Unyielding Morton wins another bizarre edition of Unbound Gravel

The start list of Unbound grows larger and stronger each year, including in 2024. Based on previous years, we already knew that Laurens ten Dam, Thomas Dekker, Thijs Zonneveld and Jan Bakelants were participating, along with a slew of Anglo-Saxon riders who had retired from road racing. This year’s participant list also featured new names, including former soccer player Jelle Van Damme and even F1 driver Valtteri Bottas.

For the first time, a road team made a serious case at Unbound, featuring gravel world champion Matej Mohoric and his domestiques Lukasz Wisniowski and Matevz Govekar, while Paris-Roubaix winners such as Greg Van Avermaet and Niki Terpstra were also spotted in America. The latter had a close call during training, witnessing Ivar Slik's collision with a car, while out on training with Zonneveld and Jasper Oceloen.

The winner of Unbound 2022 – the first non-US winner in the race's history – collided head-on with a large truck and eventually came off relatively unscathed. At first glance, the situation seemed serious, but he is now recovering well from his concussion and looks set to fly back to the Netherlands with his cycling mates.

In his preview podcast, Zonneveld described Unbound as follows. "It's a kind of pre-war race, like riding the Tour of 1912. But with today's equipment, without support cars or information and the like. That's why you always have to keep riding, and that's also the beauty of it. It feels like a kind of desert. Jasper Ockeloen compared it to a frog in boiling water: if you heat the water gradually, a frog doesn't realize it's in boiling water. That's how it feels here too: if you go too hard, you're boiling yourself."

And so it was that the riders started early in the American morning (5:50 AM local time), setting off on a grueling journey of more than 320 kilometers through the American outback, over sharp stones, while being entirely self-sufficient. The initial kilometers resembled a road race, with an early break forming within the first ten miles: Orsted (Norway), Kongstad (Denmark), Wark and Zayvalov (United States) were along for the ride.

Even Wisniowski and Mohoric showed their faces at the front early on, but defending champion Swenson was glued to the Slovenian's wheel. Another group had more success later on: Zonneveld and Bakelants moved up, along with former pro Sebastian Schönberger (Austria), Looser (a Swiss) and Borstelman (American).

This group was later caught, after which the first major selection seemed to take place on the sector called 'Little Egypt'. A group of 22 riders suddenly gained a lead 113 miles into the race, including Piotr Havik, Joris Nieuwenhuis, Swenson, Chad Haga, Petr Vakoc, Pete Stetina and Paul Voss.

Men like Zonneveld, Van Avermaet, Ockeloen (half a minute), Bakelants, Daniel Oss (three minutes), Ten Dam (five minutes), Dekker and Terpstra (eight minutes) were quite far behind at that point, while there was suddenly no more mention of Mohoric in the passing times. The Slovenian was unexpectedly fourteen minutes back, presumably due to bad luck.

Zonneveld and co managed to return to the front and decided to accelerate immediately, which also prompted a response from former Sunweb rider Haga. Morton saw the danger and bridged up to the front, following which the trio quickly built a significant lead. The rest of the pack never saw them again, and Morton ultimately held off Haga.

Behind them, the group also split, with Van Avermaet, Stetina, Havik, Kongstad, Russel Finsterwald, Mattia de Marchi, Torbon Rjoed and Simen Svendsen ending up on the favorable side of the split. Havik eventually finished fourth, just behind Kongstad.

1. Lachlan Morton in 9 uur, 11 minuten en 47 seconden
2. Chad Haga ''
3. Tobias Kongstad + 3.36
4. Piotr Havik ''
5. Mattia de Marchi + 3.41
6. Simen Nordahl Svendsen + 4.41
7. Greg Van Avermaet + 4.47
8. Payson McElveen ''
9. Sebastian Schönberger ''
10. Dylan Johnson ''
14. Keegan Swenson + 8.49
20, Lars Loohuis + 13.21
28. Jan Bakelants + 19.54
31. Thijs Zonneveld + 19.58
32. Freddy Ovett ''
34. Jasper Ockeloen' + 23.33
38. Joris Nieuwenhuis + 33.18
41. Petr Vakoc + 35.40
42. Thomas Dekker ''
43. Daniel Oss ''
50. Laurens ten Dam + 35.53
51. Niki Terpstra + 37.46
83. Lawrence Naesen + 1:13.11
94. Jelle van Damme + 1:35.04

DNF: Matej Mohoric, Matevz Govekar, Lukasz Wisniowski