Life Time Grand Prix takeaways after Sea Otter Gravel

It’s been a few short weeks since the Lift Time Grand Prix began its season at the Sea Otter Classic, and the premiere off-road series marches on this month to the big dog on the calendar: Unbound Gravel.

With one round down, the leaderboard has been set. Here are my takeaways and analysis of where we’re at in the season.

Can Beers and Vermeulen challenge Swenson?

As Sea Otter often plays out, Keegan Swenson made his race winning move up the Lookout Ridge climb, and the only men within spitting distance of the eventual victor were Matt Beers and Alexey Vermeulen. Both men are often in the mix at gravel events and should be on anyone’s list of race favorites and threats to the overall points chase. Further down the men’s standings, Simon Pellaud will be a very interesting rider to watch given his race-animating long range attack at Sea Otter.

Decker demonstrates grit in women’s field

Haley Batten won the women’s race at Sea Otter, but since she isn’t in the Life Time Grand Prix, first place points went to Sofia Gomez Villafane. But even more impressive than Villafane’s ride was the performance of third place finisher Cecily Decker. The Pas Normal rider pulled for much of the chase effort with Villafane in her wheel. Although she got outgunned in the finale, Decker demonstrated the guts and grit needed to earn top results at top races, even if the race win had already gone up the (gravel) road.

Several riders out with injury

The most high profile DNF at Sea Otter was that of Payson McElveen. The Allied Cycle Works backed rider later found out that he has a fractured hip and won’t be able to contest Unbound. Grand Prix rules state that a rider must start 5 of 6 races, so technically McElveen is still in the running, but won’t likely factor in the overall. The same is true for Howard Grotts, who pulled out of Sea Otter with ongoing pain from his spinal fracture last summer. I’m not sure what happened to Tsgabu Grmay, but the Grand Prix debutant is listed with zero points at the bottom of the leaderboard.

In the women’s field, Samara Sheppard sat out with an injury sustained in the off-season, and Michaela Thompson is the last ranked finisher. She also had an off-season injury, and wrote after the race that she had made some mistakes that set her back. Surprisingly, Hannah Otto also had a poor performance compared to what she usually does and is ranked 20th.

Shots fired in wildcard contest

Sea Otter was the first chance for prospective Grand Prix contenders to show what they’ve got and potentially earn a wildcard selection into the series. In the men’s field, the best performances came from Petr Vakoc (4th), Matthew Wilson (7th), and Cameron Jones (12th). For the women’s field, it was Ann Yamauchi (20th), Emily Newsom (26th), and Hannah Shell (31st). The wildcard selections (3 men and 3 women) will be announced after Unbound, and the new riders’ presence will shakeup the overall leaderboard as points are recalculated from the beginning.