A yr in the past, Sarah Sturm (Specialised) completed third within the elite girls’s class at Life Time Unbound Gravel 200, referring with excessive sarcasm her 12-plus hour journey as “Funbound”. She mentioned she was pleasantly stunned by her podium spot within the 200-mile, mud-soaked race, which really got here in at 205 miles, and “for me, that’s nearly as good as profitable”.
Two weeks previous to her third begin on the big of gravel will get underway on June 1, Sturm has already landed in Kansas and pre-ridden a lot of the north course, territory lined solely twice earlier than and final in 2021. She’s recent off a podium at The Traka Gravel, the 360km distance, and able to sort out the second spherical of the Life Time Grand Prix on one other eleven-plus hour journey, the place the sudden is at all times to be anticipated – thunderstorms within the forecast, 2,000 extra toes of elevation acquire and a brand new take a look at with a wider hole at first between elite girls and newbie racers.
“I am type of excited for the luck of the north course. I had an opportunity to go experience a whole lot of these [new] sections. And I do not know if it is serving to with my gear choice or making extra questions,” Sturm advised a choose group media, together with Cyclingnews, in a pre-race digital press convention this week. “However we have now gone backwards and forwards of what bike, what tires, to experience for the north. Pre-riding it’s completely different than racing it.”
One of many speaking factors for Unbound Gravel 200 is the return to a northern journey throughout the undulating and unforgiving prairie of Kansas, roughly 92% of the 203-mile route comprised of tough roads strewn with tyre-slicing flint rocks plus elevation acquire surpassing 11,000 toes. However what makes this much more difficult is the inevitable percolation with rain storms and winds throughout wide-open grasslands.
“I am a fan of the mud and the weather and no matter Unbound has to carry. I just like the problem-solving of gravel racing,” Sturm mentioned, displaying a wry smile as she defined why she loves the game she adopted in 2019.
“I believe some folks suppose that it is as a result of I am attempting to cover health or no matter, however I simply suppose it is an enormous a part of being a superb gravel racer is problem-solving and figuring out methods to repair a flat. You must be actually environment friendly at considering by means of each single little element. I’ve by no means raced professional highway, however we will not put a hand up and ask for a bottle and ask for a brand new bike or a wheel.”
She has a various background in biking, having competed as an newbie on the highway, in mountain biking and cyclocross and a bit of on the observe throughout her collegiate years at Fort Lewis School, the place she meant to play soccer. A two-time US Single Pace Cyclocross Nationwide Champion (2018, 2019), she discovered herself standing on the rostrum at quite a few gravel races in 2019, together with a win at Belgian Waffle Trip California and third at SBT GRVL.
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This season will likely be Sturm’s third marketing campaign on the Life Time Grand Prix, her consistency rewarded with third total in 2022 and fourth total final yr. She completed eighth within the opening occasion of the collection, the 67-mile mountain bike race Sea Otter Basic Fuego XL. She blended in a seventh at The Mid South gravel race and third at The Growler, a 140-mile, Classics-style highway race in northern California.
Sturm mentioned she expects the strongest discipline for any gravel race at this yr’s Unbound, and he or she acquired a sign of the worldwide expertise headed to Kansas at The Traka 360 (228 miles) in Spain. After putting second within the girls’s class with an effort just below 16 hours within the saddle final yr, she returned in early Could for the 360 once more, which was modified the evening earlier than to 340km due to 4 days of heavy rain upfront of the race, and positioned third.
“This yr within the 360, it was a a lot deeper, a extra aggressive discipline than the 200 [for the women] however unintentionally, it gave me form of a sneak preview into what the competitors for Unbound within the girls’s discipline goes to appear like coming from Europe. I believe the ladies’s discipline goes to be one of the crucial aggressive of Unbound that we have had.
“The beginning of Traka began as shortly as Unbound will begin. So I believe that that is useful. And figuring out how riders do on the eleventh hour, for me, that was useful to see, like who has that additional kick.”
At The Traka, the gap and elevation acquire of the lengthy route was related to what’s on the menu for Unbound, moreso than any of the big, one-day gravel races on the calendar. Was it a superb preparation for Kansas?
“The 360 at Traka was related in elevation as Unbound will likely be, which is type of wild to consider. The rolling hills at Unbound positively stack up. There’s much more singletrack and technical driving and variety at Traka. I’m not a geologist, however there’s a whole lot of several types of rocks at Traka, and it appears there are fewer sorts at Unbound,” she mentioned.
“I positively was stunned with the north course and its magnificence and I simply do not suppose that there is that very same variation in sort terrain, it is Kansas versus Gerona. The course does a superb job of actually testing the bounds of every thing.”
Separate race for ladies
Sturm mentioned it’s “a totally completely different panorama” in 2024 than when she switched to a gravel focus 5 years in the past. Whereas she was disillusioned that Unbound didn’t implement drafting guidelines for the elite riders, associated to riders from different classes, Life Time did modify the beginning of Unbound 200 to offer the elite girls an extended hole from the amateurs behind them on the beginning grid.
Final yr the amateurs began solely 8 minutes after the elite girls, and by the point the elites had been slogging by means of the muddy climb at mile 11, the fields had been blended, so women-only techniques disappeared.
“To be completely trustworthy, it was a bit of disappointing to see that there was the no drafting coverage that we thought was going to occur, not occur. It is a way more costly, extra logistically difficult dialogue than simply ‘OK, no drafting of males’. You realize? I do suppose they’ll determine it out, hopefully, for subsequent yr,” Sturm mentioned.
“On the finish of the day, we simply type of wish to see a deeper, extra aggressive girls’s discipline. And with that, I believe group techniques might probably be one thing sooner or later. I might like to be part of that.”
On June 1, with the solar barely illuminating the throng of 1000’s gathered for a number of classes of races that start on Industrial Avenue in downtown Emporia, the elite girls will begin at 6:05 a.m. CDT, 5 minutes after the elite males, and the newbie riders sett off 25 minutes later at 6:30 a.m. native time.
“The oldsters at Life Time and Unbound are serving to us transfer nearer and nearer to get a good race for ladies. It is a actually tough element of ladies’s gravel racing, making it an especially honest race for ladies. And proper now we’re not, we’re simply not fairly there but, however we’re getting nearer.
“However sadly, it’s going to most likely be type of taking place to what group of dudes among the girls get into, simply because that is the way it at all times performs out, no matter a separate begin. However I imply, on the finish of the day, that is the race that we have now. So that you play the sport.”
