Robin Cummings takes the nonbinary title. Nine women enter the finish chute together. Cobe Freeburn edges Cameron Jones by a wheel width in a men's photo finish
A year after wildfires silenced Stillwater's marquee gravel event, The Mid South returned Friday with a new finish line and a new format — the first standalone pro race in the event's 14-year history, separated from the mass-start field and broadcast live on YouTube. Across 106.4 miles of Oklahoma red dirt, each of the three pro categories delivered a finish worth the wait.
Robin Cummings of Portland, Oregon, won the nonbinary race. Sofia Gomez Villafane of Midway, Utah, claimed the women's title in a nine-rider sprint for the ages. And Cobe Freeburn of Durango, Colorado, held off Cameron Jones by a wheel width to win the men's race in a photo finish.
Race director Bobby Wintle had said before the race that the finish line chute was "by far the scariest piece of the puzzle." On Friday, all three categories proved him right.
Cummings crossed the line in 5 hours, 31 minutes and 46 seconds to claim the nonbinary pro title — a win that arrived at a significant moment for the category. The Mid South has offered nonbinary racing since 2022, and Friday marked the first time it competed as part of a dedicated pro race day.
The Portland rider and nonbinary cyclocross national champion won by a comfortable margin over one of the most accomplished nonbinary gravel fields ever assembled. Rach McBride finished second at 5:59:45. The 47-year-old holds four Unbound Gravel 200 nonbinary titles and multiple prior Mid South nonbinary wins. Jamie Babiak of San Diego rounded out the podium in third at 6:07:51.
A fan wearing a "Here for the Non-Binary Race" t-shirt photographs the scene from the barricades, top left, as Bobby Wintle addresses the nonbinary pro field at the start line at Block 34 in Stillwater before the 2026 Mid South on Friday, March 13, 2026. The 10-rider field — the first nonbinary pro category to compete as part of a standalone pro race day in event history — rolls out beneath The Mid South arch, bottom left and right, at the start of the 100-mile race. – Photos by Chris Peters
Defending champion Li King of Oakland, California, finished fifth at 6:43:44. King's 2024 win had been one of the category's most dramatic finishes in race history — they suffered a front tire burp and dropped chain near mile 15, tracked down McBride over the next 80 miles, and sprinted to a course record of 5:18:05, winning by 14 seconds. King did not repeat Friday, but their presence in a deepened field underscored how far the category has grown since Mid South introduced it four years ago.
Ten nonbinary athletes started the pro race. Eight finished.
The women's race produced the finish of the day.
Nine riders entered the finish line chute together after more than five hours of racing. Four seconds separated first through seventh. When the results were sorted, Gomez Villafane had won.
The Argentine Olympic mountain biker and three-time Life Time Grand Prix champion, racing for Specialized Off-Road, crossed in 5:18:44 — just one week after winning the Valley of Tears race in Turkey, Texas. She now adds a Mid South title to one of the most decorated resumes in the sport.
A photographer wearing a "Here for the Women's Race" shirt shoots from atop a vehicle as the pro women's field rolls off the start line at Block 34 in Stillwater, top center, at the 2026 Mid South on Friday, March 13, 2026. Sofia Gomez Villafane speaks with Mid South TV after her win, top right, before going on to claim the title in a nine-rider sprint. Second-place finisher Geerike Schreurs of Belgium, bottom left, and third-place finisher Cecily Decker of Santa Fe, New Mexico, bottom center, react at the finish, while three-time defending champion Lauren De Crescenzo, bottom right, takes questions from media after finishing seventh. – Photos by Chris Peters
Geerike Schreurs of Belgium finished within a half a wheel width coming in second. Schreurs spent years as a WorldTour soigneur — working with teams including Lidl-Trek — before returning to racing at age 34 in 2023. She has since won UCI World Series events on two continents and finished second at Unbound Gravel 200. Cecily Decker of Santa Fe, New Mexico, rounded out the top three, also in 5:18:44. A former U.S. Ski Team alpine racer whose career ended with a knee injury, Decker pivoted to cycling and has steadily built a resume that includes runner-up at the 2025 Unbound Gravel 200 and second overall in the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix.
Three-time defending champion Lauren De Crescenzo finished seventh in 5:18:48 — four seconds off the winning time in a race decided at the line. De Crescenzo had arrived in Stillwater with a chance to do something no other rider across any gender or category had done in Mid South history: win four consecutive titles. She won in 2022 by soloing to the finish, built a gap of more than 12 minutes on second place in 2023, and set the women's course record of 4:47:42 in 2024. The self-funded privateer from Broomfield, Colorado, did not get her fourth Friday — but she was in the group that contested the finish, which is its own statement about the field she has defined for three years.
Thirty-three women started the pro race. Thirty-one finished.
Freeburn, 24, crossed the line in 4 hours, 31 minutes and 54 seconds — the same time recorded for runner-up Cameron Jones of Blacksburg, Virginia. It was a margin measured not in seconds but in fractions of them, and it gave Freeburn the biggest win of his career.
The Trek Driftless rider had been building toward a result like this. He took third at SBT GRVL in 2025, won Bighorn Gravel, and placed seventh at the US Gravel National Championships before moving to Trek's senior squad for 2026. Friday in Stillwater was the payoff.
Cobe Freeburn of Durango, Colorado, begins celebrating before he has even crossed the line as Cameron Jones of Blacksburg, Virginia, digs deep in a final bid to close the gap in the closing meters of the men's pro race at the 2026 Mid South on Friday in Stillwater, top left. Freeburn, top center, and Jones, top right, react after the finish line clock stopped at 4:31:54 for both riders. Third-place finisher Michael Garrison of Atlanta, Georgia, bottom left, takes in the moment after the race. – Photo by Chris Peters
Jones, 25, arrived in Stillwater as the heavy favorite. The New Zealand-born rider had been a virtual unknown 12 months ago before winning Unbound Gravel 200 in 8:37:09 — shattering the course record by more than 34 minutes — and claiming the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix overall title. He pushed Freeburn all the way to the line and will have to settle for second by the narrowest of margins. Michael Garrison of Atlanta, Georgia, rounded out the podium three seconds back at 4:31:57.
Sixty-five men started the pro race. Fifty-one finished.
Results source: ChronoTrack Live. Data captured March 14, 2026.
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