I don’t think this event is supposed to be enjoyable in the normal-people-fun kind of way. I rode it last year full-on knowing it would probably be the most miserable day that I’d ever have on two wheel.
It lived up to that.
And I’m planning to ride again next year.
I just watched his video. I have the same bike - 44s in a frame that is spec’ed up to 45s is a ballsy choice on a wet course! That IG shot of his wheel not turning mde me want to go wash my bike 
Looking at my data, the first hike a bike section was 3.29mi. It took me 1:04 to hike through that, a lot of time carrying the bike because you could not push your bike and the grass on the side was of little help.
I can say for a fact it ruined many peoples race even those who finished.
The second hike a bike was 1.2 miles and took me 23mi to get through and ended up affecting my front derailleur so I could no longer shift into my 34.
Crazy.
I don’t think the pros get enough credit for being able to ride through that shit.
Vegan Cyclist says he DNF’d the XL after hiking for 4 hours and running out of food.
It took me 1:20 with walking and scraping mud for the first section.
Guess if I try it again I’ll need to train some CX mud hills.
I’m not sure how the Pro’s bikes can handle it. I saw two people rip off their rear derailleur trying to ride it.
Big snap and the crowd went “ohhhh!”
I actually sat down next to Jeremiah Bishop when eating dinner and he said he was hiking, so I don’t think the pros necessarily road through it. Could be it was also worse for us 100s as 200s went through it first and tore it up.
That sucks for Vegan, he put a lot of work into it. I know he didn’t forget his money this time because I reminded him. 
(JB said he forgot his transponder )
I was in the 200 and it was a disaster when I got there (probably mid pack).
Did the pro 200 field really get split up by the train at the very start?
I know the amateurs got caught by the train right after we started.
XL was insanity. I’ll post pics when I’m on better cell coverage than what I’ve got here at my Airbnb, but it was just horrendously bad. I DNFed at mile 168 when my crank literally fell off. Logged over 4hrs of stopped time on the side of the road clearing mud and fixing mechanicals, and it took me over 9hrs total time to do the 75mi from gas station 1 to 2. Close to 2hrs of hiking the bike through mud. Vibes were at all time low out there, nobody having a good time hahaha.
Genuinely looking like ~85% of the entire start list will be DNFing this one. Sheesh
That sounds horrendous!
Conor Dunne from GCN is still out on course and seems to be pushing through on the 200 miler: Athlinks
A few take aways -
I believe they were going to check that mud section early today and make a call whether to divert. I don’t know if they didn’t get out there or what, but they must set a pretty high bar if that wasn’t bad enough to divert. I’m all for a little adventure and we did a mix of walk and riding the grass in the lead amateur group. Ended up being about 45 minutes to get through that section and the whole group was ripped apart. The problem is that it gets progressively worse as more riders hit it. By the time the back of the pack (and 100m folks) get there, I’m guessing it was 5x worse. And riding the off camber slippery grass right against the barb wire fence was super sketchy. A big part of this race is “doing epic shit” and today was pretty epic on many levels. I think a little hike a bike is a good feature, but that was a bit much. Lifetime is trying to cater to a wide variety of cyclists and you have folks that don’t understand they can’t ride through that stuff and don’t know why the RD will be ripped off if they try. Maybe reserve that kind of nonsense just for the 200 course.
I was surprised to see Jeremiah Bishop entered in the non-elite race. I get that he’s not technically a pro anymore, but he won by a good margin and would have been in the top 1/3 of the pro field. Not a big deal, just surprised to see it since the elite division is typically the home for retired pros.
For my first Unbound, I’ve got a very different impression of the race after doing it. It might have just been the mud ripping the entire race apart from the start, but even the groups on the road after that were pulled apart pretty quick. Lots of up and down and even 5-6 hours into the race, people are still pushing pretty hard up the hills. Not a favorable course if you like to diesel along. I found myself solo for a good portion of the day. Aero bars would have been very helpful. I still had a really good day on the bike, enjoyed pretty much every minute except when it started getting a little hot before the thunderstorms came. Fueled like a mad man and was pushing good power all day. I love riding in the rain and mud (within reason), so today was perfect for me. Missed an age group podium by 1 spot, but I’ll probably be back next year to try again and get a bit more dialed on the aero side.
I think I spent about 2 hours hike-a-biking through mud. And more time stopped cleaning mud, and doing chain maintenance at the aid stations / water stops. I don’t know why they didn’t reroute the first 4 mile mud section. It was so bad. Even 10 feet of riding would leave both wheels gummed up with sticky mud that was hard to clear. The middle mud section wasn’t terrible, but still 20 mins of walking. And the last mud section was as unridable as the first.
It was an epic event for sure. I think the attrition / DNF rate will end up being very high. I was very happy they had hot showers at the campground!
Men’s and women’s, yes I believe so.
I made it to Hamilton and pulled out. I got there at 6:30 and there was no way I could make it to Madison before dark.i had a tiny headlight and only dark mirror lenses.
I lost a cleat in the first mud section and rode from before the pens to Eureka with one of my shoes unclipped. Got a cleat fixed, bike washed and a new freshly waxed chain and I was in heaven.
Powered through the thunderstorm squall only to get throttled by the second mud section…
I don’t know if I’ll come back for another crack or not as there are plenty of great gravel races out there with a lot less hassle on the logistics front.
Hats off and bravo to those of you who did this one. Brutal.
Sounds like a rough day on the bike. Great job to everyone doing it
Sounds like a horrible day! Some people’s idea of a fun event/ride are definitely different than mine. No way I’d pay that premium price to tear up my nice bike/equipment.
It will be interesting to see that race report / video. They’ll need some creative editing to make this edition of Unbound look fun
Why didn’t Ian Boswell give fensterweld water for the spirit of gravel
