Alex Wild is back. The elite gravel racer is fresh off the biggest gravel race in the world, the 2025 Unbound 200. This is one of the craziest races on the planet.
We get into it today. The strategy, the chaos, the power numbers. Stick around till the end where Alex gives us his thoughts on who the real losers were this year in the second round of the Lifetime Grand Prix.
This really is a rare opportunity to peak inside the race. Alex breaks down exactly how the race unfolded, like how did that early breakaway go, the bits we didn't get to see on the online coverage. We get to hear about the dynamics in the chase group and the decisions that either make your day or crack you completely.
He's brutally honest about what went right, what went sideways, and what he would do differently. We also go deep on big picture stuff like gravel licenses, bike setups, feed zone safety, and whether the sport's getting a little too serious or keeping that wild edge, folks. He's back.
It is Alex Wild. Alex Wild, the big show, Emporia, Kansas. The big How you feeling?
Most overblown race in the world. 8:37. You guys were cooking.
Oh man, that Did you ever think you'd go Did you ever think you'd go under the winner to go under nine? I did this year. I didn't think so many would.
Um but I had a feeling just how competitive it's getting, how fast it's getting. I think this one really leans into I guess the carb revolution, right? People used to just try to survive this race and now like personally I was at I think 170 or 175 gram carb per hour and I talked to Cam the winner and he was at 194 for his 837 which is insane.
You think the carb high carb is making that much difference? It just makes it possible. I mean you think about it just from energy in energy out his raw average was 295 watts.
So he is going through roughly 1,50 calories per hour, which is just an uphill battle. Unless Cam is sitting there and that's like his fat max, which it's possible, but I don't think so. I think that's very unlikely high zone 2, which is going to be high contribution of carbohydrates.
I don't think it is physically possible to do that without the high carb. It's absolutely wild. I tuned in just before the first feed station and I think you guys blew through the first feed station like way ahead of the fastest predicted schedule almost 40k an hour average up to that point.
Yeah. So I have my buddy uh Daniel wrenching for me this year with cycle sport and he was like I didn't expect to see you so soon. It's like you're looking at you were set up.
Yeah. No, I was he was right at the end of the feed zone. I was definitely getting a little nervous, but he was uh he was there.
But yeah, we were way ahead of schedule and that was with some issues for me. Like I had my first crash and first flat before we even hit that aid station. So, but I mean that's also changed, right?
The first time I did Unbound, people were like, "If I can get out of the feed zone within 30 seconds, that's great. Now most people aren't putting a foot down." I think Cam again the winner did double uh Museette.
So he grabbed one Museette and another and then kind of just had his stash. Look, I I don't mind that so much. I think that's just being kind of in invent of playing within the rules.
But some of the stuff in the feed zones just looks wild west Was it the Giants team who had someone riding alongside on a bike? I saw that in Joe Lavick's recap the first time. I didn't hear about it, nor did I see it, but he said in the second they had a rider or or a staff riding next to him, which to their defense is within the rules.
So, it's not their job to regulate the rules. You know, if you don't want them to do that, make sure it's in the rules. Because in UCI racing, they're not even allowed to dump water on their riders.
They're allowed to hand something to their rider, but they're not allowed to actually do the dump. there's regulations which side they need to be on. There's a lot of that.
So, I feel like in this race, the feed zones are the wild west. And again, from from Joe Lavick's blog post, he thought that was kind of the biggest people were complaining about the crashes and he was kind of like crashes happen in a competitive race with a lot of money on the line, but in the feed zones is kind of where they can regulate better. Um, I don't have the answer, but I definitely feel like we're lucky that no one did go down because I mean, if you look at Sea Otter, which felt like a more regulated aid station, we had both Cole and Pacin go down hard in aid stations.
What's your take on safety overall? Because probably the enduring message coming out of Unbound this year for the first time was maybe more focused on safety concerns than results. Yeah.
Um, personally didn't experience anything that I wouldn't call racing. Like my first crash, it was a double track. Someone hopped from the left to the right as they do and kind of just didn't hit my front wheel, but if I didn't move, they were going to.
And then that kind of caused me to hit a mud patch and go down. And for me, that's kind of just racing, you know, like they don't want to be in the wind. They see a bunch of people on the right hand side.
I've done it. Everyone does it. And it's kind of like that the the racing phrase.
If you if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racer. So yeah, it's kind of just an outcome of we are racing and we are racing for a lot of prestige and a lot of money. you do that on the group ride, I'd probably give you a a yell or a talking to, but we're racing.
Like, you got to watch your front wheel and incidents will happen. And I think in the heat of the moment, maybe you get all worked up, but at the end of the day, it's crashes happen. It's I think people fall into feeling like cycling is a safe sport when Yeah.
No, for sure. You can't sterilize it. But I guess it's like I think some of the criticism I heard which I kind of felt like cuz I love the gravel scene.
I really like what Unbound have done, what the whole Lifetime series have done. I think it's nothing but positive. But if someone's injured and they don't have access to an ambulance, like that feels like a lion we need to get better on.
Absolutely. No, no, no. I'm definitely not arguing on that point.
I think more just the the politics or kind of the the goal of erasing crashes from the race almost can't be a goal. Yeah. Like yes, you can make it safer, but the riders themselves competing for this top spot in a very prestigious race is always going to cause those situations to happen.
But I agree. Um I mean I have the same concerns at a lot of races. I heard rumors that it took forever to get Howie help when he crashed at Brep Epic.
You know, like these races are kind of just out there. But then I also feel for the race organizers, right? cuz I mean they're not they're not making the margins everyone thinks they're making and you know to get that kind of like where where is the requirement I guess in terms of but but I agree someone goes down hard and you can't sanitize it completely or we end up just doing criteriums because you say oh I can just park a ambulance on the start finish line and it services everyone like I'm going out to do badlands in September it's like 800 kilometers and I don't know how many participants say 500.
Like how do you staff that with medical care? Like someone has a crash in the middle of the night on their own. Yeah.
Like the trade-off, I guess, is we have less cool events, but safer events. I don't know if any of us want that either. Yeah.
It's hard, right? Cuz it's it's very easy to complain. It's very hard to provide a solution.
So, I feel like that's kind of I guess just how society is. We like we like to point out problems, but fixing them is a whole another thing. Uh, but I I agree.
I think some of the most epic events are these these pointtooints, these big loops. Unbound is historically well, it is it is a loop, but let's be honest, every 10 miles you're like, I feel like I've been here before. You take a picture of Unbound, you've kind of got the the whole course laid out.
But yeah, I mean, did who knows? like see maps. So, we could do something like that.
But did your pre-ride recon of the route? I know it rained in the days up to the event. Did that change your mind on setup?
Yeah, I was originally going to do 22 air tracks um on the new Diverge. Now I can uh say it out loud. So, every figured it out that I couldn't fit a 22 in the rear of a Krux.
So, I like the eagle eyes. Um, but so originally I had 22 air tracks. It rained a little bit leading up to it, quite a bit, few inches.
Um, and it was quite muddy. In hindsight, tracers weren't the call out there. I think the tread is just too thin for those rocks.
I got a tread puncture. Um, yeah, I think the air tracks might have been better. or even uh I was talking to Ian Boswell and he did 45 Pathfinders and he's like pretty much out there a lot of the course is just like a road.
So he's always done the Pathfinders and he's liked them and what his logic is is that middle strip that's like a road tire essentially makes the tread thicker so it protects against punctures in the center. Um so I don't know what I'd have done in hindsight. Um, definitely not the 50 tracers I ran, but maybe maybe 45 Pathfinders or gone the other direction and done two two air tracks.
Pathfinders are a beast. I've every gravel target that I've had, the Pathfinders are the most puncture resistant of that kind of 45 to 47. Yeah, I think I think if we had a 50 Pathfinder, it would have been no question.
I think I would have gone 50 Pathfinder. I don't know if I again it it proved out and I don't know if it was because he was out front and I was in the pack, but we did roughly the same raw power and he's a bit heavier than I am. So, I was talking to him back and forth because in my mind that tells me something in my setup wasn't quite right and he did something and and that was kind of the only difference.
He was on the diverge, I was on the diverge. Both have the same wheels. So I think I think Unbound's changed how it raced.
Like Cam got in that early break. I think what that allows you to do is not surge. So you just ride sweet spot, not sweet spot, uh like endurance plus tempo all day and you ride a consistent pace where in the group there was a lot of negative racing.
We went over Little Egypt where it split last time. There was a front group of us of like 10 and then people stopped working and then essentially the whole group came back and we were a group of 80 and then we got to the crosswinds and it split super hard. So it's just a different style of racing in the group especially with the the mix of dynamics, right?
We have the people coming from Europe that their only goal is a podium. So once that's up the road, it's like a world tour race. Like why even finish for them to be honest?
And then there's a Grand Prix where it's like I need as many points as I can because I don't know if I'll need to rely on these points later. Like in my mind, Unbound was always going to be the hardest one or or the most unknown for me in terms of points, but I still wanted to scrape as many points as I could. So we because you never know what's going to happen at the other races, right?
Like maybe I have a big crash and don't finish another race and I need these points. So it's just kind of like you never know what's going to happen for the series. When Sam, sorry, when Cam and Simon got out, I came to the race and they had, I got to say, like an eight and a half minute lead.
Did that how did that affect the chase behind because we are starting to see more team dynamics play out? There's quite a few pile lads in the race. Is there any sense that people are starting to get organized a little bit or is it still very individualistic?
I don't know. the riders super well. Obviously, I've I've ridden with some of them and and worked together, but my take on the Pormau guys is that they're kind of a group of privateeers.
So, they're not necessarily a team that'll ride the front for one person. I think it's it's very similar to like the MAP pro privateeer program where you may not see like Freddy Ovette work with Russell, but they look like they're teammates. So, I don't think it's as straightforward as as you would think in terms of, hey, they're wearing the same kit.
They're on the same team. I think they just have the same It's kind of like two riders with a Red Bull helmet, right? They're they've got the same sponsor, but they're not necessarily in the same program.
So, I think that's what it was missing is I think there wasn't a team to to chase anybody down. And I think that's why the tactic worked so well for those two. And then they also got in front before I think it's Divide Road.
I think it went C res Reserve then Divide Road. I think Divide Road was slippery. Like it wasn't muddy like bog you down like peanut butter mud, but it was slick and so there's a wide range of technical abilities and Cam is a very good technical rider.
So I'm sure he got through it very well and clean. And in the back there was splits from people either not being able to keep up with that pace or sliding out or crashing. And I think that solidified them up the road.
And you have to remember even in a world tour race with radios. It's not as clear-cut as you see on the coverage. Like we're not getting time splits every minute saying, "Oh, they're at 8 minutes.
Oh, they're at 9 minutes." Like I remember riding alongside with Finsty and he had his phone and so he got a notification on his head unit for a text message and he's like oh dang they're 10 minutes up and it was a surprise you know so it's like we're when you watch it from the coverage it looks very straightforward like why aren't they chasing these guys are getting away but there's a lot happening in that race like coming out of that I crashed in Divide Road um and so essentially was in the second chase group. Keegan was in the first chase group and then flatted out.
Matt had flatted behind me. So, a lot of the guys that maybe would work together and chase were kind of in different groups and just trying to get back to the first chase group. Never mind chase down the front.
And then I I think there was just a general consensus that they're not going to make it u because it's never been done before. The most organized chase seems to be a group of mates rather than anything that's brand loyal because I know Matt Beers Keegan train together. They train with Russell as well.
It's kind of a little bit of an Arizona click going on. They're willing to pull together. I think it's also like their their mindset is very similar.
So it's like if there's a a large number of us in a group that we all know everyone's going to work like maybe writers you just know like me, Alexi, Keegan, Matt, Fininsy, if we were five in a group, then it would probably work out because we know we have no baggage in terms of everyone's going to take a pull, everyone's going to try to get back to the front. But just like coming out of Little Egypt, you see a couple people trying to miss a turn or right on their limit and then that throws off the rotation and then people get frustrated and don't want to pull this group along and then then it swells and that just magnifies, right? Because now you have 10 more baggages because they just got back so they're not going to come to the front.
They're they're smoked. And then now you have a group of 60 riders just doawling along the road. And that's why I'm saying I think that tactic of being out front was the right call.
I think in hindsight I would have tried to get in that break because you maybe lose 30 seconds to a minute on Little Egypt, but then everyone sits up and you gain that 30 seconds to a minute back without having to actually do a threshold effort. I chatted to a tour to France historian on the podcast only yesterday and it was really interesting. I didn't know any of this about the tour to France.
Tour to France was a national only race. So you would the National Federation would pick a team, USA would send a team, Ireland would send a team up until like the 1950s. And what started happening was exactly what's going on in Gravel now that one or two guys would start getting supported by a bike brand and they would start building like little coalitions within the group cuz we're all riding on Specialized so we're all going to pull together and that was the early origins of the team setup.
And I wonder is that what Gravel's going through now because as lads get stronger like you know even you're a great example but there's another you know half the fields from Europe this year as the gap is getting closer to Keegan especially Keegan's just not going to ride on the front to bring a group back and toast himself anymore cuz he just can't anymore. Yeah. Previously he could do that winner extra power to bring the group back and then smoke the group.
Yeah. and he might still be the strongest rider on paper. Who knows?
But like you said, the gap isn't there. So, so for him to do that effort would bring him level or underneath somebody else in that group who could jump him. And I think but at the same time, it's too early to say, right?
Because Unbound is always kind of this unknown. I mean, he didn't do super well at by Keegan standards, right? If you don't win, then yeah, then you're not doing well.
But last year he got what? Like top 15, top 20 or something. He crashed as well last year, didn't he?
Yeah. So, so I feel like it's kind of a bit of an unknown Unbound as a whole just because you can't really control it because no one has a team. So, I do think the the margins are getting closer.
And I think like like we saw at Sea Otter, the entire level is is coming up, but it's also changing how we race future races. Like, I don't know how many of the Grand Prix riders you follow, but it is the year of the drop bar mountain bike. Trekky's already training on his for Leadville.
Matt's already built his up. Finy and Keegan already raced it last year. So, I think this is the year that the the top Grand Prix riders are all on drop bar mountain bikes for Leadville.
How do you think that changes Leadville? We're going to see record breaking again in Leadville. I don't know about the record.
Um, I think Keegan obviously can beat it. I think I'm looking more at the rest of the field. I don't think Keegan's going to be the only one that goes sub six this year if I had to guess.
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And the dynamic and the power balance within the group is quite interesting because we're having legit exorld thorough riders coming across now. Like Tim the clerk was there this year. Like even you know Simon Pulo from like he's riding for tutor at the moment.
like these guys have legit calendars and I know Moic raced last year but it felt like there was a little bit of tokenism in that cuz he was the gravel world champ and sponsors probably who knows what his preparation was like he could have been out there on a holiday and you know not too stressed people are going now and making this a priority event. How is that is it a us versus them mentality with the lifetime Grand Prix guys and the Europeans coming over? Not in not in my mind.
I actually enjoy it. Like I think it's it's the cool thing for gravel for me. Like when I first got into racing, right, GVA was winning races and Olympic champion.
And if he told me I'd be racing with him in South Africa and then again in Kansas in 2025, I'd be like, that's pretty cool. you know, like I think it it kind of brings everyone together and and I think that's what I enjoy most about gravel is the different backgrounds. Like we have GVA there, former Olympic road champion and then we have multiple winners of the Cape Epic.
We had, you know, half the speed company racing team. We have Matt there, you know, we have Alexi who had a successful career on the road with BMC. We have people who, you know, gave up road careers to race gravel.
Like I think Mad Madsword Smith is I think he was Danish champion on the road in 2021 and probably young enough to still be chasing a road career, but he chose gravel instead. So I think all those different backgrounds make it super interesting. But it's also why like on Divide Road there's such a wide range of experience.
You know, you come from mountain biking, this feels like nothing. You come from road racing and your tires start moving underneath you, you're like, "What's happening?" Yeah.
So, I think it's something to be aware of. But I I don't know. I really like the the community aspect of it and people coming from different countries, different backgrounds, different motivations.
Like, I think it's so cool that we all get to this one start line, but we're not the same. You know, like my why is different from GVA's why is different from Keegan's why or how we train or or what we enjoy doing, but we all end up on that same start line. Yeah, it's a real melting pot at the moment, which I I think it's very compelling from a storytelling perspective.
And Unbound are or Lifetime, should I say, are doing a better job each year at bringing the viewers inside. Like the live stream this year was pretty legit. My parents were over for dinner that evening and I was like phone under the table kind of going that's but the dynamic of the race did it didn't lead itself to brilliant suspense cuz you had the winners basically decided with two hours of racing left by catastrophic blow up or well if you knew the results yeah but I think in a race like Unbound anything could have happened even with the 10-minute gap you know you know you can you can capitulate pretty fast at the end of that race.
Is it frustrating for you in the chase groups behind? How does that like I'm I'm trying to get it even like the because Unbound is an emotional roller coaster through a race that long. What does that do to you mentally where you're in a group and you know there's just going to be no cohesion?
Because for a long time we've seen Unbound was just a big true and off session. Yeah. Yeah.
I think definitely a bit frustrating. Um especially when you feel like you have the legs to get up there, but I mean I think for me maybe it'd be more frustrating if I had succeeded results-wise at Unbound before, but I think my main goal was just to continue to take steps forward. Like the first year I made it like three hours into the race before I flatted and the second time I did it I made it to Little Egypt which was like five hours in.
And so this year I made it seven hours in before I had a mistake and and front flatted. So, but I also felt this year, obviously it's easy in hindsight to say I would have stayed with the group, but I feel like this year I had the fueling and the training down that I would have been able to make it to the finish with that group. So, possibly a a top 10 15 and a podium spot in the Grand Prix was in the cards, which again taking nothing away from the riders that are on that podium.
I'm not saying, hey, I would have beat them if I didn't flat. It's more internally I've made the progress to actually be able to race Unbound start to finish which which for me is just a big personal win regardless of the results sheet. I think Unbound gave me a weakness to work on in terms of the Grand Prix and I feel I haven't put pen to paper in terms of the the results for it, but power power meters don't lie and I can see the progression I'm making year-over-year and that's equally exciting for me.
What was your power for it? I think for the entire day it was 296 normalized and 260 something raw. It's big.
And what's the standout moments? Little Egypt and then that crosswind section. Honestly, that crosswind section was harder.
Maybe just you're mentally prepared for Little Egypt. But I also like in my little notebook I was like I want to lead um car reserve which I should have said I want to lead um divide road in hindsight. I want to lead car reserve or beef top five wheels and I want to lead or be top five wheels in Little Egypt.
And so it was like just checked a box there. And then with Little Egypt, you can kind of lag climb a little bit in terms of like we get to that last pitch and then you know if you're on your limit and people are kind of riding away from you, you kind of just shuffle down three wheels and then on the rolly bits you get back on. So, that one didn't feel as hard to me cuz I had a plan.
I think the cross power is a little chipped. I don't think it's anything impressive. I think it's like 400 watts for a few minutes on the climbs.
And I think the whole thing is like 360 normalized for 8 to 10 minutes. It's still sticky enough for 100 mile in. Oh, yeah.
No, for sure. I last time that's where I came unglued. Like I was going all out for I think 330 watts.
like yeah that digging the bottom there's so much yeah that's there so much you've moved the needle on like you talked about fueling quite a bit but talk to me about the puncture what's what's a pit pit stop look like for you how fast you getting that change where you have plugs so the first CO2 was stored it was a tread puncture and just the most innocuous piece of trail must have just rolled a flint rock or maybe there was a nail I don't know couldn't tell you what actually caused it but it had a tri puncture. Uh rode along for 10 seconds to see if it was small enough for Orange Seal to seal it up. It was not.
Um so I actually had to put a big dino plug and a small. So no surprise, Orange Seal couldn't seal it. Um but then it sealed up no problem.
Hit it with a CO2 at that point. There was a second group coming on the road. So instead of chasing the the group I was in, I kind of got absorbed into that second chase group.
probably third or fourth group on the road once we include which is nearly the worst thing to happen in some ways because you're caught in that dynamic we talked about again then where it's like I'm the strongest guy in this group. Yeah. But am I going to pull everyone back here?
It seemed like a pretty motivated group to be honest and I could kind of float in it and my goal was to kind of do as little work as possible. Kind of like show my face at the front so like everyone's motivated to work like don't sit on kind of thing. But my goal and I I rolled the dice that orange seal would would hold my rear tire and it did.
I actually did not change my wheel at that first aid station. I used the aid station to try to jump groups. So essentially we had a a pit stop strategy that would have me layer less than 5 seconds.
So Daniel had my us. I threw it on that back. I also had a museette and then I just kept going, picked the things out of the museette and tossed it and he would find that for me.
Um, what did happen is Matt came in, I believe, before me and did swap his wheels. So, I had Matt now in the group chasing. And so, him and Brennan Wartz, two of probably the biggest motors in gravel racing, were working on the front and towing the group.
And unfortunately, Matt flatted again, but we were within 10 seconds of the the group that I had flatted out of by that point. And so we made it back. Um, yeah.
And then split in the crosswinds. I think it was a group of like 10ish of us with me, Keegan, Finy, Alexi, um, I think Mads from Paw, Normal. At least there was a Pormal kit in there.
Um, and then we went through a creek crossing that was super rocky and I just put my wheel in the wrong spot and pinch flated the front again. plugged it with two plugs, had rotated my bars forward, so I had to kind of like figure that out. And then by that point, that's the worst thing to happen.
Flatting and unbound isn't terrible if there's still groups, but at that point, that was the group. And then it was just ones and twos behind. So, it was kind of solo TT for the rest of the day.
And then that that point I thought it was better to swap both wheels in the next aid station and have fresh tires for the rest of the race than to cuz I wasn't going to make it back to that group by myself. Yes. What's a puncture costing you time wise?
Two minutes more. The first one was probably a minute. Just plugged it really fast, hit it with a CO2.
The second one was since it was a pinch flat. It's that awkward like you have to find the bead right along the rim where it's coming out. And then I also had to like adjust my bars up and that one probably cost me three, four minutes.
That's pretty I also love how we're so doiled on tire pressure and everyone's doing podcasts about their tire pressure pre-race and then it's like yeah puncture and I just whack in a CO2 canister. Yeah, that's true. I had a mountain bike crash last year on that and it was one of those ones where I was with a group uh some good guys in the group and I felt like I was holding them up a little bit when I flatted.
You know when you don't know a group I'm a bit self-conscious like I'm fixing this flat fast but I you know second flat of the day tubeless isn't holding it. Got to the point where a tube is going into it. Get it fixed just whack a CO2 in go to hit the next trail hard and just wash out front wheel on probably 90 PSI or something stupid.
Yeah. No, I I played around with actually running the Tire Wiz. Um I ran it at Big Sugar last year.
What's nice about it is when you do plug a rear tire or when you hit it with a CO2, not necessarily setting it to the right pressure, but to know if it's holding, right? Like if you see it at 26 PSI and then you check 30 minutes later, it's still at 26 PSI, then you have confidence that your plugs are holding. You don't have a slow puncture.
So those are quite useful in those cases and I tend to run them on gravel for that reason. But it's also yeah like you said nice if you are on a training ride you can use them to make sure the pressure is right when you reinflate. Yeah zip of that uh air pressure in their new wheels as well which I haven't played around with.
So and the alternative is I know instead of CO2 a lot of people these days are running those electronic inflators and you can actually set those to the pressure you want. So, you know, if you know, say you're running 24 26, right? I would run it I'd set it to 26 just to make sure like if you flat the front, you just run a couple more PSI and then you can hit it with that and it hits it to the right pressure.
Are they pretty fast to go up though or I kind of feel like almost a meme of trying to put a camp in bed trying to get it inflated with one of these things. I wouldn't say it's as fast as a CO2, but it's also I think the equivalent of four or five CO2s. So, for the size and weight, I'd say probably worth it and definitely something to for me to look into for future races.
Yes, I am. Actually, I'm going to look into that as well for some of the longer stuff. Yeah, I'm down.
As you were second puncture, solo TT at this point, is it all hope is lost of getting back into the race? You're just kind of trying to max effort from here to the finish time trial style. Yeah, it was definitely max effort from there to the finish.
Um, maybe I'm blindly optimistic, but I mean in a race like Unbound, I feel like anything can happen. Maybe the group up front starts playing games again and there's negative racing or one of the good guys flats again and I catch them and now I have help to get back up. Who knows?
I think just for me, don't give up was kind of just what was playing in my head and you never know what's possible. So, just kind of put my head down and like I said, regardless of the result in Grand Prix points, I think it was like 12th or 13th, I might need those points later if something happens at the other races. You know, in a perfect world, this is ranked number six of six on the races.
So, I hopefully will drop those 13 place points, but bike racing is bike racing and you never know what's going to happen. A quick word from today's sponsor. A few years ago, I came out of my local coffee shop after a long winter spin to find my cafe lock on the ground, sliced clean in half.
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All that information is in the description below. It's actually a great lesson for just anyone listening for gravel racing or road racing. It's like you just don't know what's going on in front.
Just control your controllable. Like all you can do at that point is measure your effort to the finish and get leave everything out there. You can't figure out and predict the future dynamics of groups.
Who's going to crash? Who's going to flat? Yeah.
Yeah. You never know what's going to happen. And at that point, I kind of just played the average speed game.
I was at 20 I think 22.2 when I flatted and I finished at 22.1.
So just tried to keep the the momentum going. How obviously if we were to go back and replay the race and you were get to do a d or you try and get out in that early break and get ahead of the racing. How competitive is it to get into those early breaks?
You know from you know my experiences racing in Europe at times the early break can be very competitive to get into it. I think lot of be more competitive moving forward. Um I think this time I think it caught a lot of the field off guard.
I think the advantage also we have on gravel especially with the rain is you can use a technical piece to get in the break. You know in the road you kind of have to use pure power. The teams look at each other.
Are you happy with that? Are you good with that? Number 96 went up.
Do you have him on your sheet to watch? It's more and then they block the road and and that's that. In gravel racing with maybe the biggest team being two people, you kind of just strategically put yourself up the road or at the front and then just drive the pace and then it's similar to mountain biking with bottlenecks.
There will be gaps just because you don't know where they'll be, but someone's going to overlap wheels, someone's going to slip out, someone's going to cause a gap, someone's not going to be as technically inclined as someone else. So, you can kind of roll the dice on that being the case. Um, to a pretty, I guess, beneficial extent in terms of it's likely to happen.
Um, it's just like sea otter. I don't think going up the corkcrew you'll win the race, but if you're 30th wheel, you're leaving yourself open to someone crashing, going into the dirt, someone crashing on the descent. There are more people between you and the front to drop wheels.
So, yeah, like the lads from Pro Cycle, I don't know him super well, Simone. H but he had a big send early in Sea Otter as well. So, he's definitely one that likes to get out ahead of the racing.
Yeah. No, I think that's also what makes this series so exciting is we've done two gravel races and both at sea level and now we're about to do well a quote unquote mountain bike race, a mountain bike race on drop bars at 10,000 ft of elevation. So, a lot of these guys, how do they perform at 10,000 ft, you know, and that's that's a new element.
And then we go actually on mountain bikes for Schwamagan, which is like a two-hour dirt crit. And then we do a proper mountain bike race in Arkansas, where can you handle your bike? Can you keep air in your tires over rugged terrain?
And then we end it with a more flat, heavy Arkansas course for gravel. So, I think it's that's what makes the the series interesting is they got to got to prove themselves in a lot of lot of different ways. Anyone in the top 10 that you didn't expect to be there, I'm looking at them.
For me, they're not a lot of the household names, you know, obviously Keegan in seven, Boswell, former winner, former world tour rider in eighth. Uh Brendan Johnson's in fifth. I have to say I didn't know the Shrek lad at all that came toward uh Torborn Andre road.
Don't know him at all. No. Uh I wouldn't say anything surprised me.
I know Cam is super strong. We rode when he was out here for Sea Otter. I know Simon is also very strong.
This is exactly what he used to do when he raced road. He was the most aggressive rider, most time in the brakes. Like he knows how to ride that kind of effort.
Um, Toby, he's just super strong and he's super strong on any bike, on any surface. So, didn't surprise me there. Uh, Treky's put a lot of effort into this event.
Um, he was in Kansas for the two weeks before. So, I think that's just a fruition of of the work he's put in and he's continued to get better. He was, I think, fourth in the series overall last year.
So he's he's super strong and super strong again across any bike, any discipline, any surface. Who's the big losers? Anyone from the overall I'm trying to think Alexi, you know, sec was he second or third and se not featuring for me big losers need two bad results.
I think you have room for one. Um so Alexi in my book now just has second and he just for now Unbound will be his drop race. So, he's not a big loser until he has another outside of the top 10 result or something not usual of Alexi.
I think the I struggle to call him big losers because it sounds very mean, but I think in terms of of who's on the back foot maybe is Cole. Cole didn't have the sea otter he's capable of and then got sick coming into Unbound. Pac now has two DNFS.
So, I'm thinking of people who now already have two results that would be outside their norm, I guess. And in that vein, uh, Russell kind of surprised me in terms of I wouldn't say he had the Sea Otter or the Unbound we've come to expect of him. Um, so I think those riders I kind of have in my book as like it's it's an uphill battle now.
Um, even myself, I don't feel a huge amount of pressure coming out of Unbound. We knew if I got a top five that's kind of just icing on the cake and I was capable, but I've top 10 the rest of the events in the Grand Prix overall without even including Grand Prix riders. So, I think for me that's kind of kind of Unbound done and somehow still squeaked into the top 10 overall with that result.
And now we now we get to the fun ones and the pressure on the likes of Pace and the other guys you mentioned because you've fewer Grand Prix spots than we had last season. They've shown very little romanticism around legacy riders. They're more than willing to cut the likes of Alex, you know, one of the big characters coming into this season from the series in favor of the European guy.
So there's nothing to suggest that's not going to continue again into next season. Losing the Grand Prix spot, unless you're a Lac Morton, it's a bit of a death sentence for a gravel rider at the moment. So, the pressure is definitely going to be piling on those guys into the third round.
Yeah, maybe not Pacin specifically. I think he's done a really good job of essentially working two jobs. I mean, his podcast is super popular and he does a lot of a lot of work around content creation as well as like he's brilliant in coverage as well actually.
Yeah. and fulllength video like he did was it crossing Australia. Yeah, he's done a few of those, but like I think he he mixes the two very well of kind of personality, but also I'm fast on a bike.
Um, but I know from what I know of PAC that the results are probably more important to him than being a personality. So, I think it was very validating to get third overall last year because I think he's had some really bad luck in the series. He's had some injuries and now he's crashed at the first race.
I think that's because I remember the first year it happened. I think he crashed before Sea Otter because he was on the coverage again the first year of the Grand Prix when we were racing Sea Otter. So, yeah.
No, I feel for him, but also I don't think anyone's doubting that he knows how to ride a bike. Feeling good in Leadville. Yeah.
No, I took uh well at the tail end of a week completely off. We we start back up on Monday and then uh leave for altitude on Thursday. So really excited to to get after it.
I hope it's still just as fun on drop bars. Uh I definitely miss mountain biking a bit. So we'll see.
What date? Leadville. August 12th.
Um it's going to be an interesting one this year because my wife is doing the Leadville 100 run. So, we're doing She's gonna be a lot more fatigued than you are. Yeah.
So, the plan as of right now is for me to race Leadville and then I'll do Bre epic and then I'll crew her for her Leadville 100 run. So, we booked a place in Bre for the month and we're going to be up at 9,500 feet for a good amount of time. Nice.
I love it. We'll chat. We'll chat again for Leadville.
Alex, well done. Great start to the season. Thanks for bringing us along in the journey and giving us a little chance to live vicariously through you and pretend we're good bike riders.
I do. I do it as well. Pretend I'm a good bike rider.
Uh best luck for Altitude Camp and yeah, we'll catch up for a little bit. Sounds good. Thanks for having me.
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