Rob Britton‘s biking profession hit one other stratosphere three weeks in the past, touchdown someplace over a lunar rainbow in Kansas, appropriately sufficient.
The Issue Bikes gravel racer not solely crossed the end line properly forward of 2024 Unbound Gravel 200 winner Lachlan Morton (EF Training-EasyPost), Badlands adversary Robin Gemperle, and Transcordilleras winner Laurens ten Dam (LSRF) after 359 miles of racing however he did it with a brand new quickest time, in 17 hours, 49 minutes, 51 seconds. With a brand new quickest common pace of 20.13mph, Britton smashed the previous Unbound Gravel XL end time by 12 minutes.
“Actually, it was enjoyable. Throughout the race I commented a number of occasions, ‘that is sick’. And ‘oh man, we’ll get such an excellent sundown’,” a relaxed Britton advised Cyclingnews on a video name two weeks after the mud settled from his endurance check, in a position to put his legs up on his again deck at residence again in western Canada.
“Mainly, simply using with guys I’ve raced my complete profession, simply respect between us all, and I believe only a ardour of doing precisely that. I believe at one level, particularly when it was Laurens ten Dam, Lachy [Morton] and myself, simply ripping into the sundown and into darkness, that was when it was actually particular. All of us, I believe we’re simply so comparable in squeezing the towel and getting all of it out of ourselves. There was nothing bizarre or something, like attempting to do a tough pull over prime of another person. It was like we had been simply going actually quick, and it was superior.”
From a mass begin on Friday afternoon at 3pm native time in downtown Emporia, the trio of Morton, Ten Dam and Britton rode on the entrance of the race as they handed the 100-mile mark. Nevertheless, because the radiant sunshine retreated to the west and was changed by a darkish sky with shimmering stars, Morton marched on alone with Britton trailing solo. Ten Dam fell again and joined forces with Gemperle of Switzerland, a first-timer in Kansas.
“Even later within the race, I keep in mind coming as much as Lachy and eventually catching him and mentioned ‘Yo man, I do know we’ll battle it out, this has been superior’. This has been such a cool day of racing – a full day and evening,” he laughed in regards to the size of the journey.
“You aren’t getting that fairly often, proper? Bike racing, particularly now, is so cutthroat and so severe. That is positive. I’ve carried out that a part of it for years. I am simply probably not in quest of that now. So what was it like for me [at Unbound XL]? It genuinely was enjoyable. And clearly, on the finish, profitable is enjoyable.”
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Britton recalled that it was eight years in the past that his GC win on the 2017 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah was “arms down” the most important win of his 12-year professional highway profession. He mentioned there was a protracted listing of explanation why that victory was his prime profession highway end result, and never simply as his first UCI 2.HC stage race title or the most important end result for his Rally Biking squad at the moment.
“The largest [reason] is it was simply reduction, as a result of I would been knocking on the door of a very massive end result for a very long time. At a sure level you are identical to, shit, am I ever gonna get this [win]? Am I simply gonna be a man who defines himself with second locations and a few podium cease bys? I lastly obtained the large one on the race I focused.”
Throughout a number of seasons with Continental highway groups, Britton did have a stable run of second-place and third-place finishes, from Tour of the Gila, Tour de Beauce, Vuelta Independencia and USA Professional Problem stage races, and too many prime 10s to listing.
“The subsequent one might be Badlands, actually in profession half two. Badlands as a complete was actually particular, a full-on journey. Once I bikepack, I do fairly a little bit of analysis into what I’ll do. However once I do these extremely issues, I’m so unbelievably newbie. I simply get by on health.
“The evening earlier than Badlands, I used to be going by way of the route and checking to see how far is that this, the place are some climbs? I simply ended up stopping right here, there and all over the place, however I like that. That is a part of the journey.”
It was his 2023 victory at Badlands in Spain that despatched a brand new endurance file, as he lined the 800km (497 miles) race in sooner or later, 14 hours, 20 minutes, distancing Gemperle by simply over one hour.
A definition of ‘largest’ journey on a motorbike will not be all about private wins for Britton. In 2022 he started his first season as a privateer in off-road racing, having formally retired from his professional highway profession the yr earlier than. He completed a Quickest Identified Time (FKT) of the British Columbia (BC) Epic 1,000km mountain bike course in 2022, using the total size of Vancouver Island in two days, 9 hours, 24 minutes. That file was seven hours sooner than the 2019 mark.
“I’ve by no means damage myself so unhealthy ever earlier than, or since, not even shut,” he mentioned after this yr’s Unbound XL file journey. “I could not really feel my fingertips for months. I needed to get a cortisone injection in my knee afterwards. Your whole physique is simply swollen. I used to be so emaciated as a result of I did not eat for 3 days. It was loopy. And someway from that, I used to be like, ‘this was nice, I ought to do extra of those’.”
Stalking Morton
Britton had his earlier greatest end at Unbound Gravel 200 in his first look in 2022, the place he was sixth. His sophomore gravel season he bookended the yr with victories on the Belgian Waffle Experience British Columbia and Badlands, and adopted in 2024 with a win at Shasta Gravel Hugger, then podiums at Sea Otter Basic Fuego XL, The Traka 360 and Oregon Path Gravel Grinder. The large outcomes turned evasive for his 2025 marketing campaign.
“Earlier than the race, I used to be most likely struggling a bit with simply being comfortable racing bikes. I suppose it is a product of years of doing it. Normally, whenever you put in plenty of work, you get one thing out of it. I had a reasonably good couple of years racing gravel, and the spring had all the time yielded some kind of outcomes, one thing constructive. For no matter cause this yr, It was not coming collectively. I used to be simply getting blown out,” he mentioned recalling that even at The Traka 360 he encountered challenges with a flat tyre and chasing that left him in eleventh place.
“However then XL got here, and I used to be on an excellent day. I did not simply get fortunate, as I had nice legs. That is type of extra my factor, the extremely stuff now.”
Morton was the favorite to win Unbound Gravel XL. Why not? As the person who rode across the perimeter of Australia, 14,200km (88,823 miles) for a FKT final yr amongst his accomplishments, then simply 577km in an enormous loop within the japanese prairielands of the central US mustn’t have main unknowns.
The one main reckoning for the Australian turned out to be a former foe and good friend, not the climate, not the relentless rolling terrain, not refueling stops. Morton even mentioned he might inform the Canadian was matching his tempo, if not surpassing it, as a result of he might detect a headlight behind him for hours within the evening.
“I hadn’t ridden by way of the evening for a very very long time. I used to be battling what felt like a complete swarm of essentially the most like-PTSD reminiscences of so many dramatic nights. However then I truly obtained into it, after which I used to be having such a pleasant battle with Rob,” Morton mentioned after the end in Emporia, rolling in a bit greater than 5 minutes after Britton.
“It actually turned this actually loopy, kind of a singular expertise the place we’re simply kind of not collectively. That was one of many higher battles that I believe I’ve had, it was actually cool.”
The Britton-Morton battles started once they each raced on the highway greater than a decade in the past. In 2015 the Australian received the GC at Tour of Utah, whereas Britton was fifth on GC. Earlier that very same yr Morton received the GC at Tour of the Gila and Britton was third. The yr earlier than Britton received that UCI stage race and Morton was simply inside the highest 25.
They did race ‘collectively’ all through the Kansas evening, separated by only a few miles. Britton mentioned he by no means noticed Morton’s gentle forward your complete evening, however figured he might see the sunshine of his bike behind in what turned out to be an eight-hour chase.
“We had been simply taking turns pulling. We had been shattered. I imply, once I was catching, it took without end, an eight-hour chase. I might inform he wasn’t pretty much as good as he was earlier, however we had been each taking lengthy pulls. I used to be like, ‘rattling, that is good’. The individual you are racing in opposition to, you will have a lot respect. It simply appeared becoming that it might finish in a dash.
“Then at one level, I simply rotated and he wasn’t there within the final 10k. I knew he was buckled, however I did not know he was as beat up as he was. He is so sturdy. All of us can go so deep, however for him to only go from being on the wheel to not, he was preventing. It is precisely what I might have carried out.
“I look again and he wasn’t there, after which it began to sink in. I had 7 or 8k on my own, and also you’re pondering ‘he is gonna get a second wind and get again’. Then you definately come into that lengthy straight [on Commercial Street] and that feeling was simply insane. I’ve by no means even come near profitable Unbound.”
What obtained Britton by way of the 18 hours? He mentioned he did not cease on the shops alongside the route, the XL race being utterly self-supported, not even getting his go-to Coca-Cola.
“What obtained me by way of was most likely caffeine greater than something. I calculated it was between 800 and 1000 milligrams of caffeine, which is so much. I’ve raced my bike for a very long time, and doing that for a complete stage race is fairly unhealthy.”
Will he return to Kansas for an additional XL? Possibly attempt for a brand new file, or decelerate and the stops?
“I actually do not know. It is unbound. It’s nonetheless the most important occasion within the gravel world, for positive,” Britton admitted.
“I type of have this factor too, the place if I win one thing on this profession ‘half two’, I do not actually love going again, you possibly can solely discover disappointment doing it once more. Nothing will exchange that feeling of wanting it once more. It was so particular. Lachlan actually elevated the standing of this race to a reputable race.
“The neat factor about gravel is you are able to do various things, you possibly can race it or journey it. I take a look at a globe and resolve the place I wish to go, not a calendar.”
Now Britton is an Unbound champion and has a brand new best-ever journey story. After a brief keep at residence the week after, he is again with a full block of racing in North America with a back-to-back stage races on the finish of June.
Subsequent week he tackles the five-day Oregon Path Gravel Grinder, June 25-29, which gives prime factors within the Gravel Earth Collection. Then a number of hours after the end in Bend, he takes a flight direct to British Columbia for the beginning of the seven-day BC Bike Race, June 30-July 6, the prologue of the mountain bike endurance check happening the following morning within the Cowichan Valley on the south finish of Vancouver Island.
