The first time I corner my bike into Emporia’s Commercial street is a moment I’ll not forget anytime soon. It’s two days prior to race day and I’m attending the Unbound Social Ride. While my business partner Nol, Pieter (Ridley, R&D), Rory (Apidura, Marketing) and Leandra (Ridley, Marketing) are prepping the project's centrepiece, the Ridley Kanzo Fast, at the RV camp. 

"The route is a podium for dreams but with its puddles and flooded sections also a minefield for nightmares."

I’m impressed by the 300 or so riders that have gathered in Emporia’s central street - famous for the massive 06:00 race day start, its red brick buildings and the World Cup of disc golf. The fun and relaxed 40km loop briefly introduces the straight and rolling hills of the race. The vibe was exciting but relaxed and I got to catch up with some friends from Iceland, which we wrote about for GravelUnion.cc here. Back at the RV camp we discuss some track insights. The route is a podium for dreams but with its puddles and flooded sections also a minefield for nightmares.

"We haven’t even raced yet, but the vibe is electric. In a good way. In the best way. "

On raceday the alarm beeps at 04:00. 30 minutes later we’ve had our breakfast, changed into our custom Rogelli U.S.A. race kit and checked our hydration vest one more time. Outside of the RV Pieter and Nol high five one more time and I get a hug from Rory and Leandra. We haven’t even raced yet, but the vibe is electric. In a good way. In the best way. 

The bike ride from the RV park to Commercial Street is about 4 kilometres long. While the sky turns from dark to light blue, we enjoy this moment of calmness before a full day of madness. Two years after #DirtyKanzelled we’re really going to give it our best shot at Unbound.

"Our Unbound race still has to start, but man, what an experience already."

At about 05:30 we positioned ourselves at the race start. Commercial Street has turned into absolute madness. There’s loud music pumping, there are thousands of spectators, more than a thousand riders and at least a hundred cameras. It’s 05:55 when several buggy-like machines equipped with the craziest camera set ups you’ll ever see line up in front of us. For the top contenders, Unbound is like the world championship of gravel and it shows. Jackets are being tossed to support crews and caffeine shots are jugged. With 1 minute to start a heartbeat sound blasts out of the speakers: tu-dum… tu-dum... tu-dum… and then the start got delayed by 6 minutes because of a passing big capacity train. Time which we used to record some last shots of the thousand plus riders under a pink/orange morning sky. Our Unbound race still has to start, but man, what an experience already. 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!

The army of racers moves forward and so do we. As thousands of spectators cheer us forward we make our way out of Emporia. The pack is nervous and maybe it should be. The road is about 30 metres wide, but we ride it side by side with at least 50 others. As the first corner approaches, we jump forward and make it in time. As we move from road to gravel, we hear the sound of hundreds of brakes behind us. In front of us is the first long stretch of gravel. With a pack of about 90 riders, we move forward and find our position in the front. As we roar over the gravel at about 50 kilometres an hour, huge chunks of gravel shoot up against frames, hands and sometimes faces. Two big crashes happen, of which one right in front of me. I see it happen and find the opportunity to jump out of my cleats and over to the first victim. My shifter and derailleur seem a little damaged and my stuff is all over the place, but I’m still in one piece. This is the stuff they don’t tell you about, but after the race we saw several people with black eyes and even a few with cuts in their faces from this phase of the race. 

Although the pace is high, the first 30 minutes fly by. We chat a bit with our friend from Girona, Nathan Haas and greet our strong looking fellow Dutchmen Ivar Slik and Jasper Ockeloen. Unlike us they've been in the States for weeks already. With 310 kilometres to go I went 50 metres ahead of the leaders to make some shots looking back at the epic looking gravel pro pack. Nol is looking strong and we know his pink Ridley Kanzo Fast with Apidura packs makes him even faster. In sight of the first hill, I want to wish Nol well, but as the road inclines my last chance of wishing him well evaporates. They are off, and it will be approximately 10/11 hours before we’ll meet again.

‘Hey man, you really do know how to push don’t you?’ 

For the first four hours I stick well with the groups, but at every hill my lack of race training shows. I attack it from the front of the group, gradually falling back on the climb and ending each climb 10 metres back with my breathing- and heart rate going crazy. But I've found a short-term work around for this lack of race form. On and over the hill are the moments where I need to push through. Weighing 75kgs at only 1.75m I’ve found a way to tuck, push and descend my way back to groups. Over and over this technique combined with the occasional from-the-bike filming proved to be a good conversation starter: ‘hey man, you really do know how to push don’t you?’ I guess it's not only about having strengths and weaknesses, but also knowing how to play them… and riding with the much stronger Nol all the time sure taught me a thing or two about how to push through. That being said, I was already way back from the front group, but still was having a great time while giving my best shot.

As the race continued some beautiful and less beautiful things occurred. At some places cows crossed our road, we crossed a few fun small rivers and at many rural crossings locals cheered on us from inside their high rising trucks. At about 200 kilometres in, rain started pouring down. Nol - as I learned afterwards - really liked it and so did I, but many riders around us certainly didn't. Overall, the mud and filth gave us a feeling that we’re really giving it all we had and that we seemed more resistant to this type of bad weather than most others.

"The wheels blocked and the clay made the bike literally too heavy to carry"

Unfortunately, it also led to a small disaster. The pouring rain softened the clay ground making it super slippery. Nol and - from what we heard in his podcast - Laurens made it through a 3-kilometre stretch of mud mostly riding their bikes, but when I got there it was an absolute massacre. As far as I could see, people were carrying their bikes. Me, being race stupid (or having too much trust in the amazing clearance that the Ridley Kanzo Adventure has) thought I could push the bike with MTB tyres through the mud. But as I pushed the bike forward clay built up everywhere. On the frame, on the rims, up the spokes to the hubs, over the derailleur, in the cassette, everywhere! The wheels blocked and the clay made the bike literally too heavy to carry. Using a WolfTooth tyre lever and a wooden ‘mud spate’ they handed out before the race, it took me three or four 3-minute stops to push the massive clay build-up off the bike. I still wonder how the front pack rode or even raced this section…

At the end of the mud section from hell was a concrete overlay crossing the river. But days of pouring rain caused the river to flood the bridge, to about thigh deep fast flowing water. Gutted by the loss of time due to the clay blocked bike, I decided to take some time to push and wash the remainder of it off the bike. 

While standing in the river someone handed me a plastic cassette cleaner to scrub down the bike. Hunched over the bike, in thigh deep water, I was starting to appreciate the ridiculousness of the situation. Thinking of the film we're making for Ridley Bikes and Apidura, I reached for my iPhone. As I reached the pocket of my hydration vest my heart stopped and my temperature dropped to a shivering cold… ‘My phone, where’s my phone? Bollocks, it has to be in that pocket’. Unfortunately, I knew it the moment I reached for the pocket and couldn’t grab the phone - it fell out while hunching over the bike. Thinking of all the videos we made before and during the race, I lifted the bike on the banks of the river and crawled on hands and knees through the river. For a moment I hoped it would miraculously drift into my hand, but no such thing happened. Sad and filled with disdain of my poor care, I lifted the bike once more over the river and carried on for the last 60 kilometres.

"At this moment in the race, it had been raining for about 2 hours straight and it was showing"

At this moment in the race, it had been raining for about 2 hours straight and it was showing. The people I passed looked like mud covered cyclocross riders or Paris Roubaix heroes. The riders who passed me seemed to have a thing or two in common too - they all looked way too professional for this position in the race and most of them had stains from mud slips and slides. 

The mechanical sufferfest skipped no one and I was no exception. On one of the dozens of rolling hills in the last 60km my rear mech stopped responding. The near crash in the beginning of the race, two slips at another mud section, the exposure to the mud and the river, it had all too many reasons to throw the towel. As I acknowledged my loss and accepted my fate, I chose to make it a personal win whatsoever. Coming this far I had to make it to the finish. A thought I hold on to fiercely while climbing the remaining 10+ hills in the last 60 kilometres and getting overtaken at least twice per kilometre. 

Post-race results showed me in position 117 at kilometre 260, but crossing the 200 mile/360km finish line as 201th, ouch. 

The last two hours weren’t pretty, but high on life (and caffeine gels) I found myself pushing the final 20 kilometres with everything I had. Making up positions and dropping wheelsucker after wheelsucker. When students cheered me up the climb to the Emporia State University campus, I knew the finish line was near.        

Commercial Avenue appeared again. Again, filled with spectators, but this time not for the start but the finish. Hundreds of metres with hundreds of spectators applauded and cheered riders over the finish. I was overwhelmed with pride, joy and the experience of what had happened today. And as the movie 300 is known for the phrase ‘This, is, Sparta!’, I shouted ‘This is Unbound!’ before putting my hands together to applaud the spectators, our team, the organisers and everyone in the whole wide world.          

"I was overwhelmed with pride, joy and the experience of what had happened today"

Nearly two years after Nol founded Fatpigeon and I joined him, I was being decorated with an Unbound towel and finisher’s sticker. Right when a typical post-finish cramp hit my hamstrings my main man Nol appeared with Pieter and Leandra from Ridley and Rory from Apidura following behind. High fives and not so cool but very honest hugs were shared. Followed by some Yihaa’s and a Holy Sh*t that was tough. Nol said he didn't have the race he came to the States for, but still finished over a full hour(!) before this amateur. Out of 1,117 Unbound200 participants he came in as 97th. And although that’s better than 90% of the field, he pardoned himself to the team and pledged to make it up some day. I guess that’s why I ride races and he wins races.

"The whole show is just so big, impressive and filled with energy - it truly is 'the Super Bowl of Gravel’."

With journalists and finish line parties spread all over the city centre we took a moment to share insights about ‘The Fastest Bike of Unbound’ and enjoy the American vibe. Having raced The Rift Iceland and Migration Gravel Race Kenya in 2021, this whole Unbound experience was of another level. Not per se in terms of adventure or scenery, but the whole show is just so big, impressive and filled with energy: it truly is 'the Super Bowl of Gravel’.

We would like to thank GravelUnion.cc for inspiring us, sharing stories with our community and the financial contribution for sharing this story. For Fatpigeon.cc this adventure could not have happened without the support of the Fatpigeon Family, consisting of: Ridley Bikes, Shimano BeNeLux, Rogelli Sportswear. A special thanks to Pieter and Leandra from Ridley and Rory from Apidura Bikepacking Bags for co-organising the amazing ‘Packs that make you faster’ campaign.