I did the same this year in the 100. Panaracer Gravel King X1+ in 45mm front and rear. Not as fast as the Pirelli Gravel H I usually run but I had zero flats and had no second thoughts about bombing the down hills.
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This was in reference to when they were racing together at SBT last year.
I watched on YouTube yesterday Dirk Friek from TrainingPeaks discuss Unbound with Dylan Johnson. One thing they sort of delved into but more at surface level was the different thought process, equipment, etc from the perspective of a pro and amateur. Dylan says he does not carry a tube and figures if he’s gone through plugs and co2s and still losing air his day is done as just limping to the finish isn’t what he’s there for. Vs an amateur he said flatly said “carry a tube”.
I actually would have enjoyed it if they went more deeply in the differences and also got into more what he advises his athletes.
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Dylan seems like a pretty smart/analytical bike racer, but that seems like a dumb take to me for the pros at Unbound. It’s a race where you can have significant problems and still have good day. And a TPU tube weighs nothing and it doesn’t take that long to insert one (maybe ~5 mintues?). Matt Beers had like 3 flats and was near the back of the pack and lost a bunch of time and fought back to 16th (points matter in the grand prix). And even if you don’t have the engine to get back in the points, it’s very common for a strong rider to have issues early and drag others back to the front of the race (so just wait for the right train to come by). From what I heard, Beers had a big group with him getting a free tow through the field for anyone who could hang on.
On Payson’s podcast, he went through the top 10 for both men and womens and I think it was 7/10 of the top men and 4/10 of the top women had significant problems on the day. His point was that it’s very hard to have a clean day at unbound, but the day is long enough that it’s still possible to have a good day.
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I agree. TPU tubes take up so little space and weight nothing it does seem a little odd.
Like you state Beers fell way back and climbed back almost into top 15. It might have been Alex Wild also saying with a race like unbound being so long riders can just hit that wall and start really falling off the pace. So like Beers even after flatting you can get back in it when others have their own mechanicals or just physically run out of steam.
I’m not sure exactly why that’s Dylan’s stance.
I was thrown off by Dylan’s lack of tube as well… It could be the difference between a DNF and at least finishing in the pack. For me and most pros, I would think at least finishing is a big deal.
What’s the downside of taking a small tube? Seems a little strange to me. It was a pretty good podcast overall though.
The other interesting takeaway was that Dylan said he eats the same breakfast on race day as he does every day (oatmeal + berries + peanut butter) and that he doesn’t have more on race day. I figured you’d want to eat a more sizable breakfast on race day, but I suppose everyone is different.
The breakfast thing was interesting as well. I get not wanting to overdue it but I’d think maybe a slightly larger breakfast would be in order for such a long day
Yep. And I saw it first hand in the amateur race with a mechanical that dropped me out of the lead group just a couple hours into the race. Took me over 10 minutes to get rolling again (way longer than putting a tube in) while watching group after group roll by. It sucked, but allowed me to ride my pace the rest of the day (vs surging in groups) and ended up with a solid result. Different dynamics in the pro race I’m sure, but you still see pros come back from significant issues. One of the pros who does the in-race videos had a mechanical that required a tube and he ended up with an OK result.
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makes sense. unbound is such a long day so much can happen even for the pros.
I’ve seen other elite racers mention as well that they basically don’t want to overfill on breakfast so they struggle getting the race calories in early. For some reason I thought maybe even Cam Jones also said that?
I eat steel cut oats with a scoop of protein mixed in every single day for breakfast. I had heard quite a few arguments lately that it can be beneficial to cut fiber back on race day (and even the day before) because it can make digesting the race calories harder.
On big weekend rides/races I recently changed to Frosted Flakes with honey and a cut up banana. As much as I love oatmeal, I find avoiding fiber to be preferred for huge rides and races (so far).
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Mind sharing what the mechanical was and if you would’ve done anything different? I think it’s funny pros and others mention plugging and being done in 60 seconds… It may feel like that, but that’s really fast to plug and use a co2. In my experience, it takes a bit longer.
I have heard that as well and try to drop my fiber a bit. However, at my level and pacing I don’t think it makes too much of a difference. I’ve definitely overeaten a big bowl of oatmeal with too much fat (peanut butter) before and it sat in my stomach like a rock. That was not fun.
Funnily enough, before the 200 this year I tried to go #2 about 30 mins before start time… Nothing would happen. Was in the corral with about 5 minutes left and body was like “oh, I guess you should do that now” 
. Had to run out real fast and find a porta pottie. Luckily, there wasn’t a big line and I got back in time. Talk about efficiency.
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It was a simple puncture center tread that should have been a simple co2 hit and possibly a plug. But the valve core was plugged with sealant and I went through 2 co2’s trying to get some air in it while trying to monkey with the valve enough to let some air in. I eventually had to resort to a mini pump (road variety) that could push more pressure and slowly got it inflated/sealed. Honestly felt like 20+ minutes, but reviewing my ride file it was about 12. Not a crazy amount of time, but very costly early in the race since all the fast groups got well up the road. It was totally preventable though. When I put air in the tire that morning, I noticed that valve core being sticky and it took a good bit of pressure from the pump to get air into it. I considered changing the core, would have taken a minute and I had spare cores. Just dumb execution, lesson learned. The other thing I didn’t think about until well after was that I had a good core in my spare tube and could have just swapped them, but I was 100% focused on just forcing some air in with whatever I had. I ended up swapping the core at the first aid station just in case I had another flat, but the damage was done.
Wouldn’t have been so bad except it happened so early (~2 hours in) that 12 minutes at the point in the race means a lot of fast groups going
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Good information! I too have been running into mucky valve cores a lot lately. One thing I recently learned about which you probably already know is to lubricate the valve stem and valve core with a bit of chain lube. Apparently that helps prevent sealant from sticking to the walls of the stem and the innards of the valve core. Luckily, cores are really cheap to replace so it isn’t a huge deal.
Thanks for the story! That’s definitely a good learning that if you have the capability to fix something ahead of time and it is low-risk, then probably best to do it.
My scary mech issue before-hand was that my derailleur hanger bolt stripped while I was in the process of attaching it in Kansas. Couldn’t back it out or tighten it anymore. Had to make the decision if I obsess over it and fix it before hand, or let it stay inside. Talked to multiple mechanics at the expo and they said it should be fine to stay in there, so I left it in. Luckily nothing weird happened. From what they said, once the hanger is mounted it’t not that screw which holds the weight so changes of that part failing are very low.
Once I got home, I spent probably 2 hours getting that damn screw out! Eventually took a heat gun + star bit + hammer.
I was one of the lucky few who had no mechanicals during my unbound journey. Thankful for that.
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I am so sorry this happened. I am glad it wasn’t more serious and you heal quickly. At the same time it gave me some good perspective. I was wallowing in self pity, but clearly I should be happy that I got to the starting (always the first goal) and got to the finish line (always the second goal).
I trained much harder and put in considerably more hours for what I thought was a reasonable goal of beating the sun. My fitness and durability was far better than last year. I stuck with my strategy early. Unfortunately my stomach didn’t agree with the plan and I spent the last 7 hours of my race so nauseated that it was difficult to even take in liquids let alone any calories.
Ironically I raced with the same nutrition as last year and the year before at Leadville where I didn’t have issues with the exception that I took in a bit more salt. I think that even though it wasn’t that hot I had zero heat acclimation as I hadn’t ridden in any temperatures over 80 degrees. So possibly heat illness.
Was it sodium citrate or sodium chloride? I had some issues when I added sodium chloride to a big training ride, but sodium citrate was fine.
I just checked and it was Sodium Citrate. I have kind of a weak stomach when exercising but can eat just about anything on the planet without an iota of GI distress at every other time in my life.
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I’m from Texas and I got some hot training days in before Unbound the last couple years. But I still got overheated for a bit both years at Unbound. And like you said, it wasn’t even that hot. But mid 80’s and sunny when deep into a race takes a toll. I did much better this year by focusing on cooling. At the first aid station, I took an ice sock on my neck/back even though I wasn’t hot at all yet. By the time I got to the water oasis, I was pretty hot and was able to dump a couple jugs of water over myself to cool down and it helped for a bit. At second aid station, I took 3 ice socks, 2 bottles of ice/water under my jersey in front, and also dumped water on me. All that cooling was a difference maker, my power after that aid station was 30 watts higher for the hour following the aid station compared to the prior hour coming into it. I used the bottles down my front as dump bottles to cool off as needed. And I stopped at every point that had water to dump more water on myself (including some folks with bottles on the side of the road). Sure, it cost some time, but every time I did it I gained a bunch of watts.
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I’m in GA, and April and May just don’t have frequent really hot days so I either have to do some heat acclimation with sauna or just deal with it come race day.
For me, a big part of the heat issue at Unbound is the utter lack of shade. I ride in the humidity and heat of GA, but many rides have at least some shade. Even if it’s not extensive it give your body a little time to cool a bit. In Kansas, it’s just relentless. My first Unbound in 2021, it was hot and I just wilted and had stomach issues. Last year wasn’t too bad but it still got warmish and I recall, at the 2nd water oasis I think, people were just camped in the shade.
In the future, if I do it I again, I think your strategy is something I will likely follow. I just need to dump as much water on me as possible. I’m not worried about being fast and I would benefit from taking time to stop and get more water and also just carry more water in general
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On a note completely unrelated to racing strategy…
Has anyone here eaten at the Pizza Ranch in Emporia? I grew up in a small town in Iowa that had a Pizza Ranch, which is generally a bit of a Midwest chain. I hadn’t been in years but enjoyed it growing up.
We went Saturday night for dinner after the race and it did not disappoint. They have a pizza buffet that can’t be topped, particularly after a 100-200 mile race. They also have fried chicken, salad, insanely good dessert pizza, etc. I definitely fulfilled any remaining calorie deficit that I had after my race.
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