It’s sometimes hard to believe that gravel racing as we know it didn’t even exist 20 years ago, and yet today Life Time Unbound Gravel sells out its nearly 5,000 entry slots faster than free beer at a rugby club night out. Unbound was not the first gravel-style race, but it was the first to become recognised and, somehow, become known officially as a gravel race.
Things started rolling in the remote Flint Hills of Emporia 20 years ago, when just 34 pioneers of the soon-to-be-drop-barred dirt racing discipline lined up for what was then known as the Dirty Kanza. For this very reason, and for what it has since spurned, it is exactly why this Midwest US region is considered by many as the ancestral home of the genre, and Unbound as we now know it is considered the holiest of all gravel races.
That said, it’s only really been in the last seven or eight years that it’s taken on a highbrow ‘rite of passage’ mantle around the world, which pretty much aligns with the rapid rise of gravel racing.
For the past few years, the race has been owned by major North American sports facility and event group Life Time, and, along with its other major own-brand off-road classics like the Leadville 100, Unbound is now part of the independent and lucrative Life Time Grand Prix series.
Its bucket list race reputation was well and truly carved out before the sport, and the now vast number of top-tier gravel races, emerged. This has made it very much still the race to do, and also the place to be for the bike industry when it comes to making a statement, releasing product, or simply hyping their latest and greatest bikes.
This year, the pre-race industry attention was well and truly nabbed by Scott, which just days ago announced that its two lead gravel riders, Cam Jones (2025 Unbound 200 winner) and Robin Gemperle (winner of many major ultra races) will be riding a prototype 32-inch wheel Scott RC, covered here on road.cc.
We do have a couple of tip-offs on a few things on the tech release/prototype side, and will round all this up in our après race bash on Monday. Even though Unbound remains a major gravel tech showground, in recent years the Traka and its slightly earlier staging have somewhat stolen its thunder on that score, although a few of the biggest tech flips are always saved for the holy Midwest dirt.
The races, and how to watch them
The main Unbound 200 riders start in category waves from 5.30am onwards, which leads into the shorter Unbound 100 start at 7.30am, followed by the 50 and 25-mile event starts. If it’s dry and fast, you can expect to see the 200 leaders finish less than 9 hours later.
You can follow the action on the Lifetime/Unbound YouTube channel and get dot watching on ridewithgps.com.
Steve’s tips for the top
At the time of writing, the full Elite Unbound 200 race starters have yet to be fully confirmed, although with what is known in terms of prime figures, it looks like we are truly in for one hell of a battle royale in both the elite men’s and women’s races.
Every year, the battles of Unbound get faster, harder fought, more prestigious, and the quality and depth of the fields also grow with each edition, such is the stature of the race. The Unbound 200 (which is actually 207 miles long) takes in some 2,657 meters of altitude gain on a rolling course, with the high spot being the 507m tall Texaco Hill (which is also the high spot in the 350 XL).
In past editions around the flint hills and open prairie grasslands, the 200 has either headed north or south, though this year it takes in sectors of both. The going is notoriously heavy, and when it rains (which is looking to be the case for at least some of the time over the long weekend), the character and the outcome of the race changes dramatically, as it turns into a ‘peanut butter’ quagmire in places.
As gravel racing has evolved over the years, top-level rider standards have hit serious overall high notes, and the racing has ended up more like a road race at the front end of the field, even ending in small bunch sprints on occasion. Now, with gravel ‘super teams’ emerging, the style of racing is also turning more road-like.
With prime favourite Keegan Swenson having switched his long-term independent status to join Specialized this year, which also features South African Matt Beers and on-form Traka 360 winner Madz Wurtz Schmidt, it would be fair to assess that there will be some confounding team tactics playing out – and these guys will likely be the men to beat.
However, they certainly won’t have the party all to themselves, as there are also a number of other strong gravel teams and solo riders out there who could well play smartly on the team tactics playing out around them. Of those most likely to spoil the podium party, last year’s winner and runner-up Cameron Jones (Scott) of New Zealand and Swiss ace Simon Pelaud (privateer) are definitely in the conversation, while 2024 Unbound 200 Champ Lachlan Morton (EF) can never be discounted. A sharp eye will also be on former Grand Tour road contender turned gravel ace Romain Bardet of Factor-Rapha, if he can turn the climbing to his favour, that is.
There have been some nail-bitingly close and tense finishes in the elite woman’s 200 race in recent years, and I’d fully expect this year to be a similar scenario, one likely to be closely fought out between past winners Sofia Gomez Villafane of Argentina/USA (Specialized), 2025 champ, Poland’s Karolina Migon (PAS), Germans Rosa Kloser (Canyon/SRAM) and Carolin Schiff (Canyon X DT Swiss) amongst others.
Should the rain fall long and heavy enough in the lead-up, then all of the races will turn to a battle of strung out attrition and mishaps, which will likely turn things in favour of the MTB marathon aces – such as Swenson and Beers.
The Unbound 350 XL race (356 miles) is always a tough one to predict, and a fascinating one to watch. The elite women’s race is always a tough one to call, in particular, as it tends to turn out some surprise results. Odds-on favourite must be last year’s winner Heather Jackson (USA), while Britain’s Maddie Nutt (Q36) is also a likely podium contender.
As for the elite men, the Factor duo of Rob Britton (Canada), who beat Lachlan Morton in fine style to win in 2025, and 2026 Traka 560 winner Victor Bosoni of France are the standouts. That said, Canyon’s British endurance Ace Alex McCormack will surely give them a fair run for their money. I would anticipate the lead will likely rotate between these 3 long haul maestros.
Either way, these races and the innovation that may or may not be revealed in the dust and mud of Kansas over the weekend will make for a fascinating combo, so do drop by on Monday for our debrief and tech insights from Unbound.
1 thought on “Unbound Gravel demystified: Everything you need to know about the 2026 edition of gravel cycling’s biggest race”
“For this very reason, and for what it has since spurned, it is exactly why this Midwest US region is considered by many as the ancestral home of the genre”
I think the article meant “spawned” rather than “spurned”. To have spurned would be to have rejected, which doesn’t seem to fit – unless I’ve misunderstood something.