Unbound—-has it become the biggest one day race in the world?

Just catching this thread.

Having grown up outside Wichita, KS, I wish I knew about this ride when I was in college and it was Dirty Kanza. Emporia isn't far from where I lived (we used to play them in high school sports once in a while), and the Flint Hills surround where I went to college (K State).

Now that I'm more learn-ed (and in much better shape than back then), this has definitely been added to my bucket list. One day my daughter won't be 4 years old and I'll have time to train and get back to the land of my forebears for the event.

Also: if Belgian Waffle Ride Kansas (in Lawrence) ever comes back, I'll be there.
 
Great to see Lachlan win! Van Avermaet took 7th with 2 flats. Pretty impressive.

Lots of complaints about "Negative Racing" i.e. road peloton riders not cooperating. Dynamics are changing esp with the Lifetime GP (Keegan) riders singled out.

Keegan said:
“I kinda expected that with the field that we had. But no one was really willing to work. I guess most of the work was expected to be done by me or Matt [Beers] once people attacked. Eventually, it was like, ‘I can’t do this all day.’ Then, Lachlan attacked again. And with no one willing to work, it’s like, ‘he’s good at this, I guess he’s gonna win.'”

Sounds a little Like Cav's HTC/Soudal/Dimension Data leadout trains having to stay in the wind all day on flat stages of the TdF because everyone else was like "your train is gonna crush us in the last 3 km, just like the last few stages, why would we work with you now?"
 
krink said:
Great to see Lachlan win! Van Avermaet took 7th with 2 flats. Pretty impressive.

Lots of complaints about "Negative Racing" i.e. road peloton riders not cooperating. Dynamics are changing esp with the Lifetime GP (Keegan) riders singled out.

Keegan said:
“I kinda expected that with the field that we had. But no one was really willing to work. I guess most of the work was expected to be done by me or Matt [Beers] once people attacked. Eventually, it was like, ‘I can’t do this all day.’ Then, Lachlan attacked again. And with no one willing to work, it’s like, ‘he’s good at this, I guess he’s gonna win.'”

Sounds a little Like Cav's HTC/Soudal/Dimension Data leadout trains having to stay in the wind all day on flat stages of the TdF because everyone else was like "your train is gonna crush us in the last 3 km, just like the last few stages, why would we work with you now?"
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I mean, there are team tactics in our local gravel races amongst weekend warriors so you'd have to expect it in the pro ranks. I'd imagine we're not far off from full teams showing up to these things and running it. Kinda like when EF showed up in bulk a few years back...
 
Steve Vai said:
I mean, there are team tactics in our local gravel races amongst weekend warriors so you'd have to expect it in the pro ranks. I'd imagine we're not far off from full teams showing up to these things and running it. Kinda like when EF showed up in bulk a few years back...
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Dave Taylor said:
Racing by the rules is racing.
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Yup, there goes the "Spirit of Gravel" lol. Racers gonna race. Keegan has been dominating here for a while, but he took 5th at gravel worlds last year and practically led most of the course for 4th placed Valverde. There is a great example of the next level of skills racing in a peloton, one that Valverde knew much better than Swenson. Lets see Keegan learn from this.
 
It’s good that Keegan didn’t win IMO. The dude hasn’t lost a LTGP race in a while. We need some new faces on the top step.

It would be amazing to see more World Tour racers come and do these races. The LTGP is a pretty cool series that really tries to focus on what’s popular. I can see it would appeal to a larger WT crowd.
 
I think you will continue to see a decent amount of just retired WT racers coming (Greg Van, Averment and Chad Haga are perfect examples) and doing really well or even winning.
But I think it's unlikely that we will see many active WT races coming any time soon (one or 2 per year maybe, Obviously Mohoric with a few of his teammates this year, Larry Warbese last year, Sagen a few years ago), most teams are chasing World Tour points, and most riders unless they are really at the very top get paid by the amount of WT points they have (among other things of course), so it's unlikely that they would invest the time and money it tales to come over to the US smack dab mid season to chase this race that offers neither points nor money.

There will always be the one off's that come mostly based on their bike sponsors, but I dont think we will see a huge influx.
Also before anyone jumps on me, Yes Morton in a World tour team, but he isn't really a WT rider.
 
jShort said:
It’s good that Keegan didn’t win IMO. The dude hasn’t lost a LTGP race in a while. We need some new faces on the top step.

It would be amazing to see more World Tour racers come and do these races. The LTGP is a pretty cool series that really tries to focus on what’s popular. I can see it would appeal to a larger WT crowd.
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I like that my coach has one good athlete though...
 
Steve Vai said:
Kurt said he traded pulls with Nelson for last 150 miles.

Not to take anything away from Nelson, because he's a beast, but Kurt also rode to Kansas with a fully self-supported setup, camped at the start, and is now riding home 😬
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Ha. I love nelson but he does always have list of what went wrong after haha.
 
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