Big Sugar Gravel: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The loop leaves Bentonville heading north and loses height on balance over the first sixty kilometres, dropping into the creek bottoms along Sugar Creek. The first climb worth the name comes at kilometre 42, and the low point of the course sits at around 265 metres just past kilometre 60: there, a short way over the Missouri state line, Pineville holds the first of only two aid stations. Up to that point the road is fast, sheltered and deceptively easy.

From kilometre 70 the course climbs back out of the valley onto the plateau, and it does so in series: between kilometre 78 and kilometre 122 there are six categorised ramps of 1.3 to 2.7 kilometres at 3.5 to 6.6 per cent, each worth 75 to 100 metres of gain. The last of them, at kilometre 122, kicks to 16 per cent. Nothing after that is categorised, but roughly 300 metres of climbing still stand between you and the finish on City Square.

The surface is the real opponent: loose, sharp-edged gravel on roads that are barely maintained, broken by short paved links, water crossings and bridges. The roads stay open to traffic, there are no drop bags, and navigation is your own job: a GPS unit, two litres of fluid, two spare tubes and a pump are mandatory kit. For much of the day the Ozark canopy stands overhead in autumn colour.

Pacing Strategy

The distribution is unusual and has to be ridden deliberately: the first sixty kilometres cost little, because the road loses height on balance and groups form: drafting is allowed outside the elite fields. That is precisely the trap. Ride the outbound half at threshold in a group and you arrive at kilometre 78, in front of six consecutive climbs, with nothing left. Treat the outbound leg as an endurance ride with the occasional wheel, not as a race.

The race is decided between kilometre 78 and kilometre 125. Each ramp lasts four to ten minutes: short enough to overcook, and close enough together that there is barely any recovery between them. Ride them seated and spinning: on loose gravel the rear wheel breaks away when you stand, and every loss of traction costs more than the seconds it saves.

Then there are the conditions around all of it. There are only two aid stations: Pineville at around kilometre 60 and Rockford Grange at around 117: with cut-offs set to a 16 km/h average, and two to three hours of self-sufficiency between them. Mid-October weather in the Ozarks can turn: in 2025 the organiser cut the 100-mile distance to 50 for safety. Build rain, and the much slower wet gravel that comes with it, into your time plan.

Training plan for Big Sugar Gravel: 12-week build

For a strong age-group rider the effort lasts six to nine hours, with the cut-off working out at just under ten. The character is mixed: 41 per cent of the course is flat and 26 per cent points up, but the climbing arrives in short blocks rather than long passes. What it asks for is a deep aerobic base plus the ability to ride ten short sweet-spot efforts in the seventh hour.

The long rides belong on gravel, not tarmac. Build two to three rides of five to seven hours over eight to twelve weeks and deliberately back-load the climbing: three flat hours, then an hour with six to eight climbs of five to eight minutes. That is exactly what the course asks, and no amount of extra total distance substitutes for it.

A third of the route points downhill, on loose, sharp-edged gravel. Handling is not a side issue here: practise descending on coarse surfaces, riding through water crossings, and holding a wheel with visibility cut by dust or spray. Tyre choice and pressure should be tested over several long rides before race day: Ozark rock is the single most common cause of a flat.

That leaves self-sufficiency. Rehearse fuelling across two to three hours without resupply, including fluid intake in double-digit temperatures, and ride at least one long session carrying the same mandatory kit you will carry in the race. Anyone travelling from Europe should also plan for the fact that mid-October in Arkansas can deliver 25 degrees or steady rain.