David Brower won the men’s 100-mile race of the 2023 Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft in a sprint on Saturday and Tiffany Cromwell rode solo across the line for the elite women's title.
Brower sprinted to the line in downtown Emporia, Kansas in a group of four riders, crossing the line first ahead of Elliot Phillips in second place, and Brian McCulloch in third place. Scott Funston, 2021 US U23 cyclocross champ, was off the podium in fourth.
“It was absolute chaos at the start,” 19-year-old Brower told Cyclingnews at the finish. “I thought I was 30th out of there. then I was seventh or eighth out of the mud (mile 11) and we had a group of four or five that came together around mile 40.”
“We chased [Scott Funston] all day. We caught him at like mile 75. I was in the worst pain of my life, but I rolled it through. My legs are seizing up starting on the climb up to the college. All the way through the college, my legs were seizing. I barely sprinted and somehow nobody came around me.”
"For me, this is just as hard as the 200 last year," said Phillips of Great Britain, who was 73rd overall in Unbound 200 last year.
"Two of us broke away after that incredible mud section. We worked together. And then we got to the aid station, [Funston] was just on the gas and he dropped me. And I thought we're never gonna see him again. And then the guy in front, cracked. We caught him and us four just worked it to the finish. And then we all sprinted out. I think everybody gave their all and I think that the order was the strongest riders, the strongest one won at the end of the day."
Tiffany Cromwell crossed the line with a time of 6:13:54, a little more than 23 minutes behind Brower and placing 16th overall. Finishing 25 minutes behind her as the second-placed woman and 33rd rider to finish was Maria Doering. Lauren Zoerner was third, and Kae Takeshita finished fourth.
“Yeah I was going great until about mile 12, when we had that mud. I was definitely not ready for that. There was definitely moments where I was hating life because you know you just couldn't get your bike moving, you couldn't even roll, and you had to carry it because of all the mud,” Cromwell said.
“But then, yeah, I just played let's-go-hard game and because I had no idea where it was compared to the other women. I just kept fighting. Luckily, I had some good people to ride with, they kept the pace going.”
How it unfolded
The 100-mile event for Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft Sportswear, based in Emporia, Kansas, was introduced in 2019. In the fourth edition, the route followed much of the same relentless climbing as the signature 200-mile event, with just one pass of Texaco Hill in a southbound loop before heading back for the finish.
At the first checkpoint at mile 21, US cyclocross star Scott Funston rode at the front of the 449-rider field, joined by compatriot Mark Currie and Briton Elliot Phillips.
Riley Swickard, of nearby Overland Park, Kansas, held a solo lead for the women, 3 minutes ahead of Coloradoan Keira Bond. Women’s WorldTour rider Tiffany Cromwell, of Team Canyon-SRAM, trailed 9 minutes back in ninth position, while Unbound veteran Amanda Nauman, who won the 200 twice and was second in the XL 350, was another 10 minutes back in 19th place.
Once across the Texaco Hill climb, at mile 41, Funston was joined by Phillps at the front of the race, Currie continuing the chase, now 3 minutes back. David Brower and Colby Pearce joined forces to round out the top five, two more minutes back.
In the women’s race, there was also a pair of riders charging at the front, Swickard joined by Cromwell, who had made up her 9-minute deficit on the hilly part of the course. Kyleigh Spearing and Kae Takeshita were the closest in the chase, five-and-a-half minutes behind the lead duo.
On the southernmost section of the route on a nine-mile drag of 340th Street, less than 40 miles to go, Funston and Phillips remained together for the men and Cromwell had made separate from Swickard for the women. Cromwell kept driving the pace and opened a solid advantage of more than 20 minutes in front of Takeshita, now in second place over Swickard and Spearing.
