Professional rock collector, writer, sit-down comedian, and absolute ripper on the cyclocross scene – there are as many sides to 7mesh ambassador Rebecca Fahringer as there are medals in her trophy cabinet. And now she can add gravel grinder to her resume as she leaves shoulder-season behind and clips in for the new wave of events drawing riders to the dirt from every discipline, the highlight of which is Unbound this coming June in Kansas.
It turns out that tornados aren’t the only things that touch down in Kansas. Self-titled as the ‘world’s premier gravel event’ and unofficially known in rubber circles as ‘the money month’, Unbound brings together some 4000 riders from around the world for a wild weekend of drop bars and dropped hammers in the tire-shredding Flint Hills of Kansas. This mixed-bag of mountain bikers, roadies, ‘crossers and dirt-first fanatics all come to suffer across a brutal landscape of tire-torching gravel in one of several events, each longer than the next. Which is why today, I have an excitable Rebecca Fahringer on the phone as we connect to talk about her Road to Unbound, how she’s prepping for the race, her gravel 101s, and why 7mesh apparel gives her an added advantage.