My wife and I both entered the lottery for the 100 mile route… Despite not owning gravel bikes!
Time to get down to business with training. I know the 200 mile route gets all the reputation for being one of the most savage events in the cycling world, but I’m sure the 100 mile route is no joke either. We went ahead and ponied up the $ for the “rent-a-crew” for water and such.
We entered as a “group” which I believe means that if either of us gets picked, we’ll both get picked. With all the holdovers from last year I have really no way of guesstimating what our chances are. If we do get picked, we’ll have to figure out all the logistics of getting there and getting our bike there.
I’m about to start the general build phase and even though I should probably switch over to the sustained power build, I think I’m going to stick with general.
It is unfortunate but I am nor surprised. I live in Wichita, Kansas and I know very well that the large majority of this state is Republican and will share the views of the Republican party. In my personal opinion it is hard to support a President or a group of politicians trying to undermine democracy, but you would be surprised how many of my neighbors feel this way.
Anyhow… we have that one forum thread that is very well suited for this discussion… lets keep this one to discuss mainly the Unbound Gravel Race.
Its a new entry but since you have to “log in” with your email and password… they know how many times I have applied. I am hopeful they take that into consideration… but its supposed to be a fully random lottery.
If you did get selected for 2020… you had an automatic transfer to 2021. This probably means that the 2021 chances are even smaller since they already had a large number of 2020 riders that said yeas to 2021.
Well … we put deposits on two Salsa Cutthroats on Saturday … We’ve been eyeballing them for a long time in hopes to try out the gravel/bikepacking hype so this lottery entry tipped the domino over for us.
If we don’t get accepted, we’ll do a massive bikepacking trip or something on those days instead
Right. Would hate for discussion of pervasive racism et al to be just as pervasive. Better to keep it non-unbound (i.e. segregated).
Should we create a separate thread to discuss the UG organization offering free registration for 65 members of the Kansas City chapter of the Major Taylor Association in 2021 and 2022? Or is that too “race sensitive”?
Racism, politics, and cycling are not independent entities. To those who feel they should be, appropriately on this day, I guess MLK called it correctly:
…the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;”
We’ve got a lot further to go than 200mi of bumpy road.
I bought my gravel bike on November… Orbea Terra… I am so excited, I am still waiting for delivery in February.
I have similar plans if I dont get in. I live in Kansas so I can always try some of the Flint Hills a different week.
@roadbiketrevor. You’ll love the Cutty. I had one, upgraded to a Giant Revolt Pro and wish I still had my Cutty also. I may order a new one this spring to build as a bike packing ride. The Giant is more of a go fast gravel ride.
Once you change to some better tires for Unbound you should be set. The 2.1s that came on mine were great for chunky gravel and single track but slow. Lots of great tire options now. Have fun!
Yeah, I was just gonna say that…IM races are $600+. Now, they have to deal with more street closures, municipality issues, etc. but Unbound is dirt cheap compared to IM.
On top of the municipal logistics, UG also seems to offload rider support to them and the team they are required to bring/buy. So they have less food, drinks, etc. to handle on course as well. Then consider the bike-only event is a tad easier to coordinate than 3 separate sports together.
That’s the beauty, there are tons of other events to do that aren’t gouging their riders.
Gravel Worlds was only $90.
DAMn was $95
Hell, my A race for the year, Iowa Wind and Rock was free.
Not a race but a week of RAGBRAI isn’t even $250.
I would love to go ride the flint hills area, but the cost of this event is a road block for me. It won’t change as long as they keep selling out each year.
@roadbiketrevor. I’m running the Teravail Cannonballs and had good luck while abusing them on chunky two track. Teravail has introduce a couple new tread patterns I’ll look into this spring that look faster. I personally like something in the 42 range but I come from mountain biking and riding 2.4s. I think I may drop to 38ish this year to help keep up with the under 60 crowd.
@DocSavage Interestingly the smallest you can run on the Cutthroat is 700x42.
With that in mind, I might very quickly turn my attention to the Cannonball 42 as opposed to the Sparwood 2.2" which comes stock. I feel confident the 2.2" will feel really nice and squishy for casual gravel and bikepacking trips, but I think you might be on to something with the Cannonball 42 specifically for Unbound.
…Assuming my lottery number gets picked, that is!
EDIT: the cannonball website says: “We designed the 42c Cannonball to be a first-choice gravel racing tire — Dirty Kanza, Trans Iowa, Land Run… it’s conquered them all.” so seems like a prettyyyy good match for the event. Thank you for the tip!
