Episode 109: Ivar Slik -- Unbound Gravel 2022 Winner

King of the Ride

Ted King

Sports, Health & Fitness, Business

4.8 • 660 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What's path to victory look like in the hotly contested 2022 Unbound 200? That's what I set out to find out with our guest Ivar Slik. Ivar is a member of the Dutch Mafia, as amalgamated by Laurens Ten Dam and his introduction to his Dutch countrymen (and women) to the American gravel scene. Although Ivar's name is forever tagged to the win in the most storied gravel race of them all, he's been dabbling in the scene for years, and boasts a lengthy list of palmares prior to that. Like winning the sprint jersey at Tour of Turkey. Finishing second in the Netherland junior national championships. He rode a stagiere year with Belkin and was part of the hallowed Rabobank development team. Follow Ivar at @ivar.slik And help improve your day with a daily dose of Athletic Greens. Just visit www.athleticgreens.com/tedking and you'll earn an annual supply of vitamin D and 5 free travel packs.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome to King of the Ride podcast. I am Ted King, your host for the past five years and presumably into perpetuity.
0:13.6	So perhaps you recognize the name Evar Slick.
0:17.7	Evar won Unbound 200 last year, 2022, the unofficial world championships of gravel.
0:24.9	And as a soft-spoken Dutch rider, there hasn't been much media around Evar and his win.
0:29.1	Besides, the very dramatic photo that's flashed across the internet, say a few million times,
0:33.7	with his arms in the air on a very muddy day.
0:37.3	So now with Unbound 2023 on the near horizon, I thought it would be a great time to chat.
0:43.6	We sat down here in Hiko, Texas on the eve of gravel locos to talk shop.
0:48.5	We're going to tackle all the basic stuff, like how we got into cycling, et cetera,
0:51.8	then dive a bit more into getting second at the Dutch
0:54.6	national championships as a junior, where his time in the powerhouse Robo Bank Continental
0:59.1	team, basically the development pipeline to the world tour, what it's like being in a training
1:03.9	camp with Mark Cavendish in the Astana program, which he did this winter, and on a bigger
1:09.1	picture, how gravel is seen to a European audience, how American gravel is
1:13.2	seen, perhaps much differently than how European gravel is approached.
1:17.9	All this and more with Evar coming right up.
1:22.9	Now, Laura and I have been traveling with the kids all through this spring, but especially
1:26.6	the past week and a half.
1:28.0	We've been migrating from California through the southwest across Arizona, New Mexico,
1:32.5	spending a good chunk of time with some friends in Albuquerque.
1:35.2	And now here we are in Texas, all deep into van life.
1:39.5	Now, admittedly, we have a thoroughly outfitted vehicle, so we have a well-stocked mini-fridge.
	...

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