Haley Batten and Keegan Swenson snare solo wins at Sea Otter Gravel

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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.

How it unfolded

Elite men

It was a field of more than a hundred that lined up for the 10:30 am start of the elite men’s race on Thursday, which kicked off proceedings for the Life Time Grand Prix in 2025 with a climb from the start and then a long descent to stretch out the field early. The long rutted and potholed Lookout climb near the end of the course, however, did plenty more damage with a splintered field coming through the line after the first lap.

Early in the second lap, there were about 20 riders in the lead group, and on the second pass of Lookout Ridge it was Tudor Pro Cycling’s Pellaud who was out front alone, holding the gap through the second pass of the finish line however the chase group was closing fast and swept up the solo rider. By mile 73 it was back to a group of nine – Brendan Johnston (Giant), Pellaud, Vakoč, Swenson, Beers, Wilson, Alex Wild, Vermeulen and Peter Stetina  – and while Pellaud was at it again more than once during the final lap it ultimately came down to a final battle on Lookout Ridge.

Swenson had already outlined in the lead-in that this climb was the pivotal point so there were no surprises when he went on the charge through the final ascent. Initially, his Cape Epic partner Beers and Vermeulen held his wheel though it didn’t take long for Swenson to shake the duo and take off. The starter race for the Life Time Grand Prix may have changed from a mountain bike race to a gravel event, but the winner of the opening round remained the same.

“Before I made my move I tried to play it smart and save my energy. I put in a dig on the first steep bit and knew they’d be hurting behind. I had a feeling Matt and Alexey would come back, but that they’d have to work hard to do so, and I rested up a little bit so I could hit out again on the last section of that climb,” said Swenson in a Life Time Grand Prix media release. “I gave it everything I had, opened up a small gap and then managed to defend it all the way to the finish. 

“It’s always good to start the season off with a win here, in terms of confidence and points. It’s nice to have a little buffer heading into Unbound too because that’s a crazy, hectic race where anything can happen.”

Elite women

The elite women’s field of around 60 riders set off at 10:50 am, 20 minutes behind the elite men, and while there were many familiar names on the line there was also a new high-profile addition. Batten was on the gravel start line in Monterey, California instead of racing her mountain bike in Araxá. 

The thinning of the field started early and by 15 miles into the race the lead group had been whittled down a little to just over 30 as riders headed through the Salinas Valley. The first pass of the singletrack section at around 20 miles in put on more pressure and then Decker jumped away on the first Lookout climb, spurring a charged chase.

Decker was caught before the first crossing of the finish line, with a lead group coming through. Before the second charge through the single track, this had swelled to around 15. There was, however, little anyone could do to quell the charge of Batten when she took advantage of that section that suited her so well to take off. A small gap quickly turned into minutes and it quickly became clear that, barring disaster, Batten had the top step of the podium sewn up. 

"This was my first gravel race so I had no real plan and just wanted to see how the athletes were riding and working together,” said Batten. “They didn’t seem to be in sync so I thought, if I surprise everyone, no one would be expecting it.

“I had hoped a rider or two would come with me so there would be more chance of making the move stick. I pushed really hard though, and knew if anyone hesitated for a second behind that I could get away, and I just kept going. During the last lap, I was regretting my move as I was deep in the pain cave, but it turned out well,” said Batten after crossing the line more than five minutes ahead of her nearest rival.

The race had turned into a battle for second place after Batten launched. Decker and Villafañe – who had been sick on the lead-in – went on the charge not long after Batten did, crossing the line for the second time with a gap of around three minutes to the mountain bike rider. They then stayed together through lap three until the final testing gravel climb, with Villafañe attacking but Decker initially fighting valiantly to haul herself back even after doing a huge amount of work at the front. In the end, Villafañe snapped the elastic to secure second place and top points in the opening round of the Life Time Grand Prix series, which she has won the last two years.

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