Rob Britton’s biking profession hit one other stratosphere three weeks in the past, touchdown someplace over a lunar rainbow in Kansas, appropriately sufficient.
The Issue Bikes gravel racer not solely crossed the end line effectively forward of 2024 Unbound Gravel 200 winner Lachlan Morton (EF Schooling-EasyPost), Badlands adversary Robin Gemperle, and Transcordilleras winner Laurens ten Dam (LSRF) after 359 miles of racing however he did it with a brand new quickest time, in 17 hours, 49 minutes, 51 seconds. With a brand new quickest common velocity of 20.13mph, Britton smashed the previous Unbound Gravel XL end time by 12 minutes.
“Actually, it was enjoyable. In the course of the race I commented a number of occasions, ‘that is sick’. And ‘oh man, we’ll get such a very good sundown’,” a relaxed Britton informed Cyclingnews on a video name two weeks after the mud settled from his endurance check, in a position to put his legs up on his again deck at dwelling again in western Canada.
You might like
“Principally, simply driving with guys I’ve raced my entire profession, simply respect between us all, and I believe only a ardour of doing precisely that. I believe at one level, particularly when it was Laurens ten Dam, Lachy [Morton] and myself, simply ripping into the sundown and into darkness, that was when it was actually particular. All of us, I believe we’re simply so related in squeezing the towel and getting all of it out of ourselves. There was nothing bizarre or something, like making an attempt to do a tough pull over prime of another person. It was like we had been simply going actually quick, and it was superior.”
From a mass begin on Friday afternoon at 3pm native time in downtown Emporia, the trio of Morton, Ten Dam and Britton rode on the entrance of the race as they handed the 100-mile mark. Nevertheless, because the radiant sunshine retreated to the west and was changed by a darkish sky with shimmering stars, Morton marched on alone with Britton trailing solo. Ten Dam fell again and joined forces with Gemperle of Switzerland, a first-timer in Kansas.
“Even later within the race, I keep in mind coming as much as Lachy and eventually catching him and mentioned ‘Yo man, I do know we’ll battle it out, this has been superior’. This has been such a cool day of racing – a full day and evening,” he laughed in regards to the size of the journey.
“You aren’t getting that fairly often, proper? Bike racing, particularly now, is so cutthroat and so severe. That is positive. I’ve finished that a part of it for years. I am simply not likely looking for that now. So what was it like for me [at Unbound XL]? It genuinely was enjoyable. And clearly, on the finish, successful is enjoyable.”
The most recent race content material, interviews, options, critiques and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Britton recalled that it was eight years in the past that his GC win on the 2017 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah was “fingers down” the largest win of his 12-year professional street profession. He mentioned there was an extended checklist of the reason why that victory was his prime profession street outcome, and never simply as his first UCI 2.HC stage race title or the largest outcome for his Rally Biking squad at the moment.
“The largest [reason] is it was simply reduction, as a result of I would been knocking on the door of a extremely huge outcome for a very long time. At a sure level you are identical to, shit, am I ever gonna get this [win]? Am I simply gonna be a man who defines himself with second locations and a few podium cease bys? I lastly bought the massive one on the race I focused.”
Throughout a number of seasons with Continental street groups, Britton did have a strong run of second-place and third-place finishes, from Tour of the Gila, Tour de Beauce, Vuelta Independencia and USA Professional Problem stage races, and too many prime 10s to checklist.
“The subsequent one might be Badlands, actually in profession half two. Badlands as a complete was actually particular, a full-on journey. After I bikepack, I do fairly a little bit of analysis into what I will do. However once I do these extremely issues, I’m so unbelievably beginner. I simply get by on health.
“The evening earlier than Badlands, I used to be going by the route and checking to see how far is that this, the place are some climbs? I simply ended up stopping right here, there and in all places, however I like that. That is a part of the journey.”
It was his 2023 victory at Badlands in Spain that despatched a brand new endurance file, as he lined the 800km (497 miles) race in someday, 14 hours, 20 minutes, distancing Gemperle by simply over one hour.
A definition of ‘largest’ journey on a motorbike will not be all about private wins for Britton. In 2022 he started his first season as a privateer in off-road racing, having formally retired from his professional street profession the 12 months earlier than. He achieved a Quickest Identified Time (FKT) of the British Columbia (BC) Epic 1,000km mountain bike course in 2022, driving the total size of Vancouver Island in two days, 9 hours, 24 minutes. That file was seven hours sooner than the 2019 mark.
“I’ve by no means harm myself so dangerous ever earlier than, or since, not even shut,” he mentioned after this 12 months’s Unbound XL file journey. “I could not really feel my fingertips for months. I needed to get a cortisone injection in my knee afterwards. Your complete physique is simply swollen. I used to be so emaciated as a result of I did not eat for 3 days. It was loopy. And in some way from that, I used to be like, ‘this was nice, I ought to do extra of those’.”
Stalking Morton
Britton had his earlier finest end at Unbound Gravel 200 in his first look in 2022, the place he was sixth. His sophomore gravel season he bookended the 12 months with victories on the Belgian Waffle Trip British Columbia and Badlands, and adopted in 2024 with a win at Shasta Gravel Hugger, then podiums at Sea Otter Traditional Fuego XL, The Traka 360 and Oregon Path Gravel Grinder. The massive outcomes turned evasive for his 2025 marketing campaign.
“Earlier than the race, I used to be most likely struggling a bit with simply being glad racing bikes. I assume it is a product of years of doing it. Normally, if you put in a variety of work, you get one thing out of it. I had a reasonably good couple of years racing gravel, and the spring had at all times yielded some form of outcomes, one thing constructive. For no matter motive this 12 months, It was not coming collectively. I used to be simply getting blown out,” he mentioned recalling that even at The Traka 360 he encountered challenges with a flat tyre and chasing that left him in eleventh place.
“However then XL got here, and I used to be on a very good day. I did not simply get fortunate, as I had nice legs. That is sort of extra my factor, the extremely stuff now.”
Morton was the favorite to win Unbound Gravel XL. Why not? As the person who rode across the perimeter of Australia, 14,200km (88,823 miles) for a FKT final 12 months amongst his accomplishments, then simply 577km in a large loop within the japanese prairielands of the central US shouldn’t have main unknowns.
The one main reckoning for the Australian turned out to be a former foe and pal, not the climate, not the relentless rolling terrain, not refueling stops. Morton even mentioned he may inform the Canadian was matching his tempo, if not surpassing it, as a result of he may detect a headlight behind him for hours within the evening.
“I hadn’t ridden by the evening for a extremely very long time. I used to be combating what felt like a complete swarm of probably the most like-PTSD recollections of so many dramatic nights. However then I really bought into it, after which I used to be having such a pleasant battle with Rob,” Morton mentioned after the end in Emporia, rolling in a little bit greater than 5 minutes after Britton.
“It actually turned this actually loopy, form of a novel expertise the place we’re simply form of not collectively. That was one of many higher battles that I believe I’ve had, it was actually cool.”
The Britton-Morton battles started once they each raced on the street greater than a decade in the past. In 2015 the Australian gained the GC at Tour of Utah, whereas Britton was fifth on GC. Earlier that very same 12 months Morton gained the GC at Tour of the Gila and Britton was third. The 12 months earlier than Britton gained that UCI stage race and Morton was simply inside the highest 25.
They did race ‘collectively’ all through the Kansas evening, separated by just some miles. Britton mentioned he by no means noticed Morton’s gentle forward your entire evening, however figured he may see the sunshine of his bike behind in what turned out to be an eight-hour chase.
“We had been simply taking turns pulling. We had been shattered. I imply, once I was catching, it took perpetually, an eight-hour chase. I may inform he wasn’t pretty much as good as he was earlier, however we had been each taking lengthy pulls. I used to be like, ‘rattling, that is good’. The particular person you are racing in opposition to, you’ve a lot respect. It simply appeared becoming that it will finish in a dash.
“Then at one level, I simply rotated and he wasn’t there within the final 10k. I knew he was buckled, however I did not know he was as beat up as he was. He is so robust. All of us can go so deep, however for him to only go from being on the wheel to not, he was preventing. It is precisely what I might have finished.
“I look again and he wasn’t there, after which it began to sink in. I had 7 or 8k on my own, and also you’re pondering ‘he is gonna get a second wind and get again’. Then you definitely come into that lengthy straight [on Commercial Street] and that feeling was simply insane. I’ve by no means even come near successful Unbound.”
What bought Britton by the 18 hours? He mentioned he did not cease on the shops alongside the route, the XL race being fully self-supported, not even getting his go-to Coca-Cola.
“What bought me by was most likely caffeine greater than something. I calculated it was between 800 and 1000 milligrams of caffeine, which is quite a bit. I’ve raced my bike for a very long time, and doing that for a complete stage race is fairly dangerous.”
Will he return to Kansas for one more XL? Possibly attempt for a brand new file, or decelerate and the stops?
“I truthfully do not know. It is unbound. It’s nonetheless the largest occasion within the gravel world, for positive,” Britton admitted.
“I sort of have this factor too, the place if I win one thing on this profession ‘half two’, I do not actually love going again, you may solely discover disappointment doing it once more. Nothing will change that feeling of wanting it once more. It was so particular. Lachlan actually elevated the standing of this race to a reliable race.
“The neat factor about gravel is you are able to do various things, you may race it or journey it. I have a look at a globe and determine the place I need to go, not a calendar.”
Now Britton is an Unbound champion and has a brand new best-ever journey story. After a brief keep at dwelling the week after, he is again with a full block of racing in North America with a back-to-back stage races on the finish of June.
Subsequent week he tackles the five-day Oregon Path Gravel Grinder, June 25-29, which offers prime factors within the Gravel Earth Sequence. Then a number of hours after the end in Bend, he takes a flight direct to British Columbia for the beginning of the seven-day BC Bike Race, June 30-July 6, the prologue of the mountain bike endurance check happening the following morning within the Cowichan Valley on the south finish of Vancouver Island.
