Last year when Carolin Schiff crossed the line to claim victory at Unbound Gravel 200, the Canyon CLLCTV rider had already made it clear she was a growing force in the gravel world, having won at Gravel Locos and The Traka, but she still wasn't exactly a top-tier favourite given it was her debut at the race.
The 200-mile event was an unknown for Schiff and just how she would fare in the Flint Hills of Kansas was also an unknown to her rivals. After more than 11 hours the 2023 ride revealed plenty, and now as defending champion Schiff is the biggest of targets.
"I have so many great memories to this race. For sure it's also not easy to deal with all the expectations but I don't put too much pressure on myself," Schiff told Cyclingnews in the week before the race. "I just can give my best."
Though Schiff knows all too well that sometimes even the best isn't enough.
"This race is not just about strength and fitness. It's also about luck to be free from mechanical problems. You need to have a perfect day."
The brutal conditions over the 200-mile (321 km) race took a heavy toll in 2023, with what was described as peanut butter mud stopping many rivals in their tracks in the early stages, though Schiff managed to forge through to the end. She took off on the last of her rivals with 60 miles still to go, rolling over the line with a time of 11:46:39 to claim the prized gravel victory which reverberates through and beyond the gravel world.
"Winning Unbound last year was a very important milestone," said Schiff. "The race has lots of attention and I noticed that suddenly many people realised that I'm a serious sportswomen."
Not that gravel is where her journey started, with Schiff having raced with the Andy Schleck-CP NVST-Immo Losch team on the road in 2021 and 2022, but gravel is perhaps where she has found herself most at home.
"I really love what I do at the moment," said Schiff. "In road cycling I always felt that I can't unfold my full potential. In gravel I got the chance to show what I'm able to do. I also got the ideal environment to develop as an athlete because of my great sponsors."
Winning Unbound so early in the gravel journey is a hard act to top, but winning it twice would be something else all together.
The preparation
In 2023, Schiff may not have had first-hand knowledge of Unbound before race day, though she clearly walked into the race with powerful form. Traka 200 and the Gravel Locos wins were clear indicators of that, but beforehand there was also victory at the Spanish UCI Gravel World Series round, La Indomable, and a second at 3Rides in Aachen.
This year Schiff has stood on the podium in the early races of the UCI series, with third at Wörthersee and a second at La Indomable. The German champion then worked her way up to the top step at the Utopia Gravel Fest in April and defended her title at the Traka 200 at the start of May, which Schiff said was a big confidence boost on the way to Unbound.
There was, however, a small interruption to her well-planned build mid-May when her 2024 appearance at 3Rides ended abruptly with a crash when she slipped on a corner.
"The crash was very annoying and I'm angry on myself that I took so much risk in this situation. It was unnecessary. I had a very big, deep and dirty wound on my right knee which needed to get fixed in the hospital," said Schiff. "Luckily the injury healed very well (thanks to the great doctors) and it had not too much impact on my preparation."
The run-in may not have been flawless given that injury, but it was pretty close, and now it's just a matter of seeing what unfolds on race day to discover whether or not Schiff can have another one of those perfect days on June 1.
If Schiff can claim the victory again, she would be the first women's Unbound Gravel 200 winner since 2016 – when Amanda Nauman made it two in a row – to defend her title.
"I did everything in the preparation I can do and I have a great team behind me," said Schiff. "If that is not enough I can accept that as well."
