In recent years, Unbound Gravel has slowly evolved from a niche event with a few hundred competitors to the bona fide biggest gravel race on earth, with thousands of competitors and a greater prestige than even the UCI Gravel World Championships. One thing that has remained something of a constant, however, is riders' inclinations to try and use tech advancements to find free speed, save watts, and outwit their components. As the competition has become fiercer, and greater in number, the tech has gotten wilder, and with no UCI commissaires patrolling the pits with their sock height rulers and their brake angle checkers, riders are free to innovate to their hearts' content.
And boy did they. We saw triathlon wheel fairings moulded onto gravel rims, makeshift hydration frame bags, and pro-only skinsuits with in-build hydration bladders. Notably, we also saw some comparatively rudimentary tech hacks, with both Niki Terpstra and Nathan Haas taping Co2 canisters to their frame using electrical tape, and eventual men's winner Lachlan Morton carrying a paint-stirrer in his back pocket to clear away any mud, should it clog up the tyres.
But there's plenty more where that came from...
let's get stuck in. (Image credit: Merida) We'll start with the World Champion's bike: Matej Mohorič's Merida Silex, complete with UCI- rainbow colour paint scheme. (Image credit: Merida) The Slovenian's bike is adorned with an ode to his World Championship victory, and remembers Gino Mader, who sadly .
