Big Sugar Gravel, live.

Down Sugar Creek and across the Missouri line

Big Sugar Gravel starts and finishes at The Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas, on Saturday 17 October 2026, with three courses into the Ozark highlands.

The organiser promises “gloriously chunky gravel”, and the description backs it up: canopy-covered roads through the remote highlands of the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri, following Sugar Creek through the bluffs and hollers. The roads are rarely maintained, with loose, rocky gravel, a few pavement sections, a few water crossings and bridges. The 100-mile course is published at 163.8 km (101.8 miles) with about 6,400 ft of climbing, the 50-mile at 93.3 km (58 miles) and about 3,500 ft, and the 25-mile at 50.3 km (31.3 miles) and about 1,500 ft.

Starts are staggered from The Momentary: 100-mile elite men at 7:25 am, elite women at 7:35, the 100-mile age-group field at 7:50, the 50-mile at 8:30 and the 25-mile at 9:00. The 100-mile has cutoffs at Pineville, Missouri (mile 40, 12:00 pm) and Rockford Grange (mile 78, 4:00 pm), set on a 10 mph average. There are no drop bags on any course, and support crews may meet riders only at Pineville and Rockford Grange on the 100-mile; a crew vehicle seen on course disqualifies its rider.

Those crew rules are what make following Big Sugar hard: the people supporting a rider are not allowed to chase them along the gravel. A rider can share a link to their own Livebib broadcast, and family open it in a browser with no app and no account. They see the rider’s position on the course line, the distance covered and a finish estimate that updates through the day, so a crew knows when to be at Pineville rather than guessing. In a holler with no phone signal, the position is carried forward along the course and marked estimated. The rider decides who gets the link.