Unbound Gravel is a gruelling event and so the distance, topography and terrain requires significant attention to detail when it comes to gravel equipment choices.
Given the sharp rocks that pepper the course, an easy mistake such as choosing the wrong tyres or even inflating them to the wrong pressure can make or break a rider's race.
What's more, over such long distances, aerodynamics will play a significant part too, especially with the likelihood of long-range attacks, as was the case in last year's women's race, which was won with a long solo effort by Sofía Gómez Villafañe.
Unbound's status as the biggest gravel race in the calendar, even outweighing the UCI Gravel World Championships for a lot of riders, means that competition is fierce.
With every second, watt, and gram mattering more than ever before, riders have taken their marginal gains to the extreme. From optimising drivetrains to aero tricks, or saving precious seconds skipping feed stops with oversized bottles or finding ways to speed up puncture repairs, there are tech hacks galore on the ground in Emporia, and here are the best of what we've found.
Starting with last year's winner, Ivar Slik, who is aboard the same bike as last year, the Wilier Rave SLR, albeit in a new colourway (Image credit: Wilier)
He's using a one-piece aero cockpit, but without the aero extensions he cleverly added last year, following their ban for 2023 (Image credit: Wilier)
Shimano provides the stop-and-go, courtesy of its 11-speed GRX Di2 groupset (Image credit: Wilier)
That's despite the sighting of a new 12-speed GRX groupset at the race aboard this bike, belonging to Taylor Lideen, who is riding the 352-mile XL route (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)
Slik was also running the widely revered Schwalbe G-One RS gravel tyres (Image credit: Wilier)
Onto the women's winner last year, Sofía Gómez Villafañe, who is aboard the S-Works Crux, complete with Pathfinder Pro gravel tyres, a 46T chainring, an Eagle XX1 rear mech and the enormous 10-52 Eagle cassette (Image credit: Specialized)
On the underside of her top tube, she's stuck a wooden paint stirrer from Ace Hardware, just in case she needs to unclog mud from her drivetrain or tyres (Image credit: Specialized)
Her stem is slammed, with what looks like a -17 degree rise (Image credit: Specialized)
She's also running SRAM's wireless 'Blip' shifters. Interestingly, despite their sticky underside, she's chosen to tape them into place just to be safe (Image credit: Specialized)
Ethan Overson, meanwhile, is trusting his Blips will stay put and has foregone the extra tape (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
As it has done for three years now, Specialized has created a custom paint job for the Diverge for Unbound. This year, it's on the Diverge STR and it's a design that pays homage to the Specialized Technical Support Program that the brand ran in 1988, as shown here on Sarah Sturm's bike (Image credit: Specialized)
Her bike is one of a few running this new K-Edge chain keeper, which mounts to the down tube's bottle cage bolts (Image credit: Specialized)
Alison Tetrick was another with the custom Specialized paint scheme, and in placing her personalised artwork onto the top tube, she's also covered over the top tube mounting holes. Whether this is a hyper-marginal aero gain or a simple accident, we don't know (Image credit: Specialized)
Rob Britton also has personalised artwork on his bike, with this stunning full-custom design dressing his Factor Ostro Gravel, which is complete with a fairly large 50T 1X chainring (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Isabel King also has her own top tube artwork, this time providing motivation. The small writing beneath the hand reads 'I love you' (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Elsewhere, Matt Beers is predicting punctures and wants to ensure that his tools are within immediate reach when it happens (Image credit: Specialized)
Howard Grotts has had the same thought. He's got his tyre plugs primed and prepared, taped around his brake hose ready to grab and stab into his tyre. He's also taped a replacement chain link onto his hose too. He's even gone to the detail of folding the tape back onto itself to create a pull tab (Image credit: Specialized)
Alexey Vermeulen is another. He's stuck them onto the underside of his out-front computer mount, almost giving his bike a pair of antennae (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Interestingly, Howard Grotts is using an eTap AXS battery marked up with a Specialized logo and 'off-road'. We don't know any details here, but would speculate that this is more a labelling system brought in by Specialized mechanics for its sponsored athletes, rather than a new off-road-specific AXS battery (Image credit: Specialized)
Grotts was also using 47c tyres, which seemed to be a fairly common choice among the bikes we've seen (Image credit: Specialized)
Unbound XL rider, Jack Thompson, had a frame bag added to his, as well as an Exposure Toro MK11 bike light fitted beneath his K-Edge out-front computer mount (Image credit: Specialized)
Ian Boswell had a bling golden 10-50 cassette, matching chain, and an aero 48T chainring. He also has a lightweight TPU Pirelli SmarTube spare inner tube taped beneath his saddle, just in case punctures take their toll (Image credit: Specialized)
He was also using Look X-Track pedals, rather than the Shimano XTR option favoured by many (Image credit: Specialized)
Hannah Shell's Cervelo Aspero 5 is painted in a stunning rose pink finish, complete with 11-34 cassette, 48/31 chainrings, 42mm Hunt Limitless wheels wrapped in 40mm Pirelli Cinturato RC tyres, with a Garmin Edge 1040bike computer up front (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
She also has a Cervelo-specific top-tube bag mounted behind the stem (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Talking of top tube bags, here's an aero-optimised version on John Borstelmann's Ventum, called the Xlab Stealth Pocket 500. Borstelmann is also using a Shockwiz Tyrewiz tyre pressure sensor, but interestingly, only on the front wheel (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)
Starla Teddergreen is using the pioneering BMC Kaius 01 One, which features very narrow 36cm wide handlebars and a progressive geometry (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
She's also using 60mm deep Hunt 60 Limitless wheels, shod with 40c Maxxis Rambler tyres (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Kiel Reijnen's steed for the day is the Trek Checkpoint SLR, complete with aero SRAM chainring like a number of others, and the same Cinturato Gravel RC tyres as Shell above (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Another Checkpoint will be found beneath Paige Onweller, whose pastel paint job really caught our eye. As did the shallow HED wheels and unbranded tyres (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
She's also got a spare Pirelli SmarTube, like Boswell above, but this one is wrapped around her top tube using a KOM Cycling Frame Strap, beneath her bolted-on Bontrager top tube bag. She's also using stainless steel Bivo bottles (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
We touched on Ethan Overson's bike earlier, with his SRAM Blips, but here's the side-on. It's quite the premium setup, with his Pinarello Grevil frameset fitted with the wave-profile Princeton Carbonworks Dual 5550 wheels and SRAM Red eTap AXS groupset (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
It's also fitted with an SRM Origin Carbon power meter chainset, which is fitted with a WolfTooth chainring (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
In other 'premium setup' news, a few riders were seen using CeramicSpeed's Oversized Pulley Wheels. We've not spotted anyone using the OSPW Aero, though. This here is the bike of Innokenty Zavyalov, who has some other interesting tech hacks aboard his Lauf Seigla to highlight... (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
The first is the leafsprung Lauf Grit fork, which offers 30mm of travel thanks to the pivot point and those three carbon 'leaves' (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
The slick Rene Herse Snoqualmie tyres are another interesting choice in a race where most riders are going for at least some shoulder tread (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
These fabric-like Polylight spokes from Berd are another. They're touted as the lightest spokes in the world (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
But most notable of all, in our opinion, is his decision to add padding to his Vision aero handlebars, taping just a three-inch section near to his stem, to enable comfort in the 'puppy paws' position following the ban on aero bars in the race (Image credit: SnowyMountain Photography)
Dylan Johnson is another to have taken the same approach, wrapping his bars once, then adding padding, then a second coating of tape, which appears to be a different make. Or at least, a different pattern (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Is he planning to go for a solo attack? His entire setup certainly looks primed for a time trial effort, with the saddle slammed forward on its rails, and his long stem putting him into a stretched-out aero position (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
Kerry Warner has opted for a different approach to overcome the ban on aero bars. This wild contraption found on Warner's Kona Libre CR DL is the 'RR' from Coefficient, covered in the same brand's Grip Tape, which will no doubt add comfort and security when riding in the aero position. (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
And finally, aero hacks, unreleased groupsets and tech tricks are cool and all, but Sherman the Beagle has to be our scoop of the week so far 🐶 (Image credit: SnowyMountain)
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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.
