Just under a month after winning The Traka 560 on her first attempt, British gravel rider, Maddy Nutt (Q36.5 Off Road Racing), has announced her ambitions for the US’s biggest gravel race – the Unbound XL.
“After some careful thought and consideration, I have decided to not race Unbound 200 this year,” Nutt teased her Instagram followers, before following up: “I will in fact be racing Unbound XL.”
In late April, Nutt finished Girona’s ultra-endurance race, the Traka 560, in a time of 26 hours and 31 minutes – fast enough to break the course record by over two hours, and put an hour between her and the next fastest woman. Now she’s looking ahead to her next challenge: 350 miles through the Flint Hills.
“This decision was a tough one,” Nutt said of her choice to swap her wildcard invite to the Unbound 200 for a spot in the XL. “I don’t feel fully myself again after The Traka 560, but I feel healthy and recovered enough to give another ultra a whack and see what my body can do.”
Nutt’s caution is warranted. In an interview with Cycling Weekly after her success in The Traka, she described her experience of racing Unbound 200 last year as, “the most afraid on a bike I’ve ever been.”
“The bunch was just really sketchy and people were taking rash lines and decisions,” she continued.
The XL, on the other hand, feels more like The Traka 560 for Nutt, who enjoys the challenge of pre-event planning, working out where she will stop and how she’ll pace herself.
“I need to think about bike setup,” Nutt continued, “because you can draft, but also it’s so flat that I probably need aero bars. It’s less technical than The Traka, so there’s lots of things to think about, and that really excites me.”
Long distances suit the 28-year-old, who is increasingly turning her attention to longer races. She attributes her ability to enter a “flow state” on long rides in part to her autism. Not only is she able to plug away at the miles distraction-free, but she is also less susceptible to pain.
“Last year in The Traka 360, I tore my AC joint 100km in but was able to finish,” she said. “I feel like that definitely helps in a 560km race!”
And yet Nutt has stayed consistently cautious about her recovery from The Traka, ahead of another gruelling endurance race.
“I feel very physically recovered,” she said, “but I’m aware that my nervous system might not be fully recovered, and as soon as I put myself in that racing situation, I don’t know necessarily how my body is going to respond. But I’m definitely up for the challenge, and to see whether I can do the two within a month of each other.”
When I spoke to Nutt on 20 May, she was still recovering from some bike-related wear and tear, and had just gotten over some nerve pain in her back.
“When you sit on a bike for 26 hours, it doesn’t do great things to you,” she said. “I’ve got some physical indications that I’m not fully recovered, although my legs feel good, but yeah, the nervous system’s a hard one.
“Often you don’t actually find out how recovered you are until you race.”
Nutt will be setting off on 29 May in competition with 2025 winner Heather Jackson, as well as previous race-winner Svenja Betz, before taking a well-earned break after the race.
“Health is number one priority, and so some proper down time and recovery will be the first thing on my agenda after this trip to Kansas,” she said in her Instagram post.
“But first things first, I’ve got another 350 mile bike race to do!”
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