The Traka 2024 Recap Thread

I don't know if any of you followed The Traka – by now I think clearly Europe's most important gravel race – this weekend. I certainly did. So I figured I start a thread here to share some thoughts / observations. And hopefully some of you want to chime in.

The Traka Coverage

First things first, the Traka team did a great job covering the event live on social media. What I enjoyed the most was the YouTube live coverage of the 360 event. They had ebikes with cameras out on the course, following the lead group(s). That made for some of the best live race coverage I've seen in gravel. I'd love to see more of this in the future.

Subsequently, I was pretty shocked/surprised on Saturday when I realized that they didn't have the same live coverage of the 200 – arguably the main event. I wonder why that is. I speculate that it might be because the 200 & 100 are UCI events and it might be a rights issue related to this fact. Still, it's a pitty and hopefully this can be improved next year.

I'm curious to see what they release after the race. The benchmark is what Life Time GP did for Sea Otter a couple of weeks ago.

360 or 200 – what's the real deal?
Above I said that the 200 is arguably the main event. What I mean by "main event" is best explained with the way we think about: if you say someonw won Unbound, it's clear you're talking about the 200 mile race.

In the case of Traka, it's the 200k. It has the reputation and the depth of top starters – at least coming from a European gravel/cycling perspective, it's hard to argue otherwise.

But then, many of the US gravel household names like Stetina, Britton or Rockwell chose to start in the 360. My take on this: they knew that they likely wouldn't compete for a top result in the 200. Thus, they opted for the 360. And yet, you could also make the case that 360 is the "realer" gravel distance. And, resultingly, the US gravel pros, optimize their training for that type of distance. When they come to Traka, the 360 might simply seem like "the real deal" to them.

So should we consider the 360 as the main event maybe? Or do we even need a clear main event? I'm torn here as I like both distances and the types of race they result in. What do you think?

Casa Rassmann

I watched the 200's live stream (which had no live footage except for the finish line) and saw German Frederik Rassmann cross the line as first, beating eventual winner Petr Vakoc and Jasper Ockeloen in a sprint. He later – after some discussions at the finish line, as the moderator mentioned at some point – he even joint the live stream's set to give his winner interview.

But an hour or so later, Rassmann disappeared from the results. And the Traka Intagram post about the men's race results – which took a long time to come online, unlike in Caro Schiff's/the women's race case – mentioned Petr. In the complete results list, Rassmann was now listed as 15th – apparently he had received a time penalty.

For a while, there was no information on what had happened. Later, Rassmann posted on Instagram and mentioned "illegal feeding" as the reason for a time punishment. In a comment on Strava, Carolin Schiff later added more context and stated that he "accepted nutrition from outside in the first feedzone". Other accounts, including his team's, later confirmed that its related to feeding illegally.

Still, as of writing this we don't know any details. In particular, the organizers didn't release any official communication on the subject. Is it just me or is that weird?

Someone crosses the line of your most prestigious event in first place and you opt to give him a time punishment. Certainly frustrating for the rider and, too, a bummer for the organizer – who can't promote glorious finish line pics. But it's also not extraordinary and a common occurrence in road racing. So I would expect an official statement if such a big decision is made.

I mean, one could even argue that the organizer might be incentivized to not dq/or punish the first finisher because doing so significantly reduces the marketability of the result. So being strict and enforcing the rule could even be seen as a honorable act that prioritizes protecting the competition's integrity over the potential marketing benefits. So why not communicate what happened quickly and clearly? I mean, it shouldt be pretty straightforward as the rules are clear on this (see p. 14 in the Athlete Guide).

Certainly an area for improvement.

Other random notes

• Great repeat victory for Carolin Schiff and judging by the time and dot watching a strong performance in the last k's (too bad we have no footage)
• Stetina and Britton coming back after at some point being back around 7-8 minutes due to technicals is quite impressive
• The 360 women's winner Karolina Migon was super strong. But don't take the time gap she had on 2nd-placed Geerike Schreurs (+22:09) as an expression of the difference in their performances. Migon was riding with a strong group of men for a long time. Meanwhile, Schreurs was solo TTing it, trying to close the gap. That's a normal event in gravel racing but a good reminder to not take finish times at their face value.