The 2024 version of the Unbound Gravel race, the world’s marquee gravel occasion, is arising on June 1. Each the race course and the competitors are slated to be harder than ever earlier than.
A final-minute addition to the lads’s peloton, introduced immediately, is none aside from UCI Gravel World Champion Matej Mohorič (Crew Bahrain Victorious). The Slovenian will be joined by two of his WorldTour teammates, Matevž Govekar and Łukasz Wiśniowski.
Mohorič is at the moment in his tenth yr of being an expert highway racer, and his accolades embrace stage victories in all three Grand Excursions, the win on the 2022 Milan-San Remo, and a GC win on the 2023 Tour of Poland. He was additionally a U23 and junior World Champion.
A rider identified for his daring wins, Mohorič has confirmed to be versatile. He can win after highly effective solo efforts from a breakaway, in a high-octane dash end, or after an extended descent at breakneck pace. He’ll now put his abilities to the take a look at within the Flint Hills of Kansas, the place he’ll be duking it out in opposition to North America’s greatest gravel execs and an rising quantity of worldwide expertise, together with former Roubaix and Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet.
Unbound Gravel, previously referred to as the Soiled Kanza, is a mass-start gravel occasion that takes place within the Tallgrass Prairie and Flint Hills round Emporia, Kansas. With 5 race distances on supply and 4,000 attendees, Unbound has develop into the world’s marquee gravel occasion.
The (in)well-known 200-mile course is a real take a look at of endurance, self-sufficiency and tools. Along with needing to gasoline oneself for 11+ hours of driving, the sharp flint rocks are infamous for slicing tires and dashing podium aspirations. Alongside the best way, riders additionally must deal with the undulating terrain, headwinds, countless miles of sunbaked roads, and, if in any respect moist, carnage-inducing mud.
Because the legend of Unbound grows, an rising quantity of worldwide execs are making the lengthy trek to middle-of-nowhere America to see what the hype is all about. The Dutch mafia, led by ex-WorldTour professional Laurens ten Dam, delivered Unbound’s first non-American champion in 2022 when Ivar Slik outsprinted the favorites. A yr later, Carolin Schiff from Germany grew to become the primary non-American winner of the ladies’s 200-mile race.
However WorldTour expertise alone is not sufficient for a rider to do properly on this difficult occasion.
“I believe we have seen previously that quite a lot of WorldTour riders come anticipating to demolish and they’re out with mechanicals or it simply does not play out the best way that they’re used,” commented American gravel professional Peter Stetina, himself a former WorldTour professional.
“Expertise does rely for one thing within the Flint Hills. I believe will probably be extra fascinating to see how the firepower on the entrance modifications issues.”
The 200-mile Elite race takes place on Saturday, June 1. There will not be any livestreams of the race however the motion will be adopted on social media and an prolonged highlights video might be accessible on Life Time’s YouTube channel on Monday after the race. Biking Weekly will, after all, have the post-race reviews as properly.
The Newest Unbound Gravel information
