Mads Würtz Schmidt Wins Unbound Gravel 200

EMPORIA, Kansas (Velo) — Mads Würtz Schmidt won Unbound Gravel 200 on Saturday after a long solo effort.

The European gravel champion won the 20th edition of the 200-mile epic through Kansas in just under 9:15, after a dominant day with his Specialized teammates.

Matthew Beers rolled in about 5 minutes later to take second place, a 1-2 finish for the team. He was followed in by Tobias Kongstad, who rolled in 5 minutes later to round out the podium. Beers and Kongstad were together for dozens of kilometers in the back half of the race as Beers did the delicate dance to maintain his advantage over the other chasing Life Time Grand Prix contenders, but not make inroads on his teammates’ gap.

That being said, with how Würtz Schmidt was riding, it seemed like there was nothing anyone could do to deny him his first Unbound victory.

“Maybe I got a little bit too excited, but Keegan and I got away with Cobe, and we went for it,” Würtz Schmidt said after the finish. “We sent it, and I was on a really good day. It was quite a ride. But in the end, I couldn’t have done it without Keegan. He’s a champion.

“I think we got up to 8 plucks, and it still wouldn’t hold. Keegan was quick to say, ‘You need my wheel,’ because it was clear that I was the strongest, and the chance for the win between us was mine. 
So he sacrificed his race, and his Grand Prix, and everything for me.”

Brendan Johnston finished fourth at about 22 minutes back from Würtz Schmidt after breaking away from the bigger chase group that was left behind when the Specialized team began its attacks on the race. He was closely followed by Keegan Swenson, who dug out an impressive fifth place after earlier giving his wheel to teammate Würtz Schmidt. Three total Specialized riders finished in the top 5 in an impressive showing for the team.

What’s more, Kongstad, who rides for the PAS Normal team which doesn’t have a bike sponsor, was also on the new Crux 5. This meant four out of the top five riders were riding the newly released bike.

How it happened

The race got underway from Emporia just as dawn was breaking over the Flint Hills at 5:50 AM. News of the absolute desolation on the Unbound XL course started to trickle in, as rain overnight reduced large portions of the course to walking, so the tension was high as the race rolled out to a course that would be different from the pre-riding that happened the day before in mostly sunny, dry conditions.

The quickly building dark grey storm clouds on the horizon didn’t help either.

The first minimum maintenance road (MMR) that wrecked the field in 2023 passed without issue, but the mud started soon after with a bog about an hour into the action, forcing many riders to get off and walk as the bikes clogged with mud. A group of 28 pulled ahead after that section as a tailwind more than made up for the time that was lost in the mud. It also cemented those 28 riders as the group who would decide the race a full 160 miles later. At Unbound, the race has a recent tendency to start the action early and turn to a slow burn as the fatigue sets in.

The next major juncture came at mile 60, with Texaco Hill, the high point on the course and a classic Unbound feature, as the hill sits atop a long ridge among the deep green of the Tallgrass Prairie. On that climb, Specialized dropped the hammer.

Swenson and Schmidt attacked together and jettisoned all but Cobe Freeburn on the climb. Freeburn has been a revelation this year as the young gravel pro has established himself in the pro ranks after committing to the discipline throughout his U23 years. Earlier this year, Freeburn took his big breakthrough win at Mid South Gravel and has been on a roll since, so for close watchers, his presence was a happy surprise.

“I just sat on Keegan up the hill, and I looked back and we had like a pretty decent gap, Freeburn told Velo after the race. “Then Mads just ripped it. The whole time I was with them, Mads was just railing it. 
Every time we’d go up a steep hill, [Swenson] would have to tell him to slow down, so I was just like, ‘oh, I’m in a good place.’

“Then, we had a big, long tailwind section, and I pulled through with them, doing what I could, and I was feeling good, but I could tell I was not going to hold that for another five hours.”

Sure enough, Freeburn made it to mile 100 before he had to back off and let the Specialized duo take off. Yet, to put it in perspective, the gap was so big at that point that Freeburn rode for an hour solo before anyone made it up to him. In the end, the effort cost him, with Freeburn finishing 16th, but with the season-long Life Time Grand Prix on his mind, he was still in good standing with the result netting him 8th-place points.

Wheel swap saves the day for Specialized

The crux of the day came at mile 120. After a truly spectacular opening five hours, Specialized was firmly in command, having dispelled Freeburn 20 miles prior.

Suddenly, the ideal scenario turned to high drama when Würtz Schmidt suffered a broad sidewall cut as the duo made the long trek North through the Flint Hills. Both riders stopped and got to work trying to get the tire to hold air, but even with nearly a dozen plugs, they couldn’t plug it. Swenson, who had been looking like the less strong of the duo, offered his wheel to his Swiss teammate and sent him on his way, never to be seen again until the finish.

Meanwhile, Swenson, who has been riding off-road essentially his whole life, quickly became his own mechanic and got to work booting the tire, putting a tube in, and trying to ride on.

Nevertheless, his comedy of errors continued as his freehub body started to disassemble while he was fixing the flat. He only realized as he began to try and ride again, which sent him running back to the place where he was fixing the flat, grabbing the necessary components, and returning to his bike to get everything together and nurse his tire to the next aid station, where he could swap tires.

From there, it was comeback time to make his way all the way back to the top five 80 miles later.

The battle behind

While Würtz Schmidt forged on up front, behind the group was battling for the rest of the podium, with Matt Beers making moves for his teammate up the road. That tactic eventually led to Beers finding a counterattack with the Norwegian rider Tobias Kongstad from the PAS Racing team and last year’s winner Cam Jones pulling away from the dwindling main group.

Kongstad is a seasoned gravel pro with success at Traka and a podium at Unbound in 2024.

Jones, who had to make a few bridges earlier in the race to weld his way across gaps, eventually couldn’t hold the pace from the two powerhouses in the chase, making it just Beers and Kongstad on the long, windy stretch from the final aid in Council Grove to the finish in Emporia. From that point on, it seemed like it would be destined he result would be Würtz Schmidt winning, Beers in second, having to do less work than his chasing partner, and Kongstad resigned to his second third place as Specialized had him in a bind.

Sure enough, in the final run to the line, Beers made his move, making it an emphatic 1-2 for Specialized on a day where team tactics in gravel racing were employed to a whole new level.

Results: Unbound Gravel Men’s 200