From last in Mountain Bike World Cup to first in all seven Belgian Waffle Ride starts – Villafañe finds her groove on gravel

Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) has been a like a bolt of lightning at a string of events this spring, landing a trio of thunderous results in March at the Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona, Valley of Tears and a Cape Epic overall with teammate Annika Langvad. Moving into April, she hasn't shown any sign of deceleration in either her aggressive accumulation of top racing results or her assertiveness in planning out an agenda to capture yet more.

On Sunday the 31-year-old completed a trifecta of podiums at a three-race swing in California which included Sea Otter Classic Gravel, The Growler at Levi's Gran Fondo and then she decimated the competition at Sunday's Belgian Waffle Ride California. Time to relax? The short answer is 'No', as Villafañe heads to Girona, Spain on Monday for her debut at The Traka 200-kilometre gravel race.

"At the beginning of the year, I wanted to put The Traka as like an 'A-level' race. But once we started to really adjust the schedule, and obviously having to do Sea Otter for the Grand Prix, Specialized really wanted me to come back to defend the Belgium Waffle Ride California," she told Cyclingnews the day before she fulfilled that target. 

Villafañe wanted to keep The Growler in the schedule the week before BWR California, "not wanting to miss out on the money and the cool event that is Levi's Grand Fondo", and also squeezed in a sponsor trip to Arkansas before that for a packed April.

She headed into the month as a two-time winner of the eight-day mountain bike stage race in South Africa – Villafañe and Langvad won seven of the eight stages at this year's Cape Epic – but once back in the US had just 10 days to prepare for the opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix. She was second but earned top points as the best Grand Prix finisher.

There's a focus on US racing for a reason, as Villafañe has won the six-race Grand Prix two years in a row, including top points at Unbound Gravel 200, and is the defending champion in the Belgian Waffle Ride's Tripel Crown of Gravel, last year sweeping all three events across Arizona, Utah and California.

"So I've been full gas in April. I had a good base, and Cape Epic was good, but I got sick after, so I haven't been at the level I thought I would be," she admitted.

"The Traka this year, for me at least, it's to just go see, check it out, understand the course, understand the racing and then make it a target for next year. But there's no result expectation from me at that event.

"I'm going to race as hard as I possibly can but I'm just there to experience the event and get to know it, and then hopefully, as an event, I get to target next year."

She's taken a look online at the course in Girona, and expects most riders will be going with 42cc tyre size given the climbing at the front end, flat terrain in the middle and that it doesn't throw heavy mountain bike features in for bigger tyres. What the races does deliver, she said, is a major platform like Unbound Gravel.

"It is cool to see the amount of distances that have different participation levels and it looks like there's a lot more activations from brands. I'm excited to go check it out and experience it firsthand," she said of Traka 200, which is part of the Gravel Earth Series.

"It's a different vibe. I don't think anything can quite be compared to Unbound. Unbound is the biggest North American event. Traka is the biggest European event. But worldwide, Unbound is still much bigger, in terms of reach, its following."

California and MTB roots

The Argentina-born rider moved to the 'Bay Area', San Francisco, with her family when she was 12 years old, and holds dual citizenship. In high school she began racing mountain bikes but never knew she'd return years later as a mega-star on all types of terrain, especially the gravel.

"Like every high school person, you're like 'I want to be a pro athlete'. Wanted to be a pro mountain bike racer. And then I went to a World Cup in New York, and I finished dead last, I got lapped. I was like, 'OK, I am not as talented as what I thought'. 

She moved to Colorado college and connected with a coach, who pushed her to pursue a professional cycling career. 

"A lot of people I raced in high school are in the industry and a lot of collegiate racing friends are still racing. I always see them when I'm back for a Thanksgiving ride or something like that. I'm still very much connected with the people that kind of helped me get into the sport."

While her sponsor Specialized put priorities on her defending the BWR California title this year, it wasn't a difficult decision for her to stay in the US to compete rather than travel early to Spain. She's had way too much success in the Belgian Waffle Ride family of races, with her latest victory in California making it seven victories from seven starts.

"It's like one of the coolest series with the coolest participants who are there to race hard, but also there to have a fun time," Villafañe said. "I would say that I feel the best supported and cheered by other Belgium Waffle Ride participants at the waffle rides. This is so different than the other races that we do."

Her first appearance and victory was at the BWR Asheville in North Carolina in 2021. Since then she's won the last three BWR Arizona races, won BWR Utah last year and gone back-to-back in California. Then with the win on Sunday she broke a tie with Peter Stetina to become the pro rider with the heftiest win tally in the BWR series.

"Obviously he has two overalls. I have one overall but I also have raced seven Belgian Waffle Rides and I won seven. I think, yeah, sorry Pete, the title is mine," Villafañe said with a smile at the finish line in Del Mar.

She enjoyed the 106.5-mile revised route as well and thought it was "a completely different race" from a year ago when she rode her Specialized Roubaix with S-Works Mondo tires. In her pre-ride before Sunday, she decided to make equipment changes based on the new start and Black Mountain terrain.

"This year on my very first ride, it was very clear that I was going to be on my Crux for sure, and I think 45 Pathfinders is going to be my go-to choice, just because now the amount of dirt and single track that we have is insane," Villafañe told Cyclingnews.

"It's very interesting, because the first third and the last third are very dirt heavy, and then the middle third is very pavement heavy. So I think people need to figure out where they want to feel faster, if they care more about single track or the road."

Looking at the results Sunday, it appears that both elite winners paid attention to the single track over road, as fellow mountain bike specialist and past Cape Epic winner Matt Beers (Specialized Off-road) defended his BWR title as well.