Stetina, Ten Dam, Morton agree 'fast and intense' are a new normal for pack racing at Unbound Gravel

Peter Stetina (Canyon) is making his fifth appearance at Unbound Gravel 200 this year. Across his four finishes at Unbound Gravel 200, the US rider, who comes into Kansas this year with an overall title at Belgian Waffle Ride Tripel Crown, has seen the race speeds increase, the intensity increase, both related to the amplification in the quality of the field. 

The last solo victory for the elite men was in 2019 when Colin Strickland won on the north course nine minutes ahead of Stetina, who was another 11 minutes better than Alex Howes. The next three races involved sprints decided by seconds, the 2023 competition having Keegan Swenson (Santa Cruz Bicycles) hammer home ahead of Petr Vakoc, with Stetina the final rider in the seven-rider bunch and just eight seconds separating him from the win.

“I think there's been a lot of riders who are very surprised how fast and how intense the racing is now, which has just changed immediately. I think sprint finishes are just more and more commonplace, and things get more competitive, which I'm all for. You know, this is a new discipline, and it's great to see that it allows riders another opportunity to be a professional racer,” Stetina told Cyclingnews and other media during a virtual press conference ahead of Unbound Gravel last week.

“I was one of the early guys to jump from road to gravel, and I have seen a lot of friends and ex-road colleagues follow along and, and you're seeing varying degrees of success in that. I think there are some riders who come in, like [Petr] Vakoc, who are performing immediately. They know how to do the logistics, the privateer hustle we call it. And other riders have kind of missed the mark a little bit. Just being a good road cyclist does not necessarily translate to a good gravel racer. 

“I don't think you can necessarily even realize which rider coming from the road will be a good gravel racer. I don't want it to just be road racing off-road, though. I mean, I want that magic recipe which made gravel boom in the first place. At least I adhere to that - I have to do it my way. And know why I came to this space.”

The first winner of the 200-mile race was Dan Hughes, who finished 11 times, and his first effort in 2006 was completed in 12 hours, 58 minutes. When he won for a third time in 2011, his time was still similar, averaging 15.2 mph. 

In 2018, Ted King won Unbound (then called Dirty Kanza) by a little more than 10 minutes over Joshua Barry, and in 2016, King averaged 17.4 mph and finished in 11:50:13, 42 minutes ahead of Michael Sencenbaugh. The only elite men’s sprint finish on record between 2006 and 2021 was in 2015, when Yuri Hauswald edged Sencenbaugh by one second.

While the courses do vary slightly and have different course conditions with the elements, the fastest time to date across 200 miles in the Flint Hills was in 2022 when Ivar Slik averaged 21.3 mph, winning in 9:22:04. That was just one second ahead of Swenson and Ian Boswell, and Laurens ten Dam another six seconds back.

“I think one of the main reasons that makes it going faster, faster are more good top riders in the field. Indeed, the speeds are getting high and crazy,” Ten Dam told Cyclingnews after Gravel Locos, noting the racing now begins at mile one and never relents.

“Back in the days, you could win Unbound with time finishes maybe one hour or 90 minutes slower than we do now, because he [the winner] was alone for the majority of the race. Now it’s more of a pack race. I think it’s nice to see the level higher, although I’m getting older, so I don’t know how much longer I can match up.”

It’s not just Unbound Gravel that sees super-charged fields and faster race times. In the past three years, Swenson has set course records, most noticeable at the high-elevation endurance test Leadville Trail 100 MTB. He crushed his 2022 record time, which had been 6:00:01, by not seconds, but 15 minutes. In 2022, he finished 11:25 faster than in 2021. 

This year at the Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL, Swenson won in 4:00:15. That was 3:26 faster than just the year before on the same course and in similar conditions, with a pace amped up from 15.7 mph in 2023 to 16.7 mph in 2024 over the 67-mile race.

Like Ten Dam and Stetina, Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) is part of the Life Time Grand Prix series and has observed vast changes in a handful of years. He was second to Swenson at Leadville Trail 100 in 2021, eight minutes off the winning pace. Two years later, Morton knocked three minutes off that time, but eight riders were even faster, including Swenson.

Morton improved his overall time at Fuego XL by almost six full minutes from 2023 to this year, upping his average speed from 14.94 mph to 16.03 mph but only duplicated a 17th place finish. He agreed that faster performances in off-road racing don’t translate to better placings, since the fields continue to grow stronger.

“Gravel racing is now at the point of where road racing was when I left. It’s not as crazy as the WorldTour is now, but it’s going down that route,” Morton said in an interview after Fuego XL with Rouleur.

“I don't feel bad about that and I think it’s needed, but my position in it is like, OK, what am I trying to achieve here? I love getting out there and racing, but there's only so far I'm willing to go down the rabbit hole, because I've been down the rabbit hole before and I don't want to go back to that place, ever.” 

Morton, Ten Dam and Stetina are all former WorldTour road pros and are considered pioneers for privateering on long-distance off-road races. They appreciate the charm of gravel for the adventures, not just the racing, which many people encapsulate as ‘the spirit of gravel’. 

So will sprint finishes continue after 200 miles of racing at Unbound? Stetina said yes, giving insight to the course itself.

“As far as the level of competition now and the sprint finishes, the last three Unbounds have been sprint finishes. The thing about Emporia is all the hills are quite far away, so you're pretty much guaranteed the final hour of racing is more or less pan flat. And with the increased competition, you really have got to go from a long, long way away if you want to finish solo at this point. So that'll be really interesting.”

Apart from Life Time calling in the “spike-shale road crews to make a new D road in the last five miles of Unbound for some spice”, similar to how some communities have spread fresh rocks “just for fun” when a bike race passes on their roads, he went back into serious mode and said ‘fast’ is just how Unbound plays out now. And it’s not a bad thing.