Forget Paris-Roubaix, this pro gravel race has more tech than any road race
The European gravel scene's season opener is a hotbed of new tech trends, cool collaborations and a glimpse at the riders' setups for the season
Much in the way that the Tour Down Under provides a first glimpse at the road peloton's equipment for the season ahead, the Santa Vall, based in Girona, is fast positioning itself as gravel's equivalent.
But while WorldTour teams are often made up of a uniform collection of perfectly and professionally prepped bikes, freshly pressed jerseys and pristine white shoes, the metaphorical gravel paddock is a little more… eclectic! As such, the tech highlights you'll find below are too.
Teams do exist, and the handful of signed riders are bound by the team's sponsors just like on the road. However, for most gravel racers, their equipment choice often reflects a winter spent negotiating partnerships and contracts with brands. In most cases, it is a cobbling together of the brands they genuinely want to use.
Just this weekend, for example, Castelli unveiled its 'team' - but was at pains to point out that it is hardly a team in the traditional sense, but rather a collection of self-employed privateers that share Castelli as a kit sponsor.
I – Josh, the tech editor here at Cyclingnews – have been on the ground at the race all weekend, getting stuck into the action (in the open race, I'm not that fast) and rubbing shoulders with the pros at the finish line, camera in hand ready to shoot. I've focussed primarily on the pro riders' setups, but some of the tech highlights below are also courtesy of the amateur field.
I've spotted everything from the expected wide tyres and 1x groupsets to clever puncture-repair-quickening hacks, Classified groupset setups, cool paint jobs, custom-geometry carbon bikes, and even a wheel-tyre combination that SRAM would not recommend.
There are a lot of photos in this one, so you might need to go grab a drink!
I'll start with some techy finds, and there's no doubt that marginal gains exist in the world of gravel, as seen here, with this SRAM XO Eagle mech complete with the circa-$500 oversized pulley wheel system from CeramicSpeed.
This one, courtesy of the amateur field, is a fairly unknown wheelset brand called Gulo. At first glance, the spokes look to be fabric, like those from Berd, but the American brand uses carbon fibre bonded in a similar way. The brand promises improved vibration absorption. I think these are the GGA44 Ultra Wide Aero, which pairs a 30mm internal rim bed with a hooked bead and a 44mm deep rim.
Here's a closer look at those carbon spokes and the silver ferrules they connect into.
Speaking of Berd spokes, I managed to find some laced to a rim branded up as 'Neo' - not one I'm familiar with.
This got an inclusion for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a pretty cool paint job, in my opinion. And secondly, a shout out to Guava Bikes, the new brand based here in Girona, who hooked me up with a bike for the race. The Spot is a playful bike, with good tyre clearance, a proprietary cockpit, and a somewhat relaxed geometry designed more for having fun on the trails than for racing, but it still fared very well at the latter this weekend.
Speaking of fun paint jobs... the owner of this Rose bike went wild on the stickers and I think it looks cool.
My favourite paint job from the weekend has to be this bike. It belongs to Alex Miller, the Namibian gravel champion, and its colours reflect those on the Namibian flag.
Complete with the 12-ray sun, wrapped around the rear of the head tube.
The colours really look great on his Giant Revolt Advanced.
Complete with colour-matched aero cockpit.
He is one of the riders on the new Italian Swatt Club team, although with the mud splatter here the name seems more appropriate for a cycling team.
Fun paint jobs don't have to be exclusive to the bikes. At the Castelli team-that-isn't-a-team launch, each rider had their own jersey design and they were all of a similar ilk to this. Could you imagine any of these in the WorldTour? No, me neither.
While many riders spend hours toiling over their bike setup to ensure everything is perfect, others slap a bit of cloth underneath their Garmin mount to stop it slipping and rubbing the carbon and call it done.
Speaking of a perfect setup, how's this for attention to detail? Rosa Klöser has taped over the top and bottom gaps on her number board to seal the gap and prevent it from acting like a mini parachute. She also taped down the sides to smooth over the join between the seatpost and the number. Colour me impressed, Rosa.
This was also a nicely finished solution. Many riders, as we'll see below, are forced to tape tools to their bike to make them easier to grab in the event of an issue. This Rose bike had what I presume is a 3D-printed tool holder for a Dynaplug and multi-tool, placed neatly on the top-tube mount usually reserved for a small bag.
Others just stuck to the tried and tested top tube bento box approach, complete with massive Pas Racing branding because you gotta keep them sponsors happy! Or maybe Simen Svendsen just has a habit of forgetting who he races for. Who knows.
This one was cool too. On Morgan Aguirre's bike, a small aero boost courtesy of these little rubber sleeves, which fill in the small gap where the handlebar transitions from flat to round.
This Argonaut belonged to Aguirre's Pas Racing teammate Matthew Wiebe. It is carbon fibre, and custom built to his preferred geometry. Despite being easily 6ft tall, I'd guess the head tube on that is around 110mm, which is tiny for a bike that big. Oh to be young and not have a sore back!
The wheels on that bike are from Argonaut too, and Wiebe tells me you can only get them when buying a frame. The main reason for including this photo though is the new(ish) G-One RX Pro tyres he has fitted. I used them this weekend and they really impressed. Perhaps not the fastest rolling on the tarmac, but get them onto any off-road descent and the grip was insane! Old roadie Josh here was passing people on descents for fun (which was useful because they came straight past again on the climbs!)
Rosa Klöser was running a 50mm version on the Zipp 303 XPLR SW wheels and they blew up so big that the tyre clearance was looking a bit risky. I didn't have any verniers with me at the finish, but I'd say they were close to 60mm across.
The Zipp 303 XPLR wheels were a common sight at the race. They boast a 32mm internal rim, which is as wide as anything out there at the moment, but their hookless nature means the list of compatible tyres is pretty slim. Most riders stuck to that list, but I did spot a few rule-breakers. I'm unsure whose bike this was, but a 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H is not something SRAM would recommend you use. Likewise the Hutchinson Touareg and Continental Terra Speed I saw on my travels.
The Zipps might be the widest, but other brands are starting to catch up. Here is a new wheel from the Chinese brand EXS, found aboard the bike of Luis León Sánchez. Their internal width is 30mm, and the Spaniard had wrapped them in 47mm Specialized Pathfinder tyres. More on his bike later.
Another rare find, albeit a slightly more well-known brand, was the Fara F/Gravel, of which I spotted a grand total of one. It belonged to Pas Racing's Svendsen, and somewhat interestingly, he'd zip-tied down the cargo door that sits on the down tube. Presumably, he's worried about the door coming off and jettisoning his bottle with it, which is a fair concern given the number of loose bottles I encountered along the route. Fair play to the organisers Klassmark though, who sent a sweeper around the course after the riders to collect them all.
The other fun thing about that Fara bike was these handlebars. Launched last year, they offer a modular fit with two choices of reach found beneath those oval covers. He's also turned his levers in because aero.
Speaking of turned-in hoods, here's Klöser's bike again. The cockpit she was running had a width of 37cm, but given how much she's turned in those SRAM Red hoods, I'm guessing there's around a 32cm gap at the narrowest point.
Another for good luck: Here's one of the Classified x Rose bikes, the team that Thomas De Gendt calls home.
Meanwhile, as some look to maximise the aero gains on their cockpits, others slap a camera up front. Although Dylan Johnson did find it to be faster, so who knows their motivations!
Chad Haga went one step further though. In addition to the GoPro adaptor sitting there beneath his computer mount, he also had a bell on his handlebars. This shot was taken the night before the race though, so it's unclear whether he kept it on. I hope he did and that he gave it a little ding-ding just as he was about to attack.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was no shortage of action cameras on the fronts of riders' bikes. Everyone's an influencer these days, especially here in Girona! I just feel for the poor out-front mount bolts - they'll have certainly put in a shift over the past few days.
Now let's get into some of the puncture-repair-quickening hacks. The 3D-printed mount up above was by far the neatest of them, while the following few are mainly made from... tape. My complaint with this setup is the lack of a Co2 adaptor. Why tape a canister to your frame, and then spend 20 seconds fishing the adaptor out of your pocket and screwing it on?!
Same bike, more tape: This one is a tubolito inner tube hidden behind the head tube. A good, lightweight failsafe if your puncture can't be plugged.
More tape here on Team Amani's Jordan Schleck's bike - no doubt undoing some of Factor's hard work by taping a tube to the underside of his cockpit.
He'd also taped a small plastic box of tools onto the underside of the top tube. Stay tuned for more of Schleck's bike though, it is not one you'll want to miss.
Different rider this time, but more tape.. and I mean a lot more! If he gets a puncture he'll spend 45 minutes unravelling that before he can start fixing it.
His Pas Racing teammate should offer some tips. I'm unsure whose bike this is, but he'd opted for bottle cages with extra clips for a Co2 canister and a Dynaplug tool (there on the drive side if you look closely). Perhaps not the most aero of options, but at least he'll save time if he has any issues.
Chad Haga adopted a similar approach, with the Arundel cages accompanied by a Co2 canister (no adaptor though!) and a pump, while a Topeak Ninja Master tool pack is mounted beneath the down tube bottle.
Greg Van Avermaet opted for a more minimalist approach. In lieu of a saddle bag, he's simply taped a spare tube and levers beneath his saddle, then used the Boa-dial strap that comes with a Silca Mattone saddle bag to hold it all in place. This is at the finish of stage 1, during which Van Avermaet punctured, so his tyre plug and Co2 had been used up, but I believe he simply put them in his pocket like a Belgian road pro would.
One of his teammates, however, did have a Dynaplug Racer taped to his stem, in a neat-ish solution.
Said teammate also had a tube taped like so.
Perhaps unsurprising, given Van Avermaet's time with the brand during his road career, he has formed a partnership with BMC for his new gravel team's bikes.
They were all aboard the Kaius 01, colour-matched in this fluoro yellow and blue.
Among his other sponsors was the chain waxing brand Cyclowax
He was also aboard Shimano's GRX wheels...
...which were wrapped in Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RC tyres.
From one Belgian ex-WorldTour hitter to another, this is Thomas De Gendt's pretend bike.
I say pretend because his own bike from the Classified x Rose was missing a very-sponsor-appeasing purple chainring - see below - and so was left in the hotel for this pre-race presentation. Instead, I got his team manager's bike, which was set up mostly the same.
It has been reported that the purple Classified 52T chainring can be seen from the International Space Station. Cyclingnews was unable to verify this claim.
Despite being his manager's bike, I suspect it was going to be used the following day by one of the team, as it was stickered up with the stage 1 profile map.
Another former WorldTour pro now, and this time it's Luis León Sánchez and his Giant Revolt Advanced Pro, complete with custom paint, super-wide wheels, massive chainring, and super-slammed stem.
While most riders go for a basic sticker with their name, the Spaniard's is worked into the paint job. I'd suggest avoiding copying the pros on this tactic, as it probably harms the resale value. When you've spent over a decade at the top of the sport though, it's likely done the opposite!
The Spaniard's bike is a pretty tech-heavy setup. We've already seen those EXS wheels, and this SRAM Eagle 10-52T mountain bike cassette will have proved useful on the sharp climbs that peppered the course, especially on stage 1.
Especially given it was paired with this aero 1x SRAM cassette, also 52T in size.
Being a pro, it's perhaps unsurprising that he's slammed the bike too...
And I mean SLAMMED. He's removed as much hardware as possible to get that stem as low as he can. He might want to have a word with Matthew Wiebe about that Argonaut.
Like most riders using 1x groupsets at the race, he was using a chain catcher. This one comes from the well-known American brand K-Edge. Small tangent: I had the pleasure of meeting K-Edge's Tim Kelley just last week. Nice guy. And a cool brand that makes great products.
Those super-wide EXS wheels are seemingly called the FG50. They aren't listed on the brand's website, and Sánchez tells me the wheels are brand new. They are paired with Specialized Pathfinder Pro tyres - Sharpied out, so don't tell anyone - in a 47mm width.
I didn't have any verniers with me, but the tyre clearance on that Revolt is good for up to 53mm with change, so no issues here.
On the subject of wide tyres, here's Chad Haga's Felt Breed, complete with Reynolds wheels shod with Maxxis Aspen mountain bike tyres in 2.25in, or around 57mm.
Rear clearance is often tighter though, and so Haga was running a narrower tyre, in this case a Maxxis Reaver in 45mm.
Haga tells me his 2025 bike isn't quite ready, and so this is his setup from 2024, but still, the attention to detail is interesting, including the CeramicSpeed OSPW at the back there, on an SRAM GX derailleur paired with a 10-52 Eagle cassette, a 46T 1x SRAM Force front chainset, along with a K-Edge chain catcher.
There was a mix of preferences between mountain bike pedals and road pedals. Among the pros, I'd guess around 70% leant towards road pedals, but given day one included two sections that needed to be done on foot, I would be surprised if some of them didn't have issues clipping in again afterwards.
While Sánchez, Haga and Klöser were pushing their tyre clearances, Jordan Schleck of Team Amani has to take the prize! Coupled with the small Factor Ostro Gravel frame, the tyres really look monstrous.
The clearance is no more than a couple of millimetres at some points.
The front tyre was a Vittoria Mezcal mountain bike tyre in a 2.25in (57mm) - that's 12mm (or 26%) bigger than Factor's recommended 45mm clearance!
Like Chad Haga's Maxxis Reaver, Schleck's Vittoria Terreno Dry at the rear was a slightly more modest 45mm.
My 120g of carbs per hour fuelling strategy doesn't agree, but the sticker's cool. As is the sticker covering the hole where a top-tube bag might otherwise be mounted.
🤘
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Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
