Agree that mentioning a possible re-route was a bad idea and got people’s hopes up (and increased the complaining), but do we really think those words caused more bikes to get destroyed? Would those people have skipped the race if a reroute wasn’t mentioned as a possibility? Maybe a few would have swapped to a different tire, but the vast majority of folks who destroyed their bikes would have done it whether a re-route was mentioned or not. In my opinion, leaving that section in was a questionable decision that has people on both sides of the fence (can’t please everyone). Lifetime has made it clear how they will move forward. Doubtful they will change unless attendance drops significantly. For those that don’t like the decision and are still handing $'s over to Lifetime to do it again, that’s not a good approach if you want them to change. Anyway, this is all a rehash of previous discussion, it will be interesting to see how thing play out this year.
100% this.
Oh, in that case I do apologize for the misunderstanding. I assumed you’re talking about the pros, because in mind mind (clearly, in yours as well) being an amateur rider, and complaining about the mud section, and signing up for the next year - that’s just plain stupid.
LT is already getting 4 races worth of money from me, and adding Unbound to the schedule wouldn’t have been a good idea. Sea Otter XL, Lutsen, Tahoe Trail & Leadville and I’m in my mid-50’s If I up my corral at Sea Otter or Lutsen I may defer Tahoe just to be more fresh for Leadville
I wasn’t there so I don’t know, and something I honestly wasn’t aware of was how damaging riding through mud could be. If I were in the crowd at the rider meeting, what would have been extremely helpful is if it was explicitly stated that attempting to power through the mud can potentially rip your rear derailleur off. For anyone that was there, was that ever mentioned?
I’ve been riding a very long time on the road, and have dabbled in gravel - usually not muddy, certainly not by choice and seeing the amount of damage that can be caused was new to me. Now I know.
Just watched the two Unbound episodes. Personally, the race director seems like a bit of a knob.
I do understand more about the whole, we want it tough thing, but I still don’t agree that it’s supposed to be tough because of mass breakages. I think/agree with other posters, that the issue is that they said they’d change it if it were bad - which changes expectations. They should have said (or did they?) At the race briefing “we recommend carrying your bike” to avoid this, this, and that.
@RMS138 Id have to go back and get the actual quote, but it was basically asking if he can beat Keegan…but in a more snarky way.
Hump
Most of the way through the Leadville Men’s race episode. Watched 2022 first.
Three points. One, I have so much respect for Lachlan right now and he’s the one I want to have a huge Leadville this year most of all. Two, watching this on the inside TV and it’s astonishing the quality of footage both in terms of picture and angles etc. it might look this good all the time, but it seems massively better than 2022. Three, stoked on the increased race coverage almost 20min of fluff to 20min race, vs 20min fluff to 10min race last year.
Yea, some people had a hard day and some people had a short day due to a broken derailleur. Totally tone deaf when they equate the two.
Yeah it seems as the reality tv’s got bit too much into this imho.
It kinda makes sense in that way to keep early long mud section there in Unbound. It makes more drama and spectacle in the storyline than if it was just plain even rainy conditions, it’s not that special to ride 200 miles of gravel after all, it’s quite common tbo 
I may have totally missed it but did they skip Crusher in the Tushar?
Vegan Cyclist said it best. The words of people who don’t pay their own dollars for the bikes they ride don’t count for much in these types of situations.
They did a highlight video last year for that and The Rad. I think.
Thats a bit of a half truth from what I know. When they say 30% of the field DNF’d, they are saying that over ALL of the distances. IIRC the DNF rate for just the 200 was around 50%.
56% (650 people) finished the 200 in 2023, so about the same success rate as folks trying to climb Everest. So it must be just as hard…
I’ve now got an image of riders strewn across the Flint Hills being stepped over by others, desperate to finish, and being permanently preserved.
Green Sidis
Why do they keep pushing Pete. The guy is like the high school football star who peaked in high school and can’t let go. World tour this and world tour that. He’s out of excuses. Stop showing him and show more of the up and coming guys.
Because he’s the ‘spirit of gravel’ guy. He probably generates a lot of clicks.
Well he finished 6th in the overall, and they showed plenty of the top 5…
I honestly don’t get why any of these athletes would want to be part of the video series… In my opinion, none of them came out looking better than they did prior to me “learning about them” through the episodes. They all have a bit of a “woe is me” about them, with no real upside. Perhaps the editors of the series are to blame, but I fear its just more a symptom of the personalities of the sport(meaning lack there of, and not a knock, just reality). I just can’t imagine that someone watched this, and though, “I sure do want to root for Alexis/Alexey/Pete/insertanyname now that I’ve seen this”. I don’t know if Lifetime requires that the participants of the Grand Prix offer themselves up for these interviews, but now with two seasons of retrospect, as an athlete, I’d be questioning the benefit. I know personal sponsors want publicity, but the 50k views that these get aren’t really that large considering some of the athletes themselves have that kind of following on their own socials.