I by no means imagined sprinting to the road of a 200-mile bike race with 9 different girls, however on Saturday, historical past was made in Emporia, Kansas at Unbound Gravel.
The calibre of the ladies’s gravel peloton has risen tenfold in just some brief years. When I gained Unbound 200 in 2021, I averaged 17 mph in what felt like an prolonged time trial. Although indirectly comparable, we averaged 19.4 mph within the female-powered lead group on Saturday.
The effort was something however a time trial. It was a correct girls’s bike race.
Except, in fact, for the two.5-hour lengthy “flyer” I launched into from miles 80-125. That was a time trial. Unbound has by no means led to a dash for the ladies of the 200, and that’s why I assumed it may work. While being caught was disheartening, it highlights the power of the ladies’s peloton.
Still, there was some impression from outdoors the class whereas out on that solo transfer.
During my solo breakaway, I encountered an elite male rider who had fallen off the lead group. When he made a mistaken flip, I briefly adopted, dropping 10-15 essential seconds. Alone, I may need prevented this error.
A bit in a while the gravel, I encountered one other elite male. After almost two hours solo, I took a number of moments on his wheel and rotated with him briefly, figuring out the “anti-drafting” guidelines weren’t but in impact. In hindsight, I remorse this determination. My irrational worry was {that a} group of newbie males on aerobars had caught the ladies’s subject and could possibly be towing them again to me. Seven hours right into a race, desperation units in and your thoughts goes to attention-grabbing locations.
Another motive I remorse driving with this elite male was the leak in my rear tyre. I paused briefly and hit it with CO2, however my valve was clogged with sealant. This man talked about his already 5 flats, suggesting poor line alternative. I can’t blame my flats on another person’s line, however isn’t it ironic? Perhaps this was the universe speaking to me. I shortly misplaced my lead and rode the ultimate 80 miles at 14 psi.
The sidewall tear I skilled in 2021 would’ve ended my race in 2024. In 2021, I misplaced 20 minutes repairing this flat at mile 80. I’d later spend 4 minutes on the second assist station, swapping rotors and wheels. This 12 months, I barely paused for 20 seconds at every assist station, figuring out I wanted to maneuver shortly as assaults flew via.
Refining guidelines for equity
At the start of the 12 months, I used to be a part of an athlete advisory group collaborating with Life Time. We targeted on refining begin protocols and drafting guidelines inside the collection. Despite discussing “anti-drafting guidelines,” Life Time hesitated to implement them at a marquee occasion like Unbound Gravel, or “the race everybody likes to hate.”
On these advisory calls, we advocated for elevated intervals between begin instances. Life Time responded by increasing the time gaps between professional males and professional girls by quarter-hour, after which after the professional girls’s begin at 6:05 a.m. CDT, the amateurs within the 200-mile occasion departed on the identical route 25 minutes later.
Gravel races necessitate separate begins and “anti-drafting” guidelines to make sure equity. Mass begins typically really feel arbitrary, relying too closely on exterior elements. Given the elevated time buffer at this 12 months’s occasion, I do know Life Time is open to implementing additional modifications.
An concept we mentioned on the Life Time calls is a penalty for any rider caught drafting off an elite or newbie man. To make it much more enforceable, racers can be instructed that race officers could possibly be wherever on the 200-mile course, perhaps hiding behind a tree. And if you happen to’re caught drafting, you’ll be given a 1-hour “stand-down” penalty on the assist station.
We didn’t transfer ahead with this concept as a result of it might have to be confirmed past a doubt and would provide no alternative for a feminine racer to attraction the penalty. They can be pressured to take a seat for an hour. We determined the official would want to offer video proof, and we’d additionally have to refine the definition of drafting additional. Things obtained sophisticated in a short time, and it is smart shy Life Time didn’t implement these “anti-drafting guidelines” on the greatest gravel race on the calendar.
We had a separate begin finally 12 months’s Unbound, 2 minutes after the elite males and eight minutes earlier than the newbie males. We began quick, virtually catching the elite males earlier than the infamous hike-a-bike sector. And when it turned to hike-a-bike, the staggered begins didn’t matter. I’m wondering how lengthy it might have taken for our race to disintegrate if we had comparable circumstances this 12 months.
Some professional girls nonetheless affected by males’s teams
I spoke with fellow racer Hannah Shell, who completed thirty fourth, about how an absence of “anti-drafting” guidelines impacted her race. She stated newbie males would disrupt any group of females she would discover herself in, inflicting it to disintegrate. She additionally talked about an newbie male with aerobars catching her group and famous he considerably elevated their velocity bringing her group again to the primary group.
It’s questionable if they might’ve been in a position to shut the hole to the primary group if not for his help. But it wasn’t in opposition to the foundations, so it’s honest recreation. To me, this appears to be a case in opposition to aerobars. Amateur males with aerobars can enhance the velocity of chasers, in the end impacting the end result of our race.
Another colleague and good friend, Kate Cross, ending thirty sixth, handled mechanical points early on and between checkpoints 1 and a couple of discovered herself in a chasing group with women and men. She stated driving with males after a mechanical was useful, and it was good not being alone for 180 miles. She notes her expertise “didn’t impression the entrance of the race, and that is key.”
There isn’t any excellent reply. Anything we give you can have its flaws. While this adjustment is a step in the proper path, it’s not foolproof.
In hostile circumstances just like the 2023 Unbound mud pit, the gaps can shortly vanish inside the first 20 miles. It may show too difficult for promoters. Everything may disintegrate with unhealthy climate. I believe one of the best answer now we have now, which isn’t logistically not possible for race promoters, is to additional lengthen time gaps and finally implement anti-drafting guidelines when they’re able to be totally enforced.
The future of girls’s racing
It’s nonetheless imperfect, but it surely’s one of the best we are able to do for now. That’s till we’re in a position to get our personal race day – just like the UCI Gravel World Championships the place we raced Saturday, and the boys Sunday. A variety of issues needed to go proper for Saturday to work out the way in which it did, and it nonetheless wasn’t proof against interference from the elite males or newbie males with aerobars.
Separate days for ladies’s races could possibly be the answer. As we proceed to push for equality in biking, guaranteeing that ladies’s races are free from male interference is crucial. We can create a fairer, extra aggressive setting for feminine cyclists by advocating for these modifications.
All we wish is a girls’s race, the place we are able to compete on equal footing with out the issues launched by male rivals. With continued help and changes, the way forward for girls’s racing might be vivid and unencumbered by these challenges.
And the Golden Ticket? Our personal day at Unbound to shine.