No version of the Unbound Gravel 200 is simple. The 200-mile signature occasion, truly 205.5 miles this yr, constantly delivers tough, rolling terrain by the Flint Hills of Kansas to verify of that winners earn the titles as King and Queen of Unbound.
The enormity of the problem appeared to construct to a complete new degree yr, with ‘peanut butter mud’ within the very first hour of racing unravelled the plans of even the perfect riders. There have been limitless mechanicals, misplaced positions, lengthy chases and DNF’s (plus in all probability just a few WTF’s as nicely) from debut riders and seasoned veterans alike.
Of the 57 elite ladies who began on Saturday, a 3rd didn’t full the occasion. On the elite males‘s facet, 1 / 4 of the 116 riders dropped out earlier than the end in Emporia. In comparison with a moist and muddy version in 2022, these numbers have been double the dropout price.
Many riders who have been anticipated to be up entrance all day, equivalent to defending elite males’s champion Ivar Slik or 2021 elite ladies’s champion and 2022 runner-up Lauren De Crescenzo, confronted disappointments of abandoning the race for which they ready meticulously for months.
“One factor I’ve discovered in my biking profession is regardless of how a lot work you set in, how prepared you’re or how arduous you strive, generally issues simply don’t work out. This race jogged my memory it’s OK to fail,” wrote De Crescenzo in a post-race Instagram publish.
“Fairly frankly, it’s a privilege to place all of it on the market and fail on the largest stage. I’ll sleep nicely figuring out my workforce and I put within the arduous work to arrange for this race.”
Nonetheless, whereas issues inevitably go incorrect in gravel racing, the sticky, thick mud riders encountered within the first hour pressured them to run cyclocross model or seek for a satisfactory line to the facet of the tough street within the lengthy grass, some crossing over wire fencing and destroying gear.
“My race was primarily over within the first hour,” stated De Crescenzo, who was a DNF after driving greater than 9 hours and pulling out with a bit greater than 40 miles to go. “I ran over barb wire early on, shredding my tires. That made for an extended day of cease and go, in the end placing me out of the race for good. My coronary heart goes out to all of the athletes adversely affected by the hour lengthy mud part within the first 12 miles of the race.”
That muddy part within the first hour of racing was ‘D Hill’, which had not used since 2015 when it turned a mud pit due to heavy rain. Friday evening rain this yr repeated the state of affairs.
In a compulsory media briefing at noon Friday, Unbound Race Director Ben Sachs gave the 50-plus members of the press in attendance an outline of the lengthy routes – XL 350, 200 and 100. He addressed the D Hill part as a notable addition again to this yr’s signature 200-mile race and famous that it was prone to heavy mud ought to extra rain fall in a single day. He indicated {that a} fundamental re-route might be made, utilizing the trail from final yr when riders continued west-bound on Freeway 140 and continued previous Highway D to Highway YY to cross underneath the turnpike.
No change was made to the course, even after in a single day rains. Cyclingnews reached out to Sachs and Life Time for remark, and had not acquired a response on the time of publication.
Charging forward with the deliberate route, 2022 males’s winner Slik felt the influence of that mud, in the end ending in thirty sixth place.
“Damaged rear derailleur cable after 20km. We dived right into a sticky mud bathtub the place all people needed to run and tried to maintain their bike as clear as potential,” stated Slik on Instagram. “After this part I seen the cable was damaged and I might solely trip on the 11. With 310 km to go.
“OK, I might shift with my entrance derailleur, so I had two choices. It turned a battle in opposition to myself and in the long run I’m completely satisfied I pushed by and made it again to Emporia after 11.5 hours of racing in arduous situations.”
It is a story that was repeated all through the sector, with riders from close to and much, the skilled campaigners and first timers within the 200, and throughout the opposite race classes, having to grapple with an Unbound that left thrice as many riders failing to make it to the end. Greater than 1 / 4 of the elite Unbound 200 riders pulled out earlier than they’d made it again to the end line in Emporia.
As 2019 winner Amity Rockwell, who was among the many DNFs, put it “Kansas giveth and Kansas taketh away”.
A list of mechanicals, crashes and maladies
Marisa Boaz, who received the 100-mile distance final yr, rode 9 hours and 38 minutes earlier than she pulled the plug.
“4 miles of sticky mud to start with (10-14 miles) was an fascinating transfer by the race promoters and it proved to wreak havoc on bikes and minds. I used to be pleased with the way in which I dealt with the mud however got here out of the part many minutes down. I simply began driving and was ultimately in a position to catch and move many teams of riders till settling in to a bigger group of women and men,” she stated on social media, noting an eventual crash at mile 88 brought about her sufficient ache later then stopped at mile 142.
Boaz was in a chase group with Haley Smith, the 2022 Life Time Grand Prix champion, and Sarah Sturm. Whereas Sturm went on to complete third, Smith had a depressing expertise on a trip to seventh place.
“For me, that was not a race for putting – it was a race for survival,” Smith wrote on a social publish on Sunday, including “I’m legit too traumatized to type coherent ideas.”
Adam Blazevic, who received the Gravel World Sequence cease in Nannup, Australia, rode for six hours earlier than calling it a day.
“Brutal day trip on the gravel roads for Unbound Gravel. Like everybody else acquired caught within the mud early, chased for 150km and rode again by quite a lot of the sector, then cracked and tried to get better, however in the long run my race was over 200km in. Haven’t cracked that unhealthy on the bike for a very long time, positively character constructing. May be again once more subsequent yr,” he stated.
This is what occurred to a few of those that had been anticipated to be close to the highest of the outcomes checklist, but had mishaps that despatched them tumbling down the standings or out of the race altogether.
- Lauren De Crescenzo – barbed wire and shredded tyres (DNF)
- Piotr Havik – rear gear broke off after mud part (DNF)
- Payson McElveen – again spasms, withdrew early and ended up delivering insightful reside race updates on social media from roadside as an alternative (DNF)
- Brendan Johnston – post-mud mechanical points (DNF)
- Nathan Haas – post-mud mechanical points that even stream bike washes and amusement on the irony of sporting aero socks couldn’t overcome (DNF)
- Amity Rockwell – fell again to forty first after mud part and pulled out for undisclosed causes after mile 166 time test (DNF)
- Adam Blazevic – caught behind in mud, solo chase again into prime 20 earlier than having to drag pin (DNF)
- Justine Barrow – survived mud into sturdy chase group however crashed at 137km (DNF)
- Tasman Nankervis – made it to entrance choice after mud however then acquired six flats, misplaced a shoe and rode last 40km unable to shift gear however nonetheless completed (61st)
- Mattia De Marchi – just a few mechanical points, however ‘no excuses’ (forty first)
- Ivar Slik – damaged rear derailleur and cable after 20km however pushed by (thirty sixth place)
- Matt Beers – obstacles, unhealthy luck and puncture however chased again (eleventh place)
- Paige Onweller – mechanical early led to desert (DNF)
- John Kariuki – within the males’s lead group after an early crash and after mile 79 had abdomen points (twenty second place)
