Come Saturday 30th May, all eyes will be on New Zealander Cam Jones s (Scott), the defending Unbound 200 champion, who smashed the competition in last year’s race with a 150 mile breakaway effort alongside Tudor rider Simon Pellaud.
Not only will we be watching to see if he can out-power the competition again, but also what he’ll be riding.
Scott today announced that Jones, as well as Swiss ultra-cyclist Robin Gemperle, will tackle the unforgiving terrain of the Kansas Flint Hills aboard a prototype bike built around 32 ” wheels. And one that, Scott emphasised, “will never be released on the market.”
While cycling’s governing body, the UCI, dictates that all equipment used by its pro riders must be made commercially available within 12 months of it appearing in competition, gravel racing largely exists outside UCI governance. This means there are far fewer restrictions on equipment and much more freedom for manufacturers to experiment.
For years now, Unbound and its notoriously unforgiving terrain have served as both testing ground and launching pad for the latest gravel tech.
“Our athletes don’t just race; they test, challenge, and refine,” says Scott. “Cameron Jones and Robin Gemperle have been riding a 32” prototype gravel race bike since last year. What began as a theoretical concept — a ‘what if’ — was quickly brought to life by Scott’s R&D team.”
Thirty two inch wheels have become one of the industry’s biggest talking points this season, with nearly every tyre manufacturer showcasing products in the size at April’s Sea Offer Classics . Proponents of the new platform argue that a bigger wheel has greater momentum and therefore carries more speed. And, as we’ve learned with the emergence of the 29ers in mountain biking, larger wheels can roll over obstacles more easily. And then there are the tyres that go on them: more tyre means more contact patch, which translates into more grip, while a larger tyre also enables riders to run lower pressures without sacrificing traction.