Stoked to see Erin Huck in. She’ll def shake it up a bit.
I’d like to see them court some retiring/retired WT pros. Always adds hubbub around the events, even if they’re just there moonlighting. Maybe they don’t have the right pieces in place to support that though.
Looks like the purse is up $50k to $300k (150k/gender), improvement for sure but still seems kinda measly once it’s broken down.
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Nice to see some younger (u23) new people getting a shot.
Nice to see Finn Gullickson make the cut… his dad, Marc, raced for us back in the day. Finn was just a baby then!!! 
I’d like to see some of the young Kiwi MTB racers compete, but it doesn’t really seem like it would be worth their time.
I think there’s something to losing the ‘eye of the tiger’ once you’ve clearly peaked and on the downswing of your career. It’s still not going to be easy… do you have the motivation to commit/sacrifice it takes to go for the W?
Psychologically, it’s a lot easier to be pack fodder when you’re young(er) and on the upswing of the curve than a retired WT pro. Very few people in life step-down to a lower level of competition after they’ve crested the elites (in any sport.)
No Adam Roberge. Bummer. Probably missed too many events with his concussion.
Absences that stuck out to me on the mens side were Roberge, Tobin, Kerry Werner and Taylor Lideen. Not sure if they all applied (I know Kerry did). But I think all of these gentlemen made a mark on the races and provided good exposure.
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Surprised to see Wertz and Roberge dropped from the list, but looking at results they were near the bottom. Both these guys have had some decent results in the past, but not much consistency this year.
I don’t think Roberge was going to apply for next year…wants to do select races, but not commit to the entire series.
A bit surprised Werner did not get in, since he seems to have a decent social media program going…
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Really happy to see Alex Wild back. He was really bummed about missing it this year but it drove the point home from Lifetime about skipping late season events, especially Big Sugar which is becoming one of the marquee events.
Also stoked to see Melisa Rollins back. Wonder if she will still mix in some road racing in Europe, or be fully invested in the domestic scene? Her trajectory seems to still be upward so looking for some big things from her.
Disappointed to not see Drew Dillman make it. Would have been fun to see him and Dylan Johnson have their own mini-competition. Regardless, maybe he will still try and do a bunch of the events to help secure a spot in 2025.
Will also miss IZ King. At times she seemed to be figuring out some of the off-road stuff and her training this year and she showed so much heart finishing Big Sugar with the gash on her arm and a tourniquet wrapped around it.
More competition for spots and an increase in prize money… things are trending in the right direction for the LTGP.
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I’d love to know who applied. It’s none of my business, but it’d be great to see some more international talent getting in.
I guess the issue is that it’s very much a domestic series with largely domestic sponsors. Very lucrative for those Americans, but a lot of money and time committed for minimal return to international sponsors.
Definitely…I didn’t think there was much chance of him making it, but I was hoping he would.
Hopefully he can focus on BWR or individual races and make it next year.
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Does Keegan get an appearance fee for doing the Grand Prix races? He has pretty much made the series what it is. He definitely deserves it.
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Which is funny. How incredible was the timing of the LTGP for him. Missed the Olympics dream and started to run out of opportunities in the World Cup scene. Jumps in to some gravel/XCM stuff just as LTGP comes online and whoosh.
For any of the athletes making a living on this stuff, the sponsorship is where the $'s are coming from (the prize $ is better than nothing, but not really significant once it’s spread across all the winners). Keegan get’s $25k for first place, probably doesn’t cover operating expenses to support a year’s worth of races. From my perspective, LIfetime is already investing a lot to give these racers a stage. I mean, events like leadville, Unbound, Big Sugar, etc. would sell out regardless of whether the Grand Prix is happening or not, so I’m honestly not sure how the Grand Prix is moving the needle for Lifetime. Maybe Lifetime gets a lot more sponsorship $ from the vendors/sponsors with the Grand Prix in play.
Sofia is very loud and clear about that, whoever is interested can listen to the Payson McElveen’s podcast episode with her. Prize money for athletes like herself and Keegan are just a nice bonus that they keep, because their sponsors are covering all the costs and pay them salary. But for those who are not on a professional team the fraction of a prize purse they might get at the end of the year barely covers anything. That’s why she advocates for prize pools in individual races (LT100, for example, has no prize money whatsoever), and deeper spread (like top 15 or top 20 to be “in the cash”, as opposed to only top 10 as of today).
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Generalizing a lot here, but most race teams/privateers are sponsor funded, that goes from motorcycles to cars to runners.
The way the whole series grows is they bring eyeballs to the events, which grows advertising, which grows media rights (if viewership grows enough), etc., rinse and repeat.
Maybe you do one day get to a point where a team could live on race winnings alone, but even if they could, it would be in addition to their sponsor dollars. But in order to get there, you need people watching, hence why I think bringing an ex-WT pro would benefit everyone. They bring their social media following and then others will hopefully follow as well.
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Whether it’s paid 10 deep at the end of year or 15 deep at individual races, it’s ultimately coming out of the same lifetime bucket. The real problem here is that the bucket isn’t big enough to give meaningful $'s to the field of riders. Sure, lifetime could increase the bucket, but at some point the GP needs to drive some revenue to cover it (media rights, etc.). I’ve heard a couple interviews with Kimo Seymour (lifetime VP who seems to be the one driving the GP) and they are clearly trying to create something here, but I think it’s a tall task to make this a viable spectator sport that can drive enough revenue where riders can make a decent living. I applaud them for pushing this and coming up with the $ to fund it. It couldn’t have been an easy sale to corporate when the events were already making really good $ without the GP in the mix. If they can exponentially grow the number of eyes watching this sport, the $ will follow (prize $, sponsor $, etc.).
Sucks he wasn’t included again. Hopefully he comes back to cross instead