Unbound Gravel is one of the most prestigious gravel races in the world, and Cobe Freeburn was the top Durango rider in the very competitive field that had to deal with lots of mud and water in 200 miles of riding, starting in Emporia, Kansas, on Saturday.
Plenty of rain fell on the course in the Flint Hills on Friday night into Saturday, leaving muddy conditions on the gravel roads and plenty of pools of water in parts of the course. This led to crashes in the second round of the Life Time Grand Prix, with riders getting off their bike to wade through the pools that were mid-calf deep and riders covered in mud. So many riders had to get off their bikes to clean the mud from their derailleurs and chain rings, losing time to competitors.
Freeburn was the top Durango finisher in the 200-mile races, taking 16th place in the elite men’s race in nine hours, 51 minutes and 55 seconds. He finished as the eighth-best male in the Life Time Grand Prix. Mads Würtz Schmidt won the elite men’s race in 9:14:51, with Matthew Beers in second in 9:19:54 and Tobias Kongstad in 9:24:43.
“I'm pretty happy with it overall,” Freeburn said. “I didn't have any big expectations going into the race, since it was my first time doing it. So, it was nice to just kind of go in without much expectation and see how it all played out. I definitely fell apart at the end, but I'm not too disappointed with it. I learned a lot throughout the race.”
Freeburn came into Unbound with some good momentum after finishing sixth in the Sea Otter Classic in California, the first round of the Life Time Grand Prix. However, the weather was a big wild card for Freeburn and the rest of the riders, but especially for Freeburn, since it was his first Unbound and it would be the longest race of his career.
When the Durango rider rode the course on Thursday, it was muddy. On Friday, it was dry. But once Freeburn went to sleep on Friday night, he started hearing thunder and lightning, and he knew it was going to be muddy in the morning.
Freeburn was prepared for the mud with narrow tires, a bike with good clearance and a chain guide.
“In the first 20 miles or so, it was just chaos,” Freeburn said. “People were having issues left and right, and I was lucky. I didn't have to get off my bike, never had any issues.”
The 25-year-old Durango rider’s quality setup choices allowed him to get to the front early in the race after the first mud section. He was in a front group of 10, before around Mile 50, Freeburn, Würtz Schmidt and Keegan Swenson went off the front.
It was an interesting dynamic for that group of three since Würtz Schmidt and Swenson are Specialized teammates and Freeburn rides for Trek. He wasn’t sure if they were going to work together, and they did, as Swenson was telling Würtz Schmidt to slow down every time Würtz Schmidt was going hard on the climbs.
Freeburn was in that top three until about 110 miles in; he realized he couldn’t hold their pace forever and dropped back. Freeburn was on his own for a while, before he was caught by a group, dropped by them, caught by another group, dropped by then and he crossed the finish line in 16th. He was happy to get off his bike at the finish, with nearly everything hurting after almost 10 hours in the saddle.
“I definitely wouldn't have been able to hold Mads’ (Würtz Schmidt) pace, but with no mud, it would have been a bigger group up at the front, which would have been easier for me,” Freeburn said. “If I was kind of more prepared for the distance and the time. It helps feeling it before, and a lot of people don't really do super well their first time doing it. It’s good learnings for next time, and I know more is possible, which is really nice.”
Freeburn left the Unbound race fifth in the Life Time Grand Prix men’s standings. He’ll be racing Bighorn Gravel and Steamboat Gravel in late June, before riding in Round 3 of the Life Time Gran Prix, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, on Aug. 15.
On the women’s side, Durango resident and Fort Lewis College’s Michaela Thompson was the top Durango rider in the women’s elite field of the 200, finishing in 32nd in 11:48:46. Former FLC rider Sofía Gómez Villafañe won the women’s elite race in 10:31:37, with Geerike Schreurs in second in 10:31:38 and Cecily Decker in third in 10:31:38.
Thompson isn’t a part of the Life Time Grand Prix women’s roster at the moment, but she is racing for one of the four wild card spots to get on to the women’s roster and compete for the series’ prize money.
“Holy moly,” Thompson wrote on Instagram. “It feels like I went to another universe and back yesterday. That was by far my biggest day ever and I fricking did it! I created a mindset to treat the day as a huge challenge to complete … I made no result or comparable goals, but instead I wanted to go with the flow and take the inevitable setbacks as a part of the challenge to overcome.”
Payson McElveen was the second-best Durango rider in the men’s elite 200 field, finishing 42nd in 10:20:45. McElveen was looking to bounce back from a disappointing Sea Otter Classic, but his race was doomed from the start as he struggled with the mud at the beginning of the day.
“I’m still really disappointed with the day,” McElveen said. “It wasn’t what I was hoping for at all … I was one of the victims of the mud, maybe a more extreme case. I just lost so much time in the first hour and a half trying to get my bike working … I ended up having a super strong day and made up a ton of spots the rest of the day, but when you lose a bunch of time that early, it’s pretty impossible to recover from.”
McElveen has over half a decade of experience racing at Unbound, but he said the mud this year was very unique. In the past, the mud would get stuck in the tires and stop them from moving. This year, the soil content of the mud wreaked havoc on drivetrains. After speaking with other riders after, McElveen realized he should’ve used a chain guide, but that’s something he hadn’t had to worry about before.
Up next for McElveen is the Lost and Found Gravel Grinder Series in California on June 13.
Elsewhere in the men’s field, Durango’s Henry Nelson did not finish.
On the elite women’s side, Durango’s Ellen Campbell and Durango resident Ruby Ryan did not finish. Campbell has been dealing with a nagging knee injury.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
