Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) sprinted away from Melisa Rollins (Virginia’s Blue Ridge-TWENTY24) in the final two miles of the 104-mile Big Sugar Gravel elite women’s contest and rode solo across the line for the victory in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Rollins trailed 15 seconds to take second place, while Cecily Decker (Scuderia-Pinarello) secured third place, another 24 seconds back. 2022 Big Sugar champion Paige Onweller had chased the three breakaway riders in the final 10 miles and settled for fourth. Lauren De Crescenzo completed the top five.
“Once you turn onto Slaughterpen Road there are a couple of pitches and on the first one we dropped Cecily and then there’s one last kicker that brings you back up to the top,” said Villafañe in a race media release. “I put down a little bit of acceleration and picked up a little bit of a gap and held it to finish!”
“My big goal this season was to win the first race of the season and the last race of the season, as in the last few years I’ve tended to fade and crumble at the end and Big Sugar has always kind of kicked my butt,” Villafañe said after emphatically breaking that pattern.
How it unfolded
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