Last year, Unbound Gravel had an unforgiving villain known as peanut butter mud.This stole the show right near the start and wreaked havoc across the category. While steps have been taken to reduce the scale of the role in destroying the mud race this year, it still seems to be making a cameo appearance in 2024.

Some riders may be ready and unnerved, with social media posts including Carolyn Schiff's "Peanut Butter Ready" bike shot and an experienced hand Peter Stetina video, as he found a local waterway to wash away the mud. It looks like he was going about a familiar job that was well practiced. These riders are well aware of what they can do after riding and walking through the worst of last year, but other riders may have been a bit wary.

This year's unrestricted Gravel world champion Matei Mohorish and the first timer of the highest profile in his Bahrain winning team would undoubtedly have been given desolation of the conditions, but what is said is one thing, and perhaps experiencing another. 

"I am very excited and also very surprised to be here. We did the last part of the course today, and it's said this is the easiest, but it wasn't what we expected," Mohori Uma told Unbound Gravel in an interview posted to instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrammable instagrams. We have already ordered a large tire."

Still, the road expert of the World Tour, who claimed the rainbow jersey in his first gravel race, lined up for his second with two teammates, Matevý Govekar and Lukas Wičniowski, he said the Tour de France

"I think we're pretty ready." I feel good physically, but it's going to be a very long race," said the Slovenian, who pointed out that the 203 miles (327 km) of gravel requires twice the energy of any race he had done before and is a very different beast to his first winning gravel event. The Elite men's race at the UCI Gravel World Championship is 169km long, about half the distance of the unbound, and the race that starts and ends in Emporia, Kansas is 92 percent gravel.

Still, he and his teammates seemed puzzled rather than stressed by the terrain they encountered during the course reconnaissance.

"The situation in Kansas is all under control and we feel we are ready for tomorrow's adventure at [Unbound Gravel] with [Bahrain's victory]. Nice to meet you, peanut butter mud," Mohorish joked in an Instagram post.The Instagram post included a video of Winiowski and Gobeker wearing mud-hardened tires.