Sofia Gomez Villafañe won her first race of the season last Saturday, making her two-for-two in appearances at the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) Arizona. It sets the stage for her to add another off-road series to a packed schedule, where she will be among the 60-rider field at the Life Time Grand Prix again.
But the darling of dirt came into the 2024 season with some question marks. Would she commit to the seven-race series again with Life Time, or just focus on individual races? Could she fit in the BWR Tripel Crown of Gravel? Would the Olympic Games be a goal or other mountain bike events?
“I actually wasn’t gonna apply for 2024 [Life Time series]. Then I started working on my calendar and I figured I’m gonna be doing four of those events anyway, what’s adding one more to maybe try to get some prize money? I will see how Sea Otter, then Unbound and Crusher go, and obviously, Leadville because those were the ones I knew I was going to do anyway,” she told Cyclingnews.
“Am I still gonna show up, prepare to win those races? You bet. That’s gonna be my goal. I think I might just focus more on individual results rather than the overall. Yeah, I’m still doing Grand Prix. But I’m honestly surprised that I’m back.”
Villafañe won a trio of races in the first half of the Grand Prix last year, including Fuego XL at Sea Otter Classic and set a women’s course record at Crusher in the Tushar. She finished second at Unbound Gravel 200 behind Germany’s Carolin Schiff, who was not part of the series. She then locked in her overall title with a third-place finish at Chequamegon MTB.
She expects to add US Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals in West Virginia to her summer schedule, as it is a priority for her sponsor Specialized. She admitted that this year she may focus on competing at UCI Marathon World Championships rather than UCI Gravel World Championships.
“I break my season up into three – the build to Cape Epic, then Unbound and then after I’m done I kind of decide the second half of the season.
“So I will be doing BWR in California for the first time. I’m excited. I feel weird that I haven’t done that race yet. I really want to go for the ‘Tripel’ Crown,” Villafañe told Cyclingnews before heading north from her winter training base in Tucson, Arizona to Cave Creek, Arizona for the opening BWR race on a new course she said “delivered some of the rowdiest racing I have experienced in a long time”.
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