The 2024 edition of the Unbound Gravel race, the world's marquee gravel event, is coming up on June 1. Both the race course and the competition are slated to be tougher than ever before.
A last-minute addition to the men's peloton, announced today, is none other than UCI Gravel World Champion Matej Mohorič (Team Bahrain Victorious). The Slovenian will be joined by two of his WorldTour teammates, Matevž Govekar and Łukasz Wiśniowski.
Mohorič is currently in his 10th year of being a professional road racer, and his accolades include stage victories in all three Grand Tours, the win at the 2022 Milan-San Remo, and a GC win at the 2023 Tour of Poland. He was also a U23 and junior World Champion.
A rider known for his daring wins, Mohorič has proven to be versatile. He can win after powerful solo efforts from a breakaway, in a high-octane sprint finish, or after a long descent at breakneck speed. He'll now put his talents to the test in the Flint Hills of Kansas, where he'll be duking it out against North America's best gravel pros and an increasing amount of international talent, including former Roubaix and Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet.
Unbound Gravel, formerly known as the Dirty Kanza, is a mass-start gravel event that takes place in the Tallgrass Prairie and Flint Hills around Emporia, Kansas. With five race distances on offer and 4,000 attendees, Unbound has become the world's marquee gravel event.
The (in)famous 200-mile course is a true test of endurance, self-sufficiency and equipment. In addition to needing to fuel oneself for 11+ hours of riding, the sharp flint rocks are notorious for slicing tires and dashing podium aspirations. Along the way, riders also need to contend with the undulating terrain, headwinds, endless miles of sunbaked roads, and, if at all wet, carnage-inducing mud.
As the legend of Unbound grows, an increasing amount of international pros are making the long trek to middle-of-nowhere America to see what the hype is all about. The Dutch mafia, led by ex-WorldTour pro Laurens ten Dam, delivered Unbound's first non-American champion in 2022 when Ivar Slik outsprinted the favorites. A year later, Carolin Schiff from Germany became the first non-American winner of the women's 200-mile race.
But WorldTour experience alone isn't enough for a rider to do well in this challenging event.
"I think we've seen in the past that a lot of WorldTour riders come expecting to demolish and they're out with mechanicals or it just doesn't play out the way that they're used," commented American gravel pro Peter Stetina, himself a former WorldTour pro.
"Experience does count for something in the Flint Hills. I think it will be more interesting to see how the firepower at the front changes things."
The 200-mile Elite race takes place on Saturday, June 1. There won't be any livestreams of the race but the action can be followed on social media and an extended highlights video will be available on Life Time's YouTube channel on Monday after the race. Cycling Weekly will, of course, have the post-race reports as well.
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