900 UNBOUND Gravel Participants Abandoned the Race. Organizers Have No Regrets.
This last weekend, Unbound Gravel—the most popular and infamous gravel cycling event in the country—drew in 3,775 cyclists, a record number for the event which attracts everyday cyclists and high-level professionals alike.
The event also saw a record-breaking number of participants who did not complete the course (either because they physically couldn’t or chose not to) due to the rough weather and road conditions that pushed many, if not all, participants to walk or run long stretches of muddy roads within the first ten miles of their adventure.
Despite being well attended, many finishers and non-finishers quickly retired to their host housing and Airbnbs and did not come back for the celebrations of feats at the afterparty on Commercial Street.
A record number of DNF’s
According to the data from Athlinks, the event’s results page, 910 riders abandoned the event across the multiple categories, with 505 abandons coming from the 200 amateur category and 191 coming from the 100-mile distance.
That’s 23% of the total of participants and a whopping 550% increase in abandons over last year’s numbers. However, the data for 2021 shows a similar 19% abandonment rate, as that year’s route took riders north of Emporia, which roads are made of more technical and chunkier gravel and where headwinds are a more significant variable.
“My experience at Unbound was nothing short of gut-wrenching,” says Paige Onweller, 36, of Michigan, a gravel privateer for Trek Driftless, HED, ABUS, and WTB who raced the 200-mile distance, told Bicycling.
“As a professional, I dedicated months of work to this one race and gave up a large portion of my early season racing in order to prioritize performance at this race. I had a mechanical that caused me to be unable to finish, let alone pedal past 20 miles, and I DNF’d.”
However, Onweller, who used the rest of her day to help other riders get through the mud section, says she would still come back to the event. “Will I return? Hell yes. Is Unbound carnage? Yes. But there’s something iconic about this event, and I think most people, even if they had a bad day out there due to conditions, would probably still return.”
What organizers have to say about the situation
“That’s racing in Kansas. It’s just part of the course, and those are the [weather] conditions that Kansas throws at you,” Kristi Mohn, Manager of Gravel Experiences and Inclusion for Life Time Events, told Bicycling.
This year, the racers experienced a mix of rain, high heat (87 F), and humidity (as high as 100 percent), as well as horrendous muddy roads that forced many, if not all, racers to run and walk certain sections of the course.
However, race organizers did have a plan-b route that could have avoided the muddy mayhem riders ran into within the first ten miles of the course, but they decided not to use it.
“There wasn’t a reason to reroute,” Mohn said. “There wasn’t a safety concern there. The event is hard. There wasn’t a high-water crossing or some sort of safety issue that wasn’t insurmountable by the athletes, it was just hard, and there was a hike-bike [section]. We weren’t planning on rerouting it unless it was something more severe, and we had eyes on it.”
How hard is too hard when it comes to UNBOUND?
“This was my first go at Unbound. I trained hard for this event and spent a couple of thousand dollars overall to attend and ride it. Without miles 11-14, I can 100% guarantee you that I’d have finished this ride,” said Doug Marker, a 49-year-old firefighter taking on the 200-mile event to CyclingWeekly.
“Instead, I don’t believe I’ll ever attend Unbound Gravel again, because that’s a lot of hard-earned time and money I threw away so someone could get a chuckle out of the 'spicy' Mile 11 segment.”
Last year’s winner of the women’s 200 race, Sofia Gomez Villafañe, shared in an Instagram post her discontent with the decision by the organizers to not re-route and to advocate for the thousands of amateur riders who paid good money to attend the event. She told Bicycling, “I do want to make it very clear that as crazy as the mud was, I knew that it was only good for me, and I am not against making the course difficult.”
Instead, Gomez Villafañe is frustrated with what she sees as communication shortfalls on behalf of the organizers. “I am frustrated at LifeTime’s lack of clear communication. They should never have mentioned that they had a re-route that was easy for them to implement. Had the re-route gone into effect, it would have completely changed the dynamic of the [elite] women’s race. Strong racers like Lauren De Crescenzo and Paige Onweller would have likely not DNF the event.”
Organizers say this year was “a helpful reminder”
Unbound has been running since 2006, and seeing people quit their rides and abandon the course is not an unfamiliar sight to the organizers. They also saw high numbers of abandons in 2009, 2015, and 2021 due to similar weather and road conditions.
“This is a helpful reminder that if you’re going to any of these gravel events, especially the endurance ones, that you understand exactly what you’re signing up for. It’s also why we start with a distance of 25 miles [followed by a 50-mile]. If you’re not ready to do the 200, we want you to find a spot that works for you. You need to line up where you’re comfortable,” says Mohn.
This past May, Emporia had an unseasonably dry month, according to locals. But since Thursday last week, rain showers and thunderstorms kept popping up in Emporia and neighboring towns, with the worst of it seen on race day.
But perhaps it wasn’t the rain or the miles-long stretch of unmaintained road that turned into mud, but the high heat and humidity that took racers by surprise at the high of the day when even one of the neutral aid stations had run out of water.
Last night, a post-event survey went out to all participants of Unbound as organizers look for feedback on how to improve the event for 2024.
“[The stretch of mud] felt appropriate. It felt like Unbound to have the mud section. We’re not going to take the mud out to make it easier. I don't know how we would do that, honestly. Because you just can’t predict [the weather]. A thunderstorm could happen in the middle of the day. And that’s what ended up happening. There is a piece of this [type of racing] that is adventure racing,” says Mohn.
“Maybe that’s just what it was, a reminder of what this event can be like. You know, if you're gonna love us at our best, you better be able to love us at our worst as well in the Flint Hills.”
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