and UNBOUND Gravel is right at the gloriously chunky center of it.

develop moving into year two,” says Duffy Smith. “With a purpose rooted in elevating the sport of cycling, our team has spent much of the off-season preparing for ways to elevate the content and position the series’ competitors at the forefront of the sport. We hope to continue to inspire recreational cyclists to look up to these elite riders as inspiration to take on a challenge of their own.”

The action wasn’t limited to the courses, either. At each of the six events, Life Time collaborated with filmmaker Shannon Vandivier and his team at Cold Collaborative to capture and produce a six-part documentary, Call of a Life Time, that takes cycling fans behind the curtain of the Life Time Grand Prix story.

“The objective of Call of A Life Time was to capture the hearts of the athletes as people and to bring the viewer into a perspective that they’ve never seen before,” Vandivier said. “It’s easy to put pro riders on a pedestal and forget they’re people who struggle just like us. They’re emotional and insecure, in some of the same ways we all are, in their own context.”

From Monterey to Bentonville, Vandivier and his team used their lenses to explore stories like Sofia Gomez Villafane’s quest to prove the legitimacy of MTB riders, Sarah Sturm’s journey to find her unique identity as a cyclist, and that question every cyclist was asking at UNBOUND Gravel 2022: Gravel or MTB, who’s the better rider?

“My highlight last season was seeing Sofia win at UNBOUND,” Vandivier said.

“To see that story of “mountain biker versus gravel racer” take form on both the men’s and women’s side was really, really cool. I’m excited to see people like Keegan and Sofia identify as gravel racers now.”

In Season One (now available to watch on YouTube), Call of A Life Time dedicated one episode to each of the six events. By capturing both the on-course action and behind-the-scenes storylines, COALT brought a much-needed human element to the world of professional cycling.

“I think right away what struck me is how different all these athletes are,” Vandivier said. “When you don’t see behind the scenes, it’s easy to assume they’re all the same, or that they do the same things, or that they train the same way. It’s easy to create a uniform perspective on ‘the racer,’ but as individuals, they’re so different, and that really took me. It opened my eyes to just how human they are and how relatable they could be.”

Viewers seemed to reciprocate Vandivier’s sentiment, as the docuseries surpassed 500K views on YouTube in just a few months. As those numbers continue to rise and U.S. cycling interest continues to grow, so does the hype for the 2023 Life Time Grand Prix.

This year, the Grand Prix — and Call of a Life Time — is back, and Life Time is raising the stakes. By increasing the field of riders (70) and adding a bonus event (Life Time Rad Dirt Fest presented by Wahoo in Trinidad, Colorado, on September 30), the Grand Prix garnered expanded international interest from riders in places like Europe, Australia and South Africa.

New in 2023, cycling fans can watch (and ride alongside) cyclists like: Lauren De Crescenzo, 2021 UNBOUND Gravel champion; Brennen Wertz, a 6-foot-5 professional-rower-turned-cyclist rising the gravel cycling ranks; Isabella Hyser, who, at 19 years old, is the youngest rider to race the Life Time Grand Prix; and Matt Beers, a South African national champion MTBer who might just win the whole thing.

This increased interest and expanded field for the 2023 Grand Prix reflects a reality Life Time has been striving for since the beginning: the cycling world is shifting. Fueled by the intrigue of events like Leadville, Big Sugar and UNBOUND Gravel, U.S. cycling is back on the world map.

“Competitiveness is growing, and the opportunity to produce an income as an athlete in the United States is expanding,” Vandivier said. “With the help of the Grand Prix, the United States is no longer a place where you just go to retire as a racer.” UG