Whether it's the muddy, grueling course conditions or the increased competition due to an expanded rider base, Garmin Unbound Gravel presented by Craft Sportswear's title defense is in danger of disappearing.

Sofia Gomez Villafañe, the elite women's champion of the 2022 Unbound Gravel 200 and a favorite to win this year's race, was up against the mud and battle. Villafañe finished second, 15 minutes behind winner Caroline Schiff.

On Saturday, 57 top-ranked elite women crossed the 205.5-mile course in Flint Hills, Kansas, through mud pits, through sweltering heat, occasional downpours, and back to the finish back in Emporia, where they were joined by about 4,000 others, including elite men and many amateurs. The team navigated their way through the heat and heat, through the occasional downpour, and back to Emporia with about 4,000 other competitors, including elite men and many amateurs.

"I think it's a great accomplishment for anyone who finishes the race. Villafane told Cycling News an hour after the finish.

"Like the muddy sections from the beginning. We are running and I am a professional cyclist. I'm not a professional runner. And, you know, a lot of people's races are kind of over after the first hour."

In the days leading up to the Unbound Gravel, sporadic heavy rains turned some of the prairie's rustic dirt roads and low-lying rolling terrain into a quagmire. It was not the sandy soil of the first hill outside Emporia at mile 10 that caused the chaos and confusion, but rather the two to three miles of muck.

By the time the elite women's field, which started two minutes after the elite men for the first time unbound, hit Hill D, they had caught up behind the elite men's field of 116 and a good portion of the 1,154 eager amateurs who ran the same course eight minutes after the women's dedicated send-off. portion of the field had caught up. So there were many riders and bikes struggling to get through the early difficulties.

Did one or two muddy spots really affect the race ...... Well, it took Villafane 12 hours, 1 minute, and 50 seconds to finish the Unbound 200 in second place, which was over an hour and a half longer than a very similar course in 2022. However, course conditions were not everything.

"It wasn't my best day, but I gave it my all. But I think I'm ready for a women's only race," said Villafañe, adding that one area for improvement for future races in Emporia would be to have the same course times for men and women in the elite field.

"My idea is to have a 175-mile race. By the time the elite women finish, it will be perfect. The elite men are about 140 miles and we don't have the same number of men. So on Friday morning we will start with just the women. And when the women finish, the XL350 will just start. The amateur women can choose whether they want to participate in the women-only start or whether they want to run all 200 races. [For me, equality does not mean that I can do the same things as men. Equality to me means equal opportunity to demonstrate my abilities. This race is still too long and we don't have enough people to keep running for 12, 13, 14 hours. So I would advocate for a shorter race."