Cecily Decker Wins Bighorn Gravel for Third Year

Cecily Decker didn’t plan on being there. She was supposed to be heading up to Steamboat next week. Instead, she turned around and rode the Ram’s Horn Escape route in Gypsum, finishing in 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 14 seconds. That’s 10 minutes faster than her winning time last year. It’s also fast enough to win Bighorn Gravel for the third year in a row.

“I really like this race,” Decker said. “I wasn’t actually planning on coming.”

That’s the thing about elite endurance athletes. They don’t always stick to the itinerary. Decker, a former U.S. Ski Team athlete now riding for the Life Time Grand Prix off-road circuit, just couldn’t resist the local gravel. She rode alone. She jammed to a random Spotify playlist of T-Pain and the Grateful Dead because cell service is spotty out there. She didn’t know where anyone else was, so she looked back a lot.

“It was good,” she said. “I never had any idea of where anyone was, so, it’s always kind of stressful.”

The stress paid off. Sarah Lange took runner-up honors with a time of 5:42:33. Alexis Skarda, who was runner-up in 2023, finished third in 5:53:58. The gap between Decker and the pack is widening. In 2024, she won by 16 minutes. Last year, the gap was double digits. Saturday’s playbook was simple: ride hard, ride alone, ignore the competition.

Falvia Oliveria Parks, the Brazilian cyclist who finished seventh at the 2016 Olympic Games, finished fourth, five minutes behind Skarda. Lauren De Crescenzo, the 2021 Unbound Gravel champion, took fifth. Caroline Tory, a Snowmass cyclist, finished sixth. None could match Decker’s solo effort.

This win isn’t just about local bragging rights. It’s a tune-up for Steamboat Gravel next weekend. But more importantly, it’s prep for Decker’s biggest target: The Leadville 100. She finished third in the Cloud City last year. The goal this summer is to dethrone Sofia Gomez Villafane, the three-time defending champion, and claim the $50,000 winner’s prize in the Life Time Grand Prix.

Currently, Villafane leads the standings with 60 points. Decker sits 12 points back in second. They’ve only completed two of the six events.

“I just have a season-long goal of being consistent all year,” Decker said. “I would love to get a win as well.”

For context, Unbound Gravel in Kansas is arguably the world’s most prestigious gravel race. Decker finished second there in 2025. She picked up a “bug” at that 200-mile race outside of Emporia. After a “slow build” over the last three weeks, this Bighorn victory was confidence-building.

The field wasn’t unqualified. May Jackson of Avon finished seventh in the 52-mile “Little Bighorn” race. Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily captured the finish line action. But the top spot was always Decker’s to lose. She didn’t lose it. She just rode faster than everyone else, alone, listening to weird music on a phone with no signal.

It’s a good sign for locals watching the development of our own athletes. Decker is from around here. She’s riding for the big money. And she’s beating the best in the world at it. The 10-minute improvement over last year’s winning time suggests she’s peaking at the right moment. If she keeps this up, the $50,000 prize isn’t just a number. It’s a target. And she’s closing the gap.