Unbound 200
Unbound gravel for me was not just a race but a milestone in my off-road racing career. The whole experience racing against the best girls in the world shaped me into a better racer than I was just a few days before. Tactics, crashes, positioning all played a huge role in this race which is something I’m very unfamiliar with coming from the mountain bike background I never truly experienced racing like this before, so it was a major learning experience.
Starting the race, I had the legs, I felt great but was in the back of the nearly 100 women in the elite field. I pushed to try and get closer to the front of the race but didn’t know when the correct time was to make that move up. Pretty quickly out the gate there was a crash right in front of me, and I barely made it around. I had to put in my first big effort to catch back on to the lead group, already burning one of my matches this early into a 200-mile race was scary but it had to be done.
The group continued to surge and then settle. It seemed as though they would surge into every technical section which made the race pretty dangerous at the back of the group. You could tell that many of these girls had very limited experience riding technical terrain. I got caught behind 2 more crashes in that first 35 miles. Each having to put in an effort to catch back on. Notably that 3rd effort to catch on was one of my best 5-minute powers which is concerning knowing I’m so early into the race.
Note that I was feeling good during this time but just had bad positioning and didn’t realize how many matches I had burned early on until it was too late. There was some road tactics going on in the group as well which I had never experienced before. Around mile 45 I was still with the lead group, and we hit Divide Road. I didn’t realize how important positioning would be leading into this sector. It was pretty much make or break. I wasn’t in a great spot and the girls in front of me were struggling in the slippery mud and I lost touch with the lead group despite putting in my strongest effort.
Matches burned and now I’m solo. I continue for a while until a group of 4 or 5 catch me and they seem pretty strong. We work together for a while, and it seemed solid until we hit another technical section and the girl in front of me couldn’t descend the rocky area and stopped right in front of me and started walking. Once I made it around, I tried to put in an effort to catch the group, but we turned onto a flat downhill open section, and I just watched them ride away from me.
Pretty heartbroken about this knowing I missed a key move, I continued to push as best I could but after all I was solo. Then, girls started passing me… drafting off the men. This was very frustrating for me knowing there was a no drafting rule and that everyone had agreed to play by the rules it was really unfortunate the advantage some girls got and were not punished for.
It seemed as if they just didn’t care about the rule and had the mentality that it was winning at all costs, and this really didn’t sit right with me. At the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do. I raced clean and I didn’t draft of the amateur men. Does that mean that there were miles and miles where I was solo watching girls fly by with men, yes. But, at the end of the day does it make it right just because someone else is doing it? And to me that answer is no.
Once I hit aid 1 at mile 70, I was pretty cracked. Mentally and physically. I got there and I said something along the lines of, “wow this is way harder than I expected.” Rebecca responded, “yeah the first 70 miles are hard.” Didn’t let me say anything else and pushed me on my way. I am so grateful she did this but, in the moment, I just wanted to stop and take a second, but I continued.
The middle miles were the toughest. Truly battling all emotions. They say unbound will crack you - and it did. During the race I thought, I can never do this again but after I was already thinking about what I can do better for next year. I would say mile 70-130 were the hardest for me. I was mostly solo just watching men fly by trying my best to keep pushing.
Then I caught a girl, and we started riding together and I could tell my legs were coming around. I was eating everything I had on me too knowing that with each carb I got down I would get faster and faster. We ended up getting caught by a group of 3 so we had a good group of 5 women, and we were all working together well.
After about 10 miles with the group of 5 - it started to shatter down to just me and 2 other girls. We went into aid 2 and I was actually feeling good now. I was really ready for this last 54 miles. I took a caffeine gel, my first one of the race and wow did I start feeling good. The last few hours flew by. I would catch girls, work with them and then they would drop off.
It was great to feel so strong in the last few hours it really shows that I have a strong ability to ride for a long time and that makes me really excited! I ended up catching a girl on the LAST pavement climb before the finish shoot. We sprinted to the line, and I came across with a huge smile on my face.
I know it’s not a result that might stand out in your mind, 44th place but that result doesn’t show what I actually went through out there. I raced a clean race, I didn’t break any rules, I learned a ton, I burned so many matches early, I went to the deepest depts of my mind, and I finished strong and hungry to go again next year.
That is my Unbound.
