Growing pains is perhaps the polite way to say that not everyone was happy at The Traka gravel races. Complaints ranged but summarised in one word what the elite women making a living at gravel racing wanted was 'respect'.
In just seven years, The Traka has grown to three days and four distances with 5,000 riders, plus another 15,000 people converging on Girona as supporters and spectators. In 2021, the Klassmark-owned races added The Traka 360 and saw 66 men and seven women compete. This year 1,121 riders were in the same event, 77% amateurs. It is the distance that most closely replicates Unbound Gravel 200 with distance, endurance and prestige.
"The Pro men's race got stopped and Gerard [Freixes, race director and co-owner] asked the amateur men to ride back to the start line because they shouldn’t be here. Unfortunately many of these amateurs didn’t listen, which I call the ’small dick syndrome’. To me it seems like they just want to show off.
"Yes, it was annoying we had to go through that, but at that moment it is what it is and you better accept it. Besides that, some amateurs after we called them out would move and give us space. Of course there are always some who still won’t move an inch and that is frustrating. It wasn’t great we had to navigate through the age group men."
Safety and fairness were a common thread for the two competitors at The Traka 360. Schreurs went on to finish third overall for pro women at The Traka 360. De Crescenzo made her debut at the Spanish off-road race and finished eighth.
"The rules according to drafting are very clear – you are not allowed to draft behind another gender. It all starts with us, female riders, to race fair. We all need to respect this rule and trust that everyone does. You never know if someone drafts and it is hard to check this all time," Schreurs added. "This doesn’t only happen in Traka, that happens in every gravel race."
De Crescenzo said the extra traffic on the course caused by so many amateurs was taxing mentally as much as physically, as she also wanted to avoid penalty for drafting.
"It was a cluster at the start line," said De Crescenzo who added that riders were in the wrong chutes and the starts were so close with amateurs starting between the pro men and women, as well as close behind.
The consequences of this flowed out on to the gravel.
"In this race, I was pulling a field of like 30 amateur men, and they just wouldn't leave me alone," she said with a sarcastic laugh. "And I had a hard time, I don't want to cheat. So I'd go in front of this group and just pull them along. And I kept telling them, 'I'm trying not to cheat guys'.
"A few times I had other women with me and just trying to navigate around all the chaos of the amateurs. It was extremely draining, mentally and physically. We're doing a 200-mile race. Let us have our race."
De Crescenzo is a veteran of Unbound 200, finishing with two podiums and a pair of top 10s and all four times she completed the race. Schreurs has completed it twice, going second in 2024 and seventh last year. While The Traka 360 is now history, the two move on to objectives at another Unbound Gravel 200 on May 30.
De Crescenzo may not have enjoyed the dynamic with some of the age-group men out on course but had great respect for the formidable terrain around Girona.
"I had no idea the course [Traka 360] was so tight and twisty as compared to the big, wide roads of the prairie, and 10-mile long, straight roads. You get to an intersection here [Spain] and there's multiple ways to go. It's so easy to make wrong turns. In Kansas, you go right or left or straight," De Crescenzo observed.
Schreurs had a bit more history at The Traka and remembered when there was just one mass start for all riders in each distance. She said all riders just need to respect each other, as well as the local terrain.
"Europe gravel is very different than American gravel. Especially in Spain around Girona. That is not the fault of the organisers. They have the most challenging and beautiful course of all gravel races," she said.
"Yes, gravel in Girona has a lot of turns and narrow roads, but that is just how the roads are here. It is not America, it is not Unbound.
"Gerard [Freixes] and Cristina [Freixes] from Klassmark, they build unique and challenging courses, which apparently not everyone likes. Did I swear during the race because of the course? Yes of course I did but being a rider you like to be out of your comfort zone and in Traka you for sure get out of that.
"Would it be nice if all the roads are closed from traffic and we had our own female race? Yes of course, that would be a dream, especially now it gets so much more professional and you can make enough money to ride full-time. But you know, by signing up to this event, that isn’t the case. The same for the pro men. I hear most complaints come from ex-road pros or mountain bikers, about safety and a technical course. This is gravel and if you don’t like that, go back to the road."
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