Nathan Haas on the meteoric rise of the biggest gravel race in the history of the fledgling sport
The unofficial world championships, the all-encompassing Tour de France, the Paris-Roubaix of gravel – I’ve heard it all about Unbound Gravel. I wouldn’t call it the romanticism like we attach to the age-old road races we hold so dear, it’s more of a “hell yeah”, boot-stomping, American gladiator vibe we feel when people talk of Unbound. It’s raw, it’s hardcore, and yes, the dreaded word ‘epic’ – how overused that word is in cycling.
But the question is, why is Unbound so highly regarded? How did it come to be? Is it even hard as everybody suggests? Or is it just marketing? Let’s dig in…
GRAVEL CITY
When I first drove into Emporia, the unassuming mid-west town, I was taken aback by just how ‘country’ the town was. It has a main street as wide as the day is long, diners, guitar stores, colourful doughnut shops, and the town divided in two by an open railway that can have you waiting for an age as the coal trains pass through. It was like stepping back in time, back to the good old days of Western movies.