Unbound. The biggest and best gravel race in the US. This year complicated by the weather…

“Minimum Maintenance Roads” is how they describe the gravel tracks that stretch for miles between lonesome prairies and rolling farmland in Kansas’s Flint Hills. When the heavens opened multiple times the night before Unbound 200 and during the race itself, those MMRs became giant puddles, hiding sharp rocks that could wreck derailleurs, total tyres and cause crashes, separated by long sections of leg-draining, chain-killing, soul-sapping mud.

A battle between cyclists became a battle with the Kansas mud as well. The race spared no one, with many of the favourites crashing out and only 80 of the 117 riders in the men’s race making it to the end.

The Grip’s Eddy Le Huitouze came 44th and Jordy Bouts 58th, in their first participation, Eddy falling back from 20th after a lost bottle left him without anything to drink. Congratulations to Mads Würtz-Schmidt and Sofia Gomez Villafane, who won the men’s and women’s 200-mile races.

"The race was tough for me because in the first 25-kilometre mud section I got stuck for four or five minutes, clearing the mud and trying to get my chain back on. After that, it was a great effort to come back; I was 90th at that point and climbed back up to 20th, but it took a huge toll. I lost a water bottle in a feed zone, and with the energy expenditure I'd already put so much into the first part of the race, I completely exploded at the end," says Eddy.

Now it’s time to clean the mud off the bikes, put the kit in the washing machine, reset and prepare for the next one. Back on home soil: the Grand Tour 3 Cime Lavaredo. Avanti! Get The Grip: check out the offical Grip jerseys, bibs and other kit here!