Race Roundups with Pete Stetina: Gold at The Traka 360
By The Feed.
The Traka: a sleeper Spanish gravel race that is quickly earning its nickname as "the Unbound of Europe". Pete Stetina claimed a dramatic win at this year's 360k event and shared his grueling experience here for the next installment of Race Roundups with Pete.
Pete: The Traka, held in the cycling Mecca of Girona, Spain has become known as the “Unbound of Europe”. From Thursday to Sunday it hosts 3,600 participants over 5 different distances: 560, 360, 200, 100, and 50 kilometers. The 360 and 200 are the most prestigious with the 360 billed as the ultimate endurance race, and the 200 more of a UCI high-octane vibe. I’d circled the 360 race (If I’m flying all the way to Europe I’m going to race the big adventure!) as one of my season objectives and upon arriving in Girona I immediately felt “it" in the air.
The Traka has that magic recipe of the biggest and best races: The energy, the expectation, and the hype were all palpable. Additionally, the organizers, Klassmark, have surpassed any gravel race in the USA in terms of media coverage. Their photography is prolific and captivating, and they actually cracked the code in live-streaming a gravel race!
If you caught my “What’s in Pete’s Pocket” video pre-race, you’ll notice I mention how hard it is to fuel properly for a 12-hour race. I simply can’t consume the high octane 120g of carbs per hour like shorter events as one’s stomach eventually revolts. Rather, I aimed for 100g, which is still a massive quantity of food! Luckily I didn’t have to carry it all from the start as it’s run similar to Unbound in that there are 3 aid stations where your pit crew can meet you.
We started at dawn and immediately the battle was intense, with continuing bottlenecks due to mud bogs formed from recent rains and some tight singletrack. Finally, after 70 km of stressful fighting, things seemed to settle as 50 riders sensed no more urgency due to the terrain mellowing and widening. We were biding our time and saving energy until the first aid station when the real climbs would begin.
At 100k, just before the aid station, I had a series of mechanicals and a bad puncture that required 5 plugs and 2 Co2. I’d lost more than 6 minutes and upon leaving the aid station I was 8 minutes back. The Feed’s HPT athlete Rob Britton had also suffered his own slew of bad luck and we magically united upon leaving Aid 1. Rob and I have a long history of racing each other and heaps of mutual respect between us. I told him there was no one else I’d rather chase with and together we got to work. Deep down we believed it futile; 8 minutes was a lot to recoup. But, we were two of the contenders and were suddenly a team due to misfortune.
My secret - just embrace the suck. The point is to break.
Over the next hours we began to hoover up dropped riders and blow through them. Rob was on a tear and I was barely able to pull through. I’d elected to skip my Feed USWE Pack to climb light, hopefully gaining back more time, and as we forged through a flat headwind later in the day I was rationing water. I was in trouble and the lights were flickering.
By km 240, just before Aid 2, we caught sight of the lead group. We couldn’t believe it! We’d just overturned an 8-minute deficit, but we were dead men walking. Surely in this scenario, it’s because the others were playing games and soft-pedaling, waiting for the final climbs.
The aid station was a rush, with 2 hearty climbs and only 30 km to the final aid, I ran light again: 2 x bottles of mix, a SiS Nootropics gel, and a Victus 02 During gel in the pocket. To Rob and I’s consternation, rather than promptly being dropped, we surged ahead with the defending 360 champ, Italian Mattia de Marchi. This was the selection, the podium. We aligned once again to join forces to consolidate the podium before opening the final blows.
Unfortunately, Mattia got a stick jammed in his drivetrain shortly after and it broke his derailleur. Suddenly it was just Rob and I, we were in the driver’s seat and it was clear we would go 1-2! We were flabbergasted; this Hollywood script role reversal simply doesn’t happen in cycling.
With 8k to go, I pulled away on the final short hill. Honestly, the 1-2 order doesn’t matter much as this was our victory. A most unlikely series of events for these two old grizzled racers. The outpouring has been overwhelming and emotional. Many consider this the 2nd biggest gravel race in the world after Unbound; the season is already a success even as Unbound 200 looms over us in just a month’s time.
Photo credit: @roszko