Broken gear, barbed wire, mud wreak havoc on Unbound Gravel 200 favourites

No edition of the Unbound Gravel 200 is easy. The 200-mile signature event, actually 205.5 miles this year, consistently delivers rough, rolling terrain through the Flint Hills of Kansas to make sure that winners earn the titles of the King and Queen of Unbound. 

Still the enormity of the challenge seemed to build to a whole new level year, with ‘peanut butter mud’ in the very first hour of racing unravelling the plans of even the best riders. There were endless mechanicals, lost positions, long chases and DNF’s (plus probably a few WTF’s as well) from debut riders and seasoned veterans alike.

Of the 57 elite women who started on Saturday, a third did not complete the event. On the elite men's side, a quarter of the 116 riders dropped out before the finish in Emporia. Compared to a wet and muddy edition in 2022, those numbers were double the dropout rate.

Many riders who were expected to be up front all day, such as defending elite men's champion Ivar Slik or 2021 elite women's champion and 2022 runner-up Lauren De Crescenzo, faced disappointments of abandoning the race for which they prepared meticulously for months.

"One thing I’ve learned in my cycling career is no matter how much work you put in, how ready you are or how hard you try, sometimes things just don’t work out. This race reminded me it’s OK to fail," wrote De Crescenzo in a post-race Instagram post.

"Quite frankly, it’s a privilege to put it all out there and fail on the biggest stage. I’ll sleep well knowing my team and I put in the hard work to prepare for this race."

Still, while things inevitably go wrong in gravel racing, the sticky, thick mud riders encountered in the first hour forced them to run cyclocross style or search for a passable line to the side of the rough road in the long grass, some crossing over wire fencing and destroying equipment.

"My race was essentially over in the first hour," said De Crescenzo, who was a DNF after riding more than 9 hours and pulling out with a little more than 40 miles to go. "I ran over barb wire early on, shredding my tires. That made for a long day of stop and go, ultimately putting me out of the race for good. My heart goes out to all the athletes adversely affected by the hour long mud section in the first 12 miles of the race."

That muddy section in the first hour of racing was 'D Hill', which had not used since 2015 when it became a mud pit because of heavy rain. Friday night rain this year repeated the situation.

In a mandatory media briefing at midday Friday, Unbound Race Director Ben Sachs gave the 50-plus members of the press in attendance an overview of the long routes - XL 350, 200 and 100. He addressed the D Hill section as a notable addition back to this year's signature 200-mile race and noted that it was susceptible to heavy mud should more rainfall overnight. He indicated that a basic re-route could be made, using the path from last year when riders continued west-bound on Highway 140 and continued past Road D to Road YY to cross under the turnpike. No change was made to the course, even after overnight rains. 

"If the course is unsafe, or inaccessible, we would reroute it. Otherwise, the course remains," was statement provided after the event by Michelle Duffy, Director, Events Brand and Content Strategy at Life Time.

"Finishing a race in the Flint Hills is no easy feat. This event has seen intense conditions year after year; it is what makes this event what it is and why every participant leaves with their own inspired story. Athletes taking on the Flint Hills know that they need to do their homework, come prepared, be aware of the course conditions, and understand what is forthcoming. It’s not intended to be an event that everyone can finish. This is what has turned UNBOUND Gravel into the event it is today."

Charging ahead with the planned route, 2022 men's winner Slik felt the impact of that mud, ultimately finishing in 36th place.

"Broken rear derailleur cable after 20km. We dived into a sticky mud bath where everybody had to run and tried to keep their bike as clean as possible," said Slik on Instagram. "After this section I noticed the cable was broken and I could only ride on the 11. With 310 km to go.

"OK, I could shift with my front derailleur, so I had two options. It became a fight against myself and in the end I am happy I pushed through and made it back to Emporia after 11.5 hours of racing in hard conditions."

It's a tale that was repeated throughout the field, with riders from near and far, the experienced campaigners and first timers in the 200, and across the other race categories, having to grapple with an Unbound that left three times as many riders failing to make it to the finish. More than a quarter of the elite Unbound 200 riders pulled out before they'd made it back to the finish line in Emporia.

As 2019 winner Amity Rockwell, who was among the DNFs, put it "Kansas giveth and Kansas taketh away".

A catalogue of mechanicals, crashes and maladies

Marisa Boaz, who won the 100-mile distance last year, rode 9 hours and 38 minutes before she pulled the plug.

"Four miles of sticky mud in the beginning (10-14 miles) was an interesting move by the race promoters and it proved to wreak havoc on bikes and minds. I was happy with the way I handled the mud but came out of the section many minutes down. I just started riding and was eventually able to catch and pass many groups of riders until settling in to a larger group of men and women," she said on social media, noting an eventual crash at mile 88 caused her enough pain 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. While Sturm went on to finish third, Smith had a miserable experience on a ride to seventh place.

"For me, that was not a race for placing - it was a race for survival," Smith wrote on a social post on Sunday, adding "I’m legit too traumatized to form coherent thoughts."

Adam Blazevic, who won last year's Australian Gravel World Series stops in Nannup and Beechworth, put in a strident effort to make up ground lost after mud delays by chasing back into the top 20 on the road, but then ultimately had to call it a day.

"Brutal day out on the gravel roads for Unbound Gravel. Like everyone else got stuck in the mud early, chased for 150km and rode back through a lot of the field, then cracked and tried to recover, but in the end my race was over 200km in. Haven’t cracked that bad on the bike for a long time, definitely character building. Might be back again next year," he said. 

Here's what happened to many of those riders who had been expected to be near the top of the results list, yet had mishaps that sent 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 section (DNF)
• Payson McElveen - back spasms, withdrew early and ended up delivering insightful live race updates on social media from roadside instead (DNF)
• Brendan Johnston - post-mud mechanical issues (DNF)
• Nathan Haas - post-mud mechanical issues that even stream bike washes and amusement at the irony of wearing aero socks could not overcome (DNF)
• Amity Rockwell - fell back to 41st after mud section and pulled out for undisclosed reasons after mile 166 time check (DNF)
• Adam Blazevic - caught behind in mud, solo chase back into top 20 before having to pull pin (DNF)
• Justine Barrow - survived mud into strong chase group but crashed at 137km (DNF)
• Tasman Nankervis - made it to front selection after mud but then got six flats, lost a shoe and rode final 40km unable to shift gear but still finished (61st)
• Mattia De Marchi - a few mechanical issues, but 'no excuses' (41st)
• Ivar Slik - broken rear derailleur and cable after 20km but pushed through (36th)
• Matt Beers - obstacles, bad luck and puncture but chased back (11th)
• Paige Onweller - mechanical early led to abandon (DNF)
• John Kariuki - in the men's lead group after an early crash and after mile 79 had stomach issues (22nd
• Alex Howes - flats galore (26th)
• Howard Grotts - gave his wheel to Specialized Off Road teammate Russell Finsterwald when he flatted (29th)