Twelve months ago I interviewed Maddy Nutt after she rode 260km with a torn ligament in her shoulder to finish the Traka 360 in seventh place. I expected the Brit, now riding for the Q36.5 off-road team, to come back for a fourth attempt in 2026, but it seems any thoughts of unfinished business have been brushed aside in favour of the longer 560km Traka Adventure.
Gravel races have always been long, with Unbound at 200 miles drawing a line in the flint as to what a 'proper' gravel race distance should be, but there’s a growing demand for longer, ultra-distance courses. Despite the greater distances involved, these longer self supported events seem to be attracting greater numbers year on year, both from the pro ranks (see Rob Britton and Lachlan Morton turning to Unbound XL for example) and amateurs alike, so I caught up with Nutt two days before she embarked on what would be her longest ride (let alone race) by a healthy 200km to find out what the appeal was.
"I'd say my first motivation is to do a personal challenge," she said.
"I love pushing myself physically and mentally, and I think that's also what's driven me to pursue cycling as my profession, but like within that I think there’s space to do something that really is a challenge. And yes, the 360 is a challenge because it's really high pace, but actually I know I can ride 360k; I've done it three times, and I actually don't know what my body can do in this distance. The strongest part of my cycling is my endurance, so it's almost like I want to test that and see… Can I keep riding for 24 hours plus and maintain a certain pace?"
No sleep 'til bedtime
I didn’t get any sense that the task at hand was intimidating for Nutt. Challenging, for sure, and a leap into the unknown – especially to do it in a race scenario – but all I picked up was excitement, except when the topic of sleep came up. While she has certainly ridden in the dark before, Nutt admitted she’s never ridden through the night, which will be necessary if she’s to hit her target of beating the women’s course record of 28 hours, 52 minutes and 9 seconds.
"I want to try and beat the women's time from last year," she said. "I think that that is feasible if I don't make any errors, but at the end of the day, if something goes wrong, I'll just turn it into ‘I've just got to finish this before my flight back to London’, which is… Sunday morning, so actually it’s still quite tight."
Riding through the night will necessitate missing a good chunk of sleep, something Nutt seems to gloss over when she tells me this is the longest race you can do without missing any sleep (one night doesn’t count, right?), but she has a refreshingly healthy attitude to bedtime in general in the face of an ultra scene that has become as much competitive sleep deprivation as it has endurance sport.
"I think the 560 is maybe the longest distance you can do without really needing to sleep, and I don't really want to deprive myself of sleep ever, so I think this is like the healthiest ultra that one can do, because I don't think I view real ultra racing as particularly healthy," she said.
"I don't think it's good for you to deprive yourself of sleep and race for like 10 days… It won't be a competition of who can sleep the least, because no one's gonna sleep, whereas a lot of ultra races become who can sleep the least, rather than who can ride the fastest. So I think it's gonna be a really interesting race from that perspective."
Her attitude to safety around sleep deprivation is mirrored in an increasing wariness of gravel pelotons now; the stick that is perhaps driving riders away as opposed to the carrot that is the draw of a new, unknown challenge.
"I also think with gravel becoming so competitive and the fields being more stacked, and there's so much riding on an event like Traka, that actually the bunches are becoming less safe, potentially, and I'm more excited about the idea of riding on my own for 560k than like what happened last year, and ending up with a torn shoulder, at this part of the season."
Ultras, running, and social media
Something that’s always fascinated me with gravel is that the narratives don't really come from the racing itself. For the most part one can’t watch gravel racing in the same way as is possible with WorldTour road racing, and as such individuals are able to (or have to) create their own narratives, primarily on social media. I’ve been somewhat concerned as to whether the proliferation of professional riders telling what are often genuinely exciting tales of their ultra-exploits leads to a corresponding ride in the numbers of misguided amateurs taking on challenges well beyond their means and getting injured.
This narrative isn’t limited to cycling either; anyone who runs, or knows someone that does, will know that 'have you done a marathon?' has been replaced by 'have you done an ultra?'. Nutt has some scorn for running influencers, but her view is that the disciplines are very much not comparable.
"I do think the bar for what is normal has been raised. It used to be that people doing marathons were a bit weird, and it was like a really long run, and now everyone and their dog has run London Marathon, it seems. It’s probably because of social media, but I think people being encouraged to do sport is cool. When it crosses the line into being not good for you long term I think that’s when it’s less cool…
"I know there's been a lot of stuff recently about influencers, specifically running influences, encouraging really high volumes and then getting stress fractures, and that they're then inspiring people to maybe do more volume than they can actually take on; I think that is definitely a bit of a thing. I think the thing with cycling that’s different to running is, as long as you keep eating, I actually think that long distances are more achievable for everyday people and amateurs than running."
Pocket pizzas and secret messages
Before we parted ways I wanted to find out a little more about Nutt’s fuelling strategy, given that for a race that lasts over 24 hours, there’s only so many gels you can consume without incurring gastric distress.
"I did debate the idea of calling a restaurant and ordering a pizza for the evening and getting there and eating the pizza and then getting moving," she said. "On reflection, I think people aren't going to be stopping for even long enough to eat a pizza, and it might compromise my results, so I might transport pizza with me."
It seems the transportation method may mean the abuse of the hydration bladder pouch on the latest Q36.5 gravel skinsuit. I suggested a calzone may be more appropriate, to save a passata disaster, but I think reason will prevail and the pizzas may be substituted for sandwiches, as well as frozen cookies that will defrost over the course of the race (and then presumably slowly sous vide if left uneaten).
It seems the 8pm pick-me-up of some body temperature sarnies isn’t the only thing designed to provide emotional support against the gathering darkness, as Nutt also told me she’s asked loved ones to record her some personal podcasts, voice notes, and messages of support, all of which will have been loaded un-listened to on a set of vintage integrated MP3 headphones ready to be deployed somewhere around 11pm to kick start the lonely slog through the night.
When asked about the prospect of riding Unbound XL, it seems like even if it goes well in Girona the desire to replicate the experience stateside may be an impossible task:
"I've spoken to a few people about XL, and I've heard it's as boring as Unbound, but just longer."
