Rosa Klöser had cautioned her rivals as she headed into Unbound Gravel 200 that her plan for Saturday’s race was not to easily pass over the defence of the Unbound 200 crown, but ‘make their life as hard as possible’. The race, which rarely respects even the best laid plans, however, had other ideas, making her attempt to defend as hard as possible.
Racing with Canyon-SRAM-MAAP on the gravel, Klöser was clearly heading into the event with solid form, having taken second at The Traka 200 earlier this month in Spain. But the chips weren’t falling in her favour from early on in the 200-mile race in Kansas.
"I think the race today was characterised, unfortunately, from the start, by a lot of crashes," Klöser said.
"There was a lot of nervousness in the group, and then once we hit the road divide, there were a lot of small mud sections and ruts and at this point, I would say the race kind of split open, or was decided.
"Unfortunately, me and Geerike Schreurs, we went face down into the mud because a rider crashed in front of us sideways. Then, as we were back on the bike and back with the group of main favourites, we only figured out that there were three riders up the road when they already had three or five minutes."
That group was a strong one, including PAS Racing teammates Karolina Migoń and Cecily Decker along with Lauren Stephens, last year’s Unbound 100 winner.
"The race was kind of almost over at that point, because there was no good collaboration in the group at all," said Klöser. "It was a big group, so no one really wanted to work."
Staying true to her pledge not to make it easy on her rivals, the rider from Germany wasn’t going to leave it at that.
"I got really frustrated and really tried to put in a lot of attacks," she said. "In the end, fortunately, it worked and then four riders got away."
The three remaining with Klöser included two other former winners, Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized) and Lauren De Crescenzo (Factor), along with Cecile Lejeune (CCB p/b Levine Law). The quartet collaborated to try and pull in the riders out front, but they only managed to pull back Stephens, so given Migoń and Decker had already swept up the top spots, the four approached the line together to sprint for third place.
"I was actually quite confident that I had the sprint," said Klöser, wo secured the victory in a nine-way dash to the line last year. "So I didn't mind going to the finish line with the girls, because I usually have a good sprint after such a long day."
However, then the defending champion spotted an excited spectator waving and cheering and thought she needed to turn one way, when the route actually went another.
"Unfortunately, I just took a wrong turn before the finish line so I had to unclip, turn around and get back," said Klöser.
"The other three girls were already ahead of me, so I kind of already had to do a sprint to catch up with them on the line and then, unfortunately, I had to settle for fourth today."
Villafañe would grab the final spot for the podium ahead of Klöser. It was the second time this month that the leader of the Life Time Grand Prix would go one position better than the German, as Villafañe won The Traka 200, though on that occasion the difference was 44 seconds.
"But yeah, that's racing. I will, for sure, come back next year and try to better that result."
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