Unbound Gravel | Eskridge | Kansas | 26.63 miles | 1,585 ft. .climbing
ROUVY SAY: This is the essence of the Unbound Gravel. A longer, tougher segment that immerses you in the relentless grind of the Flint Hills. Battle the endless rollers, feel the wide-open exposure, and get a true sense of the grit required to conquer this legendary event. Experience the spirit of gravel on ROUVY.
WE SAY: 26 miles!! As a RACE!!!???? Well, it can’t all be 12 miles and 300 feet can it, especially on a Muckers Championship Race day! But i feel the route was a lot better than the profile on the ROUVY tile indicated as it looked like we were in for a flat start, into a climb, then a flattish top part, into a downhill. But it felt fast all the way with just short kickers all adding up to the elevation. Hey, might be just me, but i definitely didn’t feel the long climb that the profile indicated.
Running a tad late tonight so it’s now 21:52 so hopefully all the races are finished. lets go and check. Yep, no one left on that last one so closed down the results and we have 170 riders who have set a time over the 9 start times so now its time to implement the 3 rules to see how it whittles down;
40 riders got a DSQ. 38 of those were no hr data riders, and the other 2 were males below 60kgs. Categories re learned again (as per NITEORS instructions ) so lets see where we all are after 3 races and 1 left!
Well, looks like Erlend has this wrapped up! Nice gap at the top over long term Mucker Svard who looks like he might actually do a full month! 🤞🤞🤞. Its tight to get into the top 10 this month with not a lot of points separating 9th to 12th, then its just as tight to get into the top 50 as well!
looking at some of the Categories, we have some really nice a close battles there as well. For example, A7 has .25 between the 2 American riders fighting for top place! That will be an interesting one to watch and i really hope this gives you guys that little bit of extra motivation going into the last race.
So one more race to go this month and its a flat fast one! 18 miles and only about 200ft of climbing so remember “rocket start” out of the trap and get into a fast drafting pack asap for the best result!
Thanks everyone for the continued support and engaging with the race and blog, especially those of you who’ve read to the end. Thank you.
co-founder of muckersworldwide.com and race organizer! Been into cycling since a kid and spent most of the time on BMX and mountain bikes. Took me longer than most to get the road cycling bug but I was bitten around 5 years ago when I finally got a fully fledged road bike that fitted and I let the flat handled road bike go...
OMG what a race! Really thought it’d all gone wrong after a great start up the first hill and i was somewhere around 30th and thought i could settle into the draft for the next few kickers but i was swamped and just kept getting dropped! This finally stopped once i’d dropped to around 60th place and finally got into a group that i could stay with! phew!! But we are now in a really good group and the route was right up my street, especially as it went on longer and the pack weren’t pulling stupid watts up the climbs anymore.
We kept picking up those who got spat out up front, plus we’d also drop the odd one or two from our pack, but i felt decent all the way and even thought of an early attack up and over the last kicker! ME!!?? anyway, tried it but these guys were too strong and i only gapped them all by about 25ft so they then had the draft to re close the gap so i let them come and waited for a sprint arrack instead. I was at the back when the sprint started and i was properly in 2 minds and at first didn’t react but i was still with them all so at around 500ft left, i went all in for the line! overtook quite a few and ended up with a photo finish between myself and 2 other muckers, who both beat me by fractions of a second when the final results came out.
But that was a great route and race for me. inside the top 50 again and now up to 2nd in Cat A6 which after the first race i was only in 8th place! Squallo is a lot stronger than me so i won’t be looking for him at the last race, but more looking to those behind me to keep them there!!
November Race #3 Haiku:
Some new bladed wheels
Took these puppies for a spin
Fasten your seat belts now!!
Addendum 1: Please don’t tell the wife I paid 100000 gold coins for them.
Addendum 2: Midway through today’s race up popped Sharkie in his Mucker kit and purple helmet…..You totally hung in there tough lad. Highlight giving each other a Mucker Kudos halfway through the race. I checked afterwards and you were 74% Zone 7 and the rest Zone 6…you gave it a total effort today. cheers
Addendum 3: Last race, #2 I finished in 23rd place, right next to Macko,, and then I was disqualified. I will just post the very short version. I PM’d Neil at midnight , he was exhausted, but I said blah blah, could you check my data. He immediately did, and wrote back looks ok to me..let me know what Rouvy says. I took his advice and started a ticket with Rouvy to protest. Yesterday a senior technical Rouvy analyst named Hector wrote to me and said my results were VALID (he put it in caps)…Said I shouldn’t be penalized for having a great race. so, that’s that. I feel better now. I lose 160+ points, but now appreciate that it doesn’t matter. What matters is getting to play with you Muckers. (Also I thought I did not get credit for my ride today where I went 284 watts for first 20 minutes.. 4.47 w/kg…turns out because I changed my avitar name midstream, from bigbadbern1945 to TheBern1945, I now have race results in each name..so, nevermind Neil)
Addemdum 4: What I did learn and now appreciate is that in dealing with AI and algorythms the results are only as good as the validity of the data inputted. There is currently no data for 80 yo elite cyclists. No surprise, it is only recently that people are living that long and may have health and resources to do serious sports. In 10-15 years that will change..I will keep on and try to clear the cobwebs for those following..thinking of you David1951, Duckman2, Mike Hagen, and Eatmore Cake..and a growing number of others.
This is the kind of route where it’s really imperative to get a great start. I didn’t have one. It wasn’t bad; I was averaging 3.5 W/kg the first five km, but only 60th? Kept on averaging almost that the rest of the way. Was in a good group, and pushing the pace to see if we could claw more riders back. Shout-out to Ben_corries who was also pushing at the front. Picked up RaTim, among others. Nice to ride with Mucker1974 and UncleE64. Could see that Chak and macko were not far ahead, and that Squalo_delle_Alpi and MatthiasHeil were just ahead of them. Gaps were closing, but we weren’t going to catch them. Tried to save something then for the sprint finish. Which was awesome. RaTim went early, 200 m to go, I chased, I closed, he disappeared from my screen! Did I get him? Nope. 0.03 seconds late. But, OMG, Mucker1974 ended up only 0.01 second back! Then 0.3 back to Ben_corries and the rest of the group. That was my best 30 second W in the past 90 days: barely (or not quite) enough! Fun race, and I liked the course with the rolling kickers. Just have to figure out that start.
Thanks for all the strong pulls Mike! Niteor says you are 70 now!? If that’s right then Happy Birthday! If you and Ben_corries had gotten more help we might have reeled in a couple more near the end, but probably not many. In hindsight, I do wish I’d pulled a bit, but after doing 3.5 for the first 5 mins I was terrified to dig too deep. You seem to be able to do 3.5 forever – not me (at least not yet – a man can dream). Wishing you a faster start next week.
Great course tonight. The lumpy bits were short enough not to get dropped by the quicker riders. I managed to average 300W for the first 20mins, but that wasn’t enough to keep up with the lead group. Rolled along pretty much the rest of the race with a large second group, so there was a significant draft benefit. Couldn’t quite hold the wheel on the last kicker so didn’t get to contest the sprint finish and rolled over the line with Eddy Domino. Brilliant race, looking forward to next weeks, which looks to be even faster.
For this time I’m very happy for my result, before the start I don’t see how the route characteristic was, but when I don’t see red hills, a big smile (strange thing) appears on my face.
A good start, and I fall in a heavy group with many big names, always try to push and hold high my concentration.
During the race, we have catch Andy and Carlos, two top Muckers friends, and this result is unexpected for my also if I worked hard in the last 2 months.
When arrive at 29/30 km logically I lost the main group, I see my nearby list and saw Chak and Mako… omg… as often happens start my second race, a long escape from they…13 km with big suffering and effort, but at the end I finish in front, died but in front 🤣.
Last thing, I earn a first place in A6 but all the games it’s open Neil 😉.
Thanks to everyone who ride together and see you all at the next 👋🦈💪🫶🏻
Your hard work and diet paid off, great work! I couldn’t even hold your rare wheel. Enjoy your last month in A6, for next months it will be A5 or A4! 💪👍👍
Great Race Sharky! No way Neil or I is catching you this month as long as you get a good start next week with no mechanicals. Fingers crossed for you (I hope that translates correctly in Italian as “Good Luck!”). Cheers -Eric
I know that this kind of routes are not my favourite (as race). A few km (maybe 2) after start I closed (or helped to) two groups (Czech friend Kona Bleit were between, which helped), but this effort boild me. After 9 minutes I needed little rest, and it was crucial, I saw 9m gap but just before kickr and I wasn’t able to close even with 500W. With more than 30km to go I decided to wait for next group. Short solo and than I joined to group where I thought I should feel comfortable, but not. Several times I felt little cramps in calf. So I gave nearly no help to the others and as Mike wrote I was doing Andy (but bad one, only 74% draft in this part of race). I know how bad sprinter I am, and as it was Thursday I decided to give all in 250 m before the line. I had 23 m gap behind me but I thought it is not enough. At the end it was, as close as I was to fall from trainer. Not favourite route, probably little tired from 80 km per last three days, not ideal wheel or frame (maybe?) at the and I’m satisfied with my result and sorry for little help in group where I should help.
Real AI for real product work meetup, which i left early unfortunately, but could i miss this? The fact is with end of the year it becomes challenging show up every week. Long race with not much climbing, but also not completely flat. That caused peloton reduction from 30 to 20 and to 9 people, with few big guns missing.
I was feeling good, so tried little pushes in the second half. Alieno initiated big attack with 1km to go and i consumed all energy to close gap to him, with rest of the group catching us quickly. Most of them finished ahead in sprint finish, but im happy, interesting race. Thank you all who joined us!
Nice route! This one suits me but it was a bit to hard to dreaming of finishing in the front group. I knew this, so my plan was, don’t follow top 20, but once 30, I have to be in it. Start at 6w/kg and held it for a very long time. I notice gaps are forming and I saw 35 riders making a break. 35! That’s to much to let go so I pushed even harder to get in that pack. Yes it was the front group and I knew this was trouble. It didn’t take long or people start dropping. I held on too long, as I always do. When I dropped to the group behind, I was racing for about 26 to 38th place. The pace here was much better and I really regretted not to drop back faster to this group. We picked up a few riders and some riders couldn’t hold this pace. The pace really went way up far before the sprint started and people were dropping like flies now, and eventually I was one of them. Had no more sprint and finished 32nd. A bit dissapointed as I really wanted to go for top 30, but seeing the message “new FTP, new 20min power and longest route in past month” explains it all.
Fun Race! I still can’t sprint, but I had a blast in group with other Muckers esp MikeHagen, RaTim, and our leader, Mucker1974 aka Neil. Like Neil, I tried hard to stay with a faster group off the line but couldn’t quite do it despite highest 5min W since early summer. Kudos to Sharky for being strong enough to do that! Got into the group with other Muckers and especially glad to see MikeHagen, since I figured he’d keep pace high and he did for most of the race. Thankfully (for me) the rollers weren’t long or steep enough for me to get dropped. Great position into the final sprint and then completely misjudged it trying to make out how far away the line was on my little phone screen.
Not sure I will make race 4 this month because of Thanksgiving here in US, but I’m going to try.
Cheers -Eric
I grew up in small town New England. Many towns in the morning had a Turkey Trot 5K running race, or a high school next town rival American football game, then everyone home for the feast..gobble till you eobble..hope you can make ir next week…cheers
Great race! I was aware that I could go a long way in this if I survived the first longer kicker, now that I can finally squeeze some more power out of my legs again (after a far too long period with Corona or other flu-like symptoms). It was hard work in the second group, which represented positions 12th to 20, but everyone did their job there and occasionally tried to push to get away on the shorter kickers, but that turned out to be not so easy to get someone with…. Then we all went for the sprint, and they started quite early, which quickly put me at the back and had to give everything to be beaten at the finish by Ard in a photo finish, but I certainly don’t have to be ashamed of that! 13th in this race already gives me courage to do even better next week on the flat….. but every week is different, so we’ll see…. Cheers and see you next race!
So I am new to Rouvy. My name is Klinthomie, and I am so ecstatic about the races with Muckers, and I just now found out about this site. I finished (from my own memory) at a 62nd place, which I am incredibly proud of (being a newbie to Rouvy and weighing 98kg)
Does this not get registred to your leaderboard, because I don’t use a heart rate monitor?
In that case, I need to get one …
“40 riders got a DSQ. 38 of those were no hr data riders, and the other 2 were males below 60kgs.”
hi! thanks for jumping into the race. Yes we require you to wear and transmit heart rate data to be included in the results on Muckers. It’s just part of the rules to keep the cheaters away, not to be funny or awkward. So when we get the results, we can quickly see average hr and if someone’s top 10 with 110bpms, something is off and we will look into it.
This is just a Muckers thing, your results are still valid on ROUVY so if the muckers championship / muckers points isn’t really that important, please still race with us anyway (HR data or not) as you will still have a nice pack around you to spur you on and motivate you.
I bought a Polar H10 approx 2 minutes after writing the above comment, so no worries – I wanted to be part of the list! And I have read up on your “rules”, can’t wait for more 🙂
It was a great race, I gave it my all, IF: 0.98. We had excellent teamwork, and I’m very happy about that.
I’m in 50th place after three races, so it’ll be tough to stay there. The final course is relatively flat, and I’m not a sprinter 🙂
OMG what a race! Really thought it’d all gone wrong after a great start up the first hill and i was somewhere around 30th and thought i could settle into the draft for the next few kickers but i was swamped and just kept getting dropped! This finally stopped once i’d dropped to around 60th place and finally got into a group that i could stay with! phew!! But we are now in a really good group and the route was right up my street, especially as it went on longer and the pack weren’t pulling stupid watts up the climbs anymore.
We kept picking up those who got spat out up front, plus we’d also drop the odd one or two from our pack, but i felt decent all the way and even thought of an early attack up and over the last kicker! ME!!?? anyway, tried it but these guys were too strong and i only gapped them all by about 25ft so they then had the draft to re close the gap so i let them come and waited for a sprint arrack instead. I was at the back when the sprint started and i was properly in 2 minds and at first didn’t react but i was still with them all so at around 500ft left, i went all in for the line! overtook quite a few and ended up with a photo finish between myself and 2 other muckers, who both beat me by fractions of a second when the final results came out.
But that was a great route and race for me. inside the top 50 again and now up to 2nd in Cat A6 which after the first race i was only in 8th place! Squallo is a lot stronger than me so i won’t be looking for him at the last race, but more looking to those behind me to keep them there!!
November Race #3 Haiku:
Some new bladed wheels
Took these puppies for a spin
Fasten your seat belts now!!
Addendum 1: Please don’t tell the wife I paid 100000 gold coins for them.
Addendum 2: Midway through today’s race up popped Sharkie in his Mucker kit and purple helmet…..You totally hung in there tough lad. Highlight giving each other a Mucker Kudos halfway through the race. I checked afterwards and you were 74% Zone 7 and the rest Zone 6…you gave it a total effort today. cheers
Addendum 3: Last race, #2 I finished in 23rd place, right next to Macko,, and then I was disqualified. I will just post the very short version. I PM’d Neil at midnight , he was exhausted, but I said blah blah, could you check my data. He immediately did, and wrote back looks ok to me..let me know what Rouvy says. I took his advice and started a ticket with Rouvy to protest. Yesterday a senior technical Rouvy analyst named Hector wrote to me and said my results were VALID (he put it in caps)…Said I shouldn’t be penalized for having a great race. so, that’s that. I feel better now. I lose 160+ points, but now appreciate that it doesn’t matter. What matters is getting to play with you Muckers. (Also I thought I did not get credit for my ride today where I went 284 watts for first 20 minutes.. 4.47 w/kg…turns out because I changed my avitar name midstream, from bigbadbern1945 to TheBern1945, I now have race results in each name..so, nevermind Neil)
Addemdum 4: What I did learn and now appreciate is that in dealing with AI and algorythms the results are only as good as the validity of the data inputted. There is currently no data for 80 yo elite cyclists. No surprise, it is only recently that people are living that long and may have health and resources to do serious sports. In 10-15 years that will change..I will keep on and try to clear the cobwebs for those following..thinking of you David1951, Duckman2, Mike Hagen, and Eatmore Cake..and a growing number of others.
Cheers and hope to see everyone next week
Thanks a lot for yours mention, it was a beautiful race with a Big Effort 💪
This is the kind of route where it’s really imperative to get a great start. I didn’t have one. It wasn’t bad; I was averaging 3.5 W/kg the first five km, but only 60th? Kept on averaging almost that the rest of the way. Was in a good group, and pushing the pace to see if we could claw more riders back. Shout-out to Ben_corries who was also pushing at the front. Picked up RaTim, among others. Nice to ride with Mucker1974 and UncleE64. Could see that Chak and macko were not far ahead, and that Squalo_delle_Alpi and MatthiasHeil were just ahead of them. Gaps were closing, but we weren’t going to catch them. Tried to save something then for the sprint finish. Which was awesome. RaTim went early, 200 m to go, I chased, I closed, he disappeared from my screen! Did I get him? Nope. 0.03 seconds late. But, OMG, Mucker1974 ended up only 0.01 second back! Then 0.3 back to Ben_corries and the rest of the group. That was my best 30 second W in the past 90 days: barely (or not quite) enough! Fun race, and I liked the course with the rolling kickers. Just have to figure out that start.
Thanks for all the strong pulls Mike! Niteor says you are 70 now!? If that’s right then Happy Birthday! If you and Ben_corries had gotten more help we might have reeled in a couple more near the end, but probably not many. In hindsight, I do wish I’d pulled a bit, but after doing 3.5 for the first 5 mins I was terrified to dig too deep. You seem to be able to do 3.5 forever – not me (at least not yet – a man can dream). Wishing you a faster start next week.
Niteor has a bug there? I’m not 70 until next April. But thanks for the birthday wishes!
Great course tonight. The lumpy bits were short enough not to get dropped by the quicker riders. I managed to average 300W for the first 20mins, but that wasn’t enough to keep up with the lead group. Rolled along pretty much the rest of the race with a large second group, so there was a significant draft benefit. Couldn’t quite hold the wheel on the last kicker so didn’t get to contest the sprint finish and rolled over the line with Eddy Domino. Brilliant race, looking forward to next weeks, which looks to be even faster.
For this time I’m very happy for my result, before the start I don’t see how the route characteristic was, but when I don’t see red hills, a big smile (strange thing) appears on my face.
A good start, and I fall in a heavy group with many big names, always try to push and hold high my concentration.
During the race, we have catch Andy and Carlos, two top Muckers friends, and this result is unexpected for my also if I worked hard in the last 2 months.
When arrive at 29/30 km logically I lost the main group, I see my nearby list and saw Chak and Mako… omg… as often happens start my second race, a long escape from they…13 km with big suffering and effort, but at the end I finish in front, died but in front 🤣.
Last thing, I earn a first place in A6 but all the games it’s open Neil 😉.
Thanks to everyone who ride together and see you all at the next 👋🦈💪🫶🏻
Your hard work and diet paid off, great work! I couldn’t even hold your rare wheel. Enjoy your last month in A6, for next months it will be A5 or A4! 💪👍👍
Great to see you in the top30 group there for a whole while. You can stop getting better now as I don’t need any more competition around me! 😉
Great Race Sharky! No way Neil or I is catching you this month as long as you get a good start next week with no mechanicals. Fingers crossed for you (I hope that translates correctly in Italian as “Good Luck!”). Cheers -Eric
I know that this kind of routes are not my favourite (as race). A few km (maybe 2) after start I closed (or helped to) two groups (Czech friend Kona Bleit were between, which helped), but this effort boild me. After 9 minutes I needed little rest, and it was crucial, I saw 9m gap but just before kickr and I wasn’t able to close even with 500W. With more than 30km to go I decided to wait for next group. Short solo and than I joined to group where I thought I should feel comfortable, but not. Several times I felt little cramps in calf. So I gave nearly no help to the others and as Mike wrote I was doing Andy (but bad one, only 74% draft in this part of race). I know how bad sprinter I am, and as it was Thursday I decided to give all in 250 m before the line. I had 23 m gap behind me but I thought it is not enough. At the end it was, as close as I was to fall from trainer. Not favourite route, probably little tired from 80 km per last three days, not ideal wheel or frame (maybe?) at the and I’m satisfied with my result and sorry for little help in group where I should help.
Real AI for real product work meetup, which i left early unfortunately, but could i miss this? The fact is with end of the year it becomes challenging show up every week. Long race with not much climbing, but also not completely flat. That caused peloton reduction from 30 to 20 and to 9 people, with few big guns missing.
I was feeling good, so tried little pushes in the second half. Alieno initiated big attack with 1km to go and i consumed all energy to close gap to him, with rest of the group catching us quickly. Most of them finished ahead in sprint finish, but im happy, interesting race. Thank you all who joined us!
Nice route! This one suits me but it was a bit to hard to dreaming of finishing in the front group. I knew this, so my plan was, don’t follow top 20, but once 30, I have to be in it. Start at 6w/kg and held it for a very long time. I notice gaps are forming and I saw 35 riders making a break. 35! That’s to much to let go so I pushed even harder to get in that pack. Yes it was the front group and I knew this was trouble. It didn’t take long or people start dropping. I held on too long, as I always do. When I dropped to the group behind, I was racing for about 26 to 38th place. The pace here was much better and I really regretted not to drop back faster to this group. We picked up a few riders and some riders couldn’t hold this pace. The pace really went way up far before the sprint started and people were dropping like flies now, and eventually I was one of them. Had no more sprint and finished 32nd. A bit dissapointed as I really wanted to go for top 30, but seeing the message “new FTP, new 20min power and longest route in past month” explains it all.
Fun Race! I still can’t sprint, but I had a blast in group with other Muckers esp MikeHagen, RaTim, and our leader, Mucker1974 aka Neil. Like Neil, I tried hard to stay with a faster group off the line but couldn’t quite do it despite highest 5min W since early summer. Kudos to Sharky for being strong enough to do that! Got into the group with other Muckers and especially glad to see MikeHagen, since I figured he’d keep pace high and he did for most of the race. Thankfully (for me) the rollers weren’t long or steep enough for me to get dropped. Great position into the final sprint and then completely misjudged it trying to make out how far away the line was on my little phone screen.
Not sure I will make race 4 this month because of Thanksgiving here in US, but I’m going to try.
Cheers -Eric
I grew up in small town New England. Many towns in the morning had a Turkey Trot 5K running race, or a high school next town rival American football game, then everyone home for the feast..gobble till you eobble..hope you can make ir next week…cheers
Great race! I was aware that I could go a long way in this if I survived the first longer kicker, now that I can finally squeeze some more power out of my legs again (after a far too long period with Corona or other flu-like symptoms). It was hard work in the second group, which represented positions 12th to 20, but everyone did their job there and occasionally tried to push to get away on the shorter kickers, but that turned out to be not so easy to get someone with…. Then we all went for the sprint, and they started quite early, which quickly put me at the back and had to give everything to be beaten at the finish by Ard in a photo finish, but I certainly don’t have to be ashamed of that! 13th in this race already gives me courage to do even better next week on the flat….. but every week is different, so we’ll see…. Cheers and see you next race!
Hey guys
So I am new to Rouvy. My name is Klinthomie, and I am so ecstatic about the races with Muckers, and I just now found out about this site. I finished (from my own memory) at a 62nd place, which I am incredibly proud of (being a newbie to Rouvy and weighing 98kg)
Does this not get registred to your leaderboard, because I don’t use a heart rate monitor?
In that case, I need to get one …
“40 riders got a DSQ. 38 of those were no hr data riders, and the other 2 were males below 60kgs.”
hi! thanks for jumping into the race. Yes we require you to wear and transmit heart rate data to be included in the results on Muckers. It’s just part of the rules to keep the cheaters away, not to be funny or awkward. So when we get the results, we can quickly see average hr and if someone’s top 10 with 110bpms, something is off and we will look into it.
This is just a Muckers thing, your results are still valid on ROUVY so if the muckers championship / muckers points isn’t really that important, please still race with us anyway (HR data or not) as you will still have a nice pack around you to spur you on and motivate you.
I bought a Polar H10 approx 2 minutes after writing the above comment, so no worries – I wanted to be part of the list! And I have read up on your “rules”, can’t wait for more 🙂
It was a great race, I gave it my all, IF: 0.98. We had excellent teamwork, and I’m very happy about that.
I’m in 50th place after three races, so it’ll be tough to stay there. The final course is relatively flat, and I’m not a sprinter 🙂