Big Sugar Classic Gravel 2026 [FULL RACE] (ME | WE)

October 17, 2026

Big Sugar Classic Gravel 2026 🇺🇸 ME/WE – Bentonville, Arkansas : 163,8 km

Big Sugar Classic Gravel is a one-day gravel endurance race through the rugged Ozark highlands of northwestern Arkansas and southern Missouri, combining remote dirt roads, loose gravel and rolling woodland terrain. The signature long-distance course covers approximately 100 miles, with shorter options also available. The route features rarely maintained gravel roads, sharp stones, uneven surfaces, occasional paved connectors and water crossings, creating a demanding balance between endurance and bike handling. Repeated punchy climbs, often reaching double-digit gradients on steeper ramps, alternate with fast descents and rolling sections, accumulating substantial elevation gain. Loose surfaces and blind corners require careful line choice, while sharp rocks increase the risk of punctures and mechanical problems. Dry conditions can produce dust, whereas rain can turn dirt roads muddy and reduce traction. Riders must balance early positioning with energy conservation, maintaining a sustainable pace across the long single-loop course. Breakaways can emerge on climbs or technical sections, and the finish can favor a solo rider or a small group that manages the terrain and accumulated fatigue best.

WE :
Stella Hobbs (MAAP-ENVE) soloed to victory in the elite women’s gravel race at Big Sugar Classic in Bentonville, Arkansas on Saturday. From a four-rider chase group, Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) won the sprint for second and Hayley Preen (ChemChamp Honeycomb) secured third.

Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) jumped early to the front before the final left-hand bend that led to the uphill straightaway, and she finished fifth, passed at the end by Kylee Hanel (Cervelo-Maxxis).

The race was the sixth and final event in the Life Time Grand Prix. Overall leader Villafañe took a 12-point lead into the race and added to that margin to win her fourth series title in five years. Preen secured her second place overall with her third-place finish, while Hobbs moved up to 12th overall.

Last year in the storm-shortened Arkansas event, Hobbs finished third. The year before on the traditional 100-plus mile route, she finished seventh. A podium spot was a target to make a big move from 12th in the series into the top 10, where the season-ending prize purse of $350,000 would be shared among women and men.

“I have often said here I would just really like to see the front of the race finish. I’ve always wanted that, and that can be a really good motivator,” Hobbs told organisers at the finish.

“When I broke away over the top of the ‘power line’ climb, I thought, maybe. And then I quickly backed myself down from that. Then we have those two paved climbs into the finish, and I did not believe that I would get over the top of both of those without getting caught, until I was through [the climbs and final corners], and then I finally believed I could win it.

“This is my favourite race on the calendar. I would say the first half I wasn’t so sure if it would be my favourite race of the day. We just had such a big group, and I kind of lost track of myself and didn’t really know what I should be doing or where I should be. But by the second half, I remembered how much I love it here.”

Villafañe said the race was made in the second half, where climbing was more substantial at a 24% gradient along a rough road after the final checkpoint and riders had to overcome tired legs.

“You start to have a lot of climbs, and you had Paige [Onweller] really looking to animate the race, and Karo [Migoń] was animating, and so was I. The group just slowly started to whittle down, whittle down, and really going into the second feed zone, Stella was really, really pushing the pace, and I was like, I think this girl has winning legs today. But I didn’t want to quite tell her that.

“I was hoping to make it up the power line climb with her, and then be able to go. We tried really hard to bring Stella back and we couldn’t.

“Super hard day. It was actually very, very tactical. I am super happy to have a good ride,” Villafañe told Life Time broadcast at the finish.

One of the surprising moves of the day came from Hanel, the U23 leader in the Life Time Grand Prix who stayed with the elites to the end. The result should give her the women’s U23 title. A total of 18 of the top 20 riders in Big Sugar were part of the Life Time Grand Prix.

Bold move on steep climb
A total of 53 women took the early-morning start in Bentonville 10 minutes after the elite men. The front group held together across the early 30 miles of mixed terrain in northwest Arkansas, crossing into Missouri, with Morgan Aguirre (PAS Racing), Hannah Otto (Scott Sports USA) and the stars-and-stripes of US gravel national champion Paige Onweller (Trek Driftless) at the front.

The climbing picked up beyond the first aid station in Pineville, and New Zealander Charlotte Clarke took a flyer after two hours of racing.

With under 55 miles to go, Clarke’s escapade was over and she found herself in a chasing group behind a new lead pack, Villafañe with Onweller, Migoń, Cecile Lejeune (Trek Driftless), Hobbs, Preen, and Sarah Lange, as well as women’s U23 rivals Samanth Johnson (Lunchbox Racing) and Hanel.

Heading to the final checkpoint near Washburn, Missouri at Rockford Grange, the lead group hit out on one of the rougher roads with a two-minute margin on solo attacker Lauren De Crescenzo. There was a 1:20 gap to the next group of chasers, which included Johnson, Agurirre, Alexis Skarda, Danni Shrosbree, Haley Smith, Ruby Ryan, Samara Sheppard, Emma Langley and Decker. Otto had fallen off the pace, riding in 19th position.

Six riders – Villafane, Hobbs, Onweller, Preen, Migon and Lejeune rolled through Rockford Grange in a long line as they took final hydration, none stopping for technical assistance. Lange dangled about 10 seconds back with Hanel close by. They were all together once on a short paved section.

Back on gravel, on a steep climb with loose dirt and rocks, Hobbs punched hard and gained a little gap, as a few riders swerved and tried to stay upright behind, now in chase mode. She gained 25 seconds at the top of the climb, and another 33 seconds across the next 10 miles, leaving 15 miles to go.

Hobbs continued to build her lead and never saw the chasers in her rear view, gliding across the pavement at the finish line with her first Life Time event victory.

ME :
Tobias Mørch Kongstad (PAS Racing) led out a nine-rider sprint and won the Life Time 2026 Big Sugar Classic gravel race on Saturday in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The third-placed finisher at this year’s Unbound Gravel 200 was part of an early breakaway and then chased back to the lead pack to take the win in 4:36:03. He finished ahead of a pair of Life Time Grand Prix contenders, Mārtiņš Blūms (Velo Express) taking second and Cole Paton (Giant-RCC) in third.

Cole Davis (SpeedStudio-Basso), like Kongstad not looking for Grand Prix points, was one second back in fourth. The next four spots were filled by Grand Prix contenders, Matt Wilson (Scott Sports USA) going fifth, Drew Dillman sixth, Brendan Johnston (Giant) seventh and Andreas Seewald (Singer KTM Racing) eighth. Gliding across the line at the back of the bunch in ninth was former collegiate racer Henry Nelson (Lunchbox Racing).

The race was the sixth and final event in the Life Time Grand Prix. Overall leader Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-road) had an early mechanical that hindered his catch of front groups and he finished 3:41 off the pace, 24th overall. His 13th place finish in the Grand Prix provided enough of a margin for him to take back the overall title, just one point ahead of Johnston.

“I just tried my best in the sprint, and sometimes your best is enough. And yeah, it was good,” Kongstad told organisers at the finish, not thinking about the series at all.

He escaped early and led much of the first half of the 101.4-mile race with Hayden Christian (Trek Driftless-MAAP), as the two lost a third partner, John Borstelmann (Ventum), to a mechanical.

“I’m just lucky that my competitors still allow me to go into breakaway. I got caught at the bottom of a super steep climb out there, and that was not the best. But I tried to manage my effort before I got caught, so I was not fully cooked.

“So from there on, I think I played a technical game, saying to guys, “Hey guys, I’ve been in breakaway all day. I cannot pull’. Luckily, I convinced them. Sometimes you just need to play your cards right.”

Blūms admitted he went off course early in the race and rode with Simon Pellaud (Cervelo-Assos-Maxxis) to get back to a big group. He was the top finisher in the Grand Prix at the race.

“I was with Pellaud way back behind the big bunch because he got a flat. I took the wrong turn. I had to turn back, and we didn’t see the front group, so I had no clue what’s happening in the front at all. We catched the front just before the first aid station. So we burned matches quite a lot to get there,” he told Life Time livestream cameras.

“I was just trying to recover. I was struggling a lot at some point, but yeah, somehow I got in the rhythm. I tried to attack a couple times before the finish, and there were still some guys interested to chase me down.

“I just tried to stay more in the front because we were quite a big bunch there. At the finish last corners, I was still in the front there, so I just went on a couple of wheels and made my way through the bunch to second.”

From breakaway to chaser to winner
The first shakeout of the day came from Brendan Johnston (Giant) and Matthew Wilson (Scott Sports USA), who moved away from the peloton in the first dozen miles but it was all back together with 80 miles to go as the first moderate climb led riders across the Arkansas state line into Missouri.

With 62 miles to go, a group of three riders had driven away and carved out a one minute gap – Kongstad, Borstelmann and Christian. Pellaud was back in the pack of chasers, having had to deal with a mechanical in the first 30km. He rode with Cole Paton, Bradyn Lange, Brendan Johnston, Matt Wilson, Alexey Vermeulen, Andreas Seewald and Cobe Freeburn, among the favourites.

Borstelmann then had a mechanical and had to stop on the side of the road, leaving Christian and Kongstad to set the pace. The duo held a 1:13 lead passing the checkpoint with under 50 miles to go. Chasing were 39 riders in a large pack, led by Cameron Jones (Scott Sports USA-RCC), last year’s Grand Prix overall winner who was looking to get back into the top 10 at this final race.

Meanwhile, current overall Grand Prix leader Swenson was in 46th position, three-and-a-half minutes back, having suffered a mechanical early on and stopping for a wheel swap in an aid station.

The most northern part of the course completed, the two leaders carried only 40 seconds as they moved southward toward the second and final checkpoint near Washburn, Missouri at Rockford Grange, riding one of the rougher roads on the route.

Kongstad’s lead was precarious, as with less than 27 miles to go Christian joined forces with seven others and began to close down the gap. Swenson was 2:40 back, making up some time.

One of the steepest climbs of the day, with 24% gradients, followed with 23 miles to go across the top and soon Kongstad was no longer alone. He drove on with 20 miles to go in a group with a pack that included Christian along with Seewald, Drew Dillman, Blums, Daxton Mock and Pellaud. Behind the new configuration of leaders by 50 seconds loomed Johnston with Cole Davis, Ryker Brand, Henry Nelson, Nathan Spratt and Wilson. More favourites were just another 20 back of that group, including Paton, Freeburn, and Jones.

Now back in Arkansas on some fast descents, six riders remained together at the front – Dillman, Blums, Mock, Seewald, Kongstad and Pellaud. Six others trailed by 32 seconds, kicking up the dusty doubletrack with 15 miles to go, and across the next few miles the two groups merged.

With 8 miles to go, Nelson gave it a go with a solo attack, now mixing with the 50-mile rider traffic. He carried his momentum onto the pavement and uphill section back to downtown Bentonville, the chasers not panicked as the former University of Arkansas rider was not in the Grand Prix.

With 2 miles to go and going past the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art entrance, Nelson looked back and could sense the big favourites getting close. In the final mile he relented and was part of the final drag race, won by Kongstad.

Results ME :