Sofia Gomez Villafañe, winner of the Life Time Grand Prix

Sofia Gomez Villafañe has many accolades to her name. Olympian, winner of the Cape Epic, winner of Unbound, and winner of Leadville are just a few of her claims to fame, and she also happens to be this year’s winner of the Life Time Grand Prix after clinching the overall victory in just five races. Payson caught up with Sofia a few days before the seventh and final round of the series in Bentonville, Arkansas for a wide-ranging and long overdue conversation. 

In this episode, Sofia talks about how approaching cycling as a career rather than a passion has shaped her life on and off the bike, and how her single-minded approach to racing has led to consistent success. She discusses whether her goals will shift next year now that she's won the Grand Prix and how she thinks the tactics in the series will evolve now that the riders know the courses so well. She talks about moving to the U.S. from Patagonia when she was 12, and how her goals as a cyclist changed after she met her partner, Keegan Swenson, and her coach. She also addresses how we handled the ice pack controversy at Unbound, and the less dramatic reality behind it. 

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