The Finish Line
If you follow Unbound Gravel, you know to never expect an easy ride. The eastern-central town of Emporia, KS is no stranger to heavy, wet weather that can quickly cut your speed in half as you’re forced to go through peanut-butter consistency mud. Or finding yourself stuck going high speeds down a road laced with sharp jagged rocks. Flats are a dime a dozen. Everyone there carried their make-shift mud stick and extra tubes expecting the worst.
We took the north route in 2024. Despite wet weather in the forecast, we got by with just a drizzle the night before. This lead to the gravel being perfect for race day. Little dust, smooth dirt. We saw minimal traffic on the course and only a few trees. Green pastures and prairie lands dominated this mid-west terrain. But it was never dull, never a road I didn’t want to be on, never a moment I couldn’t enjoy.
My race started fast and hard. I was unable to carry myself to the lead group off the line, but I stayed with a pack who kept me on my toes. I settled in for about an hour and wasn’t sure I could keep the pace for 100+ miles. As most of my races seem to go right now, I was dropped shortly after on a little climb. But I felt good. I raced solo for the next 50. I sped into the rest stop to find my pit crew, my mother (who was at her first gravel race), where I did a quick swap of bottles and gels. I decided to remove my water vest as I wanted to “be free”; an idea that later came back to haunt me.
On the second half, I met up with a pilot and we teamed up. Not too long after, a peloton of maybe 8 others caught us. We latched on but quickly realized that only the two of us and one other racer from the group were willing/able to pull. It was better than being solo so I took my turn. We passed through mile 80 where we caught up to another group of three women seemingly in my age bracket. They looked tired. This was my chance. I took to the left on a short rugged descent and surged hard to get ahead.
Unfortunately that’s where my tire met one of those previously mentioned sharp jagged rocks. I pulled off to tend to my flat but there was no trace of the damage. I pulled out my first CO2 which threaded wrong into the nozzle and lost all of the air. I reached for my second cartridge which is when I realized I left most of my spare cartridges and hand pump in the front pocket of the water vest I left 30 miles back. Lucky, I stashed two in my tool bag the night prior. I inflated the tire partially and revealed small adjacent sidewall tears tucked right in-line with the the top of my rim. I couldn’t plug them so I hoped my sealant and the rim would secure the wound. It seemed to hold after a few minutes. I partially inflated the tire and took off. A couple of miles later I bottomed out on a bridge re-opening the seal. I held the bike sideways to allow the sealant to reach the defects while a herd of cows came to laugh at my misfortune. I gave the seal one more chance. I knew if it didn’t work I needed to put a tube in and I would need my last CO2 to inflate it. So I used what I could to inflate my tire to maybe 20 psi (I was running 700c x 40mm normally at 30 psi) and charged ahead.
I don’t know if I was running on adrenaline or maybe it was the rest I had while fixing my tire, but I was feeling good. I put my head down and pedaled all that I had for the last 20 or so miles. I saw many riders but was on a solo mission to finish as quickly as I could and make up for lost time.
I was overwhelmed with emotion crossing the finish line, with no expectation or awareness of my position in the race. I nearly broke down after hearing I took the last podium spot. I landed 5/61 for women in my age group, 26/234 overall women. If you asked me, even a year before, if I would be racing Unbound Gravel, I probably would have jokingly said “maybe one day”. That day was now reality. I finished the 108.5 miles of pristine Kansas gravel I had dreamed of riding for so long. I couldn’t have felt more accomplished.
The feeling at the end of THE gravel event that started it all for me.
Copied from the SEEN.BY.SARAH blog post written by Sarah Skelly.