The TRAKA 560 is the European equivalent to the US's UNBOUND. It's long, mean, and demands your best. Rob Britton shares his experience at this year's event.
Intro: The Race
The Traka 560 is Europe’s answer to Unbound XL — almost exactly the same distance, but with significantly more climbing.
This year’s edition took us deep into the Pyrenees, and I believe we did something like 6,000 meters of climbing in the first 200 km alone. From tiny dirt backroads to snow-capped mountains and villages that looked like they belonged in a Disney movie, the course was absolutely incredible.
That said, the demands of the course were equally as epic.
From rowdy, technical, rocky descents to sustained climbing pitches well over 20%, there was really nowhere to hide. Add in trying to navigate some of the more technical sections in the middle of the night with nothing but your bike light guiding the way, and it made for one of the most demanding courses I’ve ever raced over that kind of distance.
The Traka 560 was every bit as brutal as it was beautiful.
Pre-Race Fueling
As far as the pre-race fueling strategy goes, it actually looked pretty similar to what I’d do for events like the 360 or Unbound 200.
The process starts a couple of days out with deliberate over-fueling and staying on top of hydration consistently. One thing I also had to pay close attention to was jet lag and water retention, which have become more of an issue for me over the last few years with transatlantic travel.
Another difference compared to preparing for a normal race is the emphasis on maximizing sleep and recovery in the days leading up to it — especially knowing we’d be riding through the night.
That’s where a combination of Pillar Magnesium and Klean’s Melatonin spray came into play. Those two supplements have been really helpful for getting my sleep back on track once I’m overseas.
The Fueling Plan (On Paper)
When I looked at the course and compared it to other events I’ve done in the past, the plan was ambitious — but relatively simple.
My strategy was to fuel the entire ride almost exclusively with race nutrition: a combination of First Endurance Liquid Shot, Enervit gels, Skratch and Styrkr bars, plus Clif Bloks.
For hydration, I started with just under 5 liters of fluid, mixed at roughly 90 g/L of First Endurance High Carb. I also carried an additional 500 g of mix to use for refills throughout the race.
The reason behind this strategy was pretty straightforward: Spain makes it incredibly easy to source fresh drinking water. Nearly every town has public fountains where you can stop and refill bottles along the way.
So while I’d be carrying a decent amount of weight early on, I felt it would pay off later in the race by minimizing stops and maximizing access to high-output fuel the entire time.
What Actually Happened Out There
Aaaand, like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Or in my case, the gut.
While it’s no secret that high-carb fueling is incredibly effective, what’s talked about far less is the gut training required to actually make those numbers possible on race day. Even with today’s optimized glucose/fructose ratios, taking in 100+ g/h still has to be trained like any other part of performance.
Unfortunately, my lead-up into this event wasn’t smooth, and that ultimately became my undoing.
For the first 6–7 hours, everything was going to plan. Power numbers looked great, I felt strong on the bike, and my fueling strategy of 92–110 g/hour was right on track. But between the heat and sitting right at the upper limit of what my gut had adapted to in training, things started shutting down. I became blocked and bloated — and if you’ve ever tried to force-feed yourself on the bike, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
At that point, I could barely choke down anything, liquid or solid. The concentrated sugar bottles eventually had me running into the bushes more than once.
I’m no stranger to ultra-distance events, but sometimes, just like your legs don’t show up on race day, neither does your gut. The combination of effort, stress, heat, and lack of proper adaptation put me immediately onto the back foot.
So what do you do when you can no longer take in anywhere near the calories you need to perform?
As we approached the halfway point, I decided the smartest move was to stop, find real food, and give my GI system a hard reset.
At the last town with an open restaurant, I ordered a sandwich, coffee, and a Coke. I also ate two small bags of chips and an order of fries. Considering I’d barely fueled over the previous 4+ hours, total calories mattered more at that point than simply forcing carbs.
Before leaving, I also bought four 100 g bags of Haribo gummy bears. That became the strategy for the rest of the night: slowly drip-feed fuel back into my system. A handful of gummy bears followed by part of a bar. Then, as my gut tolerance improved slightly, a gel plus some gummies.
I’d packed plenty of 100 mg caffeine gels along with the microdose moka shots, and in the wee hours of the morning those helped a lot. Even so, I still had to stop for a short nap. Sometimes you just can’t fight fatigue, and with lingering jet lag, that was definitely still a factor.
I was happy to make it to the finish the next morning — still carrying nearly half the food I’d started with. A pretty physical reminder of what happens when you don’t train the entire system for an effort like this.
I’ll give you one guess what I’ll be doing over the next four weeks before Unbound XL…
Products That Got Me Through
Ok - so we know now that sometimes the plan doesn’t work out, but lets talk as if I had the perfect day. This is what I packed, and when I planned to take it.
Pre/ AM
Kodiak Maple Brown sugar oats x2 packs
Hydration - First Endurance High Carb - Lemon water. 90g/L 5 liters to start and refills for another 5L during the race.
First half 12-16h
Strykr 30 bar x 4
The Night
Carbs Fuel Sodium Gel 450g sodium x 5
Carbs Fuel Caffeine Gel 100mg X 3
Finish push: mini flask with “just add water” First endurance Pre-Race.
What I'd Do Differently
The biggest lesson I’m carrying into Unbound XL is that you can’t just train your fitness — you have to train the entire system. Legs, gut, sleep, hydration, pacing, all of it. I came into Traka fit enough to ride the numbers I wanted, but the gut training and adaptation side wasn’t quite where it needed to be for that combination of intensity, heat, and duration.
That’s probably the hardest thing about ultra-distance racing: the limiter usually isn’t your fitness alone. It’s how well every system keeps working once things start to go sideways.
Looking Ahead: Unbound in Four Weeks
With a month before Unbound XL, the biggest adjustment I’m making is putting a much heavier emphasis on gut training and introducing more variety into my fueling plan during long rides.
The fitness side is there, but Traka was a good reminder that at these distances, your gut is every bit as important as your legs. It doesn’t matter how strong you are if you can’t keep calories going in. Once the fueling falls apart, everything starts to unravel — power output, decision making, recovery, even your ability to stay motivated.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be spending a lot more time specifically practicing high-carb intake under fatigue and heat stress. The goal isn’t just maximizing intake anymore — it’s maximizing sustainability.
And honestly, that’s why nutrition matters even more at the XL distance. In shorter races, you can sometimes get away with mistakes or simply gut through the final hours. In races that stretch deep into the night and into the next morning, nutrition becomes pacing, recovery, and survival all rolled into one. It’s not just fuel — it’s what keeps your entire system functioning when things inevitably get hard.
That’s also what makes these events so addictive.
At some point, everyone gets uncomfortable. Everyone gets tired. Everyone has moments where things start going sideways. The people who keep moving forward are usually the ones who can problem-solve, adapt, and keep fueling when it stops being easy.
I love that challenge. When you get the combination perfect, you take your body to a whole new level, and it's amazing.
