Dutch Mafia's gamble backfires at Unbound, Ten Dam and Dekker give debrief afterwards

Unbound Gravel 2024 has come to a close. In the end, it was Australian Lachlan Morton who won the well-known American gravel race on Saturday in Emporia, after a long breakaway with American Chad Haga and the punctured Thijs Zonneveld. The majority of the other Belgians and Dutch participants faded into the background but still finished the race.

Piotr Havik ended up as the best Dutchman in the race, finishing in fourth place, while Greg Van Avermaet was seventh, making him the top Belgian. "It was a very long day. I was really counting down the last hundred kilometers," the 2016 Olympic champion told Sporza afterwards. "Everyone was really exhausted. It’s a very tough race."

"Because I had to expend so much energy early on to catch up, I never really thought about winning the race," Van Avermaet explained. "It’s a bit unfortunate because it ended up being more about hanging on and seeing how far I could get rather than really racing. But it went pretty well," said the rider who retired from road racing last year. His compatriot Jan Bakelants, after some bad luck, finished 28th.

Dutch Mafia left with mixed feelings for various reasons

Zonneveld eventually finished 31st, just ahead of Jasper Ockeloen, who came in in 34th place. "I had expected more," the latter said in his debrief on social media. "We took a gamble and went for the heaviest tires, so we had little chance of puncturing. However, due to the high resistance, I exploded when there were still about twenty guys in the first group," Ockeloen stated. Niki Terpstra (51st) encountered the same problem.

"In that moment, I thought about quitting, but I’m proud of myself for pushing through," Ockeloen continued. "At the last stop zone, I switched tires and from that moment on, I felt much better. Ultimately, I’m glad I finished feeling good." Cyclocross rider Joris Nieuwenhuis also finished in a similar position, placing 38th.

Then there were Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker, veterans of Unbound. They finished in 50th and 42nd place respectively and gave a brief race report afterward. "I rowed with the oars I had, but by the end, I was pretty much spent," said Dekker. "For me, I was pretty much spent after five hours, so I’m not satisfied. You can't always score big... We'll come out with the full story in the podcast on Wednesday," said the man of Live Slow Ride Fast.