The hunt to win part of a $250,000 prize purse in the Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda got underway on Saturday in California.
The Sea Otter Classic kicked off the off-road cycling season series in Monterrey with the shortest race in the series: the Fuego XL 100K.
The Sea Otter is the first of seven races in this year’s Grand Prix, which will conclude Oct. 21 with the Big Sugar Gravel in Arkansas.
The series also includes the Garmin Unbound Gravel June 3 in Kansas; the Crusher in the Tushar July 8 in Utah; the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Aug. 12 in Leadville; the Chequamegon Sept. 16 in Wisconsin; and this year’s wild card event, The Rad Dirt Fest Sept. 30 in Trinidad.
Durangoan Sarah Sturm, last year’s third-place overall finisher after losing a tiebreaker for second, said she had mixed emotions about this year’s series.
“It’s a cool opportunity to bring light to gravel and endurance mountain biking and it definitely suits my own person strengths,” she said, but added: “It’s a huge commitment: seven months of racing. I’m all in, but it definitely overshadows a lot of other events I would like to do.”
With the cyclists allowed to drop two results this season, instead of just one like last year, in the overall standings, she said she might skip the Chequamegon to compete in a different series, the Gravel Earth Series final.
Despite that one conflict, Sturm plans to race the entire Life Time series and said she hopes to get some wins this season.
“Another top-three would be awesome, but the overall (title) is my goal,” Sturm said. To do that, she said she just needs to be consistent.
The Leadville 100 is one race she said she’d like to win, but said she also does well in races with a lot of climbing, like the Crusher in the Tushar and the Rad Dirt Fest
“I would like to find the top spot on the podium in at least one race,” Sturm said.
Sturm is also teammates on Specialized-Rapha-SRAM with another Durangoan competing in the series, Ellen Campbell. Sturm’s fiance, Dylan Stucki, meanwhile, is the team mechanic.
“Ellen is perfect: she’s super good at the things I’m not good at and vice versa,” Sturm said. “It’s vital to have that support system.”
For the tour’s second year, more road racers are now competing, possibly changing some race tactics.
Sturm, however, said, “you have to know how to ride a mountain bike.”
Out of the 70 riders selected to compete in the full tour this year and battle for the series crown, 20 are from Colorado while several others rode for Fort Lewis College and other in-state schools.
The Durango contingent this year includes Sturm, Ellen Campbell Howard Grotts and Payson McElveen. Some of other former FLC cyclists in the field include Cole Paton and Sofia Gomez-Villafane. Other bikers from Durango will also compete in some of the races.
Other Colorado athletes include Leah Van der Linden, Eric Brunner, Lachlan Morton, Caroline Mani, Deanna Mayles, Russell Finsterwald, Jack Orden, Alexis Skarda, Jessica Mullins, Hannah Shell, Holly Mathews, Starla Teddergreen, Ruth Winder, Alex Howes and Caroline Tory.
In the Sea Otter Classic’s Fuego XL, Gomez Villafane ended up winning the women’s race in 4 hours, 55 minutes and 13 seconds, crossing 38 seconds ahead of Skarda in second.
Sturm finished sixth in 5:01.15 and Campbell crossed 15th in 5:19:38.
In the men’s race, Christopher Blevins stayed in the U.S. after winning two races at the U.S. Pro Cup in Arkansas last week and nearly picked up another win. Keegan Swenson, the overall winner of last year’s series, wsurged at the end to win in 4:03:40. Blevins finished third in 4:04:07 while Paton took fourth (4:04:24) and Grotts placed ninth (4:10:40).
