The door had been opened to the potential of a rule change for Unbound Gravel in 2024 to chop out drafting between riders from differing classes – a problem typically of specific relevance to the professional ladies’s race. Nevertheless, considerations over enforcement seem to have prevented the transfer, a call lamented by dominant gravel rider Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialised).
“I actually believed Life Time Grand Prix/ Unbound Gravel have been going to determine a method to give the elite ladies a race that will be shielded from begin to end and never permit any males to have an effect on the race dynamics or end result,” mentioned the 2022 winner and 2023 runner-up in an Instagram publish.
“A lot progress has been finished over the previous two years and I’m grateful for the separate begin that was carried out in 2023 and the added time buffer that may go into impact in 2024 however we nonetheless have a protracted method to go.”
Drafting between classes is one thing that may happen all through the sphere – with rule ten clearly stating that “drafting on one other occasion participant is allowed”. It happens throughout an enormous array of races as, whereas staggered begins have gotten extra frequent, distinct stand alone races for girls or professionals are nonetheless a rarity in gravel. The professional-women are sometimes scattered amongst a a lot bigger discipline of each skilled and amatuer males’s classes subsequently the interplay between classes can have a considerable affect on the dynamic between the highest riders within the race.
Eventually 12 months’s Unbound winner Carolin Schiff made her successful transfer with 60 miles to go from a small pack of main professional ladies, initially following an acceleration of Ivar Slik from the professional males’s discipline. After all most of the ladies chasing additionally rode to the end amongst teams of males.
In 2023, a 12 months the place Villafañe got here second at Unbound, organisers had tried to mitigate the affect to the ladies’s race of the intermingling of classes by carving out a begin time for the elite ladies that was two minutes behind the elite males and eight minutes forward of the amateurs. Nonetheless it did not take lengthy for the classes to combine, notably within the powerful muddy circumstances of final 12 months’s occasion.
The gaps have been prolonged In 2024. The elite ladies will begin 5 minutes after the elite males whereas the remainder of the 200-mile discipline leaves 25 minutes later. Organisers mentioned the choice to stretch out the beginning instances was made on account of classes realized final 12 months and as a consequence of suggestions from the elite ladies.
Suggestions had additionally been sought on the potential for the implementation of a no-drafting rule. Although an e mail from Unbound on Friday, shared on Instagram by Villafañe, pointed to considerations over efficient enforcement as the important thing obstacle to vary.
“Studying an e mail like this breaks my coronary heart,” mentioned Villafañe. “I really feel like on the finish of the day it’s only a logistical inconvenience to offer the ladies the race we deserve.”
Cyclingnews has sought remark from Unbound.
