Twelve months ago I interviewed Maddy Nutt after she rode 260km with a torn ligament in her shoulder to finish the Traka 360 in seventh place. I expected the Brit, now riding for the Q36.5 off-road team, to come back for a fourth attempt in 2026, but it seems any thoughts of unfinished business have been brushed aside in favour of the longer 560km Traka Adventure.
Gravel races have always been long, with Unbound at 200 miles drawing a line in the flint as to what a ‘proper’ gravel race distance should be, but there’s a growing demand for longer, ultra-distance courses. Despite the greater distances involved, these longer self supported events seem to be attracting greater numbers year on year, both from the pro ranks (see Rob Britton and Lachlan Morton turning to Unbound XL for example) and amateurs alike, so I caught up with Nutt two days before she embarked on what would be her longest ride (let alone race) by a healthy 200km to find out what the appeal was.
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“I love pushing myself physically and mentally, and I think that’s also what’s driven me to pursue cycling as my profession, but like within that I think there’s space to do something that really is a challenge. And yes, the 360 is a challenge because it’s really high pace, but actually I know I can ride 360k; I’ve done it three times, and I actually don’t know what my body can do in this distance. The strongest part of my cycling is my endurance, so it’s almost like I want to test that and see… Can I keep riding for 24 hours plus and maintain a certain pace?”
No sleep ’til bedtime
I didn’t get any sense that the task at hand was intimidating for Nutt. Challenging, for sure, and a leap into the unknown – especially to do it in a race scenario – but all I picked up was excitement, except when the topic of sleep came up. While she has certainly ridden in the dark before, Nutt admitted she’s never ridden through the night, which will be necessary if she’s to hit her target of beating the women’s course record of 28 hours, 52 minutes and 9 seconds.
“I want to try and beat the women’s time from last year,” she said. “I think that that is feasible if I don’t make any errors, but at the end of the day, if something goes wrong, I’ll just turn it into ‘I’ve just got to finish this…
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