Sarah Sturm wins 2024 Migration Gravel stage race in Kenya (2024)

Sturm jumps to the top of the women’s standings in Gravel Earth Series

It was an experience Durango’s Sarah Sturm will never forget.

Whether it was the food, the travel through Africa, the tents she slept in, the bucket showers she took, the sickness she faced early on or the tough conditions of the race, it was an experience the 34-year-old professional off-road racer may not ever see again.

One reason this Migration Gravel Race may be unreplicable for Sturm is her success. She was near the front of the women’s race from the start and took a 20-minute lead in the general classification after the second stage. Sturm then won the third stage and crossed the finish line after the fourth stage with a winning time of 27 hours, 6 minutes and 19 seconds on June 21 to win what she called the hardest race of her life.

The Migration Gravel stage race took place in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Riders completed 650 kilometers (404 miles) of riding over the four days of stage racing. The competitors rode on single track, game trails, red clay, and rough hard-pack gravel. They also rode through Maasai villages, plains, rivers, mountains and across big game country.

“Going to Africa is just so different,” Sturm said. “The food is different, the time is really different and the travel out there is extreme. There's so much that can go wrong from gear getting lost, mechanicals and all the normal bike race things, but then it's just amplified because we're in the middle of East Africa. Everything is different. I can confidently say this now that I've had a couple days to reflect that it was the hardest bike race of my life. It was just so rugged, and the stages were taking way longer than last year, just because the terrain was so rough this year due to some heavy rainfall.”

Migration Gravel has been a race Sturm has had her eye on for a few years but she couldn’t fit it into her schedule. Finally this year, Sturm went with Rapha, one of her sponsors, was one of the main sponsors of the race.

Sturm was also motivated to go because she did well at the Traka in Spain in May which is also a part of the Gravel Earth Series. The Traka and Migration Gravel have the highest amount of points in the series because of their difficulty.

It wasn’t an easy destination for Sturm or any other competitors to get to the start of Migration Gravel. It took her 24 hours to travel from Durango to Denver, then from Denver to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

From Nairobi, Sturm and the rest of the riders transferred into the Maasai Mara which was a seven or eight-hour bus ride in a bus Sturm described as a burly military-looking bus.

The roads from Nairobi to the first stage camp Sturm described as being like the worst parts of Horse Gulch Road in Durango for the entire duration of the trip to the first stage camp.

This trip was delayed because the bus got stuck in the dirt roads but once the racers arrived at the first stage camp they saw two beautiful elephants grazing.

Each rider was allowed one duffel bag to take with them that included their gels, extra food and their clothes and food.

Riders then went to sleep in what Sturm described as canvas army tents with another person on a sleeping bag she brought.

Sturm and the rest of the racers got up at 5 a.m. and racing started at 7:30.

“For me, the first stage was really hard,” Sturm said. “I don't think it was necessarily the hardest stage, but for me it was. It actually kind of was for people. It was so physically demanding. We had this big mud section, which for me was fine, but you have this huge mud section and then some nice gravel. Then you just turned on to these bumpy cow fields and bumpy roads that were just kind of flat for hours and hours into a headwind. It was just super rough, there was no reprise at all the whole day. That kind of terrain I'm not great at.”

After the 140-kilometer first stage, Sturm was second and two minutes behind leader Xaverine Nirere. After each stage, racers were fed in a communal setting by the Maasai tribe and the organizers of the race. Sturm said her diet throughout the week consisted of goat as the meat with rice, potatoes, something similar to an African cornmeal polenta and chapati.

The Maasai tribal chief led evening ceremonies which consisted of chanting and blessing. Sturm loved the combination of the bike racing and experiencing a beautiful new culture.

Sturm also thought the weather was ideal with temperatures settling in between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the third stage, Sturm rode with Luise Valentin Rygaard and Maddy Nutt for most of the stage. With Sturm’s 20-minute lead in the general classification, she was able to wait to react to what Rygaard and Nutt would do.

Toward the end of the third stage, Sturm held back because she knew it was going to be a steep climb to the finish. Rygaard then attacked early at the bottom of the first of two climbs. Sturm went with her and was able to take the lead on the descent between the two climbs.

After struggling in her sprint at Unbound Gravel, Sturm wanted to test herself and went for it to see how her legs would hold up. Her legs held up well enough for her to win the stage by two seconds.

Heading into the final day leading by 20 minutes, Sturm was nervous with her gap and despite having stomach problems, she rode with Rygaard, who was in second place, for most of the day and allowed Rygaard to win the final stage with Sturm knowing she had the overall race wrapped up.

“It was a cool race in that we were all there because of the bike race, but I think the type of rider and racer and person that this event attracts is someone who is going to prioritize the experience as well and the place that we are,” Sturm said. “So it was really nice to share these really beautiful parts of the race with other people who were enjoying it. Each day there were multiple times where we would look up and remark about how beautiful it was, or how awesome that section of trail was.”

The medal ceremony involved some blessings from the Maasai along with the top three receiving medals and blankets from the Maasai.

Sturm said she isn’t sure if her schedule next year will allow her to get back to Kenya for Migration Gravel next year to defend her title.

Next up for Sturm is Crusher in the Tushar in Beaver, Utah on July 13. It’s the third round of the Lifetime Grand Prix series.

bkelly@durangoherald.com