Crashes and dangerous riding affected lots of riders at the iconic Unbound 200 Gravel Race, including Durango-based riders. Maude Farrell and Ellen Campbell overcame the crashes around them for quality results on Friday in Kansas.
The men’s and women’s elite field for the 200-mile races was as competitive as ever, with top riders from all over the country and all over the world competing.
In the women’s elite race, Karolina Migon was the winner in 10 hours, three minutes and 54 seconds. Former FLC Skyhawk Sofia Gomez Villafane finished in third in 10:22:24 in a sprint finish against three other women.
The top Durango-based resident was Maude Farrell, who finished 12th out of 62 finishers in 10:37:42. Farrell made her way through the large pack of elite women and was inside the top 20 for nearly the last 110 miles.
Behind Farrell was Durango’s Ellen Campbell, who finished 25th in 10:51:10 and finished with seven women who had the exact same time as her.
“I feel really happy with it,” Campbell said. “That race is really hard with a stacked field … it’s diverse because you’re riding with a bunch of people you’ve never ridden with before. There were definitely some unknowns going into it, riding with people you haven’t ridden with before. The one known is that it’s going to be a very hard, challenging day … I’m happy with it; there were a lot of crashes and it was a pretty dangerous race.”
Campbell said there were a lot of crashes in the first 40 miles and that’s also when the leaders made their move. She was in the main group at the beginning of the race, fell off it and then found a good group for the last 100 miles of the race.
She blamed her fall off the leaders on a lack of nutrition. Campbell said around mile 30, there are some technical areas that command all of the riders’ attention. She missed an hour of nutrition because she was so locked in on that section and had achy legs.
The climbs and the rocks are sharp in the Flint Hills of Unbound, according to Campbell. That makes it challenging, as mechanical issues can happen. Temperatures are also high, which makes it challenging on a rider who’s out there pushing their limits for 10 hours.
Conditions were a bit mixed this year, according to Campbell. There were sections that were wet but not exactly muddy, like in previous years. The mixed conditions were challenging in a field of 90 elite women. Campbell likes the adverse conditions because they can break up the race.
Unbound’s speed has also increased, according to Campbell. The front-runners used to wait around to attack later in the race, but the race has gotten faster each year. Campbell finished with her best time this year, but not her best finish. She was very happy to break 11 hours.
A change in Unbound this year was the new rule that stopped riders from drafting off other categories. It was enforced by photographers, media and marshals.
Campbell was in favor of the rule but acknowledged it is complicated.
“If you’re at mile 20 and you have a flat tire, unless you have some magic legs that day to catch back up, it’s kind of race-ending,” Campbell said. “Whereas if you’re able to draft off the amateur men who are starting 20 minutes behind you, there’s a possibility you get some more momentum to move up.”
On the flip side, if someone had a mechanical and used drafting off other categories to get back to the front, it can be seen as an unfair advantage, according to Campbell.
Campbell said the issue came up during the race with her group and an amateur male. He was riding with Campbell’s group and was taking pulls on the front. Campbell had to tell him to go away because the group of professional women could be disqualified for drafting.
One of Durango’s and gravel racing’s most well-known riders had a tough Unbound. Sarah Sturm had to retire from the elite women’s 200 race after a crash gave her a minor concussion.
“I'm feeling mostly really disappointed,” Sturm said. “It's a huge race that even though it's not like my personal favorite, it's still like a massive day for gravel. It's the biggest gravel race in the world, and because of that, I prioritize it with my training and my race calendar. To get crashed out at mile 50 of 200 is pretty disappointing.”
Sturm can count on one hand the number of times she’s retired from a race in her career.
She echoed Campbell’s statements about the race being dangerous; Sturm said many riders in the elite field who shouldn’t have been there. But they were because anyone can sign up for the elite races and a good result at Unbound can make someone’s career. Therefore, riders were willing to take risks, which resulted in crashes.
Sturm thinks there should be some type of vetting process for the pro field. There were so many crashes and such a low finishing percentage with a larger field compared to past years.
About 50 miles in, the elite women in the 200-mile race hit Divide Road. This forced the blob of 90 women to file into double track. There was a massive rut made by a vehicle earlier in the week. Sturm anticipated it going straight but she wiped out on the rut, causing her bars to be twisted and she hit her head hard.
Sturm remembers having an immediate headache but also remembers hearing encouragement from other riders as they passed her crash. With adrenaline pumping, Sturm got back on her bike and returned to the chase group after the top three had separated.
She was disappointed the group hadn’t chased after the top three. However, Sturm’s attention quickly turned back to her condition. She felt good on the bike but knew it was dangerous to continue to ride with even a slight concussion. If she went down again, it could be really bad.
Sturm talked with Campbell, Haley Smith and Lauren De Crescenzo, while they were in the chase group, about Sturm’s concussion symptoms. Smith told Sturm she should stop racing because it wasn’t worth the risk to fight for fourth place. Sturm pulled out of the lead chase group around mile 100 to retire.
“So many people have reached out and called me,” Sturm said. “But I'm really appreciative of these women who took time and energy out of their own race to help me answer some questions, because it's been over a decade since I've had a concussion. It's a mild one, which is almost harder to know, because you feel fine, but you also don't feel fine.”
Sturm has been taking it easy after her crash to properly recover. She’s planning on racing again in the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder stage race at the end of the month.
Henry Nelson was the top Durango-based rider in the elite men’s 200 race, finishing in 60th out of 115 finishers in 9:38:41. Cameron Jones won the race in 8:37:09, followed by Simon Pellaud in second in 8:37:51. Durango’s Ryan Standish didn’t finish.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
