Rob Britton isn’t new to big efforts. The Canadian spent years racing professionally on the road, including with Rally Cycling and other top North American teams. But after a tough start to 2025, he says it was the Unbound XL win that helped him rediscover what makes riding great.
“I think I spent something like 63 days on the road in 90 between February and May,” Britton said. “It was plenty of time away, and the results weren’t coming. Just bad luck, bad legs, or both.”
After what he called a frustrating spring, Britton returned home and took a break from structured training. I mean, he’s retired, right?
Life as we know it
“I came home after Traka, drank beer, had dinners with friends and family, just got on the mountain bike and enjoyed myself. I think I did maybe three structured workouts in four weeks,” he said. “But that helped. When I’m happy, I ride better.”
Britton retired from the sport of grueling cycling, btw, after a long career as a pro. Now he’s enjoying his off-time riding a zillion hours in gravel races.
But the dude is loving it.
That return to joy paid off at Unbound XL, where Britton rode to victory over 350 miles of punishing Kansas gravel. He credits the success to a mix of experience, intuition, and just enough caffeine and carbs to keep the legs turning.
On nutrition
“We added it up afterwards,” Britton said. “It was something like 27 or 28 gels, another 800 grams of carbs in drink mix, and close to 1,000 mg of caffeine. That’s a lot.”
Britton said he knows his limits—100 grams of carbs per hour is about all he can handle for long events—and he stuck to that. “If your gut goes sideways, it’s game over.”
He rode a setup that matched his ultra-distance style: Factor Ostro Gravel bike with a Fox fork, aero bars for comfort, and 45c Schwalbe G-One RX tires. “Nothing fancy. Just what I know works,” he said.
The win, he said, was less about tactics and more about racing the way gravel is meant to be raced.
“No weird tactics, no bullshit,” Britton said. “Just guys I’ve raced with for years giving it everything. That’s rare these days. It was like, wow, this is what bike racing can be.”
For Britton, it wasn’t just about winning. It was about finding the spark again.
“A couple years ago, I’d never have seen myself doing the 350,” he said. “But here we are. The evolution continues.”
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