The world’s biggest gravel-racing event, Unbound Gravel, is just around the corner and once again riders are readying their best bikes and preparing to take on the rough and remote gravel roads that stripe the Flint Hills region of east-central Kansas.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Unbound, and with the route having just been announced, excitement is mounting. It’s also the second event of the hotly contested six-race 2026 Life Time Grand Prix series. But who, exactly, is likely to be lining up for the 200-mile marquee race? We’ve been scouring the start list to seek out some of the most exciting riders in the pack, which includes several of the gravel world’s new young guns.
Men
Come Saturday, May 30th, all eyes will be Cam Jones (Scott), the defending champion who smashed last year’s race, taking victory in the Unbound Gravel 200 in imperious fashion after mounting a 150-mile breakaway effort with French rider Simon Pellaud from Tudor Pro. The New Zealander emerged from the mountain biking scene to take people by surprise with the 2025 win, but now his cover is well and truly blown, and he’ll be on everyone’s radar this year. As should Pellaud be.
Also in the mix is Bradyn Lange, surprise winner of the 2025 US Gravel Nationals and the opening event of the 2026 Life Time Grand Prix series, the Sea Otter Classic Gravel race in April. With that victory, he is currently leading the Life Time GP rankings
Another very familiar name is, of course, Keegan Swenson, former winner of the 200-mile event and the dominant Grand Prix racer until Jones showed up.
One of the most exciting things to break last month was news that American legend Taylor Phinney was coming out of retirement to have a crack at a spot on the US pursuit team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. An all-round rider, Phinney said that his route back after seven years away from pro riding had begun with gravel racing, and the Giro stage winner and 2009 individual pursuit track world champion has signed up for Unbound.
As always, there will be some European ex-WorldTour riders in the mix. From Peter Sagan to Greg Avermaet and Matej Mohoric, WorldTour retirees have seen varied success at the event, with most coming away a tad shell-shocked. Perhaps former Picnic PostNL rider Romain Bardet will fare better. The Frenchman retired from professional road cycling to take up gravel riding in the middle of last season and quickly showed his grit with an impressive win at RADL GRVL in Australia at the start of the year, riding with his new Factor Racing-Rapha CC team.
But he’s far from the only poutsider who could disrupt the race, with several very capable European riders already registered to race. High on this list is Danish rider Mads Würtz Schmidt (Specialized Off-Road), who is enjoying an extraordinary season, with his successes including a win the Traka 360 in April, where he set an impressive new men’s course record.
And Traka 200 winner Lucas Pöstlberger (Rose Racing) is also on the start list, a contender who, like Bardet, has some impressive road riding victories to his name, including a stage win at the Giro d’Italia, where he wore the coveted maglia rosa for a spell. The Austrian all-rounder started off as a mountain biker before switching to road, and then gravel, so he can certainly handle technical dirt.
Back in 2022, Ivar Slik became the first non-American to win the men’s 200 race at Unbound, and although he missed subsequent races through serious injury suffered after a collision with a car in 2024, the Dutch powerhouse is back in action, and he will be back this year, taking on the elite distance once again.
A fan favourite and winner of Unbound Gravel in 2024, having competed in the event multiple times, Australian rider Lachlan Morton is coming back for another crack this year.
And speaking of Australians, one dark horse worth an outside bet is the British-born Aussie pro Freddy Ovett, who happens to be Mathieu van der Poel’s training partner and knows how to turn a wheel on the rough stuff.
Women
(Image credit: Life Times)
Last year’s Unbound Gravel 200 winner, Karolina Migoń, will be back to defend her title. The Polish rider won in impressive fashion in 2025, going it alone for 130 miles once it became clear that her PAS teammate Cecily Decker and American national gravel champion Lauren Stephens (see below) were unable to match her pace, after the trio staged an early breakaway. The win was one of three big victories for Migoń last season, along with The Traka 360 and Gravel Locos.
She may have struggled to go toe-to-toe with Migoń at last year’s race, but Lauren Stephens has been crowned US National Gravel Champion three years in a row now and has tasted victory at Unbound in the 100- mile race. Last year, the former road pro came third in the 200-mile elite event, and she is returning for more this year.
German gravel rider Rosa Klöser, who seemed to emerge from nowhere to win Unbound in 2024, is returning this year for another stab at the race that got away from her last year, when a crash and a wrong turn meant she finished fourth. Incredibly, Klöser was a PhD student who had only been racing for a couple of years when she won the elite race in 2024 – now she has twice as much experience to bring to the party, she promises to be doubly deadly.
Lauren De Crescenzo, who first tasted victory at Unbound Gravel in 2021 and finished runner-up the following year, is back and will be contesting the elite 200-mile event this month. The American pro, who overcame a traumatic brain injury suffered during a race in 2016, also has wins to her name at the Tour of the Gila stage race, The Mid South (three times) and The Rad Dirt Fest, plus podiums at Crusher in the Tushar and Big Sugar Gravel.
Super competitor Sofia Gómez Villafañe, who took victory at Unbound in 2022 and finished runner-up last year, is always a contender in the Life Time Grand Prix series, and she will be one to watch at Unbound this year. The 31-year-old Argentina-born athlete has a hard-earned reputation as a fierce competitor, and has Big Sugar Gravel and the Traka wins to her name, too.
A full start list of elites competing in this year’s Unbound Gravel 200 race is available on the event website.
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