Rally Cycling's Robin Carpenter is a late entrant in Saturday's Unbound Gravel 200. It is both a challenge and a distraction from looming issues on the East Coast, including the US Pro Road Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a move to Boston, Massachusetts.

"This is my first gravel event. I don't think anyone knows I'm competing," Carpenter told Cycling News. 'I'm looking forward to seeing what a big mass start race is like, the madness and the endless lines of riders in the dust. There are a lot of high-level riders competing. It's the Super Bowl of gravel racing

"I know I respect the scene and its importance. Gravel is taking up more and more bandwidth in American bicycle racing. I've been thinking about going unbound for the last couple of years. Usually my schedule doesn't allow me to do that."

He started the season in March in Europe with a few one-day races like Scheldeprijs, then completed the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. He then left the team's European campaign when an important race was cancelled and returned to his home in San Diego, but as soon as he had an entry and a bike for Unbound Gravel, he switched gears and bought a plane ticket to Kansas.

"Four Days of Dunkerque was a big race for Rally Cycling, but it was cancelled. Unfortunately, this year I couldn't get a European residency visa and am stuck on a tourist visa that only allows me to stay 90 days out of 180; it doesn't make sense to spend a month of visa days to do a one-day race. So I came back earlier than normal."

Rally Cycling, a UCI Pro Continental team, has received an invitation to next week's Tour de Suisse, but few entries for the big European World Tour races, and stage races have been cancelled or rescheduled due to event cancellations and rescheduling due to concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus North America have been sparse due to ongoing cancellations and schedule changes.

"We came straight from Spain to Boston to buy a house. We (Carpenter, wife, and dog) are moving to Boston after the Nationals. I'm happy to be able to go unbound. I can't stop thinking about Nationals and packing for the move."

Packing is a priority, but now for his first gravel race. Carpenter is used to riding long distances and off-road. In San Diego, he rides gravel bikes in the dirt, mostly in the winter, and has completed the Paris-Tour, Char Sells, and Antwerp Port Epic.

Carpenter has learned about nutrition, proper packing methods, and race strategy from podcasts, articles from people with experience, and from former racer Joe Schmaltz, a Kansas resident who was Carpenter's teammate on the Hincapie Racing team from 2013 to 2015. as much information as possible.

"You try to make yourself successful by being with the right people. So it either feels like a race or it feels like a real adventure," Carpenter said of his behavior on the course.

"If everything goes well, I think I'm fit enough to win. I want to pick an experienced rider like Ted King, who has won this competition a couple of times, to follow. My friend and former teammate Joe Schmaltz, who lives in Kansas, rides this road all the time, so it would be good to follow him. Another former teammate, Travis McCabe, rides the same bike as me, so if he's around, we'll work together."

"When things go well, I'll be with people who have the same luck as me. I want to fight low key. I'm trying to hold myself back for the first three hours, but you never know. I like to trust my gut more than my plan. 0]

Paying this much attention to gear and nutrition for a 200+ mile, largely self-supported endurance event is new territory for a professional road cyclist on a major American team.

"Rally Cycling supports me with a team car, and Tim Sparks is one of my favorite mechanics. He's a pleasure to watch race himself," Carpenter said of the valuable asset that the trade team provides, even if he is only one competitor. The key checkpoint, he added, is the second checkpoint with just over 50 miles to go.

"I'm going to show up at the gas station (in Kansas) and buy the kind of stuff I always eat at the Big Ride. Lots of salty, savory snacks, like a bag of salt and vinegar chips. A bottle of pickle juice in the cooler and a sandwich and slice of pizza at the second stop. If I'm near the front of the line, I don't eat pizza, though," says the 28-year-old. He had a solid plan: three water bottles on his bike, First Endurance EFS in his CamelBak, and a homemade rice cake.

"On a ride like this, there will always come a time when you get tired of eating the same sweet treat. For me, it's a bit of an experiment. I've heard people describe this race as much of an eating contest as it is a pedaling contest."

He says his best tool for overcoming the sharp rocks of the Flint Hills is a Dynaplug for his tubeless setup. He usually uses a solid pump, but CO2 is also important in this case. And a patch kit. There are some horror stories out there."

His main plan after Unbound Gravel is to win the US Pro Championships in late June. He finished second in Knoxville in 2018 and fourth in 2017, and he really wants the Stars and Stripes jersey.

"At US Pro, I'm focused on road racing, not crits or time trials. The course suits me," Carpenter said. Unbound is a good distraction for me right now. It would be great to get a result [at Unbound], but ultimately my goal is to finish the event and finish strong. I want to see what the gravel scene is like."