After having to contend with a mud-caked bike that briefly turned into a single-speed stead, a slow leak, a rain deluge, and a hit to his morale, Taylor Phinney then had to race 130 kilometres of Unbound Gravel 200 with only one foot clipped in.
The first big mud section on Towers Climb, after 24 or so kilometres, pushed Phinney to go from the front to “bent over” his bike. The field quickly split, with a leading group, including eventual winner Mads Würtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-Road), pulling away as Phinney, amongst others, was left behind.
“The chain wouldn’t even stay on the chainring – so much mud in the cassette. [This is] like 30km in by the way. I just kind of figured if I keep the chain line straight, basically single speed it,” a bemused Phinney, his face still caked in mud, said in his '(F)Unbound' social media post after the epic race on Saturday.
After washing his bike at Feed Zone #1, 71 kilometres in, Phinney then “beasted the gap” over the next 38 kilometres to connect to a group by the next Feed Zone.
“And then the sky opened up, [and it] turned into a damn puddle cycle,” Phinney said, tongue out. "Just inhaling mud, not great for morale.”
Another challenge hit, as the US rider battled a slow leak on his rear wheel, taking out his air compressor three times to try and fix it.
“I couldn’t find a hole. Every time I would stop, I would not be able to get my cleats into my pedals,” he said with a chuckle.
“There was a final time that I had to unclip at kilometre 205, and that was the last time I was able to clip in with my left foot. I did the last 130 Ks with the right foot clipped in and the left foot not. I two quads, one hamstringed my way around Kansas after that.”
During this time, the lead five-rider group of the elite women’s field, which had started 10 minutes after the men, caught up with him.
“I didn’t feel like I wanted to be that guy that gets passed by the ladies and then has to pass them back because we all know that guy,” he said. “But I just enjoyed my time back there and watched the ladies rip until we got to Feed Zone 3.”
After a rear wheel change, Phinney still had 92 kilometres left to race, and took off to reach another group from the elite men’s race.
'Gravel is road now'
Phinney’s first experience at Unbound 200 was back in 2019, but a lot has changed since then, from material, to the riders and teams and tactics.
“When in 2019, we all started together, men and women, and it was more of like a group ride rollout, and now it's more of a psycho race in Belgium, sort of fighting for position," Phinney told Cyclingnews a few days prior to Unbound.
"I'm pretty comfortable with that. That's how The Traka was, and that's how Sea Otter was. That's just... gravel is road now."
Phinney has been racing gravel for a few years now since he retired from road racing. Earlier this year, in April, he announced that he is returning to track racing in a bid to make Team USA for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
As for his stated goals for Unbound, he added, “I'd be happy if I was in, like, the top 50, top 20 would be mega, but I'm realistic as to the level of the of everybody, compared to my own, so we'll see if it's a really nasty day that could be better for me or worse, depending on the equipment.”
Phinney’s finishing time of 10:33:03 and average speed of 31.56 kmph put him 52nd overall and 19th of the 63 finishers in the elite men’s field.
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