Hannah Otto’s FKT ordeal ‘hardest thing I’ve ever done’ and fueled success at inaugural Unbound Gravel

Hannah Otto (Pivot Cycles-DT Swiss) is good at racing a bike, be it a mountain bike or a gravel set up, evident by her current second-place position in this year’s Life Time Grand Prix. She’s also good at keeping a secret.

Not once, but twice she attempted a Fastest Known Time (FKT) of the 137-mile Kokopelli Trail near Moab, Utah. The first effort in the winter of 2023 ended in defeat, beaten down by freezing temperatures, hypothermia, lack of fluids and a ticking clock. Otto missed the mark by just 15 minutes after 13 hours of riding. She called it “the hardest thing I will ever do” and gained inspiration to repeat the effort this spring, smashing the FKT by more than an hour.