John Borstelmann got his bike and himself power washed in the pits after getting bogged down in the early muddy section. The 2022 edition of Unbound Gravel may have been wet and messy but in 2023 the degree of difficulty presented by the conditions reached a whole new level, with an early, new section delivering ‘peanut butter mud’ that left many riders running and equipment clogged.
Riders, still packed in a large group, left the firm-packed gravel roads after the Emporia start and barrelled straight to ‘D Hill’ at mile 10. This hill had not been used since 2015, when it became a mud pit eight years ago because of heavy rain. That flashback became reality again as days of rain storms in eastern Kansas created sludge again, sparked chaos and split the race.
"Savage, absolutely savage. It was unreal," was how women’s fourth-placed women’s 200 rider Danni Shrosbree described it.
"From the start I felt pretty comfortable at the front and then we hit the ‘peanut butter’ mud, and it was absolute chaos."
The field was split to pieces in that section, with some managing to somehow find a line through, either by avoiding halted riders and keeping momentum at the front or heading off the side across the steep, slippery slope of grass, but so many more were caught up in the quagmire.
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