The State of Domestic Women’s Off-Road Racing: Lessons from Leadville, SBT GRVL, and Gravel Worlds

After a relatively quiet July, domestic off-road racing came back with a bang in August.

The Leadville 100 MTB race re-started the Life Time Grand Prix series on August 10. Then, along came SBT GRVL, one of the biggest standalone gravel races in the country, on August 18. Last weekend saw Garmin Gravel Worlds celebrate its 15th year of grassroots gravel racing in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Taken together, these three races offer a good ‘temperature check’ on the current state of women’s off-road and gravel racing. The field of women who self-identify as professional, or elite, racers has grown exponentially in the past three years, and race organizers are doing their best to keep up. Approaches to this growing field and its growing demands vary, and the races play out differently depending on what guardrails the organizers put in place.

Here, we take a look at each race to see what worked, what didn’t, and what it has to say about the bigger picture of women’s off-road racing.

The Leadville Trail 100

While Leadville isn’t technically a gravel race, it has been getting the gravel treatment over the past few years since it became part of the Life Time Grand Prix series.

Last year, Life Time announced that it would feature separate starts for elite women at all of the 2024 series races, so for the first time in 30 years, the Leadville 100 had separate start corrals for the elite men and women. The elite women rolled out five minutes after the elite men and 12.5 minutes ahead of the first round of amateur riders.

There was no rule against drafting, so when women caught men and vice versa they were allowed to work together.

What happened? 

The front of the elite women’s race caught the back of the elite men’s race after the Powerline descent, the first major technical section of the race. From then on, small groups formed as the race made its way up to the highest point, but the women were still largely racing together. They would catch men, drop men, and find other men to race with.

2024 Leadville Trail 100 MTB results here

The eventual women’s podium of Melisa Rollins, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, and Michaela Thompson came into the Twin Lakes feed zone at mile 40 together before beginning the climb to Columbine, the race’s highest point. Rollins dropped the other two on the climb and wouldn’t see them again until they finished.

Thompson, in a career-best performance, also managed to drop Gomez Villafañe going up Columbine and descend ahead of her. Then, she raced into the wind until Gomez Villafañe caught her with less than five miles to go. Gomez Villafañe took second place by 22 seconds.

When Gomez Villafañe crossed the finish line, she held up three fingers to her chest. She later told people that she felt she should have been third on the day — Thompson had been alone in the wind for most of the second half of the race and was riding toward second place when Gomez Villafañe caught her by working with a group of guys.

This is one of the chief complaints that women have when it comes to races that allow drafting — the despair of mounting a massive solo effort only to be brought back, or passed, by another woman or women working with a group of men. As Gomez Villafañe demonstrated at Leadville, two things can be true at once: absent of rules, riders will draft off men to gain an advantage. They might also feel bad about it.

Rider takeaway?

“I loved the women’s only start. I of course wish there was a way to implement a no draft rule but I don’t know if it is truly possible.”
-2024 Leadville Trail 100 MTB champ Melisa Rollins

SBT GRVL

Unlike the Life Time Grand Prix series, SBT GRVL did not pivot away from its mass start format this year.

There were two reasons for this: one, the race faced a stricter-than-normal permitting process this year and felt that additional demands could jeopardize having a race at all. Two, race owner Amy Charity was admittedly the “last hold out” when it came to her feelings on the superiority of mass starts vs. separate starts for pros.

Nevertheless, there was a huge women’s elite field at the Colorado race this year, with 60 women in that category.

What happened?

Those who’d raced in Steamboat Springs before knew how important early positioning was — the goal is to get on fast wheels as soon as possible.

This race’s fate seemed to be sealed fairly early on. One rider, eventual winner Lauren Stephens, established a gap early in the race and never let it go.

“At kilometer 16 we make a right turn and I didn’t want to lose position,” she said. “I went in the top 20 wheels there and slowly made my way backwards. But I was able to hold on to a group of men and hit the first climb with no other ladies.”

2024 SBT GRVL results here

At one point, Stephens only had a gap of 1:15 to chasers Lauren De Crescenzo, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, and Maghalie Rochette. However, she would increase her lead incrementally throughout the race’s 125 miles. At the Hayden aid station mid-way through the race, her gap had increased to 6.5 minutes with Gomez Villafañe and Cecily Decker the next riders through.

Ultimately, Stephens won by 13 minutes, crossing the line solo. However, for many of the women at SBT GRVL, it was hard to celebrate the win.

According to numerous riders, Stephens came to SBT GRVL with a pre-meditated plan to work with her husband Mat to gain an advantage in the race. She was seen racing in a group with him, and other riders noted that when she would begin to fall of the group, her husband would look back and wait for her in order to bring her back. Other riders alleged that he carried extra water bottles for her. Unlike the majority of the women’s field, she was not wearing a hydration pack.

While Stephens’ did not respond to our request for comment, the time splits confirm that she and Mat were together for at least the first 70 miles of the race.

However, even if the allegations are true, Stephens wasn’t technically doing anything wrong. In a mass start race, anyone can draft off of anyone. When Lauren De Crescenzo was accused of the same at the 2021 edition of SBT GRVL, there was a similar outcry, followed by a similar shrug of the shoulders.

Then as now, the issue mostly triggers an emotional response: other riders were disappointed with what many called a ‘disrespectful’ and ‘egregious’ decision.

Next year, SBT GRVL will feature a separate start for elite racers in 2025.

Garmin Gravel Worlds

Gravel Worlds decided to take its cue from Unbound Gravel this year, using the same staggered start times: pro men started 10 minutes ahead of pro women who started 25 minutes ahead of all other participants. There were no drafting rules in place. With just 15 women in the pro category — a decidedly smaller field than Leadville and SBT GRVL — even lead race promotor Jason Strohbehn wasn’t sure how the race would play out.

Nevertheless, he and the team at Garmin Gravel Worlds were committed to going big on the pro women’s race this year.

The race’s parent company, Goodlife Brands, kicked in an extra $10,000 to the pro women’s prize purse. To vie for a piece of the prize, women had to take on a race within the race — whoever made it to the 87-mile checkpoint ahead of the amateur men would receive $500, regardless of where they finished in the race.

What happened?

The first half of the race was uneventful. Rider Whitney Allison said that the racing at times felt ‘negative,’ and commentator Amanda Nauman also noted that for over half the race it didn’t seem like anyone was in a hurry to do anything. In fact, it wasn’t until about halfway through the race that anyone made a significant move.

At that point, the entire women’s field was still racing together. There had been a few attacks in the more technical sections, but nothing of merit. Around mile 70, Isabel King started to get worried.

2024 Garmin Gravel Worlds results here

“I was worried we were going to get caught by the amateur men because no one was really doing anything,” she said. “It seemed silly for us to give up $10,000 because everyone was scared of attacking. I didn’t really care if I got the money, I just wanted to prove that the women were fast enough to have our own race unaffected by the men.”

King’s move launched an attack by Lauren Stephens. Karolina Migon followed. Eventually Emily Newsom joined, and the three riders formed a breakaway that would persist for the rest of the race. After countering a series of attacks by Migon and Newsom (who both ride for PAS Racing), Stephens sprinted away to win the race by just 22 seconds.

Other riders reported being caught by — and working with — the top age group male riders for the final quarter of the race.

Rider takeaway? 

“The race was awesome. What Jason and his team are doing to elevate the women’s field was unlike anything I’ve seen this year. I was smiling (and grimacing a bit) the whole day.”
–Isabel King, eighth place 2024 Garmin Gravel Worlds (and first place in the 25k run/150mi ride ‘Double’)