With a little under two weeks to go, how are we all feeling? Got the training in? Equipment dialed? Weather predictions?
I had to defer until next year. Hated to miss the “south” direction as a lot of people described it as the better direction.
I had to defer as well due to some family/logistical issues. Was also looking forward to the south route as I did the north version a couple of years ago.
In for the XL.
I’m feeling undertrained, but that’s better than overtrained or injured. I had A LOT of practice plugging tires at Rule of Three this past weekend, so I guess that’s good.
I’ve had some 42c pathfinders on order from specialized through my LBS for a while, and they are taking forever to get here; even though they show that they are in stock. Hopefully they are here in time!
Unbound requires all athletes in the XL to either have or rent a satellite tracker, so i just bought an Inreach Messenger last week. A few weeks ago I ordered a new top tube bag from a local guy (Steady Co) who makes some amazing stuff. He said he’d have it done in time for Unbound, but i haven’t seen it yet. I’m still hopeful/optimistic that all of the equipment stuff will come together before i leave for Emporia next Thursday.
My son and I are in for the 100 miler. Had an epic ride last year in the rain and mud. My son is definitely ready…
Are you coming from Oz specifically for this event?
Weather…we’re still 10 days out and last year’s thunderstorm was only at 30% the morning of, so anything can happen. As they say, if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes!
Sorry to hear about the deferrals, EyeRunMD and logella. I came off on a ride two weeks back and bruised some ribs and between poor sleep from that and keeping the training up + work stress, I’ve been laid low with the flu the last few days. That should all clear up in the next day or so though.
rob, i hear you on the pathfinders. I had a pair on backorder for ages, but ended up pulling the trigger on a pair of Panaracer GK SK’s in 43. Im not competing for anything so hopefully they will do the trick for comfort and puncture resistance. Massive props for tackling the XL. Im in for the 200 and certainly have a healthy respect for the challenge ahead.
scooter, I’m based in NYC now, so not as far to travel ;). Agreed, seems like we could be in for any and all weather on the day.
With a little under two weeks to go, how are we all feeling? Got the training in? Equipment dialed? Weather predictions?
Have you ridden Unbound previously? This was going to be my first time at the race (have been lucky enough to get into Steamboat Gravel the past two years)
This will be my first and potentially last. My Mrs and I are expecting our first and looking to relo back to Aus at the end of the year.
I’ve heard great things about SBT. Its a shame you won’t make it to this Unbound, but I’m sure you’ll get another shot.
I’m doing unbound XL as well. Just installed my Pathfinders which I got in 2 days from the internet. Put some liners in for good measure.
I decided to rent a tracker as I don’t have much need for one long term.
I got my butt kicked last year in the 200 so decided to come back and get my butt kicked again.
Well…that was hard.
Conditions looked brutal, how about a race report?
I did the XL for the first time. My friend and I had a plan to stick together all day. About 30 minutes before the race, it felt crazy hot. Then right when we were starting there was a rumble of thunder and a cool breeze took over. In that moment I was pleased, but it was a bad sign of the things to come.
The race started off with a fairly neutral feeling rollout, and a half mile in we were stopped by a train. After that, it was pretty calm and comfortable until about when we crossed the turnpike, yo towards the radio tower. It started getting surgy, and when we hit the first chunky section my buddy and I decided to back off and save our matches for later. I think there were about 25 people in the group in front of us.
A few miles later there was some barbed wire going across the road at some cattle guards. It was one person at a time going over it, and pretty sketchy in road shoes. We made contact with the leaders again there, but let them go a short while later because they were attacking the climbs and slow rolling the descents.
At mile 75 we stopped at a spigot at a softball field instead of waiting in line at Casey’s. I had heard the lead group all stopped. A few riders (Ted King, Tyler Pearce, etc) were talking about not stopping until mile 150, but they all stopped.
I think when sunset hit we were around 12th-15th place and feeling strong. Our pacing and eating strategy was paying off (kudos to the Saturday Morning app).
But then the rain started.
At first it was fine. We were on good gravel roads and it felt refreshing. But once we hit our first minimum maintenance road (MMR) things got ugly. The dirt was just wet enough that it was tacky and stuck to everything. Any less rain and we would have had no problem. Any more rain and it would have been wet enough to not stick. It was just as bad as it could be.
We are both riding 3t bikes. I have the original Exploro LTD and he has a race max. My clearance is a little better than his and I could have ridden almost all of the course I think. In a lot of areas you could ride through the grass, but it was risky because there were huge rocks, barbed wire, etc.
He was struggling with the mud, and I think this was his first mud race ever. I’ve had a lot of early-year Landrun experience and have a bit more time invested In learning where to ride, where not to ride, and when to walk (and not walk). He spent a ton of time cleaning off his bike when it was just going to get dirty again in 20 feet, so that’s essentially just time wasted.
Then his chain dropped between his frame and chainring and was jammed up real good. It took a while to get it out. And when we did get it out, it wasn’t sitting on the chainring like it should. I think the mud on the narrow side ring was causing it. But he had a ton of dropped chains after that. We got passed by so many people that I was beginning to think we were riding for DFL. We would go for long periods where we couldn’t see lights behind us.
Before the mile 150 stop he said he wanted to call for a ride. But he got some pizza and a soda and felt good enough to go again. But the next hike a bike section was a really tough one and he mentally checked out. The next time we got to an intersection he phoned a friend and pulled the plug. I think that was about the same point that Ted dropped.
I was solo for a while after that, but still felt great physically and mentally. I stopped to help two guys with flats, hoping the spirit of gravel would reward me. I spent some time riding with a guy named Max from Greenville and then a guy named Dusty from Alaska. Things were looking good until I got to Madison and the downpour started at Casey’s. It was freezing inside and there wasn’t a dry place to stand or sit outside. It was only 40 miles to the end, but the thought of doing 40 more miles of mud in the cold was a lot to process.
But I decided I just had to make forward progress. The mud sections after that were so wet that it wasn’t really sticking to the bike. With 20 miles to go a group from the 200 caught me right when we were turning into a headwind, so I got to sit on them for a few miles. That was a good mental boost.
I ended up finishing 10th overall (9th male). I was looking for an adventure and challenge more than a result, and I got it. Seems like a lot of people are upset about the mud and route and lack of aid. Even though it was miserable, that’s what I was looking for. I don’t want to do it again, but I’m glad I did it and I’m glad it’s over.
Congratulations on your finish. That just dampish mud is the worst. Great job…
Wow. I appreciate you posting that.
When you speak of the mud issues are you saying that it caused issues shifting because of it building up or?
Kudos for the mental fortitude. They say you quit and nobody remembers but you’ll never forget.
Thanks again.
The mud out there is very sticky. It sticks to just about anything. As you roll through it, it sticks to your tire (especially if your tires have tread). Then the tiny rocks also stick to that mud on your tire and it keeps building up like a snowball until eventually your wheels stop turning. Then you have to scrape the mud and rocks off.
I had ok clearance with 40mm Terra speeds but his clearance was more tight at his seat tube, so he seemed to clog worse and it was more difficult to unclog.
We both started with waxed chains. When he dropped his chain the first time and the chain wasn’t meshing well with his chainring, we switched to silca synergetic. I think that was a good choice, but hard to know. At that point we were having a really hard time getting the sram flattop chain into the chainring grooves, so any lube was going to be better than nothing (I think).
Congrats Rob!
You were one of the people I was obsessively hitting the refresh button for! Two New Englanders were in front of you, and of course, the first place woman. Incredible to have sat on my couch and watching your dots move! Inspiring for sure. . .but not inspirational enough for me to hav wanted to join. The thought of riding through the night and without sleep makes my brain hurt. So again, congratulations on a huge mental and physical win!
–Meg
Congrats on getting it done and especially with those conditions, huge accomplishment. Kind of funny how after 310 miles another 40 might as well be eternity. That’s some major suffering and overcoming the mental hurdles.
I ended up finishing 10th overall (9th male). I was looking for an adventure and challenge more than a result, and I got it. Seems like a lot of people are upset about the mud and route and lack of aid. Even though it was miserable, that’s what I was looking for. I don’t want to do it again, but I’m glad I did it and I’m glad it’s over.
Wow, congratulations and thank you for the write up, very impressive. I’m curious how much event specific training you did for this? Like how many crazy long rides or how much overnight riding did you do? Did you seek out difficult conditions in training?
As far as night riding goes, the last time i did gravel at night was when Midsouth was cancelled in 2021 because of Covid. I started their course at midnight on the day the race was supposed to be. In the winter time i do a good bit of fast mountain biking on single track in the dark, but nothing sleep deprived. I’m used to riding with a bike light.
I took two lights with me. My original plan was to have one on my helmet for MMRs and one on my bars for all the other riding. I learned on the midsouth course that the light on my handlebars is so low that it casts a shadow on ruts/rocks. That makes it hard to see obstacles that could ruin your day. But… i realized my Abus Gamechanger doesn’t really have vents in the right places for me to mount my light, so i just put two lights on my aerobars. It was good enough, especially since most of our dark miles were spent walking through mud anyway. A light on my head would have been nice for fixing mechanicals though. I’ll rig up something better next time.
For other specific training, I did a two rides around 150 miles in the last couple of months, but nothing longer. I did 100 mile rides the day before or after the 150s. The main thing is making sure you can eat enough, and that what you do eat won’t jack up your stomach. After that, it’s really about pacing. My non-scientific/non-researched plan was to have a NP of ~200w for what I expected to be about 20 hours of riding. My actual NP was 196. Honestly, i don’t know if walking had an impact on that or not (I don’t know if power was dropping as I was pushing the bike at 0 watts). I wasn’t paying that close attention to what my wahoo was doing during the night.
Otherwise, my training looked pretty much like it does every year. Long (100ish mile) rides or races on the weekends. Commuting to work (20 miles each way) as often as i can. Crit race every Tuesday night for intensity. I’m usually riding 6 or 7 days per week. I have 5000 miles this year according to Strava.
I didn’t seek out anything extra difficult in training. I guess the racing takes care of that if you do it often enough. I did Rule of Three two weeks ago and flatted (because I’m an idiot and rode fast tires with way too many miles on them) but felt strong all day.
I think I’ve done Midsouth (Landrun) for most of the grueling years so i know what mud can do to a bike. I won that race in 2017, the year with the worst DNF rate (i think that’s accurate), so i consider myself somebody who can get through bad conditions. I raced the 200 at unbound 2018 and 2019 and also raced La Grind and the Hondo (both of which are in the Flint Hills of Kansas) so I have some experience on those roads.
I did the XL for the first time.
Congrats on your race. Definitely enjoyed following you, a friend of mine, and the XL’ers in general. It definitely was an epic year. I was actually supposed to be out there for another crack at the 200 but had to defer to next year due to some family logistics.
Seems like a lot of people are upset about the mud and route and lack of aid.
Like you I’ve been in gravel for quite awhile now (especially relative many these days). Seems to me that most of this type of grumbling is coming from the newcomers expecting more of a road scene, charity fundraising rides, and even triathletes.
I really hope that event organizers don’t bend to these complaints and start to sterilize gravel. Don’t get me wrong. Organizers should do take what’s necessary to account for safety issues. But, when you go to events like UnBound, MidSouth, etc. you should know that there is a high potential of epic conditions and be prepared for it.