2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Simone Giuliani)
Image 1 of 2Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz) on his way to winning Sea Otter Gravel 2025, the opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix series (Image credit: Les Morales)Image 2 of 2Haley Batten (Specialized Factory) claims an emphatic solo victory at Sea Otter Gravel 2025, the opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix series (Image credit: Les Morales)Haley Batten (Specialized Factory) took off mid-race on the single track and Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz) launched on the final long gravel climb to scoop up solo victories at Sea Otter Gravel, the first round of the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix Series.Matthew Beers (Specialized Off-Road) was second in the elite men’s race in Monterey California, just nine seconds behind Swenson, and then it was Alexey Vermeulen, who along with Beers had managed to hold Swenson's wheel the longest when he laid down his late race winning attacks.In the elite women’s race it was the most emphatic of victories for Olympic silver medallist Batten, with the mountain biker absent from the Brazil opening rounds of the World Series and instead starting her season at Sea Otter – remaining close to home until the European rounds following her mother’s cancer diagnosis late last year.
Batten finished more than five minutes ahead of second-placed Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized-Off Road) and in third it was Cecily Decker (PAS Racing), who had done a huge amount of work through the race.Sea Otter Gravel played out on a 90 mile (145km) course with 8,700 (2,651m) feet of elevation gain over the three laps of a 30 mile circuit with 10 climbs each circuit, including the pivotal Lookout Ridge gravel ascent which crests to leave just a mile of paved road to the finish line at the Laguna Seca motorsports race track. Up until this year the opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix was instead a mountain bike event, the Fuego XL, but this year that shifted to gravel.
Apart from the battle to win the race itself – with the leading men and women clinching a $5000 prize stepping down to $1000 for fifth – there was the Life Time series points and wildcard competition in play. Last year's Life Time series winners took the top points in the opening round, Swenson with the race win and Villafañe with the runner-up spot, given Batten isn't part of the Life Time Grand Prix series. Then in the wildcard chase it was Petr Vakoč (Canyon CLLCTV) who was the first of the contenders over the line when he crossed in fourth.
Second and third among those competing for one of the three men's series entries were New Zealand mountain bikers Matthew Wilson and Cameron Jones. In the women's it was Anna Yamauchi (Allied Cycle Works), who came over the line in 20th spot as the first wild card eligible rider while Emily Newsom (PAS Racing) and Hannah Shell were the next two. There are three wild card spots in the series up for grabs in each of the women's and men's categories, with 138 riders chasing the spots, and the positions are decided based on the results from the opening two rounds of the series, Sea Otter Gravel and then Unbound 200 on May 31.
More to come ...
Results.
