It’s Time for Gravel to Level Up its Game
How Unbound and other gravel events can bring their pro races to fans around the world.
This is the week of the Unbound (formerly Dirty Kanza) gravel race in Emporia, Kansas. With the demise of the Tour of California and the postponement (until 2022) of the Tour of Utah, this is now the most important bike race in North America. This mantle snuck up on us a little bit; it was only two years ago that the domestic road racing calendar featured the aforementioned two races (with California part of UCI’s top tier World Tour series) as well as the Colorado Classic women’s race and numerous smaller road races like Redlands Classic and Tour of the Gila. Road racing was what came to mind first when you thought of “pro cycling.”
However, between the pandemic shutdown of almost all endurance events and the waning interest of sponsors and participants in traditional road racing, the competitive bike landscape in 2021 looks radically different than it has at any time in the past. As I’ve written about previously, gravel racing has elbowed most other forms of bike racing to the sidelines in the US. There are still some criteriums, and a very few road races. But from a participant and sponsor point of view, things are moving off road.
I’m a huge fan of this development, and the United States is developing its own brand of bike racing that is distinctly different from traditional European cycling. However, as more and more professional bike racers flock to gravel events either from Europe or as homegrown talent, the events need to evolve from mass participation events to mass+pro race events. Where gravel is now is where marathons were in the 1980s: a growing trend started by a bunch of crazy folks. While the marathon had been in the Olympics since the beginning, running 26.2 miles was in the 80s still a hobby for eccentrics. Likewise, until about 2015, gravel racing was this nutty pastime for endurance athletes who liked to spend all day riding on dirt roads. Marathons gradually got huge, prize purses swelled and live TV coverage became standard for the important events. I remember handing 2009 LA Marathon winner Wesley Korir a check for $160,000 and driving him to pick up the new Honda Accord that he’d won. It changed his life. This is where gravel races are going.
Because gravel events have grown organically from grassroots participation, having pro athletes at the front is a relatively new concept. While most gravel races do welcome elite athletes, there’s rarely any infrastructure set up to tell the professional race story. This is understandable, because the events were set up to serve the everyday athlete/weekend warrior. But we’re at the dawn of a new era. Because I managed this process (telling the story of both back of the pack athletes and pros) at the LA Marathon, I have some experience to share. Here’s my four point plan for gravel races to level up their game and tell the pro story:
1. Redesign the website as the race approaches to solve specific user needs before, during and after the event. As I write this Unbound Gravel is four days away. The website feels more or less the same as it did six months ago: there are no home page quick links to last-minute info for participants (route maps, weekend event schedule, race day weather) or for fans (profiles of top pros in the races, with their Instagram handles, pro race previews, press clippings). An optimal website in 2021 needs to be a living, breathing thing that changes all the time. And athlete stories should be central on the site.
2. Tell the stories of the top pros coming to the race! You can see from the Unbound Instagram page that there is zero recent mention of all the top pros coming to the race. Furthermore, I’ve only found out about some of the athletes coming from the racers’ own Instagram communication. While Zach Schuster at CX Hairs is doing some good profiles of the fields, and both VeloNews and Cyclingnews are covering the race, an event should always take charge of their own story and not necessarily leave it to others. If I want to know specifically which pros have registered, I shouldn’t have to spend 10 minutes digging through the “see who’s registered” page on the Unbound registration website. The pro gravel racing genie is out of the bottle and isn’t going back in. So let’s all embrace this development to grow the sport, serve sponsors and build a global fanbase. There’s a bike boom happening, so gravel should use these tailwinds to get bigger, better and more fun.
3. S̶e̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶e̶s̶t̶r̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶a̶d̶c̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶a̶c̶e̶.̶ DONE! Thanks to Unbound and FloBikes, we’ll be able to watch some live video of the action on race day. The is awesome and a welcome development. I’m fully aware of the logistical challenges of broadcasting a race that travels for miles and miles out in the country. At the LA Marathon, our tv production costs for a 3 hour broadcast were north of $350,000. This kind of video feed is a huge challenge. But technology is making it easier, and cheaper to do. So kudos to the event, and I hope other gravel races (I’m looking at you Belgian Waffle Ride and SBT GRVL) get on board with this. Were I not already a FloBikes subscriber, I’d happily pay $12.99 for a month to watch just this one event.
4. Align sponsor activations with media for fans. Unless you live in Emporia, Kansas, you’re not attending Unbound in person. Part of the charm of the race is that it happens way, way off the beaten track. But that’s why it so important that the event spends the time and energy to bring the race to the fans, wherever they are. In addition to the aforementioned live stream, it would be great if they brought brand partners in to help share the story of the event. A great example is the fantastic content RedBull creates in partnership with the UCI MTB World Cup. There’s the race day live stream, of course, but also all kinds of other interesting video around the race. Why couldn’t Unbound do this with Red Bull or another brand partner?
Please feel free to let me know in the comments if you have other ideas to make gravel even better than it already is.
