Dumoulin and Van Avermaet return to the dirt for 2025 UNBOUND Gravel showdown: “The longer the distance goes, the better I feel”

The small town of Emporia, Kansas, home to just 24,000 people, is about to come alive this Saturday, 31 May, as it once again hosts the world’s biggest gravel cycling race: UNBOUND Gravel. With thousands of amateur riders, elite competitors, support crews, and fans descending on the Flint Hills, the 200-mile event is more than just a race, it’s a pilgrimage for the gravel community.

Kicking off at 06:00 local time, with the elite field rolling out ten minutes earlier, the mass-start format epitomises the chaotic charm of gravel racing. And while Unbound Gravel has always been about the challenge rather than just the names on the start list, some of those names this year will be very familiar to cycling fans.

Chief among them is 2017 Giro d’Italia winner Tom Dumoulin. The 34-year-old Dutchman may have retired from WorldTour road racing, but he hasn’t stepped away from competition entirely. However, his UNBOUND preparation hit a snag during course recon. Appearing on Instagram Stories this week with bloodied knees and a dirt-covered kit, Dumoulin admitted: “It ended very badly. A stupid slip in a bend.”

Still, Dumoulin isn’t the only decorated road racer swapping tarmac for gravel. Olympic gold medallist and former Tour de France stage winner Greg Van Avermaet returns to Emporia after a tough debut in 2024. The Belgian veteran suffered multiple mechanicals last year, three punctures on the unforgiving rocks, but still fought back to finish seventh.

Gravel racing is like a bug, and fans and riders seemingly can’t get enough of it. If you thought stage 9 of this year’s year Giro was crazy, where Wout van Aert conquered the strade bianche and won in Siena, then you’ve got another thing coming if you watch UNBOUND for this time.

“It took so much energy to come back on [to the group during] the first part of the race that I probably lost places because of that,” Van Avermaet told Cycling Weekly. “But in the end, I was also quite happy about the seventh place… I could have also ended up 15th with the same legs and two flats.”

Van Avermaet, now 40, returns with greater intent and a more refined strategy. “The biggest reason why I’m coming back (to UNBOUND) is just because at the end of the year, I was thinking which races suit me the best and Unbound was one of them,” he explained. “I think it’s just one of those races where you at least have a little bit of draft of a peloton… and also the distance (makes the) start a little bit easier because it’s just a big day out,10 hours on the bike.”

He believes the sheer duration of UNBOUND plays to his strengths. “I also feel like on the other gravel races (I’ve done), the longer the distance goes, the better I feel,” he said. “(Unbound is) probably one of the races that will fit me a little bit better after getting more aged and having so many kilometres in the legs.”

Van Avermaet won’t be racing alone this time, either. He’s formed a squad called GVA Gold, comprising himself, former Belgian footballer-turned-gravel-rider Jelle Van Damme, and emerging talent Julian Siemons. Siemons impressed in 2024 with a sixth-place finish at Ranxo Gravel, and Van Avermaet sees big potential in his new team.

“(Siemons) is expecting a lot of Unbound,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to have a little bit of a younger guy with us to share our experience with, and also he’s capable of a good result. I think if he has a good day, he can get in the top 20.”

But Van Avermaet is just as focused on the collective experience as the individual result. “I think you cannot (race Unbound) on your own and that’s also the great feeling that we experienced last year — that it was not seventh place only for myself but also for the people who took care of me the whole week,” he said. “Just having the things right at the feed zone, nutrition-wise, cleaning the bikes, etc. That was, for me, a great experience.”

That sense of team and logistics harkens back to his WorldTour days. “It’s just kind of like what I felt before with road racing — that when you have a professional team, you can reach goals.”

UNBOUND has developed a reputation not just for drawing in big names, but for humbling them. Former Gravel World Champion Matej Mohorič learned that the hard way in 2024 when he cracked a rim and was forced to DNF. Afterward, he admitted he’d be sticking to road racing.

The rugged nature of the Flint Hills is part of what makes UNBOUND so compelling. The race offers no quarter, punctures, mechanicals, and brutal headwinds can derail even the most experienced competitors. It’s why ex-pros like Van Avermaet speak of it with a mix of love, and a tinge of fear.