Former British gravel champion Jacob Vaughan has been eyeing up more of the rough stuff in 2024. Having already taken a significant domestic road victory this year, topping the podium at the 40th edition of the Jock Wadley Memorial, in March, Vaughan quickly reached for the gravel bike to pursue a season focusing on cycling’s newest discipline. From a fifth place at April’s Dirty Reiver in Kielder Forest, to a strong showing at Girona’s Traka, he is proving himself to be one of Britain’s best gravel specialists. We caught up with the 24-year-old as he prepared for perhaps the most prestigious event on the gravel calendar, the 200-mile Unbound in Kansas, USA on 1 June – where, unfortunately for Vaughan, a sliced tyre put paid to his target of a top 25. He finished 69th, the third-placed Brit.
You work for Wahoo – does training indoors benefit your gravel racing?
Yes, the training load and the overall training stress score you can get from an indoor workout can be a lot higher than outside. I know a few people who do almost all their training in the week indoors, and they’ll just go outside over the weekend.
How did your pre-Unbound preparation events go?
I went into Dirty Reiver with quite a bit of fatigue, but it was a good way to get some long racing miles into my legs. I was targeting the Traka, though. It was a crazy level of competition. I nearly set my best 20-minute power record at the start. I ended up riding with Laurens Ten Dam [Dutch ex-pro] and just lost contact with the front group, which was really frustrating.
What’s on the agenda now?
I have a UCI race in July called the Gravel 150 Holland. There’s also a UCI gravel race in Sweden, which I’m looking to do. Then we have our national champs. But the main focus is the Gravel Worlds in Leuven, Belgium in October.
Vaughan's training diary
Monday - Strength workout & commute
Gravel racing takes a greater toll on your body, so making sure you have a strong core makes a huge difference. Today was a strength workout. I do lots of stretching, some foam rolling and lots of core and leg bodyweight exercises like one-legged squats, and planks. This is a 90-minute session. In terms of riding, I commute to the office [Vaughan works at Wahoo in London] which is a 40-minute round trip. This was very much in Zone 1.
Total riding: 40min
Tuesday - Threshold intervals
This was a two-and-a-half-hour ride with four five-minute threshold efforts. In this instance, I completed them on a climb – it’s a bit easier to complete the full interval on a climb. I averaged around 410 watts for these efforts but tend to increase the power in the final effort.
Total riding: 2hr 30min
Wednesday - Self-paced endurance ride
I did a three-hour endurance ride today. There was no power target, so I rode how I wanted, which was nice. It feels good to ride on feel. Sometimes I’ll latch on to a chaingang with my old club at Herne Hill.
Total riding: 3hr
Thursday - Zone 5 intervals
A tough day, Thursday involved three hours’ worth of intervals. It started with 10 times 10 seconds of high-cadence sprints, aiming at 120rpm, with five minutes between each. I then did 10 times two minutes at Zone 5, which for me is around 400 watts, with two minutes’ recovery. I did this around Richmond Park.
Total riding: 3hr
Friday - Easy spin & gym session
Just a really easy hour today, putting very little pressure through the pedals. I also went to the gym and did some core work, but this was more or less a rest day for me.
Total riding: 1hr
Saturday - Over-unders & sweetspot intervals
I did three hours on Saturday. This included some 40/20s – 40 seconds at Zone 6 and 20 seconds at Zone 1. I did five sets of these for five minutes, each with five minutes of recovery between. Towards the end of the session, I did two 15-minute blocks at sweetspot, which is about 300 watts for me. Again, there was five minutes’ recovery between these two efforts.
Total riding: 3hr
Sunday - Long endurace ride
A long ride of about five hours. I occasionally make my Sunday ride a bit longer, but I’d had a pretty intense week so I kept it at five. The power was largely Zone 2 with a little Zone 3.
Total riding: 5hr
Total riding for the week: 18hrs, 10min
Week's wisdom
A big race merits a big week of training. The most competitive Unbound course is 200 miles long and mostly off-road, like a Spring Classic on steroids. To prepare for such a prolonged stint of work, Vaughan makes sure he gets the hours, the intensity and the strength and conditioning work in, all while doing a full-time job. His session on Thursday in particular exhibited the kind of commitment needed to perform with some of the best athletes in the world while only having limited time to ride.
