Unbound Gravel 2023

Racing
1046

One angle I have not seen mentioned much is the impact on the road and roadside with this. Damage seems likely in these conditions so I wonder what the locals and particularly land owner(s) think about this? I know that locals sometimes have a love/hate relationship with large events like this. Pros from the tourism and spending in the area, but the impositions during & mess afterwards can wear thin for some locals.

It’s possible that LifeTime and the event could get some pushback that might lead to change as well. The issues with the XL and gas stations is totally in line with that issue too, and could lead to larger headaches if it blows up.

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1047

They turned people away for the xl.

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1048

Next year I’m bringing wire cutters, I happen to find that the fence was open and walked though.

1049

Maybe they had a camouflage kit on and were lying next to their bike

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1050

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1051

I have friends who think gravel is a farce. Your literally paying for nothing. Here is the route, corners are not marshaled and they provide minimal support

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1052

I saw that bike too! Whoever owned it seemed long gone…

1053

In the second mud pit I saw the guy on the right side over on the other side of the fence. He literally said “f@#$ this”… Lol

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1054

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Local rider in my two clubs - would love to ride with her again this year and get more of the story. Not that I can keep up with her for very long!

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1055

Maybe you can keep up with her during the 3 mile walk :slight_smile:

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1056

yes, because I definitely can’t on the climbs!

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1057

Oh yeah, it’s a problem. Local to me…

  • my teams annual cyclocross race (early December) always has to come back post-race and do repairs to the grass we damage. It’s fixable with a rake/shovel, a bit of seed, and some straw, but sometimes the park manager is more upset than we expect (park manager seems to turn over every few years).

  • SM100 (semi-local NUE event) was cancelled last year because of local opposition. Nothing destroyed, just locals annoyed that one Saturday/year they have heavy bike traffic. The promoter runs a few other events in the area, but none are anywhere near the size (and the SM100 is only large by local standards - not like it’s a nationally attended race - the big names that race as mostly VA natives - JB, Dylan, maybe Kerry, etc).

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1058

Depends on the event.

I am doing a gravel race this weekend. Free entry but they ask for a donation that they put towards charity. They do the work to plan the route, check if it is riding shape ahead of time, put on a party after, etc. It seems like a fair trade to me, especially since the money is going towards charity.

My A-race this year has an entry fee but it is an awesome event. RD gets areas for people to camp (if they want to), it has course markings, the route often changes, it has aid stations, etc. I have zero complaints about how it is ran. All these comments about how poor some experiences were at unbound really make me grateful for the 4 events this series has each year.

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1059

Almsthre posted a highlight video on YT that has some really good footage of the pros going through the mud.

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1060

this was not the conditions for the 2000+ amateurs who rode it a bit later. After several hundred people went through the mud changed to what happened to the guy in pink…immediately sticks to everything so you have to walk.

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1061

I think they deleted the post that was taking a shot at Sophia.
Also next year everyone will have to put some run training in their regimen to prepare for anything.

Not because #Crossiscoming but #unboundiscoming.

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1062

Just want to post one more time about this - if they want people to pay to walk for miles during a bike race that’s fine, but they ran out of water which is frankly really dangerous and completely unacceptable and imho was a direct result of not re-routing to avoid the 3 mile hike a bike. Then the responses were just ridiculous and if this was an actual business they wouldn’t be part of it anymore.

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1063

I think you are the one who posted the letter to send to the RD. I’m the guy that responed to your issues line by line.
First, congrats on completing what was a challeng not just for the base race conditions but also the weather conditions… You da man! You earned the t-shirt .upside_down_face:

Point of clarification…on my response was based on info I had ; your letter and all the chatter on this thread, What was Unbound and was it clear to the participantes what was expected via race website, and finally my personal experience with hard XCM stage races with Epic or Xtreme in the race name.

I believe I covered those points adequately… in my post to your letter.

However, after listening to this clip of the prerace brief I will provide some more insights :wink:

First you are correct the RD led one to believe that the course would be modified if it is was so bad that the race would destory the road via passing on bikes or a hike thru the mud he stated that he had done a past race and it was not fun… again this goes back to my original position. The Unbound mission statement does NOT stand alone it must be accompanied by a Concept of the race statement as well as an Intent of the RD statement.
Now no where on the website is it clear that that Unbound is and Epic or Xtreme race. Yes, I agree with @mcneese.chad that there is a degree of personal responsibility from the participant. Chain if I miss interpreted your position excuse me and I retract my statement.

Especially as gravel races talk about the Spirit of Gravel :thinking: what exactly is The Spirit of Gravel because it is posssible that people have done a lot of local home grown gravel races that are set up so that everyone is guaranteed to a finish :thinking: Again what is the RDs Intent Statement. So their expectations are off. Maybe…CONCEPT AND INTENT STATEMENT fixes all that…Unbound - No Free Chicken, There will be Mud, YOU might fail, You might get hurt, Break your bike
In the briefing he said there was NOT a cutoff time for the 100 :scream:

Now let’s have some fun and poke holes in the race that RD et. al. Claims to be the biggest best most famous gravel race in the WORLD :roll_eyes:

The pre race briefing really, :man_facepalming: I would think the Largest ,best most popular, gravel race in the world would have a more structured professional briefing, lets start with power point and go from A to Z key things that I believe should have been highlighted on the big screen:
start and cutoff times,

  • emergency numbers all emergency numbers should be printed on your race number…
  • what todo if you have a problem but lost communitions and can walk or if you cant walk.
  • 100, 200 XL must have GPS and the power bank plus light front and rear.
  • Where are the water points and aid stations etc
  • Where are potential danger areas river train -and highway approx what mile marker he did mention it but it warrents more detail
  • potential mud sections are at mile marker …
    all this should be laid out on the big screen with overall route then a blow up of each critical area via mile marker… and of course this can be and should be in the race book both hard copy in the race packet and online the particepant only access website.
    Website needs to be retooled, yes there are some good stuff but my initial impression was more money I needed to spend on the coaching etc
    the free Garmin training plan sounds good have not looked at but I will.
    I just see a lot of holes in the game of the race that claims to be the biggest best in the world.
    This is 101 stuff…

So if they respond to your letter send them my name and email… as it appears the billion dollar lifetime series company* is in need of some organizational leadership and consulting…
Anyone interested starting a consulting company let’s talk :wink:

*unconfirmed heard someone on YouTube mentioned it.

again
congrats :clap: :clap: :muscle: :muscle:

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1064

Where I live we have a lot of dirt roads that connect farmland etc it’s rather mountainous and every so often the county will send the machines to fix the damage done by water runoff and vehicles I suspect they have something similar once the rainy season ends…

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1065

Sure, maintenance on roads like this are a given in any area. The issue is the option that exists to use that road and potentially cause notable damage vs use an alternate route with a road better able to handle the traffic without the same level of damage. Being able to fix something doesn’t mean it’s the best option when you can avoid the effort (and likely cost) entirely.

Outside of that, the damage to vegetation on the side of the road may well be a very different story. I don’t have the answers here because plenty is unknown to me. But the fact that they had a potential alternate route that would have eliminated this entire mess is something I can’t understand. Perhaps the RD misjudged the severity of the road or there is some other reason they didn’t use the alternate?

All I know is that they clearly had an option at their fingertips, covered it two times in the rider meeting, but chose not to use it. And they seem to be doubling down with insults to riders that question their choice while being unwilling to openly accept that they might have made the wrong choice. Craziness to me.

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