The seven riders who earned spots in the invitation-only Life Time Grand Prix were announced a day after the dust from Unbound Gravel 200 on Saturday. Cameron Jones led the selection in the men’s division after his victory in Emporia and was joined by Andrew L’Esperance, Matthew Wilson and Skyler Taylor who completed the four berths for men. The three women earning spots in the Grand Prix were Haley Dumke, Laurel Quinones and Leah Van der Linden.
The top women’s contenders coming into Kansas were Anna Yamauchi, Emily Newsom and Hannah Shell, but all three failed to finish the race. Both Newsom, who was third at Unbound 200 two years ago, and Yamauchi withdrew after having crashed.
Van der Linden and Dumke had been in the top five of the wildcard standings after Sea Otter, and Quinones was eighth but ultimately shifted up into the top three of the wildcard selections after finishing 33rd at Unbound. Van der Linden was 20th over the line in Emporia and Dumke came 39th.
Petr Vakoč had actually led the men’s wildcard standings after the first round at Sea Otter Gravel in April. He finished 15th overall at Unbound 200, third among the wildcard competitors, but declined the invitation. His spot was filled by Taylor. Wilson, Jones and L’Esperance were all among the top four after Sea Otter.
With seven fresh foes for the series contenders to now watch, the points standings were re-calibrated the day after Unbound’s race-within-a-race outcomes.
After his Unbound 200 win Jones entered the competition right near the top of the leaderboard, in a three way tie for third with Matthew Beers and Unbound runner-up Simon Pellaud. L’Esperance slotted in to eighth position, Wilson is tied in tenth and Taylor sits 14th. On the women’s leaderboard Van der Linden is in a three-way tie for 13th, Quinones 21st and Dumke 22nd.
Now in a fourth season, the off-road series this year reduced the total number of riders from 60 to 50 riders – 25 women and 25 men – with three spots reserved in both divisions for wildcards to be added after Unbound Gravel 200.
Based on the final results from Unbound Gravel 200, combined with April’s lead-off event at Sea Otter Gravel in April, those six riders, plus a seventh in the men’s field, now take part in the chase for a share of the hefty prize purse, $200,000 split evenly among top 10 elite men and elite women after Big Sugar Gravel in October.
Originally, there were three spots for women and three spots for men on offer, but an extra spot for men opened when Howard Grotts (Specialized) pulled out, as he made the decision to stay sidelined and recover from a serious crash last August at a mountain bike race in Colorado.
