Last year Unbound Gravel had an unrelenting villain, known as peanut butter mud, which stole the show with an extended stretch right near the start that wreaked havoc across the categories. Measures have been taken this year that may mitigate the scale of the mud's race-destroying role but it appears that it will still make a cameo appearance in 2024.
Some riders may be prepared and unperturbed, with social media posts including a shot of Carolin Schiff's “ready for peanut butter” bike and a video of experienced hand Peter Stetina looking like he was just going about a well-practised familiar task as he found a local waterway to wash the mud away. These riders know all too well what they could be in for after having ridden – and walked – through the worst of it last year, but some others may have been caught a little off-guard.
The highest profile first-timer at this year's Unbound, gravel world champion Matej Mohorič, and his Bahrain Victorious team would have undoubtedly been given the rundown on the conditions but being told is one thing, experiencing it perhaps another.
“Very excited to be here and also very surprised. We did the last part of the course today, which I’m told is the easiest, and it was not quite what we expected,” Mohorič said in an interview posted on Unbound Gravel’s instagram. “The gravel here is much more loose and slower. We ordered bigger tyres already.”
Still, the WorldTour road professional who claimed the rainbow jersey at his first gravel race will be lining up for his second with two teammates, Matevž Govekar and Lukas Wiśniowski, and building form as he works toward a key season goal of the Tour de France.
“I think we are pretty well prepared. I feel good physically but it is going to be a very long race,” said the Slovenian, who pointed out that 203 miles (327 km) on gravel is going to require twice as much energy as any race he had done before and is a very different beast to his first winning gravel event. The elite men's race at the UCI Gravel World Championships was 169km long, around half the distance of Unbound, and only half was unpaved while the race that starts and finishes in Emporia, Kansas, is 92 percent gravel.
Still, he and his teammates appeared to be bemused rather than stressed by the terrain they encountered on their course reconnaissance.
“Situation in Kansas is all under control, feeling energised and ready for tomorrow’s adventure at [Unbound Gravel] with [Bahrain Victorious]. Nice to meet you, peanut butter mud,” joked Mohorič in an Instagram post which included a video of Wiśniowski and Govekar with mud-caked tyres.
