Has anyone else seen Paysons new bike? Looks like an unreleased Allied with 2.2 mtb tires. Would love to see if they release this bike after Unbound. There’s a great view of it on his instagram story right now.
Who is reporting them riding MTB’s? I personally can’t see much in that pic except the tires are not that wide (which would be the main reason for running a MTB frame). I also don’t see any front suspension, but again can’t tell much from that pic.
Tobin ran 2.1’s on his Stig last year, so they could just be going extra wide.
I ran the same last year and also planning 47’s this year. Currently have 42’s on to trick the weather gods. Forecast looking a little better, hoping I can swap back to my 47’s on friday. There really aren’t many spots with heavy mud, but mud is really tough to clear on my bike with 47’s on compared to 42’s. It’s easy for folks to say “just don’t ride in the mud”, but my experience is that your tires can load up faster than you can stop.
TRUTH. unless you KNOW your tires clear exceptionally well, you really can’t stop fast enough.
We were planning on stopping halfway on the drive, but just decided to go all the way tonight……doing a shakeout ride tomorrow with my buddies.
I didn’t want to drive till 5am. 1:15 pm arrival. Racing google today.
I have a gap on google, sheriff in the right lane going 80, do you pass him?
he also said he damaged the frame doing that tho so doubt he would do it again esp at unbound with the mud
Am I just in the wrong circles or is Mohoric not getting the deserved credit from the gravel heads? I know that Unbound has a habit of chewing up world tour pros who think they can just walk up and out-muscle the competition, but has there ever been such a talented road pro still in their prime come through like this? And not only that but bring some hitters as teammates?
Even outside of his chances of winning, the gravel ethos of making everybody in the group pull until they crack is not going to fly with these guys. It’ll be full on road tactics. I don’t know anything about anything but I say Mohoric is going to win solo by multiple minutes.
Wow… I know who my money is on! This talk about world tour riders not being able to handle Unbound is ridiculous. No other WT rider of his caliber has been on the start list before.
Slovene here, following Mohoric development ever since he became junior road world champ. He is one of the most skilled pro tour riders. Winner of multiple stages at all 3 Grand Tours. Fun fact, he won that year’s longest stage at each GT. Tougher the race better he gets. He is an intellectual and perfectionist.
Spring season didn’t roll exactly as per his plan with fall and injury at Flanders. His injury got inflamed and put him of the bike for few weeks. He is most likely not in his top shape.
I do not doubt his skills, but equipment choices might be hit or miss. It’s a long race and anything can happen. I would not say he is top favourite but definitely one of main contenders.
Yeah, I listened to the Groadio podcast last night where they ranked the favorites and they left him off the top 10 completely and I was scratching my head thinking “WTH?” They seemed to rank GvA higher than Mahoric and I completely disagree with that!!
I keep hearing this pointed out but what WT Pros have come out suggesting that Unbound is going to be an easy win for them? There are a lot of fans probably that start the internet trash talk of how so-and-so will rip everyone’s legs off etc but have any of the pro’s gone on record like that? My assumption would these guys understand that in racing anything can happen and they don’t go into any races suggesting they’ll just outride everyone without issue.
Not singling you out, I heard it on the Groadio podcast as well and can’t help but feel like this rhetoric is just putting words into rider’s mouths that were never there?
That’s fair. I think you’re right that it’s more fans’ perceptions of WT pros approach to the race than what the pros are actually saying.
I’m a big Mohoric fan and picked him for the race for the exact reasons that you listed.
Disappointed he might not be in top form. I would love to see him come in flying
It behooves the domestic gravel pros to continue to gate keep as long as possible to keep up the illusion that the gravel scene here is somehow remotely on the same level as European road racing
Groadio had Mahoric ranked 4th.
He obviously has the horsepower to win, but per him on Ted King’s podcast, this will only be his second ever gravel race. And first race anywhere close to this length.
He said he blew up at hour 7 on a race pace training ride.
Time for a shake out ride
honestly hard to tell…i thought it was a MTB based on the tires I was seeing.
either way not a fan of the color, hopefully stigmata gets a better color than that lol