Unbound Gravel 2024: favorites, routes and how to follow the race

The first weekend of June brings back the scent of gravel with the dispute of the world's leading gravel competition. We are talking, of course, about the Unbound Gravel where participants will venture into the vast expanses of meadows and hills surrounding the small town of Emporia. Pure western movie flavor, swapping horses for gravel bikes to ride through the state of Kansas.

Matej Mohoric in search of victory at the Unbound Gravel 2024 as part of his preparation for the Tour de France

Although the UCI is trying to capture the attention of the gravel community with its UCI Gravel World Series and the organization of the official World Championship of the discipline, the truth is that gravel continues to go its own way and the great attention is still focused on competitions where long distance is the determining factor intrinsically linked to this specialty, making events like the Unbound Gravel continue to be the benchmark and gradually attracting the attention of road professionals, such as the Gravel World Champion Matej Mohoric who will try to win the most prestigious event in this specialty.

Routes for everyone at the Unbound Gravel 2024

In any case, despite the long distance being the main attraction of these competitions, of all the routes offered to participants in the Unbound Gravel, the 200-mile (322 km) route remains the star event of the event where the competition is most intense. Above, the XL route, with its 352 miles (566 km), is presented as a pure endurance adventure, and below, the 100-mile (160 km) route is usually the choice of professional road cyclists and other famous faces to compete in the Unbound Gravel without the demands of the star event.

There are two other routes of 50 and 25 miles (80 and 40 km), accessible to almost anyone who regularly rides a bike, especially considering that the accumulated elevation gains of each of the tests are not excessive in a state like Kansas, dominated mainly by flat horizons and where the difficulty is only marked by the presence of the so-called Flynt Hills, responsible for breaking the monotony. In any case, beyond the slopes to overcome, the difficulty in this test is usually set by the very high pace at which the competitors ride and, on many occasions, the usual appearance of rain, either during the test or in the days leading up to it, which exponentially toughens the route.

In this 2024 edition, the route changes, heading north and accumulating no less than 3,600 m of elevation gain in its 200-mile route, almost 1,000 meters more than the previous edition. A zone that had not been used by the Unbound Gravel since its 2021 edition as the last two editions had headed south of Emporia.

Dates and times

From Wednesday, May 29, the Unbound Gravel 2024 begins to take to the streets of Emporia with some events such as a small route around the area, presentations, etc. The level of activity grows during Thursday, May 30, where those eager to explore the surroundings on their bikes will have the opportunity to do so on various organized routes, in addition to opening the expo area and starting the bib collection, a similar schedule to that of Friday, which will continue to welcome the thousands of participants in the Unbound Gravel 2024.

On Friday, May 31, at 3:00 PM local time, the brave participants facing the XL route will start their participation, while we will have to wait until the early hours of Saturday, June 2 to see the start of the rest of the tests. The first to depart, at 5:50 AM (12:50 PM CET), will be the participants of the 200-mile route in the elite men's category, followed 15 minutes later by the elite women of the 200-mile race, and at 6:30 AM (1:30 PM CET) the rest of the participants in that distance.

One hour later, the 100-mile race will start, and finally the races of 50 and 25 miles.

Favorites to win the Unbound Gravel 2024

With the popularization of gravel, historic races like this Unbound Gravel are attracting more cyclists each season and of higher quality, resulting in an increase in the average level of competitors. In any case, last year's winner, Keegan Swenson, will be one to watch and will surely try to defend the prestigious victory of 2024.

It won't be easy for him as the presence of top gravel cyclists such as Ivar Slik, Lachlan Morton, Laurens Ten Dam, Paul Vos, or Peter Stetina, is joined by a significant list of former road professionals such as the Italian Daniel Oss, the Irish Nicolas Roche, or the Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, Niki Terpstra.

However, the real one to watch will be a current road cycling professional. None other than the current Gravel World Champion Matej Mohoric, who will seek to become the benchmark in Emporia by winning not only in the UCI gravel distances but also reigning in traditional format gravel competitions. The technical skill of the Slovenian and the fact of being a top-level active professional, with all that implies at a physical level, undoubtedly make him the main favorite for victory.

In any case, let's not forget that the Unbound Gravel is a very fast race and it is not uncommon, as happened last year where the race was decided in a sprint by a reduced group, that the race does not break completely or that escape attempts end up being neutralized by larger groups.

Among the women, the race seems to be shaping up as a duel between last year's winner, the German Carolin Schiff, and the always favorite Sofia Gomez Villafañe; not forgetting the 2021 winner Lauren De Crescenzo.

How to follow the Unbound Gravel 2024

Last year, the streaming that we had enjoyed in previous years was no longer available. This is perfectly understandable given the magnitude of a race of over 300 kilometers that is often far from roads and populated areas. In any case, the organization does an admirable job keeping us informed promptly on their social networks, where, in addition to information about the race situation, they accompany with photos and short videos.