'1,000 women is the baseline, not the goal' - Unbound Gravel and Lauf Gravel Worlds raise the bar in off-road cycling for women

Women represented somewhere between 20-23% of registered riders who took part in two of the largest gravel events in the US last year - Life Time Unbound Gravel and Lauf Gravel Worlds. They both have lofty goals to push those numbers much higher, even doubling the numbers in the near future.

There are more than 4,000 riders who now claim a bib number and plan to take on one of five routes at Unbound Gravel, May 30-31. So if just over 1,200 of those riders are women, is that a good number? 

It's great, according to organisers, and there's room for more. 

All riders come from various countries, backgrounds and with a wide range of reasons for 'why'. One of the highest denominators among female riders is a connection to Girls Gone Gravel. According to Kristi Mohn, race director of Unbound, approximately 50% of those can be tracked to Girls Gone Gravel.

"Girls Gone Gravel has facilitated a community for women to connect, train and support one another. So far they have 600 women participating, which is just about half of the entire women’s field for Unbound Gravel," Michelle Duffy, the senior marketing director at Life Time, which owns and operates the race, told Cyclingnews.

"We have been partnering with Girls Gone Gravel since their inception and continue to be impressed and grateful for the work they do to elevate all aspects of women’s cycling, whether it’s the pointy end of the women’s field or a women’s first 25-mile event."

Girls Gone Gravel found firm footing with Unbound just four years ago, but founder Kathryn Taylor said "this is definitely not an overnight success". 

Riding the tidal wave of popularity with the gravel discipline, the Girls Gone Gravel movement looks to convert 'interest' in riding to actual pedalling at an event like Unbound and doing so with confidence. The podcast is a big driver, which has generated 251 episodes so far, and her co-host is Mohn. 

"I came to gravel from triathlon and I found in cycling, there was a big hesitation from a lot of women to sign up for an event because they didn't want to race. We've worked to reframe that narrative to showing yourself what you can do and to make it easy for women to get the information they need to show up at a start line," Taylor, who is also chief of staff for Live Feisty Media which produces the Girls Gone Gravel podcast, told Cyclingnews.

"It can be intimidating when you're in a sea of men's faces at a start line. The goal is for women to roll up to the start line with the confidence they deserve."

Girls Gone Gravel provides all kinds of resources for women, from podcasts to videos to training camps. A typical podcast generates 1,000 listeners and a Facebook group boasts more than 17,000 members.

"We believe that women are completely capable of empowering themselves. But women are also freaking busy and don't have time to spend their entire day on Google searching for answers - so we make it easy to get the information they need and create community. " 

Last year she was surprised to find only 124 women competed at Unbound Gravel 200, a large portion in the elite division, and in the 100-mile distance only 245 women, or 16% comprised a field of 1500 racers. 'More Women More Miles' was born, directly helping 75 more women register, but inspiring others to get into gravel.

The lottery for Unbound Gravel 2025 registrations took place in November 2024 and moved up a couple of months from years before. And since the November timeframe collided with a US presidential election, Tayler asked Life Time for the 75 extra spots for the More Women More Miles campaign in February. They agreed and Taylor "was shocked" when all the spots filled quickly.

"It was only 245 women out of 1,500 for the 100-miler [in 2024]. For the rest of the year, I just kept thinking, we have the community - we can do something about this," Taylor said.

"From my time working on women's programs with USA Triathlon, I knew that women often want two things - to feel prepared and to feel like they have a community. So we created a program called More Women, More Miles and Life Time got behind it. Honestly, I was shocked at how excited people were about it!"

It's not just individuals who benefit from Girls Gone Gravel, but teams as well. Upland Brewing Women's Cycling has 14 women across Indiana and Wisconsin. When the club's founder stepped down, the team was in jeopardy of closing their doors last year. That's where Girls Gone Gravel came to the rescue.

"We weren't sure what to do and were kind of stuck in limbo for a while. GGG helped inspire me to take on leading the team," Sierra Siebenlist told Cyclingnews, who is one of nine of the team members who ride gravel.

"So many women's programs don't last long. I want to do my part in keeping the movement going. While it would've been super easy for me to just join another team/club, something told me I just needed to go for it. I've been able to expand the program, including riders of various disciplines and ages, - youngest 21, oldest over 50.  Through the strong, smart ladies we've acquired, we are running the team TOGETHER - everyone does their part to keep things going."

1,000 Women of Gravel

A common theme of inclusivity in cycling has been accentuated in another Midwest hotbed of gravel, Lincoln, Nebraska. Lauf Gravel Worlds launched '1000 Women of Gravel' in 2021 and hit the mark at the 2022 event. That year across five ride distances, 40% of all registrations were from women, with a portion each paid entry supporting the next generation of female cyclists, Nebraska’s NICA GRiT (Girls Riding Together).

The initiative has been reintroduced for 2025, with four ride distances taking place August 22-23. Last year more than 2,600 riders descended on Lincoln for a 15th edition of the event, but women's participation dipped to around 25%. Registration is now underway for 2025 and Gravel Worlds co-promoter Jason Strohbehn said the momentum for summer signups will most likely allow them to reach the goal again. 

"1000 Women of Gravel initiative is going great right now. We already have 200 of our 1000 women goal. We will be donating $10 per woman to our state GRiT (Girls Riding Together) program through NICA," Strohbehn told Cyclingnews.

The goal is not just a one-year push for women, but sustained growth to "get close to 50%". Strohbehn said they also include numbers from women who volunteer, since an event of their size could not happen otherwise. 

Sofia Gibson, who has been the outreach coordinator for Gravel Worlds, said the double-pronged approach is what helps with future growth of the sport.

"When we look at our event, we see it as a way to give back to the organizations that do so much for people in our communities. One of the communities that we are so proud to support is GRiT (Girls Riding Together) through NICA. GRiT directly supports the mission to get more girls on bikes and make sure they are set up for success through their riding journey," said Gibson, who has been a coach with NICA.

"Women riding together is powerful. Moving forward, we want to make the number of 1000 the baseline, not the goal, because it's only up from here. We are so lucky to help shine a light on what women are doing in this sport, alongside so many others in this space.Who knows, maybe one day one of these girls inspired by GRiT could end up winning Gravel Worlds."