Haley Batten and Keegan Swenson win inaugural Life Time Little Sugar MTB Race

Haley Batten and Keegan Swenson win inaugural Life Time Little Sugar MTB race to kick off Big Sugar Classic week.

Northwest Arkansas saw a stacked field of the world’s top mountain bike racers at the Life Time  Little Sugar MTB, in which Haley Batten of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Keegan Swenson of Heber City, Utah, took first in the elite 100K races. Life Time and OZ Brands awarded a $65,000 prize purse equally split between the top five women and top five men finishers, the largest single-day prize purse in US mountain biking. The inaugural race had more than 1,000 participants, with riders aged 12 to 70 years old from 46 states and eight countries.

Racers had three-course distances to choose from, including a 100K with 7,000 feet of elevation gain, a 50K course with 3,700 feet of elevation gain, and a 20K course with 1,250 feet of elevation gain. Riders traversed through grinding climbs, rolling descents, and rough and rocky limestone, with views of caves, waterfalls, and iconic ledges on the trails of Bella Vista and Bentonville. The courses featured a point-to-point format, starting at the Homestead in Coler MTB Preserve with a finish in Bentonville Downtown at the Square.

The elite men’s race was close throughout the day. After almost four and a half hours, the race came down to a sprint finish, with Swenson taking the win over South African Matt Beers and Cole Paton just nineteen seconds back, finishing third. Olympic Gold medalist and pre-race favorite Tom Pidcock suffered a flat tire and rolled in for a 25th-place finish.

After 40 miles of solo riding, Batten was victorious for the elite women, finishing eleven minutes ahead of her closest competitor. When asked about the course, Haley commented, “It’s fantastic; it keeps you on your toes for sure. I had a blast riding the trails all week and checking out the course. It’s hard racing; it’s pretty relentless. I thought [going into the race] there’s not much climbing; it’s pretty rolling, but when you’re out there, it’s relentless.”

“A huge thank you to Bentonville and Bella Vista for hosting us on these world-class mountain bike trails for the inaugural Life Time Little Sugar MTB!” said race director Ben Sachs. “The Northwest Arkansas community showed up in full force today to deliver an exceptional experience, including our incredible volunteers, emergency services teams, and the Trailblazers, who aided in our course setup. We are thrilled with year one of the event and are looking forward to continuing this momentum into next week at the Life Time Big Sugar Classic presented by Mazda.”

Women’s 100K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Haley Batten	Santa Cruz, Calif.	25	4:53:22
Savilia Blunk	Inverness, Calif.	24	5:04:34
Sofia Gomez Villafane	Heber City, Utah	29	5:09:28
Katerina Nash	Truckee, Calif.	45	5:17:45
Crystal Anthony	Bentonville, Ark.	42	5:19:33

Men’s 100K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Keegan Swenson	Heber City, Utah	29	4:25:16
Matthew Beers	Cape Town, RSA	29	4:25:16
Cole Paton	Cashmere, Wash.	25	4:25:35
Bradyn Lange	La Center, Wash.	24	4:30:10
Sean Fincham	Squamish, Canada	25	4:30:35

 

Women’s 50K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Landrie Mclain	Bella Vista, Ark.	15	2:53:31
Harper Moore	Bentonville, Ark.	16	2:59:20
Emily Flynn	Elk River, Minn.	42	3:11:38

 

Men’s 50K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Will Stoffel	Bentonville, Ark.	41	2:29:18
Preston Ronck	Rogers, Ark.	14	2:30:32
Brian Gordon	Soquel, Calif.	33	2:33:41

 

Women’s 20K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Bella Fish	Bentonville, Ark.	13	1:05:32
Elise Edman	Chesterfield, Mo.	37	1:07:26
Jessica Rosado	San Antonio, Fla.	46	1:07:47

 

Men’s 20K Race Results

Name	City	Age	Time
Aaron Anderson	Springdale, Ark.	16	53:22
Cody Lang	Bentonville, Ark.	15	54:15
Gwilym Stevens	Bentonville, Ark.	13	54:15

 

To view full Life Time Little Sugar MTB  race results, please visit Athlinks. Check out the Big Sugar Classic Instagram channel to see how the race unfolded.

Life Time Little Sugar MTB kicked off the Life Time Big Sugar Classic week, which will culminate with the Life Time Big Sugar Gravel presented by Mazda in Bentonville, Ark., on October 21. Check out the full festival week schedule here. The final off-road cycling event of the year is the Stages Cycling Austin Rattler MTB on Nov. 4.

For more information, please visit leadvilleraceseries.com/little-sugar-mtb. To view all Life Time athletic events, visit my.lifetime.life/athletic-events.