leadville to see what I could do here. I’ve been at altitude for a month so I think that really helped.”