The primary spherical of competitors for the 2024 Unbound Gravel race begins at present far-off from the mud and mayhem of the Flint Hills of Kansas with the lottery opening for entries into 4 of the 5 race classes, together with the signature Unbound 200.
From January 5 (12:00 CET) to January 20 (23:59 CET) people can submit their names right into a lottery to take part within the class distances of 200, 100, 50 or 25 miles.
5 days after the lottery closes, the announcement of individuals from a random choice course of can be made on January 25 by Life Time, which owns and operates the high-demand gravel endurance occasion. This yr’s Garmin Unbound Gravel offered by Craft Sportswear takes place Could 31-June 1 in Emporia, Kansas.
For a 3rd yr, Unbound Gravel 200 serves because the second cease within the Life Time Grand Prix off-road race sequence, which has elevated the year-end prize purse to $300,000 for the invitation-only area of 30 ladies and 30 males. Collection athletes don’t have to undergo the lottery course of, however most of the 4,000 riders chosen for bib numbers earn the chance to match themselves on, all or some, of the identical roads at the perfect gravel execs.
USA’s Keegan Swenson gained the boys’s Unbound 200 competitors this previous June from a seven-rider dash end in Emporia, and went on to safe a second Grand Prix title. German Carolin Schiff took a solo victory within the ladies’s elite area, with defending champion Sofia Gomez Villafañe taking second place. Villafañe would take prime Grand Prix factors, nonetheless, and go on to win the sequence title for ladies.
Unbound Gravel, now in its 18th yr as an organised occasion, has turn into the preeminent gravel race on a rising world calendar, with the 200-mile competitors throughout the hilly terrain of tire-shredding flint rocks the centrepiece of the a number of experience choices.
The routes for all distances haven’t been disclosed but intimately, however the path can be flipped from final yr and heads again to a northerly circuit. Like final yr, the elite fields of the 200-mile contest can be staged for an early departure, the professional males beginning at 5:50 a.m. native time and the professional ladies two minutes later. The principle area for Unbound 200 takes the course eight minutes behind the professional ladies. The 100-mile riders have a mass begin at 7:00 a.m., adopted two hours later by a mixed mass begin for the 2 shorter distances.
Whereas the enrollment course of for occasion choice is free, the bank card data collected gained’t be charged till people are accepted, the worth vary set from $55 for the 25-mile distance to $295 for Unbound 200. The junior occasion can be moved into the 50 and 100-mile distances for 2024. The XL occasion, 350 miles in size with a race begin on Could 31, concluded a separate lottery course of in early December.
The drama of the 2022 Kansas occasion, with gear controversies and unpredictable climate impacting opponents within the Life Time Grand Prix, was captured in a 31-minute video by occasion organisers, Name of a Life Time. Season 2 for the video sequence, anticipated to focus on torrential downpours, large mud and chaos of the 200-mile occasion, can be launched by Life Time on January 26 on YouTube.