Nicely, it’s one other yr, which implies one other yr of riders complaining about Unbound Gravel:
In 2003 it was the surplus of liquid gravel (or what was often called “mud”), which precipitated a number of plastic bike failures and made the race arduous not in a cool Instagram approach however in a power-wash-your-asscrack approach:
The right response to this could have been “Robust shit.”
Then final yr riders have been upset as a result of they couldn’t alter their numbers:
The right response to this could have been “Robust shit.”
Now apparently it’s too aggressive:
Mainly, it’s a sufferer of its personal success:
When Unbound started in 2006, it featured simply 34 folks on self-supported adventures via the dusty gravel roads of the Flint Hills. It was by no means supposed to be the world’s premier gravel race. It was designed to be a person pursuit the place folks examined their private limits.
Plus, there’s an absence of respect for the elite riders:
“I watched somebody like Greg Van Avermaet combating for house, and I’m like, you guys know who this man is,” Vermeulen mentioned. “I believe the most important factor with athletes with the ability to self-select [the elite field] is that I don’t consider you’ll be there if you happen to’re not robust sufficient. At the very least within the males’s race, from the place I race — after I go searching — I do know a lot of the faces. So I believe what’s nonetheless lacking is a real respect and hierarchy. On the highway, there’s a hierarchy.”
And the feed zone is a whole shitshow:
“A number of eager eyes observed that I used to be in full driving package within the checkpoints this yr and was handing our Liv/Large riders provides as we rode via collectively,” mentioned Carl Decker, crew supervisor for Liv/Large. “The Unbound promoter encourages help workers to make use of ‘guides’ to guide riders to their pit areas. And that’s concerning the extent of the principles. There isn’t a signal marking the beginning or finish of the pit space. There isn’t a marshaling. Fairly Wild West.”
However how massive an issue is any of this, actually? Can’t we simply let these folks determine for themselves the way to feed themselves with out crashing? Does Greg Van Avermaet actually deserve particular therapy when he’s combating for house? It’s not like he was a kind of unique 34 self-supported riders; he’s simply one other growing old professional on the lookout for a second act by getting in on the entire gravel factor. If he has to make his approach via a bunch of white collar Gravel Freds utilizing their valuable trip time to move to Kansas for a aggressive biking dream trip then that’s his drawback–they’re paying clients, in spite of everything. In fact overestimating your personal talents and getting in the way in which of of an elite rider since you’re delusional is fairly unhappy, however finally the proper response to anybody who has to struggle their approach via a throng when collaborating in one thing like this–whether or not it’s Unbound Gravel or Lollapalooza or every other company occasion that also trades on its “various” origins–is “Robust shit.”
Additionally, why in 2025 are we nonetheless struggling to outline what “gravel” is?
Gravel started as a grassroots sport. It wasn’t meant to have guidelines. It wasn’t meant to exchange highway racing within the U.S. However right this moment, it’s skilled, aggressive and high-stakes. And with that comes the necessity for brand new guidelines, clearer expectations — and a brand new understanding of what gravel is, and what it isn’t.
It appears fairly clear to me that gravel races are the marathons of the twenty first century–a handful of elite opponents and a then shitload of different folks chasing their private finest and a way of profound bodily accomplishment to make them really feel particular and carry them via the remainder of the yr. (Nothing improper with that!)
Anyway we’ve recognized since at the very least 2021 that “What’s gravel?” is a SRAM advertising and marketing idea thinly disguised as a profound philosophical query:
If gravel is no matter I would like it to be I would like it to be a phrase I by no means hear once more.
In fact, no occasion needs to be unnecessarily harmful, however the excellent news is there was solely a “small uptick” in emergency calls:
One in every of them seemed to be the results of somebody saying “Fuck it” and driving onto the course:
Two folks have been arrested, and one Lyon County Deputy was despatched to Newman Regional Well being for non-serious accidents Saturday morning following a automobile pursuit. The pursuit started when a truck did not obey site visitors management measures associated to Unbound Gravel and went via the intersection of Street 240 and J with out slowing.
His need to get to his vacation spot was really unbound.
