The 2022 edition of Unbound Gravel may have been wet and messy but in 2023 the degree of difficulty presented by the conditions reached a whole new level, with an early new section delivering ‘peanut butter mud’ that left many riders running and equipment clogged.
Riders, still packed in a large group, left the firm packed gravel roads after the Emporia start and barrelled straight into a mud pit after around 11 miles of racing. It sparked chaos and split the race.
“Savage, absolutely savage. It was unreal,” was how women’s fourth-placed women’s 200 rider Danni Shrosbree described it.
“From the start I felt pretty comfortable at the front and then we hit the ‘peanut butter’ mud, and it was absolute chaos.”
The field was split to pieces in that section, with some managing to somehow find a line through, either by avoiding halted rider and keeping momentum at the front or heading off the side in the grass, but so many more were caught up in the quagmire.
Shrosbree was among those that fought back after the mud section, picking off riders once onto firmer terrain, though for others it spelt an early end to any chance of taking a top place, or even meant race over.
“Today was one of the most hectic days I’ve ever had on a bike. It was brutal,” Nathan Haas, who finished 26th last year on debut, said in an Instagram post. He quit this year’s race soon after the mud.
“We hit a section … and it turned to peanut butter mud and I couldn’t believe what we saw. It was absolute madness. We went in like maybe 50-60km an hour after a downhill and then it was just guys running with bikes. It was utter chaos.”
The conditions that came after a heavy overnight dump of rain took their toll not just on riders, but equipment as well. Some riders had packed paint stirring sticks to help scrape away the mud caught up in their tyres. They needed them.
“No bike company designs bikes to be able to handle those conditions. Anything that has a tight tyre clearance, for a more aerodynamic bike, the wheels just weren’t spinning,” said Haas, with thunder rumbling in the background.
“Unfortunately my cassette was just covered with mud and once you get into a gear, once you’ve been walking long enough you can’t even get back into your pedals.”
For Haas, that meant walking eight miles carrying the bike, just riding in the downhill sections, and trying to wash the bike in streams along the way but ultimately there was no hope of getting back into the race and the…
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