"In gravel, results are only part of what matters. I had to get used to that” - double Unbound Gravel champion Peter Stetina

Former pro with teams like BMC or Trek-Segafredo, Peter Stetina, will take on the Gravel">Unbound Gravel as one of the races' biggest favourites this Saturday. The American has already been on the podium of the race twice in 2019 and 2021, and finished 8th last year. Stetina talked extensively about gravel and beyond with RideMagazine.

"I can't speak for everyone, but riding the WorldTour wasn't fun anymore for me," he says of his switch to the gravel scene at the end of 2019. "To be competitive at the highest level, I had to keep the fun factor out of cycling. I had to be so strict. There are guys who are super talented, such as Wout van Aert, Julian Alaphilippe, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar. They can keep their personality. I had to live like a monk and do every little bit to get the most out of it."

"In this discipline you also have different types of courses and different riders who are good there. You can compare Unbound to Paris-Roubaix, while the Belgian Waffle Ride has more of a Liège-Bastogne-Liège character. I won that last competition in 2019 and in 2021 I successfully defended my title."

"You have to look at it this way: if you win one of those two classics, then your season in the gravel scene has already been successful. But that is precisely the difference with road cycling: results are what it is all about. In gravel, results are only part of what matters. I had to get used to that."