The sun has now set over the hills on Kansas, bikes now clean and packed away, and all riders accounted for. Unbound for 2023 is over. Yet, there remains a question – a debate perhaps – over one short section of the course, which ultimately led to the concerning rate of non-finishers.
This question is not focused on the front of the race. They (we) have our feelings and opinions on the day, but the pro riders are expected to be there, and will be back regardless.
Rather, I encourage this debate for those who’ve paid their way to the event, perhaps even waiting years to win their lottery ticket to be allowed to race. For these riders who’ve dreamt of taking on this incredible feat, devoting time, energy and money, was this really fair?
We’re always reading articles on the pros, but, for me, mass participation events are exactly that, for the masses, regardless of speed or ability. So this is why I ask this question: was it wrong to not reroute the course?
The section of course in question is known as ‘D hill’. It sits 10 miles into the race and was last used in 2015, the infamous year of peanut butter mud and spectacular attrition rates. It was a very welcome re-addition to the course as it is a hard series of punchy climbs and fast descents which, in dry conditions, would set the tone for the race, and split the fast from the slow. The only fear, is if it was wet again.
I rode this section the day before the race in the dry, where I met the owner of the land whose house sits neatly tucked in beside the top of the climb, marked by a beautiful red painted wooden barn and a very big USA flag proudly mounted onto a tall white flagpole. It’s Kansas after all. Quite a character.
He showed me his truck, one with wheels as high as my chest, and tires that looked like they’ve been taken from an army tank. He told me that if it’s muddy, this is the minimum requirement for him to be able to drive to work and back, and that he’d had other 4×4 cars stuck in the pit for days at a time in the past. This section of road is infamous in the area. All the locals know it’s a mud pit. So it’s safe to say that it’s a known quantity that this part of the course would be outrageously bad on bikes if it were to be wet again.
Murphy’s law, which states ‘If it can go wrong, it will’, was truly in force. The storm of all storms rolled into Emporia the Friday afternoon, right in time for the 350-mile race to begin at 5pm. Clearly, this was just…
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