Yep, and I often get caught in the trap of worrying about what bike/setup is fastest and forget that racing is just a small percentage of my ride time. Not every bike should be about fast, some can just be fun. And I think the Checkout fits more in the fun category. I think it’s interesting that the Trek product guy said that part of the motivation for the Checkout was some of the riders being “bored with their XC bikes”. That doesn’t mean an XC bike wasn’t the fastest option for a given terrain, but sometimes the best tool for the job isn’t the most fun. I like my off road race bikes to be as “boring” as possible, I’m looking to minimize drama when racing. I’m a pretty average bike handler and not looking to push limits, so a long/stable/slack “boring” bike means less trips to the ER for me. But for fun riding, it’s all about mixing things up and sometimes that means riding the “wrong” bike (ie - XC bike on a fast road ride or a Gravel bike on single track, etc.).
I don’t keep up with the Grand Prix enough, are any Unbound winner contenders riding Trek?
On the men’s side, Torbjorn Andre Roed is currently sitting 3rd in lifetime standings and 3rd at Unbound this year. No other contenders, but some fairly high visibility riders with Paige O. and Haley S. for the ladies and Russel F. on the men’s side.