Sofia Gomez Villafane: From Cat 1 to Olympian ... to Gravel Star
Sofia Gomez Villafane has made a big splash on the gravel scene as part of the LifeTime Grand Prix this year, including taking an epic win at Unbound
For the past five years, Sofia Gomez Villafane has been focused on chasing her dream of racing mountain bikes in the Olympics. That dream came true a year ago when she represented Argentina at the Tokyo Summer Games. Mountain biking was who she was as a bike racer, and she would certainly, certainly never do something like race gravel.
Or so she thought.
Gomez Villafane dabbled in some gravel racing last summer and fall, winning the Crusher in the Tushar and BWR Asheville, but with the first-ever LifeTime Grand Prix taking place this year, she decided to dive head-first into a new discipline.
Sure the series features three mountain bike races and sure she was able to go and race—and win—Cape Epic, but she still had to adjust her training and mindset to be prepared for races such as the 200-mile Unbound race in Kansas. It didn’t hurt that she received a little bit of motivation when she was labeled an Unbound “newbie,” but she still had to put in the work and figure out how to race the chaotic race that is arguably the hardest one-day bike race in America.
Her preparation paid off, and she showed that even a so-called newbie can win the event with good prep and good fitness.
I recently chatted with Gomez Villafane about her year in gravel and how the experience has gone for her thus far.
Interview: Sofia Gomez Villafane, Gravel Star
Zach Schuster: Sofia Gomez Villafane. My first question for you is, did you ever think you were going to be Sofia Gomez Villafane, gravel star?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Defintely not. I am such a mountain biker, and the idea of going to a different discipline was never something I really expected. I did race 'cross, but it was still that short, intense fun racing. I do remember like three years ago during my first winter in Tucson, kind of talking to both Russell (Finsterwald) and Keegan (Swenson) about this silly 200-mile bike race in Kansas and saying only silly people would want to do that race. Never in a million years am I going to sign a contract that makes me race that race.
Fast forward three years later, all three of us were super pumped for that race. It definitely came more from proving we are good enough to perform at the biggest stage in gravel. Never in a million years did I think I would be racing gravel, but I've had a lot success in the past 365 days of racing this new discipline. Gravel really suits me, I think. Most of the time you're off-road, so you have to have handling skills, but I'm also a really tactical racer and sometimes that gives me a big edge on my competition. I'm also pretty thoughtful about the equipment and how I'm running things, so I think I have a bit of a leg up on the competition in those aspects.
Zach Schuster: As we're recording this, Tom Pidcock literally just won the Alpe du Huez stage; what did you learn from 'cross and take from it to gravel? It's different, you're racing for 50 minutes or whatever, but it seems like there is some carryover that you've been able to use in gravel racing?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I think what I've gotten the most is the automatic ability to get on a gravel bike and feel completely confident. What they see as technical in gravel is nowhere near as technical as it is in a cyclocross race. In Emporia, that muddy section where everyone was struggling and falling, I thought, "Oh I've done a bajillion 'cross races where you do your first lap and you think, okay I fell in these three corners, and then you come on lap number two and there's been so much rain, you hit the corner that was good and completely slide out.”
I think that ability to just look at a part of the course and see "This is going to be the good line, this is the bad line." Or to be able to assess it in a very fast manner. I think those are things that have definitely carried over from cyclocross.
But I've also done some Collegiate road racing. So when it comes to tactics and all of that, I think I'm pretty good. I've never really been the fittest individual out there, so I've always had to figure out how I can get away with doing the least amount of work while still going the fastest. I think that's definitely paid dividends in gravel.
Zach Schuster: Coming off Crusher, you did your first one a few years ago. You won last year. But, your bike has actually done Crusher more times than you have.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Yeah, in 2019 Evelyn Dong was looking to race that race, and she really wanted to do it on a 'cross bike, so I let her borrow one of my spare Pivot Vaults. She dominated on that bike. I think she interviewed with VeloNews, and they asked, "Tell us about your bike," and she said, "Well it's not my bike, but please don't mention that." Of course, the headline reads, "Evelyn Dong wins Crusher on a Borrowed Bike."
Zach Schuster: Last year you did it on a mountain bike, I am assuming you did not do that this year. But you won on a mountain bike, which was really cool. I think one thing I really like about the Crusher is they really embrace that, is this gravel, is this a mountain bike race. I think it was more in the past, mostly people ride gravel bikes now, but it used to be more of a split.
What went into that decision, and what did you ride this year?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Last year I didn't quite have a choice. I didn't have a gravel bike, so it was either I would ride my Tarmac or I would ride my hardtail. I heard that it was rough, and I did not want to flat, so that eliminated the Tarmac. I set up my S-Works hardtail with narrower tires and a bigger chain ring and just tried to optimize that as much as I could
I definitely went into that race looking for a top-off before going to the Olympics. I decided very last minute to do the race. It was kind of wild because I went from leading to dropping to 4th, and then I clawed my way up in the last hour. That was pretty special. That was definitely not the case this year, sadly. I had the right bike, I just didn't have the legs for the day.
Zach Schuster: It's a little bit different for you having the structure you do, but another thing I like about gravel is it seems like you can just be like, "Oh there's a gravel race and five days before decide to see what happens."
Sofia Gomez Villafane: That was a big thing in that race; there was no pressure or expectations for my performance. It was like, let's go race the first 90 minutes as hard as possible can and then see what happens. Then that next day I had a really hard workout at home. It was 100 percent a training ride, but being able to win it was pretty cool.
Zach Schuster: This year, the ultimate takeaway is you're still on top of the standings for the LifeTime Grand Prix, but this one was probably not the result you were looking for after the season you've had thus far. What was the lead-up like and what was the race like and how did it go. My understanding is maybe you got a little over your skis in terms of your ambitions in the past month?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: It's not necessarily in terms of my ambitions. It's more that it's all new for me, and I am still learning to understand how my body is adjusting to these really long races and really high training low.
But post-Unbound, Keegan and I moved out of Tucson to move back to Utah. That was basically five days we were down there packing everything up. On paper, on my training plan, those were supposed to be rest days, but in actual life, it was not restful at all. It was especially stressful on that last day when we made a pretty big push to pack everything up. I was just completely spent.
Add that to coming back to elevation, I was feeling a little bit off. I went down to sea level to race five days at the Oregon Trail gravel race. That was a blast. I raced super hard. I am super good at low-altitude racing. I came back home for a week, felt awful, and then took a little bit of rest heading into Crusher. I felt like my legs were starting to come back, but even though I had my legs, I didn't have that drive to push and that intensity. I think that was a result of all the racing and traveling and being away from home. It all kind of added up, and now I'm enjoying a week of not doing much and really looking forward to rebuilding for the other half of the season.
Zach Schuster: So you weren't able to track your TSS from lifting boxes while moving?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: It's not even tracking the TSS, it was my inability to make my rest a proper rest. I know better than that. I know my rest days should be very uneventful. Like taking the dog for a swim kind of day. But it's life, and we're lucky enough we get to escape the Utah winter to go train in Tucson, so it's not a bad problem to have. I just learned a few things I would probably change next year.
Zach Schuster: So how did Crusher go? And what was your approach having done it before and been in that position where you've been to move forward, and what was it that ultimately did you in?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Crusher is definitely a race people think is decided on that last climb, Col d' Crush. Which is true, it's a tough climb of like 3 miles at like 10 percent and it's a high-elevation climb. But before the summit-top finish, you have an hour of rollers at around 9,000-10,000 feet, so if you go too hard on the climb, you don't really have that power at the end to be able to push through.
My hope was to be able to roll it in the last hour after the climb. Haley (Smith) and I made it to the top of the first climb together, and then Ruth (Windsor) and then Sturmy (Sarah Sturm) connected. When we got to the Sarlac Pit, Haley did a seated acceleration that caused me to kind of check out, and I couldn't follow. The next thing I knew I was minutes down and I was bleeding and bleeding time. On Col d' Crush Emma Grant passed me; she was on a good day. When I finished, I heard she clawed her way to second overall, and I was like, Emma did the race I wanted to do.
I still finished 6th in the LifeTime Grand Prix; it's not a bad result. It could be my drop race, but ideally, I want to go into Big Sugar knowing that could be my drop race. It would make the racing a lot more fun if I already know where I'm going to finish.
Zach Schuster: It's a long season too. That one's at the end. Although, hearing you talk about this, how do you feel about the LifeTime Grand Prix being a time-based omnium?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I would not say that that's ok. Just because the difference you can do in Unbound versus Chequamegon is huge. Chequamegon is a 2.5-hour race. A minute is a lot there, where it's nothing in Unbound. I think Epic Rides did their series on a time basis, but they kind of realized it's not really fair.
I'm a big fan of the point structure. I'm not a big fan of the point structure the LifeTime series has come up with because it doesn't reward risk-taking and getting a win. It's a one-point difference between each place. It would be nice to have it a little more weighted toward the top end, but we're all playing with the same point structure.
Zach Schuster: I was going to wait to ask this, but one thing I absolutely love about what you've been doing is you're new to this, I am not going to say you've been outspoken and vocal, but you haven't been afraid to express your feelings about what you think about gravel. Were you intending to have opinions and shape the direction it's going, or have these thoughts been borne out of having these experiences?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: It's interesting because I think I get to same certain things in a way that other people don't. Had Lauren [De Crescenzo] come out after Unbound saying it wasn't a women's race--that's something I commented on someone's post, the women's race isn't even a women's race—if she would have said that, she would have been seen as a sore loser, but I could say that because I won. You can't hate on that at all.
For me, what it was is I have come from just racing against the women in a very organized, safe environment. You're kind of thrown into these mass-start races. I remember my first real mass-start race was Steamboat Gravel. I double ejected my water bottles in the first 45 minutes, but luckily I had a hydration pack. I had a Master Cinch rider mess up the women's rotation to try to chase Lauren De Crescenzo, who was up the road. I was really upset about that. I went up to Tommy D after the race and had a very heated discussion. I am definitely a person where if I have a problem with somebody, I am going to go say it to them and not take to my Twitter or my Instagram to tell the world without having a conversation with that individual.
So at that race, I double ejected my water bottles and decided to stop at kind of the last shared feed zone between the courses because there were some spare water bottles I could fill up, and I lost the women's chase group. Then I realized that after 40 minutes of going ham trying to chase this group of 40, there was no way I was going to chase them down. I blew up.
Then I kind of sat with my thoughts for a while, and was like, this is really interesting. There's no way I'm going to get on the podium of this race because there are other men driving the pace and pacing these women along. I was like, this makes for really interesting tactics, and it was a really big learning curve. By the next weekend when I was racing at BWR in North Carolina, I was like, okay this is how you play the game. I'm happy to do it like that. I ended up winning that race in a pretty dominant fashion.
I realized gravel racing right now is about making the fastest selection you possibly can and hope that no other female makes it with you and hope you're the first female on course. That's kind of the race. I'm definitely willing to speak about it and progress the sport in a way that will allow for the women to have their own peloton and their own race. But I'm also pretty realistic in the sense that we should have that happen at Unbound right now. We just don't have the numbers and don't have the horsepower. There's room to start somewhere to have a fair women-to-women race.
Zach Schuster: My understanding is they had a separate start for the women. Did you notice different vibes starting with the women's field and how did that affect your approach?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: We were first on course, so it's not like you're trying to chase anyone down. We had a really mellow start, and the men overtook us on the first climb. I was pretty excited to race the women's race, and it was never really impacted by men. Looking back at it, I probably should have tried to jump on a group of men and try to hold on to make a gap to race it tactically. But no one ever really tried to jump on the guys' wheels. I don't know why; if the pace was too high or if people were content to race each other.
Zach Schuster: With LifeTime, when it was first created, Unbound is kind of their premiere event, when it was created, we were kind of like, "Oh there's a gravel series." But it's not really a gravel series. It's half mountain bike and half gravel, so all of us who observe American bike racing, it's been super interesting because there are so many mountain bikers like you who may get overlooked where we were like, "Oh, I wonder what they can do?"
Backing up to when it was put together, did you, Keegan, some of the other folks in the mountain bike community, come in with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder? Wanting to show what you can do.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I think so. I think for the women it might be a little bit more different because we don't have very many WorldTour racers. Yeah you have Emily (Newsom) and Ruth (Winder), but that's kind of it. The big names were really the names who were racing mountain bikes.
But on the men's side, you have these really talented mountain bikers, but when the series gets announced, everybody's like, WorldTour riders, WorldTour riders, WorldTour riders. In the eyes of the guys, they're like, well we work just as hard and we're just as fit. I don't think people understood half the series is on a mountain bike, and our ability to handle bikes on the dirt pays huge dividends. You can train fitness way faster than handling and comfort level, so all the guys had to do was to make sure they were putting in big training blocks to prepare for Unbound.
The mountain bikers were looking to gain some of that automatic respect that was given to the WorldTour racers and then outshine them at their premiere event, the Unbound 200.
Zach Schuster: My understanding is you may have read an article that someone may have written that may have discounted, say, you and some of your peers. We talk a lot about bulletin board material. Back in the day, I played basketball, if someone wrote a story or made a quote, you put it up on a bulletin board in the locker room and look at it every day. Did you do that? Did you print out the article and how did that motivate you going into Unbound?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: The article was one written by a male racer. It kind of outlined the competition for the male series for the LifeTime Grand Prix, and it also discussed the Women's race. He gave credit to a lot of women, and then he came to talk about me and Katerina Nash, who at the time was part of the series, and he just called us "newbies."
I was like, "You turd." I get that I'm a newbie in the discipline and I haven't raced that much gravel; I've raced three gravel races and won two. But you don't get to call me a newbie when I went from a Cat 1 to an Olympian in 5 years. And you definitely don't get to call Katerina Nash, one of the most talented racers—she's gone to the Olympics in both the winter and summer, skiing and cycling, and has dominated whatever she does on any bike—a newbie. Dude, you do not get to do that.
I kept talking about it and getting all fired up. Keegan was like, "Well why don't you just go and win Unbound and shut him up that way?" I was like, "That is a good point. I should just do that."
And above that when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for 2022, all of the brands I was talking to were putting such a big emphasis on Unbound, saying, "We want to sign a winner for Unbound." I just felt like so many brands gave me the run-around. We're interested, but we're not that interested.
Then Specialized was the only team that sent me email that said, let's start the conversation, here's our offer. I really appreciated that from them. I was like, "I am going to go win Unbound for Specialized and make a lot of people regret their decisions to not reply to my emails or not pursue a conversation." To achieve that was pretty monumental. Not only was I happy to be a quote newbie, I went and won Unbound in such an elegant and respectful way. In such a badass way. But it also gave Specialized a win in the Women's category that it hasn't had for a few years.
Zach Schuster: So you've experienced the, "No one believed in us" phenomenon? Well, Specialized did.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I am so lucky to have signed with them. When we picked up the conversation, I told them, "Look, I just want to be a professional cyclist." I would love to race mountain bikes in cross country, maybe some marathon, I'd love to race Cape Epic. I'd race gravel, I want to race eMTB Worlds. I want to do it all. The only thing I probably don't get to do is road racing because you need a WorldTour contract for that. They said, "That's exactly what we want, so if you're willing to pursue that, we're willing to help you with that." They've been great.
I personally thrive more when I'm seen as an underdog rather than a champion or the expected winner. I think that is pretty clear looking at my performances at Unbound and then Crusher.
Zach Schuster: Can I let you in on a little secret? You're kind of in trouble if you want to thrive as an underdog now.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Yeah, yeah. I have been having a career-making year. I do want to continue my success in the LifeTime Grand Prix, but my next two big goals are eMTB Worlds and the first UCI Gravel World Championships. I think the build I need to do for those is going to watch really well with what we have to do in the series going forward. Ideally, my place in the series will be solidified before I have to start Big Sugar.
Zach Schuster: When we have riders, let's use Pidcock today as an example, people have said, "Oh, he's just a 'cross guy," and here he's doing all these things. Observing the sport, I've come to the conclusion that good bike racers are good bike racers. It seems like you probably agree with that? You've had some experience with that.
How has that benefitted you moving into the gravel world? You bring these different experiences. You talked about the tactics, you talked about the ability to ride in groups, the ability to handle your bike. Do you agree with that statement?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I do agree. I think if you're a talented cyclist, no matter what bike you have under you, you'll perform. Obviously it might be a bit harder for me to perform on a BMX bike or a downhill bike, but when it comes to endurance racing, my engine is there, my snappiness is there. The more well-rounded of an individual you can be, the more consistent you're going to be, no matter what the race is. If it's a climbing race, great, we'll do well. If it's a punchy race, I've got that. If it's a mass start with 2,000 people, I feel confident in that.
Us, coming from a dirt background, really the biggest challenge for us was going to be Unbound because it's the biggest unknown from the endurance side. None of us have really raced over 100 miles that consistently, whereas people who have been racing road or gravel for the past few years definitely have. But then you look at road racers having to race Sea Otter, Leadville, and Chequamegon, they're being challenged to a whole different level. I can't even imagine what would be the same for me. Would it be a time trial? Would it be a BMX race? I don't know.
I'm really proud of how much people are willing to branch out and put time and effort into these new disciplines to make sure they're able to have the best performances over the six races. We just have a huge advantage where we're not really being challenged beyond having to train more. Most of us are pretty happy to be able to ride our bikes a bit longer every day.
Zach Schuster: I am going to hypothesize you changed your training coming into this year. In the past, you were laser-focused on the Olympics and geared your training to that, so when you decided to do the Grand Prix, what approach did you and your coach take? And how did you lay out how this was going to work? Clearly, it's worked pretty well.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: With Carmen Small, my coach, it was actually her idea to turn me from a Cat 1 racer to an Olympian. I did not think I had the talent to do that, but I was like, "If you see something in me and are willing to invest your time and commitment, if you see something in me I'm not able to see, I am happy to explore that as I try to figure out what I want to do with my life." Lo and behold, she was completely right.
Since I pretty much started at ground zero, something in my training has changed every year. I think the first year we kind of crammed a lot of stuff in because I was at a huge deficit. Year to year, we were building the hours, building the intensity. A lot of things have been pretty VO2-focused. Then this year we switched the focus to hard endurance, 50 TSS training rides. Try to ride the flats as much as possible. Let's really work on building that engine with a lot of tempo work because that was what I needed to have a performance at Unbound.
Within that, let's make sure your VO2 is still super sharp because you need to go with the accelerations the men are making. And you need to be able to do a 2-minute acceleration at 350 watts, recover for 2 minutes, and then sit at tempo for another 10. The way we are challenged and the way our numbers go are completely different than the men. The men get to have a pretty steady race, and then they kind of start firing in the last hour or two, but in the Women's race, you fire in the first three hours and it's go until you die and then hopefully recover before steadying and trying to diesel to the finish.
Luckily for me, that VO2 comes pretty naturally. It's the natural style I have of riding, and I always have it. It was more about really focusing on building that engine. I never wanted to race over 100 miles, and I don't really like riding my bike over 5 hours; I feel like I have better things to do with my day. We had to get kind of creative on how to put all pieces together. Add motor pacing. Add group rides.
I think after the Pro XCTs in California, Katerina texted me, asking, "Are you thinking you should be racing World Cups because the way you raced that race was pretty impressive?" I was like, "Yeah, but honestly I'm having so much fun training for these gravel races, I think taking that step back is actually pretty huge."
Zach Schuster: I guess it helps we are as far from the Olympics, so if there was ever a perfect year for the LifeTime Grand Prix to get created. You achieved your dream and your goal, and if you want to do it again, no harm no foul. And it sounds like you might be gaining some benefits. Are you seeing benefits in your VO2 from doing this endurance work?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: For sure. I think it's my ability to consistently hit those VO2 numbers and not fatigue. That's really where the endurance side has come into play. And also it's affected the way I race. I'm like, "An hour and half, that's easy." Unbound was over 10, 12 hours. I remember the way I raced that Pro XCT races, I was like, “I'm keeping it hard. We are not resting. Okay cute, you wanted to go hard for 3 minutes, I'm going to go hard for another 3.” I'm not going to let the people who are dangling off the back catch back up. Let's roll and maintain that gap. I just raced it in a very different way than the other girls were racing it. It happened to lead me to a C1 win on that third day of the Pro XCTs in Fayetteville.
It just changes your mentality. You're a lot calmer as well. I was starting second row, and I can't remember the last time I started second row. There was more traffic, but I was able to catch back on. At Sea Otter, I blew my start. I was probably like 35th going into the singletrack. Did a completely newbie error. I was upset about it, but I knew I would be able to work my way up to the front. I knew the girls up there weren't thinking tactically. If I was in that lead group of four and saw everyone else back, I would have said, “Girls, we're rolling. Let's go. We are not going to let them catch back on.” But luckily they weren't thinking like that, and I was able to catch back on.
It gives me more tools to race with, and it just makes me a better-rounded cyclist.
Zach Schuster: I think I've effectively kept Unbound, the biggest thing you've done this year, to the end of the interview.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Cape Epic too! That was huge.
Zach Schuster: Oh yeah, good point! Which was bigger for you?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: They're both different. Cape Epic is the hardest mountain bike race in the world. It's eight days of showing up, so you can have a lot of things go wrong. I was the first South American Elite winner in history, male or female, so that was huge. But then Unbound you get 200 miles on this day starting at 6 a.m. That's your shot. If you got it, you got it, and if you don't, you don't. If you have bad luck, that's kind of it.
Winning both was cool. [laughs]
Zach Schuster: So at Unbound, it was your first one, some people might have called you a "newbie," it's definitely different. Did you do any research? Like what tires am I going to run? How will the race play out? Like you said, it's different, there are some nuances. And as you talked about, for the women, you kind of have to get on the train when it leaves the station or you're kind of missing out.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: My preparation for Unbound was a pretty interesting one. From the equipment side, I knew I needed to have aero bars. I argued with Keegan about aero bars or no aero bars for a while. I was like, "My race is completely different than your race, so what you know does not apply to me." Aero bars are a game-changer in the Women's race, and they provide a huge benefit, so I was sure I was going to run them.
For my gear selection, he was pushing me to run a 1x system, but I was like, "Nope, I'm going to have my Dura-Ace cranks set up 2x. Then I have an XTR 11-40mm in the rear, so I have all the gear range I could possibly want." Those are the two things I was pretty adamant about. Everything else I was okay getting guidance from him and Russell.
They spent so much time trying to figure out things that could help them be faster. From inserts to tire selection. Russell went somewhere to do aerodynamic testing. There were a few things he learned I was able to capitalize on. Russell is the tire manager of the tire, so I let him pick the tires I was running for the weekend. I asked him a few questions like why are we running a 38mm Pathfinder instead of a 38mm Tracer, and he was like, "You don't have to do what I'm doing," and I responded, "No, no, no, I just want to understand your thought process." I was pretty lucky to have those guys helping.
I tried to watch the live feed from last year, and it wasn't that great. There were just a few little camera shots here and there, and there wasn't much information I gained from that. When I was looking at the ride GPS file, it shows you what's road and what's pavement, it said it would be like 60% gravel and 40% pavement, and I thought aero bars would for sure be a total game changer, but when we pre-drove the course, I realized there was like 1% pavement at the beginning and at the end.
I did a few efforts on the bars on some chunky stuff, and I was like, "Do I take them off, do I keep them on?" I decided to run them and we'll see what happens. But then I had also done some skills training with them on the bike path. "Ok, let's get on the bars and see how quickly I can react, take my hands off, how fast can I take corners in the bars." I wanted to make sure I was being safe for both me and everyone around me. I think being able to be safe was important to me.
We were dialed. We had an Airbnb out in the middle of nowhere about 40 minutes from the start line, so we got to avoid all the craziness that happens before the race. I didn't have any interviews, any commitments, and it made it pretty casual, and it made our job of showing up and performing a whole lot easier.
Zach Schuster: What was the beginning like and what was the key for you? This was the first one I missed since 2017, so I was pretty bummed I wasn't there, but I always like seeing how things play out. What was the key for you to get in the position you were in?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I had done Rule of Three two weeks prior to Unbound and had kind of gotten swallowed up at the start and had to put in a big effort to chase the front group down. I knew staying up front was going to be pretty key. Staying in that top 20 to top 30 position. Looking at the course, I knew which points were going to be pretty important, and I knew where Keegan and Russell were looking to push it a little bit harder, so I knew I had to be up farther. I knew I would drop back, so if I drop back from 20th to 30th, that's a lot better than 40th to 60th. Those tactical things kind of add up.
I knew when it was important to really fight for your spot. Once we made a left onto YY Road, it got pretty narrow, and that's when all the crashes really started to happen. I could see girls in front of me, oops, they crashed. We started going again, I'm like, "Okay there's these three girls in front of me." It was hard to keep track of who was there. When I had kind of gotten disconnected from the group, I was in a smaller group, and I was like, "That's a pack of 40 to 50 men up there. I need to make a connection just in case there's a female there. I have no idea where the other race favorites are."
So I went so hard to connect. Right as I was making contact, Ian Boswell had just bridged up after a flat, and he was like, "I'm pretty sure you're the first female." And I said, "I don't know who's up there." He said, "There was no one up with us when I was up there, and then I had passed all the race favorites." I decided to just get the lay of the land when I was up there, and sure enough, I looked around and was like, "Oh, yup, I am the only female. It's just me and 60 guys." That was pretty cool.
Zach Schuster: What you're describing is an interesting aspect of the racing. Last year I was at some spot, and Lauren comes by and asks, "What place am I in?" And I said, "I'm pretty sure you're winning." And she responded, "Oh sweet." So I was the first person to tell her she was going to win Unbound. Ian served the same purpose for you. You got Ian Boswell, the winner from last year, she was stuck with me.
What's that like? It's got to be kind of weird? But it sounds like tactically you had the confidence to dig deeper. Do you think things would have turned out differently if you hadn't had that approach, where you're like, "I need to be a part of that group. I might lose a couple matches, but I need to be part of that group."
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I knew I was really fit coming into the race. I had a couple really key workouts where I knew I could recover from big efforts. And I knew at the mesa, the guys would go kind of easy, which would give me some nice recovery time.
But I had nothing to lose. I only wanted to prove to myself what I was capable of. Specialized said we understand if you focus on Unbound, it could mean a horrible rest of your season. If you guys want to put all your eggs in Unbound, go for it, but if you just want to ride it, we totally understand. So I just had no pressure.
I'm not the biggest fan of the Cinch-Rise program, for sure. Literally nothing against Lauren, I'm not a fan of Tom Danielson, so anything I could do to make sure they couldn't claim another Unbound victory was going to be a win in my book. I was like, "Well, we'll just go and risk it. If I blow up, I blow up. And if I don't, maybe I'm going to win the biggest gravel race in the world." I had nothing to lose by taking such a big risk.
Zach Schuster: We like to help y'all out whenever we can, and it sounds like you're kind of motivated by external factors, so do you need us to talk shit about you?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Oh please do. I think it's fun. It's competition, I'm not out there for butterflies and hugs. I did not race Unbound for a good time.
I talked to Sarah Sturm the other day, and I told her that when I saw the video of her, Evelyn Dong, Howard Grotts, and Stephan Davoust at the mud pit and they were just giggling and laughing, I was like "You lucky turds. That was not my experience in that mud pit." She was like shoving donuts in her mouth. That was not the same Unbound I raced.
If I am going to be there, I am going to perform. I want to have my best race. I'm not there just to participate. If there's drama that goes with it or a little bit of shit talking, why not? Let's make the sport more interesting. Let's not be your stereotypical cyclists. People love that personality to show through. You know, I own it when when I had a bad day. I owned it that I completed sucked, by my standards, at Crusher. I think the sport could use a little more spiciness, and I am definitely providing that to the LifeTime Grand Prix series.
Zach Schuster: Finishing up here shortly, one thing that I guess kind of annoys me is these WorldTour guys saying, "Oh, gravel is all about the vibes and people are taking it too seriously." I would argue Unbound is the biggest bike race in America right now, and we've seen it change the trajectory of people's careers. One, what are your thoughts on that? And two, how have things changed for you being an Unbound winner?
Sofia Gomez Villafane: I'll answer the second part first. It honestly hasn't changed much. I was telling Keegan, I was on Andrew L'Esperance and Haley Smith's podcast, but that was arranged before I had won it. I talked to Cycling News about aero bars and Betsy Welch got a few quotes, but it didn't really change me or my presence. Keegan was like, "You were already a big name before you won that race. You just got to tick off a big goal. You had already made it into the sport." Where for someone like Lauren De Crescenzo or Ivar Slik, it's going to be more career-making.
I think the WorldTour riders who have retired from that and are racing gravel have already gotten to make their career and are kind of doing this for fun. But there's a lot of us who are younger and this is the career. This is our living and we don't have that cushion of having earned 6 figures in road racing and are now doing gravel for fun. It's still fun, but we still want the racing to be racing. Sarah [Sturm] was like, "You just need to learn how to stop at aid stations." I'm like, "No Sarah, I'm here to race. I'm not going to stop if I don't have to." And she responded, "It's just what you do in gravel." It's like, "No, that's what you did in gravel before there were contracts and bonuses and career-making results." The sport has taken on a lot more professionalism, and people are there to race and the level of competition is just that much higher. I think those "chill" vibes during the racing are no longer there. It's a lot more intense and pretty cutthroat.
Zach Schuster: Awesome. Well thanks for your time and congrats on everything you've accomplished in the last year. Hopefully we'll get to chat about more wins in the future.
Sofia Gomez Villafane: Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it.