Unbound not only by name, but also by nature? The world’s biggest and most prestigious gravel race – the Life Time Unbound Gravel took place over the weekend around Emporia, Kansas, USA, and what a dirty, brutal, and memorable edition it was.
When the cream of the world’s gravel pros and numerous ex-WorldTour road racers signed up for this year’s race, the one thing most were dreading was the rain, or rather the mud that it brings with it. The forecast had been for a fair bit of the mud making wet stuff, both in the lead-up and also intermittently during the race itself, and unfortunately, it was pretty well spot on. The mud in this region turns to what some call ‘peanut butter mud’, that horrible sticky mash that tends to want to stay there, and it sure did stick around this year.
The race is no stranger to mud and washouts, with 2023 being particularly gloopy, and this year’s race was of a similar gloomy and punishing ilk. As you would expect, this had a huge impact on the race and how it played out. Although ultimately, many of the predicted riders did indeed follow through – despite the bike and bone wrecking conditions that sidelined and stretchered a fair few prime hopefuls – in both the 200 and 360 XL races.
Unbound 200
Over the years, the Unbound 200, the jewel in the crown of both Unbound and global gravel racing, has played out faster and closer by the year. We’ve seen near road race speeds notched up by the recent prime movers, despite its brutal terrain and epic distance.
This year, Mother Nature’s dirty wrath flipped the script on the need for speed (and perhaps she had a wink for the current gravel aero trend with it). In the 200, riders were forced to battle brutal clogging muddy hell for many sections. Then there were the flooded sections, murky wheel-stopping sectors of hub topping depth, which sent one or two pretenders to the Unbound crown for a chilling dirty dip.
Be it mechanical, frustration or serious incident, many top names left the battleground early, although, and this somehow made this year’s race all the more epic – or perhaps that should be debatable.
Of the 62 elite women starters, some 47 finished the race this year. The race was defined by a lead group of five: Sofia Gomez Villafane (past winner and hot favourite) and her Specialized teammate Geerike Schreurs, Cecily Decker, Paige Onweller, and 2024 Champ Rosa Kloser of Canyon/SRAM. Ultimately, it came down to a drawn-out sprint, with Gomez Villafane jumping away early and just holding on to take victory ahead of Schreurs and Decker.
The elite men’s race was to prove a brutal corker of a mix. This highlighted the strength and power of the new gravel ‘super teams’, despite the conditions. The pre-race question was who, if anyone, could beat the Specialized trio of Keegan Swenson, Matt Beers and Madz Wurtz Schmidt, and ultimately the answer was to be nobody… well, almost, as Mother Nature did take a side kick here to spoil their red and muddy jersey podium flush.
As things fragmented, Wurtz Schmidt and Swenson went for a long one, well before hitting the halfway mark, taking Coby Freeburn along for the ride, though he faded and fell back.
Into the second half of the race, the duo’s lead was building rapidly, and with Beers policing the small chase group, barring accident, it seemed that the victory spoils could well be shared between the three. However, that’s when it started to fall apart; Wurtz Schmid shredded his rear tyre in a remote sector, and to ensure a team victory, and in recognising that the Dane was the strongest of the pair, Swensen stopped and helped try to fix the tyre. Some eight failed plugs on, and it wasn’t holding, and their lead was sinking in the mud. That was when Swenson gave Wurts Schmidt his own wheel, sacrificing the victory and the Life Time Grand Prix series for his stronger teammate.
The Dane hammered and slithered his way through the mud for much of the second half of the race, finishing solo with an eye-watering average speed of 22.38mph. Beers came home in second, five minutes later, Tobias Kongstad (PAS) took third, while Swenson recovered for a fine fifth place.
Of the 117 male starters, there were 80 finishers, and Specialized scored a 1-2 in both races.
Unbound 350 XL
Arguably, the toughest test of the Unbound weekend, and the one dealt the worst conditions, was the 350 XL race. Of the 237 starters across the board, just 59 would make it through, largely due to the weather conditions.
Defending champ Rob Britton left the race early, having not fully recovered from recent setbacks. Pre-race favourite Victor Bosoni also gave his best to the infernal conditions, conditions that also left gravel and road veterans Ted King and Peter Stetina seeking medical treatment.
Despite having been rumoured to start in the 200, Scott’s long haul Swiss ace Robin Gemperle rolled out into the mud of the night and scored a superb solo victory some 21-hours later. He did this all aboard the Scott RC 32-inch wheeler, a victory for the big wheels of the future? Max Agut finished second, less than an hour later, while Josh Amberger took third place.
In the women’s race, German rider Svenja Betz scored an impressive victory by 35 minutes over Britain’s Maddie Nutt, while Larissa Connors took a fine third-place finish.
Unbound tech and teasers
And the big wheel keeps on turning, well – in the case of this year’s muddy Unbound, it was turning a whole lot slower than it would do normally. Of course, we’re referring to the headline tech release of the race this year – the Scott RC 32-wheeler ridden by last year’s 200 winner Cam Jones and this year’s 350 XL winner Robin Gemperle.
Needless to say, it was something of a controversial one, and a brave toe in the muddy futuristic water for a major bike brand. The results? Hard to say, as I’d say it had little impact on the results, which is a good thing. We understand there was also a Salsa Fargo 32 incher doing the rounds of the curious paddocks – will 32-inch be the future? In part, in some speed seeking tall rider areas maybe – but likely not for all.
There were a number of Traka/Sea Otter ‘re-releases’ doing the Unbound rounds, some secretive, others less so, which has become the norm in recent years. Some of these bikes, such as Dylan Johnson’s ultra-leant aero Felt Breed and Danni Shroebree’s Argon 18 Anti Matter, have or are about to be officially released.
As much by results and big brand presence as anything else, the bike that perhaps stole race day show was the new Specialized Crux 5, which was ridden to a 1-2 in both men’s and women’s 200 races. The brand seems to have nailed the definition of an elite gravel racing machine with this, which in some ways resembles the Tarmac range with extra clearance for the bigger tyres and gravel tweaks, which makes perfect sense at this elite end of the sport.
Most of the Canyon-sponsored riders were on the CFR black beauty without a name, which was first rolled out at the Traka. We believe this will become the template for the next evolutionary generation of the Grail, with it also following logical race performance learning-based evolutions of late.
While there were also a few other recently released bikes around, perhaps the most polarising bike on the block was the yet to be named new Factor, which was ridden by various Factor-Rapha riders in the 200, including Roman Bardet.
The bike is quite reminiscent of the Factor One aero road bike, which came with that ultra-wide and high aero fork, which this new machine also has. Factor nails its colours on wide being fast, and naturally that also means fitting 50mm+ tyres is also a breeze. Factor’s 350 XL duo of Rob Brittan and Victor Bosoni, on the other hand, chose the recently introduced Factor Sarana as their ride, which is specifically aimed at the ultra arena.
There was also what appears to be the latest evolutionary step of the Giant Revolt, which could well morph into a racier and performance-specific model for next year. Along with this, there was also a Liv prototype out there, which could well be the basis for next year’s Devote. Both appear to also follow the path of specialisation – that being of prioritising speed and performance.
Overall, it would seem that the industry trend is very much following the evolution of elite gravel racing, in that bikes are heading for a more aero and race-specific future – while also beefing up for 50-52mm tyres. For those of a tech and performance leaning, we’d say that this will be a whirlwind couple of bike tech years – and if Specialized’s claims that the new Crux is around 10 minutes faster over the 200 Unbound difference, umm, watch this space.
