In latest years, Unbound Gravel has slowly advanced from a distinct segment occasion with a number of hundred rivals to the bona fide greatest gravel race on earth, with hundreds of rivals and a higher status than even the UCI Gravel World Championships.
One factor that has remained one thing of a continuing, nonetheless, is riders’ inclinations to attempt to use tech developments to seek out free pace, save watts, and outwit their parts.
As the competitors has change into fiercer, and higher in quantity, the tech has gotten wilder, and with no UCI commissaires patrolling the pits with their sock peak rulers and their brake angle checkers, riders are free to innovate to their hearts’ content material.
And boy did they. We noticed triathlon wheel fairings moulded onto gravel rims, makeshift hydration body luggage, and pro-only skinsuits with in-build hydration bladders. Notably, we additionally noticed some comparatively rudimentary tech hacks, with each Niki Terpstra and Nathan Haas taping Co2 canisters to their body utilizing electrical tape, and eventual males’s winner Lachlan Morton carrying a paint-stirrer in his again pocket to clear away any mud, ought to it clog up the tyres.
But there’s loads extra the place that got here from… let’s get caught in.
We’ll begin with the World Champion’s bike: Matej Mohorič’s Merida Silex, full with UCI- rainbow color paint scheme.
The Slovenian’s bike is adorned with an ode to his World Championship victory, and remembers Gino Mader, who sadly handed away after a crash in the course of the 2023 Tour de Suisse.
Loads will be mentioned with a easy picture: According to Merida, the owl and the textbook on which it sits symbolize learning, knowledge and science; traits that Mohorič deems necessary. Meanwhile, the rake refers to his upbringing on a farm, reminding him to remain humble. Finally, the cane references the Slovenian’s love for vogue.
Elsewhere, full with mud-clearing stick in his pocket, Lachlan Morton – winner of the boys’s race – wore the mega-aero POC Procen Air helmet, and an all-new pro-only skinsuit from Rapha.
A photograph from the event of that very same skinsuit exhibits {that a} hydration pack will be mounted on his again, though going again to the earlier photograph, it appears to be like as if he is truly bought it stuffed down his entrance.
And here is Morton’s bike shortly after the end. He’s slammed his saddle as far ahead because it’ll go. He’s taped a spare tube and tyre lever to his prime tube, and in the event you look intently, you will additionally spot tyre plugs taped to his brake hoses. He solely had two bottle cages, given the hydration skinsuit he wore, and we are able to make out a pair of Co2 canisters. He ran a 44mm Vittoria Mezcal rear tyre, paired with a 29×2.1in Terreno Dry up entrance, each arrange utilizing Muc-Off provides.
Meanwhile, Tobias Kongstad regarded to his base layer and slim handlebars to seek out his aero beneficial properties.
Speaking of aero beneficial properties, we discovered the HED Jet 180 rear wheel – made for triathletes at Kona – within the Expo. Surely, we thought, no person would run this in a gravel race? We had been mistaken…
Enter Chase Wark, whose Lauf Seigla was operating the Jet 180 on the rear. However, reasonably than use the usual Jet 180, which has a slim 21mm inside width, he requested HED to suit the 180mm fairing onto a HED Emporia wheel, they usually duly obliged. That’s not all, in fact. He’s additionally made his personal hydration-bladder-holding aero body bag, together with an analogous aero hydration field up entrance. According to his Instagram, he additionally waxed his bottle cages, although he is but to elucidate why.
On the topic of loopy wheels, we discovered Gulo Composites within the expo enviornment, and their GGA Aero gravel wheels, which weigh simply 1323 grams a set.
Some of that weight saving comes courtesy of those gorgeous carbon fibre spokes. The similar spokes are additionally discovered on the GGA SL wheels, that are staggeringly mild at 1225 grams.
Back out on the street, and Amity Rockwell’s shiny yellow Colnago caught our eye – a full gallery of which is on the way in which, however we actually appreciated this easy and up to date chain keeper.
But the true factor that stood out on her bike was this new Dura bike laptop from Coros. The clean part above the display is a photo voltaic panel that, we’re informed, helps the pc to over 100 hours of battery life between prices.
It’s fairly low profile, with an aero form, and has a curler dial on the facet, just like all of Coros’ smartwatches. The model lately teased the pc by way of its Instagram, with the launch date of “June 2024” so there’s not lengthy to attend to seek out out extra.
Still taking a look at a yellow Colnago, however this one belongs to Nathan Haas, full with a Silca multi-tool and canister mounting system. We surprise if this rattled a lot…
His use of duct tape prolonged to packing a spare tube and tyre levers onto the seatpost, too.
This spare canister, prepared to fireplace with an adaptor pre-threaded, had a barely faster-access mount.
Paint stirrers make nice mud-shedding sticks, so with the specter of rain excessive, and with it an honest likelihood of claggy mud, most riders packed one. Few had one bearing the Enve emblem, although.
Until we noticed Chase Wark’s Lauf Seigla, we would have mentioned this was the wildest bike on target. It options super-narrow handlebars, a crazy-long stem, deep street wheels and mountain bike tyres.
Rumour has it, that Dylan Johnson spent the night earlier than the race shaving the small hairs off the two.2in Continental RaceKing tyres. Like Wark, he ran the Lauf leaf-sprung forks too.
Somewhat amusingly, he ran his Shimano Ultegra 52/36 chainrings on a SRAM Red crankset.
Another Felt, and this one belonged to Paris-Roubaix winner, Niki Terpstra. We’re big followers of his basic form drop bars.
Like Haas, Terpstra has caught with a rudimentary mounting system.
He’s additionally taped his bar ends in place, although it is unclear why.
One of the wildest paint jobs on the race must be this Factor Ostro Gravel belonging to Rob Britton.
His purple and orange bike was fitted with Shimano GRX, with a 1x chainset and Classified two-speed rear hub.
He additionally had a pair of tyre plugs taped to his stem, for easy-access grab-and-stabbing ought to his tyres get lower on the flint rocks.
🤘. That is all.
Back within the expo, Wolftooth was eager to indicate off its vibrant spares, together with valves, prime caps, spacers and bottle cage bolts.
This aero chainring drew our consideration extra, although.
Selle SMP was close by too, exhibiting off this $479.00 carbon-railed Evo saddle.
We additionally discovered Bivo, whose chrome steel bottles have garnered big reputation these days for his or her sturdiness, environmental friendliness, and spectacular no-squeeze movement.
Italian model Vision was additionally close by exhibiting off a 30mm deep model of the lately relaunched SC vary.
We additionally discovered Prologo showcasing its Pro Wing AGX bar, an aluminium gravel handlebar with in-built extensions for aero and luxury advantages.
We surprise how most of the many-thousand rivals used a Cushcore (or equal) tyre liner for the race. Despite the unhealthy early-season press on the street, tyre liners are seen by many as essential merchandise for off-road racing.
Talk about discover your viewers! The Naked Sports Innovations vests and hydration packs will need to have been a success, as hundreds used hydration packs to hold their water on what turned out to be a scorching day within the Midwest.
Among them was Briton Dani Shrosbree, who carried two bottles and a hydration pack for a complete of three litres. Perhaps simply as importantly, although, she used Precision Hydration tabs, a model which checks your salt loss via sweat and prescribes an acceptable tab to switch it successfully.
This is the primary time we have seen Cane Creek’s upside-down ‘Invert’ gravel fork within the flesh. The slight aero profiling is a possible revelation for suspension forks, particularly in a sport so obsessive about aero beneficial properties as gravel is changing into.
We additionally noticed Cane Creek’s eeSilk stem, which presents 20mm of bump absorption inside a lockable mechanism.
DT Swiss was additionally exhibiting off its new GRC 1100 aero gravel wheelset.
This wheel is 50mm deep, weighs a reported 1567g, and can set you again $2,999.
Also on the Cane Creek sales space was this Zukas Do-All construct by Nate Zukas, full with Cane Creek eeWings titanium cranks anodised by Agave Finishworks, Campagnolo Super Record shifters/brakes, paired with an Ingrid RD1 rear mech, Garbaruk 10-52 Eagle cassette, and Industry Nine Solix SL AR40c wheels. Here at Cyclingnews, we admire the lime inexperienced and purple combo.
Speaking of inexperienced and purple, thanks Panaracer for launching the Cyclingnews-edition GravelKing tyres 😍.
At the IRC sales space, the Boken tyres had been mounted to this gorgeous but understated, totally customized Sanitas Node Gravel.
The majority of Canadian model T-Lab’s bikes, together with its sales space for the expo, went lacking en path to Kansas from the model’s dwelling in Québec. They have since been discovered at customs in Cincinnati, however there was comprehensible concern from the model in the course of the weekend.
This T-Lab X3 bike made it although, full with its prototype Kenda tyres.
Among the numerous stalls within the expo enviornment, Chatanooga model Obed was providing the prospect to win its as-yet-unreleased street bike.
This wasn’t new, nor might you win it, however we had been fairly drawn to the paintwork on this Trek Checkpoint on the Shimano stand.
But for all of Shimano’s efforts, SRAM stole the present, dropping a 13-speed model of its two-week-old Red AXS groupset onto choose riders’ bikes.
With an additional sprocket on the again, it used the identical shifters from the Red AXS street groupset, however with a brand new rear derailleur.