Valley of Tears gravel brims with rich rewards for Swenson and Villafañe

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In the red clay hills of the Texas panhandle on Saturday, Keegan Swenson and Sofia Gomez Villafañe led the way for victories in the open categories at the inaugural Valley of Tears. It was a big day for the small town of Turkey, Texas, as both the number of people in the tiny town, estimated at 325 residents, and the prize purse, which started at $26,000 for elite athletes, doubled on race day.

At the start line, organisers of Valley of Tears announced the prize purse would expand to $52,000, and paid deeper from the top 10 to the top 20 for the men’s and women’s fields. The influx of participants for elite and age group racing pushed the number of people in the town to over 1,000 for the first-year event. 

Swenson rode solo for the men’s victory over second-placed Chase Wark by over five minutes. Finn Gullickson took third from a four-rider bunch another two minutes back, riding ahead of Brennan Wertz, Adam Roberge and Julien Gagne.

Villafañe out-kicked Jenna Rinehart at the line to secure the women’s victory. Emily Newsom rode solo for third, 1:38 off the pace, after working back from mechanical issues suffered in an early crash. That pileup in the sand caused contender Geerike Schreurs to withdraw as her handlebars snapped.

“What a cool day in Turkey TX! The inaugural Valley of Tears Gravel was next level. The course had it all from crazy sand pits & rough trail path to butter-smooth gravel roads,” Villafañe wrote in her post-race recap on Instagram, noting the local Fairly Family who contributed to the expanded prize money.

“Big thank you to the Fairly family for all their hard work to make this event a great success and for changing the payout at the start line to go 20 deep! I am still in shock that we had a gravel race of this level at a $20 entry fee and a lovely 10 am start.”

A mass start began on a cold and sunny day for 115 miles across wide open prairie land and 90% on dirt roads sprinkled with sandy sections. The opening 15 miles of the course presented dry sand beds, so deep and gnarly that riders had to dismount and run. One of the first casualties was women’s race favourite, Geerike Schreurs, who was caught in a mass pileup on a sandy section near the Limestone Pits and had to withdraw when her handlebars snapped. 

Before Schreurs’ crash, Newsom plowed into a traffic cone, suffering a cut to her right knee and shattering the right shifter on her bike, making her rear derailleur “useless”. With only the front derailleur at her disposal, she powered on to catch Rinehart by mile 45 and soon latched on to Villafañe. The three leading women were part of a 15-rider group.

“We hit the rough rails to trails, and seeing that the other two women were already playing a bit of cat and mouse, I managed to get a gap and dug hard, delighted to feel my body responding so well. I rapidly gained a lead, but made my second big mistake of the day by missing a turn. I was heartbroken, but settled in to regain the group that was now ahead,” she explained on Instagram. 

The headwind and rolling terrain proved too much, and Villafañe and Rinehart stayed ahead to battle in a wild west faceoff in Turkey, Villafañe taking the sprint win.

On the men’s side, splits opened across the 10 miles after the Limestone Pits, with Wark and Swenson alone at the front and chased by Wertz, Tobin Ortenblad and Gullickson, and a group of 12 trying to make the catch of the second group. Swenson and Wark worked together to extend their lead to three minutes on the “Rails to Trails” and up the Caprock climb.

Wark mishandled an exchange for supplies in the feed zone and crashed, also taking down Swenson. Both remounted and rode on, however, the strap of Wark’s hydration backpack broke and left him with only one bottle for the remaining 60 miles, and Swenson sharing on occasion. 

On the Tampico Tundra section of the course with the duo holding five minutes over the chasers, Swenson attacked and rode solo for the remaining 20 miles for the victory.

Swenson and Villafañe, winners of the 2023 Life Time Grand Prix, began their 2024 gravel campaign with victories at Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona the first weekend in March. Both will compete at the eight-stage Cape Epic, the cross-country mountain bike stage race held in South Africa from March 17-24.