The lottery for participation in 2025 Life Time Unbound Gravel will probably be open on November 1 by way of November 15 with the winners introduced on November 21.
People bid to enter one in every of 5 experience distances – the XL is the longest at 350 miles and takes place on Friday, Could 30, 2025 in downtown Emporia, Kansas. The opposite distances – 25, 50, 100 or 200 miles – begin on Could 31 from the identical location. People with Life Time Membership memberships of six months or longer have early entry to registration.
Subsequent 12 months all routes will once more be routed to the north from Emporia throughout the Flint Hills of Kansas, identified for its punchy climbs, steep ravines and sharp-edged rocks. The official routes will probably be finalised at a later date.
Life Time introduced earlier this month that the signature occasion for elite riders, Unbound Gravel 200, will provide a brand new $30,000 prize purse for women and men, cut up evenly.
Gravel Worlds in Nebraska triple prize purse
The elite prize purse for the 2025 Lauf Gravel Worlds, August 23, will greater than triple from the earlier 12 months, making it the biggest single-day payout for a gravel race thus far. Organisers introduced that women and men within the professional fields will share in a $100,000 prize pool. Beforehand one of many richest incomes alternatives in gravel racing was the 2023 USA Biking Gravel Nationwide Championships, when $60,000 was on provide for elite riders.
Occasion sponsor GoodLife Manufacturers, an organization that works with farmers and companions to supply sustainably-sourced meats and proteins, will present the funds for the prize purse, which in flip, in response to organisers, retains the price of registrations from growing and retains a high-end experience expertise.
Every winner within the elite males’s and ladies’s races, held throughout 150 miles and 10,000 ft of climbing from Lincoln, Nebraska, will now earn $17,500 every, whereas second-place riders earn $12,500 every. The payouts go 10 deep.
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Final 12 months Lauren Stephens (Cynisca Biking) gained Gravel Worlds for elite girls for a second consecutive 12 months, whereas Simen Nordhal Svendsen (PAS Racing) gained for elite males. Along with the professionals sharing in a $20,000 prize purse, the ladies shared in an additional $10,000, with $500 paid for every girl within the high 20 to reach at a second checkpoint forward of racers within the basic discipline.
Registration for beginner divisions on the 2025 Gravel Worlds is now open, with a reduced charge accessible by way of November 1 (1 a.m. ET).
Gran Fondo Hincapie raises $750,000 for hurricane reduction
Organisers of Hincapie Occasions, which manages Gran Fondo Hincapie, confirmed that near $750,000 had been raised to date this month with their thirteenth annual biking occasion, auctions and particular actions to help Polk County, North Carolina residents and companies affected by the devastation from Hurricane Helene. The funds for hurricane reduction, anticipated to succeed in $1 million, will probably be offered to the Polk County Neighborhood Basis, which had hosted the fondo the previous dozen years and was one of many hardest hit areas in western North Carolina from the September storm.
“This 12 months’s Gran Fondo Hincapie was a last-minute shift in focus, however it shortly turned a full-scale fundraising effort,” stated Wealthy Hincapie, president of Hincapie Occasions. “As soon as we determined to pivot, George, myself, and the entire household began reaching out to our networks. It was unbelievable to see so many individuals come collectively for the fundraising occasions, which spanned 4 days. Elevating the quantity we’ve to date is my proudest accomplishment in biking.”
Olympic gold medal cyclists Jolanda Neff and Sir Bradley Wiggins in addition to Michelin star chef Matt Accarrino have been a part of the festivities. Former street execs Sir Mark Cavendish, Jan Ullrich, Bobby Julich, Christian Vande Velde and Victor Hugo Peña have been additionally a part of the programming.
On Saturday night time throughout the After Social gathering, artist Jared Emerson created a reside pace portray of Cavendish, the Tour de France stage win record-holder, which was signed by the bike owner and auctioned for $92,500.
At a separate gala in downtown Greenville, hosted by a Canadian philanthropic membership, Les Domestiques, George Hincapie’s bike which he rode to second place within the prologue of the 2006 Tour de France was auctioned for $45,000. This occasion alone raised greater than $240,000.
“The bike I rode to second place within the 2006 Tour de France Prologue in Strasbourg – lacking the win by simply one-one hundredth of a second – will at all times be one in every of my most prized possessions,” stated Hincapie. “Auctioning it off was a reminder of how arduous work and pushing just a bit tougher have at all times been key to reaching my objectives. It is an essential reminder for a lot of features of life: if we are able to push tougher, we are able to obtain something—even to succeed in our purpose of elevating 1,000,000 {dollars}.”
Seven US girls win medals at UCI Gravel World Championships
Whereas Dutch riders Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel stole the headlines at this 12 months’s UCI Gravel World Championships in early October, 4 US girls scored gold medals, making a sweep of age divisions from 60-64 to 80-plus, and three others earned bronze.
Laura van Gilder (Cresco, Penn) rode solo for the gold within the girls’s 60-64 age division. Van Gilder’s first world championships got here on the street in 2002, which was additionally in Belgium. She had twice competed at Cyclocross World Championships, ending within the high 20 in 2009 in Hoogerheide. In 2018 she gained a second grasp’s division title on the US Cyclocross Nationwide Championships.
Vanessa Cooney earned gold within the 70-74 division and Wendy Skean took the gold Within the 80+ division. Within the girls’s 65-69 division, USA had two riders on the rostrum, Ruth Clemence with gold and Lillian Pfluke with bronze. Two different US girls took bronze medals, Amy Phillips within the 50-54 division and Tracey Jacobs within the 55-59 division.
There have been a complete of two,183 riders who certified for the age group races in Belgium this 12 months, having completed within the high 25% of their age group within the TREK UCI Gravel World Sequence or taken wins at nationwide championships. The boys over 65 and ladies over 50 had a direct end after the 88km in line from Halle to Leuven. Girls classes below 50 and males between 50 and 64 needed to do one other 47km native loop for a complete distance of 136km on Saturday.
