I by no means thought I’d be writing an article about skilled gravel racing. But, right here we’re.
Unbound Gravel has change into the most important day on the gravel calendar. For many people, it’s larger than US Nationals, larger than Worlds. I made a decision to skip the US Professional Highway Championships in West Virginia to deal with Unbound Gravel this 12 months.
As soon as in Emporia, it’s rubbing elbows with different riders and business leaders, checking climate forecasts, and ending the weeks-long ‘Unbound coaching block’. It looks like an expert highway race with larger tyres, much less sleep and pancakes at 3:30 a.m.
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Earlier this season, I lined up on the Tour of the Gila, certainly one of North America’s few remaining UCI-sanctioned highway races. And truthfully? Apart from the lacking caravan that supported the peloton throughout 5 days of racing in New Mexico, Unbound Gravel felt simply as tactical and intense. However whereas gravel racing has advanced, the infrastructure is ‘off the again’.
Gravel has modified a lot up to now few years, particularly on the pointy finish of the race. We should maintain constructing race constructions that replicate the extent of competitors. Proper now, we’re nonetheless attempting to squeeze elite-level athletes right into a format initially designed for mass participation. There’s a powerful pull to protect the “spirit of gravel”, however that spirit retains cracking underneath the burden of the professional discipline.
The vetting challenge
Let’s speak in regards to the elite discipline. Technically, riders have to use. Life Time, house owners and organisers of Unbound Gravel and the array of 5 experience distances throughout two days, say they overview previous Unbound participation and outcomes from different gravel races, plus the classes throughout different disciplines. Athletes within the Life Time Grand Prix are robotically included, which, going into this 12 months’s Unbound Gravel, was 22 ladies, myself included, and 22 males earlier than including wildcards. On paper, that sounds truthful.
On race day this previous Saturday it felt too free from the beginning. The entrance group was quick, however the talent hole was broad. Emily Newsom went down and hit her head when somebody crashed in entrance of her simply 4 miles from the beginning, she mentioned. There have been others, too. I needed to navigate a number of crashes on Divide Highway, one of many extra technical sections of the course.
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Hannah Shell had a rider abruptly braked and she or he crashed, then flatted. Sarah Sturm crashed on Divide Highway too, although she mentioned it was a rut that acquired her and never one other rider, and got here as much as me mid-race asking for concussion recommendation. Sadly, I’ve had loads of expertise in that division, like many others within the peloton.
I requested Sarah if she had a headache or mind fog. She simply mentioned her head felt “bizarre”. She couldn’t inform if it was the “regular” sort of bizarre you get from racing 200 miles or the “dangerous” type that comes from a concussion. She pulled out of the race round mile 70 at First Assist, in all probability her first DNF in a serious race. It’s loopy to suppose that in an expert sport, we’re nonetheless self-diagnosing mind accidents mid-race. This should not be the usual.
It was on Divide Highway that there was a terrific divide within the ladies’s discipline, the place the successful transfer acquired away. I used to be out of place, caught behind chaos. The chance atmosphere felt increased than it ought to have.
Rewind to 2 weeks earlier, I met a rider in a sauna throughout warmth coaching. She wasn’t certain whether or not to start out within the elite discipline or the mass begin. She selected to start out with the elites. That shouldn’t be a selection. It’s like letting a class 5 rider resolve whether or not or not they’d like to start out with the amateurs or execs. That is unprecedented in different disciplines.
A separate ladies’s begin is a large step ahead, which organisers offered for a second 12 months in a row. Nevertheless, that solely works if the elite discipline is really ‘elite’. Vetting ought to take into account outcomes, security, talent, and whether or not an athlete has the help to race 200 miles of tactical gravel, safely and competitively.
Assist station escalation
Let’s cease pretending that is nonetheless self-supported racing. Assist stations now appear to be F1 pit stops – labeled coolers, musettes and hydration packs, a procession of group tents and limitless clipboards. The highest riders present up with severe infrastructure. It is now not a luxurious, it is now required to remain aggressive.
My ‘group automotive’ is my Honda CR-V hybrid. There are various larger autos, vans and different setups. Even I do know that if you do not have somebody prepared with bottles and energy at assist stations, you are not racing.
Assist Station 1 was in Alma, after 70 miles of racing. I ended for 10 seconds to get a brand new hydration bladder and my pockets full of gels. By the point I acquired rolling, I used to be already off the again. The sector had break up in two, and my group rotated arduous to shut the hole to these within the chase who did not cease.
Assist Station 2 was one other 78 miles later. I knew I needed to roll it, and so I did. I grabbed a mussette with meals and two bottles from my crew – husband, coach and feminine mechanic Deb. Folks had been all over the place, trying to find their help crews amongst a sea of tents and confused volunteers. It felt extra like an expo than a pit lane.
Perhaps it is time to mark elite hand-off lanes or separate pro-only zones so we do not collide with age-groupers mid-race. The 100-milers had joined the 200-mile route simply 18 miles earlier than, so it was crowded. I all the time concern that by some means I’ll miss my individuals and must experience again by way of the chaos, basically marking the tip of my race.
Drafting meets the parade
Then there’s the anti-drafting rule. Fast recap: Elite ladies can’t draft off males or amateurs, and vice versa. In case you do, you’re relegated to the underside of the elite outcomes and the LTGP factors listing.
It labored properly at Sea Otter. Why? As a result of we had separate days. The elites raced on Thursday, and the amateurs raced on Friday. The elite ladies began 20 minutes behind the elite males. The course wasn’t very conducive to drafting anyway. That was the smooth launch and Unbound was the true take a look at.
In Emporia the elite males rolled out at 5:50 a.m. native time and the elite ladies adopted quarter-hour later. Amateurs, near 1,500 sturdy, left at 6:30 a.m. and that 25-minute hole between us and the amateurs feels like sufficient, nevertheless it’s not.
Ultimately, our chasing group of 4, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, Rosa Klöser, Cecile Lejeune, and I, caught the 100-mile riders within the last 20 or so miles of the race. Most had been pretty. Some cheered, some stopped to movie us. Flattering? Certain. Harmful? Undoubtedly.
I acquired pinched behind an beginner rider and needed to burn matches to chase again on. A race automotive honked repeatedly as we handed. It felt much less like a race and extra like a parade, with leisure riders pulling off the course for selfies.
We had been pushing 22 mph by way of teams going 12 mph. As well as, TT bars are nonetheless authorized for amateurs however banned for elites, so we’re weaving previous unstable aero setups within the closing miles of the game’s greatest race. We took dangers as a result of that’s what it takes to win. However in these moments, the danger wasn’t simply ours. It was theirs too.
Sea Otter confirmed us the way it can work: separate days, separate fields. Copy and paste.
What wants to alter
If gravel needs to develop with out dropping its soul, it wants requirements, not purple tape. I really like this sport, and I would like it to develop. However I additionally need it to be truthful, protected {and professional}.
Gravel grew up quick. It’s not the quirky cousin of highway racing anymore. It’s really its personal self-discipline, and it deserves to be handled like one.
We don’t want to return to the previous. However we do have to be trustworthy about the place we’re and begin constructing a greater future for the place gravel is headed.
What wants to alter:
Vet the elite fields. Don’t let individuals resolve between elite and non-elite. Issues needs to be extra reduce and dry. Acknowledge talent gaps. Safer races begin with sensible entry standards.Separate begins and separate days. Elites and amateurs don’t belong in the identical bunch.Shield the ladies’s begin. Interval.Set help expectations.Standardize (or develop) assist. Extra construction = much less chaos = fewer journeys to the ER.
