Thomas De Gendt made a name for himself across 16 seasons racing with ProTeam and WorldTour squads, largely with Lotto-Dstny, as a breakaway artisan. He scored stage victories in all three Grand Tours, including a Tour de France win atop Mont Ventoux, and finished third overall at the 2012 Giro d'Italia.
After retiring last season, he followed the path to gravel racing like many other professionals, making his first starts for the Classified X Rose Team with off-road stage races Santa Vall and Sahara Gravel. Even with just a short introduction to his new career, where he told Cyclingnews "I need to learn everything again", De Gendt did find some familiar turf.
"It's a bit like in the Classics, but you have to try and stay in the top 10 the whole time so you can jump in the moves that are happening and that way you don't have to sprint after every corner, either, as you do further back. So that's the biggest lesson for next time, at least for races where there's a lot of uphill and downhill: always stay on the front," De Gendt said in a column for Cyclingnews in February after his gravel debut at Santa Vall.
There were no big results for De Gendt, but he went on to Sahara Gravel to finish fifth overall, then took 10th at a wet and muddy The Hills Gravel and third on the first stage of Gravel Tierra de Campos, both part of the Gravel Earth Series.
There was no more time for a learning curve, as next up comes Unbound Gravel 200. It will not only be De Gendt's first time racing Unbound but also his first time racing gravel in North America.
"After all these years on the roads, it was time for something new, and gravel takes you on the roads that you've never been before. Then I do climbs from a different side. It's the more adventurous part of gravel that drew me also to this race," he said in a virtual press conference, attended by Cyclingnews, five days prior to Unbound.
"I hope I at least can finish it [Unbound 200]. That would be already a nice victory for myself. It's more of a race against myself instead of a race against others. I'm not expecting a big result for myself, but you never know."
It will be the longest race of his extensive career to date, both in distance and in time in the saddle. He was excited about the challenge and new territory.
"The longest race I think on the road was 300 kilometres, in Milan-San Remo and it was only six hours, 30 [minutes] or something, so this will be next level."
With just a few days for scouting the Flint Hills region of Kansas for a first look at the terrain, De Gendt reacted right away when asked how the course differed from the handful of off-road events he has ridden to start the season, notably that the "roads are much wider".
"We have the same kind of gravel in Europe, but especially the big roads and the long straight parts [in the US] makes it maybe a bit easier to ride in a bunch. So fighting for your position is not always that necessary. Where in Europe, most of the races are decided by your position, and here you can still make up a mistake."
Already in his abbreviated five-event gravel career start, the Belgian said that the tactics for gravel were on a different level and he did not plan to ride with the same aggression as customary on the road.
"No, no. No, my level is not the same as like the last years," he said with a small laugh in response to a question at the virtual press gathering about being in a breakaway at Unbound 200. "To train much harder than I did [before] to achieve that level, I was just not up for it, to have that kind of dedication again this year. I expected it to be a bit more easy in gravel racing. But the level is just super high. And I'm getting older. I'm not into intervals anymore. So I don't think it will be a breakaway day."
Several days of heavy rain have fallen in eastern Kansas in the days leading up to race weekend, leaving potholes filled with water and dirt becoming sticky. But the sun was expected to return by Friday and help dry the low-lying areas of the course.
"In Belgium, it's a really big race [Unbound]. It seemed like something fun to do. Now that I'm here, it just seems very hard, especially with the rain it will be a special kind of day on Saturday, so I hope it dries up a little bit."
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