Unbound, what a beautiful nasty beast of a race you are. This year I once again signed up for the 200 mile (marquee event) and spent the better half of a year training with the goal of improving my time. Last year was my first 200 and together with Ross, one of the framebuilders from Mosaic Cycles we finished the course in 13h and 23min.
For this year, my goal was to go sub 13h by minimizing my stopping time at the aid stations and pushing a higher average power. I worked with a coach initially in the year to increase my riding time but as life has a way of getting in the way, I made a few sacrifices throughout training. Two and a half weeks before the race I was lucky enough to get a cold from my toddler and prior family commitments made it hard to really focus as we got closer to race day. Nevertheless, when raceday showed up I was ready to give it my best.
The race started out hot as it usually does with a little over 1000 participants in the non-elite age category field. Shortly after leaving Emporia there were a half a dozen crashes and I saw some people on the side of the road really hurt. We were doing 300W+ consistently and my strategy of staying near the front paid off till mile 73 when my front wheel lost traction in one of the muddy steep rollers and I crashed landing on my ribs and right side that knocked the wind out of me. Eager to get back on the bike I chased but wasn't able to catch the front of the race, deciding to settle into my own groove and surf groups of riders as they peeled off.
At the first aid station I yelled out my bib number, swapped bottles and chugged a coke before jumping back on my bike. I was covered in mud that had mixed quite nicely with my bloody scrapes and decided that I ought to stop at the next water station located at mile 113 to wipe myself clean. We were now 7 hours into the race and knew I'd need to keep trucking.
Breathing was a little challenging for me but luckily the course had plenty of rollers to help with the average speed. As we neared mile 170 I came across a group of riders and we traded pulls until I found myself descending with an absolute legend of a rider wearing a tri-skinsuit on an old MTB frame converted into a gravel bike. He brought up the idea of trying to go for sub 12h with 40km to go which would require us to pick up the pace. Both of us were threading the needle with cramping but there was some gnarly tailwind on the course helping to bring us home.
Even though the course is relatively flat I climbed 10,607ft and averaged 140bpm, 16.86mph, 205W (237W normalized power), burned 10,036 calories and had one hell of a good time. We crossed the finish line at 12h and 15min elapsed time (11h 58min moving time, 4min per stop including the crash) finishing 148th out of the 891 remaining riders with more than enough sunlight to grab a couple of beers.
Berith’s Gear:
Frame - Mosaic GT-1 45 with custom geometry and paint
Cockpit - Mosaic custom Ti seatpost and stem, Enve AR bars
Saddle - Form Throne RS
Drivetrain - Sram Red AXS E1 "Mullet" with 46T Wolftooth chainring, 5Dev Ti Cranks, XX1 Eagle Rear Derailleur and 10-50 cassette, with CeramicSpeed Coated BB and OSPW
Wheels - Custom Hand-built Enve SES 4.5 with Chris King Ceramic Hubs in 3D Violet with custom matching decals wrapped in Specialized's Pathfinder Pro in 47mm
Kit - Assos Equipe RSR Jersey S11 and Tactica Gravel Bib Shorts
Accessories - Couldn't have done the ride without AC's chamois cream
Back to Journal