Unbound Gravel formed my profession. It’s the race I measure all the pieces in opposition to. It is the race that broke me, modified me, and in some way convinces me to maintain coming again for extra.
In 2019 I began my first Unbound Gravel 200, however crashed within the first 30 miles, a damaged collarbone ending my day. After a COVID shutdown, I returned in 2021 and received solo. This 12 months in Emporia, I’ll try to hitch the 1,000 Mile Membership, representing 5 accomplished editions of Unbound Gravel and 1,000 accrued miles throughout the Flint Hills of Kansas.
So once I heard individuals referring to The Traka, the 360km gravel race by Girona, Spain, because the “European Unbound,” my curiosity piqued. Had I ever raced The Traka? No. Been to Spain? Additionally no.
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My findings? I discovered the 2 races could share a distance, a stage of status, and a spot on gravel’s largest stage however past that they may not really feel extra completely different.
The lead into Spanish gravel
My Traka race block began the way in which most privateer race blocks do: mild chaos. Sea Otter Basic Gravel then The Growler at Levi’s GranFondo, the place I raced 147 miles with 15,000 toes of climbing, earlier than boarding a flight the next evening to Spain with half the North American gravel scene.
Cecily Decker, Pete Stetina, Samara Sheppard, and a bunch of different racers and privateers had been all packed onto the identical flight to Barcelona wanting equally wrecked.
The week rapidly settled right into a rhythm that felt nearly cinematic for somebody who grew up racing gravel in Kansas and Oklahoma. Cappuccinos in medieval plazas, routes rolling by farm roads and mountain switchbacks in addition to tiny grocery shops full of muesli and espresso pods. After which abruptly, Friday at 3:00 a.m. native time, I used to be woke up from my European dream for a 5:50 a.m. begin, at the hours of darkness.
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The Traka begins the place Unbound eases in
Each version of Unbound 200 that I’ve raced has began with a wierd calmness. Positive, everyone seems to be nervous and certain, positioning issues however there’s normally an understanding that no person needs to burn any matches earlier than dawn amid a way of worry of what the subsequent 200 miles will carry.
The Traka felt like the precise reverse. The route is front-heavy with climbing instantly. The techy descents begin instantly – within the pitch black.
Then got here the start-line state of affairs.
What to learn subsequent
Firstly of the 360, Klassmark, the race organisation, by chance let tons of of amateurs begin earlier than the professional girls. This wasn’t the plan, because the elite girls had been supposed to start out 5 minutes earlier than the novice males and 5 minutes after the professional males.
When the organisers tried to show the age-groupers round, some determined to maintain using whereas others listened and rotated. That’s how the professional girls and the novice fields instantly intermixed. Then, regardless that explicitly in opposition to the race guidelines, loads of novice males had been drafting the professional girls. Surprisingly, this wasn’t one of many principal storylines of the day and it appeared to slide off the radar regardless that it affected our race.
If the state of affairs had been reversed and tons of of amateurs had been despatched out earlier than the professional males’s discipline it will be a distinct dialog.
Actually, the state of affairs highlighted one thing gravel continues to be determining. If you would like an elite girls’s race, you want sufficient separation for the race to truly exist.
Unbound has gone by related rising pains. In 2023, the notorious “mud 12 months,” the setup was: elite males first, elite girls two minutes later, and the novice discipline one other eight minutes extra. Between the ‚peanut butter‘ mud and the small time gaps, all of the gaps vanished and we merged collectively.
That’s why in 2024, Life Time began the elite males quarter-hour forward of the elite girls and amateurs then began 25 minutes behind the elite girls, giving us sufficient area to truly race one another.
200 vs 360 at The Traka
One of many largest variations between The Traka and Unbound is that The Traka splits the elite discipline between two marquee races: the 200 km and the 360 km. At Unbound, the 200-miler is the race. Everyone reveals up for that one huge throwdown in Emporia.
Technically, Unbound 100 is actually the equal of The Traka 200 (miles vs. km), however Unbound 100 is low-key and principally sits on the Life Time radar for U23 and junior riders who aspire to racing Unbound 200 later. The gravity of the occasion, the eye, and all the largest names in gravel concentrate on the star occasion – Unbound 200.
At Traka, the expertise will get break up. Some riders select the shorter, sooner 200, others select the longer extra unhinged 360, and it utterly modifications the dynamic of the occasion.
The Traka 200 is explosive and tactical. The 360 appears like an ultra-endurance race layered onto extremely technical European gravel. It creates this attention-grabbing query all week lengthy: who picked which race, and why?
At Unbound, everyone will get thrown into the identical washer collectively. At The Traka, it appears like two separate championships occurring on two separate days.
The roads utterly change the racing
Mid-western US gravel roads are vast open. You’ll be able to normally see riders from distant and there’s area to cross riders from completely different fields whereas out of the draft.
At The Traka, the roads are slender and continuously altering. Twisty farm roads, tiny bridges, city sectors, river crossings and steep ramps over 20% are frequent. Random sharp turns seem out of nowhere.
This 12 months’s The Traka 360 winner and former Unbound champion, Rosa Klöser, mentioned, “The important thing distinction is that Traka is way extra technical and terrain-driven, with fixed climbing and descending, whereas Unbound is all about endurance, resilience, avoiding mechanicals and managing the unknown over an extremely lengthy day.”
There have been moments the place passing teams of novice riders with out by chance getting into their draft felt nearly not possible. And as soon as I lastly fought my approach to the entrance as a result of I used to be attempting to observe the foundations, whole teams of novice males would typically keep connected to my wheel.
That’s one of many largest cultural variations I’ve noticed between European gravel and American gravel proper now.
Within the U.S., particularly on the larger races, there’s turn out to be extra of an understanding that the elite girls deserve their very own race with no interference. A number of that has been strengthened by the Life Time Grand Prix over the previous few years. At The Traka, it felt much less outlined.
Fallacious turns a part of the race
Each races have unmarked programs. At Unbound, navigation errors can occur, however the choices are typically easy: left, proper, or straight.
At Traka, the course continuously twists by tiny intersections, wooded sectors, alleyways, and random connectors that seem out of nowhere.
At Unbound, there are lengthy stretches the place I can mentally disappear into the trouble and focus totally on energy, fueling, and survival.
At The Traka your mind by no means actually shuts off. You’re continuously reacting, continuously checking the route, continuously scanning for riders, corners, turns and random alleyways.
By hour 12, I used to be hallucinating. Not metaphorically, actually, and in some way I sort of preferred it.
So, which race is more durable?
Regardless of all of the chaos, there have been elements of The Traka that genuinely impressed me. The repeated climbing creates extra pure choice and rewards pure health in a means that feels completely different from American gravel.
The course marshalling was top-notch. Drivers had been respectful. In Girona, biking is deeply woven into the tradition, but it nonetheless feels aspirational in lots of elements of the USA. Vehicles stopped instantly. No one appeared aggravated that hundreds of cyclists had utterly taken over the roads for the day and that stood out to me.
Unbound Gravel 200 nonetheless feels ‚heavier‘ to me due to its historical past, the Flint Hills, the climate, the unpredictability, the peanut butter mud and the psychological weight the race carries in American gravel tradition. However The Traka pushed me into totally new sorts of discomfort: descending gravel at the hours of darkness, preventing by countless teams, continuously navigating, continuously reacting, by no means understanding what’s across the subsequent nook.
Similar distance, utterly completely different experiences. Possibly that’s why each races work so properly.
And actually perhaps that’s the spirit of gravel – the unknown.
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