Life Cycles: Losing the Unbound Gravel 100, Getting 2nd the 2nd time + Pro Tips for Peter Sagan

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Unbound Gravel 100 bike race mud run. — Get out your dirt snorkel—it’s mud run time at the Unbound Gravel 100.

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Losing isn’t fun, but it’s often funny. Pro cycling World Champions, National Champions and World Record holders like Stephen Hyde, Ashton Lambie and past Hard Way guest Rebecca Rusch are among the storied winners of the Unbound Gravel 100, one of the world’s most legendary gravel bike races. In 2022, multi-time cycling road race World Champion Peter Sagan, who has won 17 stages in cycling Grand Tours and has also won the Green Jersey at the Tour de France seven times, will toe the line.

I’ve gotten second place / lost the Unbound 100 twice. In this episode of Choose the Hard Way, content marketing honcho and rising TikTok star @blakeoftoday joins me to go deep on our experience training for and losing the 2015 race.

Severe food poisoning, the generous wisdom of Chris Carmichael, a magical tiny screwdriver purchased at Rite Aid wielded in a scene from Game of Thrones in the middle of the race, aerobars, the revelation of the actual physical location in the human body of the Spirit of Gravel--this experience had it all.

This episode is part of Life Cycles, a new series I’ve launched within Choose the Hard Way. Conversations in this series cover the topics you’ve come to expect from Choose the Hard Way with guests whose lives and careers have been shaped by cycling or whose lives and careers have shaped the world of cycling.

If you have a great story about losing, I’d love to hear it. Hit me on Twitter @hardwaypod. If you enjoy this episode, please give it a five-star rating on Spotify or Apple podcasts, subscribe and forward it to a friend. That helps the show surface higher in search so more people can find the inspiring stories of my guests, and I really appreciate the support.

High performance is for everyone. Choose the Hard Way.