Welcome back to the Roadman podcast. Today I'm joined by cycllosport.com pro rider Mr.
Alex Wilds. He returns to the podcast to break down his insanely fast setup for the Unbound 200, the legendary 200 mile race across the Flint Hills in Kansas. We talk everything from tire choice and tire pressure, drivetrain, arrow kit, fueling strategy, and hydration choices.
Make sure you stick around till the end though because he reveals one crazy piece of equipment that he never rides Unbound without. It's something I would never think to bring if I was taking part in the event. He also has great advice for firsttime participants in the event.
So whether you're racing Unbound for the first time or whether you just love geeking out on gravel tech, this is an episode that delivers realworld insight from the sharp end. It's Mr. Alex Wild.
Alex Wild, we're back. We're talking Unbound. Oh, almost June already.
And we're going to go straight in. No kissing. We're going to get geeky straight away here.
I want you to walk us through the Unbound setup. I'm talking frame, tires, gearing, drivetrain, everything. So, let's start from the ground up just so I don't lose my mind and forget one crucial part.
What tires you running? Brand, model, width, and pressure are you going to dial in on the day? Yeah.
Uh, have a few options. Emporia's weather right now is a little all over the place. So, we could get rain, we could get dry.
On a dry day, I'll run 22 air tracks front and rear. So, mountain bike tires, the new essentially the Renegade replacement from Specialized. Um, undecided on pressure at the moment, but probably 20ish front and rear.
Um, dial it in when we get there. Uh, I'll use the Tire Wiz sensors for this race. More so, one for dialing it in before we get to the race, but also it's nice to know like that ghost flat feeling.
You can kind of check. And then also if you plug a tire, I had this happen at um Big Sugar last year when I plugged the tire, you're kind of unsure if the plug had seated or you know, you're getting that ghost flat feeling and you can kind of just check that it's holding air, which is nice. How how does Tire Wiz use?
How does Tire Wiz work? Because I haven't used it. It's essentially just a live electronic pressure reading that you can have on your head unit.
So I can throw it on my hammerhead and it'll tell me what my pressures are front and rear. You can also set alerts. So, for example, if you want it to alert you if it's under 15 PSI, it'll like beep.
So, it tells you if you're essentially getting a flat. Um, for Unbound, it's nice just to dial in pressures, but like I said, if you plug a tire or kind of have that goes flat feeling, it's nice to know you have a screen that tells you what your tires are at cuz I know Zip rolled out a new wheel yesterday which has the integrated tire pressure gauge in it. So, is tires like an aftermarket for any wheels or is they only integrate into certain wheels?
No, you can put them on any wheels. So, I'm running the Revol Terra CLX wheels and you can throw it on there. Um, I've also run it on the control cells, which is our mountain bike wheels.
It's essentially a sensor that sits on top of the valve and it will connect to your head unit. So, you can throw it on any wheel. Is there a weight penalty?
It's like 25 30 grams. I mean, yeah, Unbound's relatively flat, so I'm not not shaving down to 30 grams. Are you going sealant and inserts?
Just sealant. I'll bring inserts. I'm historically not a fan of them.
I don't enjoy how they make tires feel. At the same time, Unbound isn't very technical, so maybe worth having the insurance. I think the biggest choice will be which tires I run based on the weather.
I'll also bring 50 C tracers and 45 C pathfinders. Essentially, the smaller I go, the more clearance I have for mud if there's any like unmaintained sections on course essentially like a couple years ago. So, have a have a few options for width.
I would like to run the air tracks all things considered. And then for gearing, uh, I'll bring a 48, a 50, and a 52. And then I'll be running explore in the back.
Likely running the 50. Um, one one by one by Yep. the 48 spread looking like on the back.
It's a 1046 13 speed, so pretty tight clusters, but you still get that uh 46 for Little Egypt, I'd say, is the the steepest and more grindy thing on course. But yeah, I think the 48 would be more for again mud clearance if the weather turns essentially it gets it further away from the frame. and then 52.
It's the goal is always to kind of be in the middle of the cluster as much as possible. So, you're thinking about mud clearance in terms of your front chain ring as well. I never even considered that.
I only ever thought about mud clearance from a tire clearance perspective. Yeah. I mean, it'd be marginal at that point, but it gives you just a little more clearance between the frame and the chain ring.
And in my experience, less places for mud to bind up. The other nice thing is the ride wrap that I use on all my bikes has a ceramic coating. So from their experience, they're they're based in BC, so they get weather all the time.
Uh mud actually the post on the way to me, bro. Doesn't doesn't stick to the frame as as easily with the ceramic coating. So I think that'll also be an advantage of having that on the bike.
I'll also be running it on my rims. So we'll see. So, you're you're running full ShraMM setup.
Yep. Are you running a ShraMM chain? Yes, ShraMM chain with a ceramic speed coating.
So, they did the UFO coating for me for my race change this year. I'll be using the ceramic speed pulley wheels and BB as well. Nice.
You find they make much of a difference aftermarket to the ShraMM setup? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
No, it's it's one of those things you throw them on and it you just instantly feel it. It like I've seen the data on it looks super marginal, but when you spin it Yeah. like it moves and you're like it can't be as marginal as they're saying if it's moving this fast.
But I don't know if that's like an illusion or a placebo or whatever. I mean, I'll take it even if it's a a placebo. I mean, I think the combination of the BB, the pulley wheels, and the chain, like if you stack three marginal things, are we beyond marginal kind of thing?
Yeah. It's when does marginal not become marginal? Exactly.
And and even if you're saving 3 to five watts over the course of Unbound, that's minutes, you know, like that could be 10 minutes on something as long as Unbound. So, I think it definitely makes a difference. And like I said, even if it's placebo and I feel faster, I'll take it.
And do you have to worry about bounce outs? Are you going with a specific bottle cage? Um, I haven't recently.
So, a couple of my buddies a couple years ago recommended the Tac X. It's just their like $20 plastic cage. I forgot.
I was about to say this exact same thing to you cuz I had the, you know, I don't know what they call it, the Silka one, the super expensive titanium one. There was like you never get bounce outs off it. And I was actually getting bounce outs off it.
And I went back to like a 15 plastic tax bottle cage. Huh? I can send my gravel bike down like a red mountain bike trail and I won't get a single bounce out off this thing.
Exactly. Yeah. Uh I had the same experience.
I usually use our Zcages from Specialized and they're great on the mountain bike because you can side load them, you know, from from a mountain bike, you can't really pull up all the time because the rear shock is right there. But every once in a while, I'd have it bounce out on a gravel bike just without the suspension. So, I went to those Tac X cages on all my drop bar bikes and no issues.
So, those are the cages I'll be using and I haven't had any bounce outs on big sugar anywhere. Watch the unexplained sales of the plastic cheapest price point tax bottle cage explode. Sometimes you just get it right.
Hydration nutrition is I've never even ridden as long as the Unbound Races. 200 mile is wild to me to do on gravel. How are you thinking about hydration?
Are you are you are you going three bottle cages and a hydration pack or what's the on bike hydration strategy? I don't think I'll need three to be honest. I have the ability to mount more.
I also to play around with. I got one of our uh so the Specialized saddles have two bolt mounts in the back. the swap mount and I actually purchased we have like I think it's for triathlon.
It's like this little like talon and you can put two more cages essentially behind your butt. So I was thinking if it was really hot and I was worried about the pack making me hotter that I could run essentially four Elite 950 bottles and I'd have roughly four liters on board. But I'm thinking I'll run two 950 bottles on the bike and then an Usui and we get two aid stations.
So essentially over 9 to 10 hours that'll give me 12 L of fluid and that should be plenty. I think the saddle triathlon solution thing I think that's going to be super bad for bounce outs. I was thinking that but I just haven't had any issues with the tack cages to be honest.
I mean, I would try it when I'm out there preerriding first, but yeah, could could be a clever solution for keeping something off your back, but I've also been riding with the Usui out here and the heat and haven't really had any issues. So, I think we'll stick with that. I also uh I've talked about this before, but for people listening, the hose comes really long on the Usui.
So, what I'll do is I'll actually cut that hose so that it just goes down and then attaches to the magnetic strip. That way it essentially you just pull it up to drink and then you drop it and it will magnetic back to it. I like that.
And then another thing is pocket space is premium. That's something Unbound you're always carrying a lot. So, when I'm done with a carbs fuel gel, that other piece where the hose could come out, I stick the trash through there so that when I drop my bag, it already has all my trash in it.
Nice. And what's the pocket setup on the back of your speeduit? Like, and even access to that is with the hydration pack on the back.
Is it difficult to access all the pockets or can you access them all? No, I can access them all super easy. Um, they do two pockets on the speeduit, but they're deeper.
So DNA cycling makes my kit out of Utah. And so it's a two pocket just because it's an extra small skin suit, but a standard pocket I'd say is like this big. And they just make them deeper on those.
So at Cape Epic, I was running the same suit and I could fit 16 gels in my pockets, no problem. So, uh, I'll probably have it's roughly like say you split it into thirds, I think I'll have about four hours worth of fuel at any given time. So, 12 to 15 gels.
And then I'll also have a little top tube mounted bag, which can hold six gels. And I'll probably stick my caffeine gels in there just to make it easy to know where's where is a caffeine gel and where's a standard gel. And is there a do you have a plan laid out in terms of feeding that you're going to feed every x number of kilometers or are you more going to just go with race situation when it chills out just to eat as much as you can?
Uh no, every 20 minutes I'll pump a gel. So essentially what we've been doing in training is I use the carbs fuel 50 gram gels. So every 20 minutes would be 150 grams per hour.
Um, and then what I've well just wait what I found is after like five or six hours I can do even more. My bro science is that my glycogen's gone. So my body's, you know, starting to rely pretty much entirely on what I feed it.
Um, or my breakfast is more digested. Who knows? But at the end of I did an eight hour essentially endurance practice last Sunday and I was by the end doing one gel every 15 minutes.
So 200 grams per hour and averaged over the entire ride I was at 170. How much does your training ride cost you? Like $60 every time you go out to do a training ride.
Well that's the other best thing about carb fuel. Those 50 gram gels are two bucks. I mean yeah I know Gabe on the podcast it's Yeah.
We've talked about this before, but it even if I had to purchase carbs fuel, it would save me probably six to eight thousand dollars a year. Yeah, it it's whilst how he's doing it. It's brilliant.
Are you going you're not going by the sounds with any we've seen last year kind of innovation around hydration packs and speeduits. There seems to be from chatting with aerodynamicists quite a aerodynamic advantage if you can fill that gap on your torso between your two pecs. couple of people decided to try and build in uh hydration.
I think was it Lackey done it last year or maybe Dylan Johnson? No, Dylan Johnson done the rear loading. Lackland done the front loading to fill in the gap.
Any thought around that or why you elected against it? Uh I didn't put much thought into it to be honest. Um feels like it'd be uncomfortable to have the bladder in front and then how you kind of replace it.
I mean, still something we could play around with if I could essentially just slide the bladder down the front of my suit, but uh yeah, I' I'd say I'm a little not behind on the arrow game, but new. There's a couple things I've done like I went to the 165 cranks and I've done 40 bars this year, so I've definitely done some more than I have in the past, but I'm probably not as far along as someone like Dylan is. How you find the move to 165 tracks?
Oh, I enjoy it. Yeah. Uh, for me it wasn't so much the like you can put out more power or blah blah blah.
It was more um that I could essentially decrease my hip angle. So, my D's don't come up as high. That just allows me essentially to fold over the bars a little easier.
So, and I've noticed it. I think that's the crazy thing is so yesterday I did a ride like my last big ride before Unbound. It was N plus with 3x5 threshold and I was doing it on 50c tracers and I was beating times on climbs I've done on my tarmac.
You're moving well this year. What's your What's the threshold numbers? It's like you're doing them at like 420 or something.
Uh it was 400 for this. So it was the endurance plus was like 290 and then the 3x5 was at 400. So the raw power for you 4 and 1/2 hours was 302 watts.
That's disgusting. Right. So we're working through the bike sequentially.
So we've tires, drivetrain, what am I miss a frame frame, handlebars, cockpit. Yeah, the the handlebars. Uh I went with the zip.
I think they're something 80. The arrow, the new arrow ones they have with the nice flare. I've really really enjoyed those.
38. I think they're the S SL80. So they're arrow bars 40 at the top and I want to say they're 45 in the drops.
But I found them to be really comfortable. They also have indents for the blips, which is really nice. So I can run blips in the drops and on the hoods, but they don't like bulge out.
There's actually an indent in the bar for them to sit nicely in there. And are you almost a full custom build each race you're going into? Uh, kind of.
I mean, it's it's going to be a lot of the same stuff. I use that bar anytime. I don't use the repeat uh revolve cockpit.
And then obviously ShraMM supplies me with all the drivetrains for my bikes. So, and you're sticking specialized frames every time. So it's it's more so just using what those brands provide for each race.
Interesting. Okay. So let's talk race dynamics, race pacing.
Is it simply a case of trying to get from A to B as fast as possible and riding your own race or are you getting into the interra dynamics and trying to follow moves and play strategically against other people's strengths and weaknesses? Yeah, I think Unbound's an interesting one because I've never raced it if that makes sense. Like I've never made it to the end at the front.
So the rest of the races in the series, I've been there at the end. This one I think the furthest I've made it in is five hours last year and then got blown up at Little Egypt. So the goal going into this time is I think last year I was a little nervous because I came off Sea Otter which is normally a great result for me with like 13th so I was kind of already on the back foot whereas this time I've I've got my fifth at Sea Otter and the rest of the series races suit me really well.
Yeah. So, I feel like I'm as prepared as I can be, but there's also no pressure in terms of like I know this is the outlier race for me. And I think the goal is just to keep making those splits and be there at the end.
And Little Egypt, a make or break section or if you were to if you're putting notes in your top tube of key sections, what are they? So, this course is almost identical to last year. So, there's a few pinch points before we get to Little Egypt.
And they still could split the group, but they didn't seem enough to really blow it apart until we got to Little Egypt, which was about five hours in. So, I think that's that's like the big one everyone stars that it's just going to be a throw down there and, you know, a lot of the group is going to be shelled out the back. I think it's a combination of how technical Little Egypt is, but also that it's five hours in, right?
People are starting to get really tired and that section kind of just blew it up last year and it's that's what it does. So, I think that's that's like a if we went into like Perry Rubé, like that's a fivestar section, but there are some other three or four star sections along the way that you could mess up. But the race dynamics to me are super interesting because even to take your par rubé analogy.
As a viewer, I pretty much know when to tune into Par rub. You know, it's going to build kind of a crescendo. The attacks are starting to come earlier and earlier, but even you know, rarely is an attack from a favorite going before Ardan Forest like 50k to go.
On this, it seems like the group dynamic is totally different. Like we seen Lacklin on a big send last year going the wrong direction coming back to the group and then another big send and it's like if you see moves like that going I know Liy's stepping up and he's racing to 500 this year but if you see guys who are coming in with form Keegan Matt Beers sending it big with still 200k to go. What's the thought process?
Are you thinking that's a move I have to follow or I already have a pregame plan I'm going to try and stick to that? I feel like I play a lot of that just on instinct in the moment. If I feel like that's a move I should go with, I go.
If if not, I don't. And then sometimes it's situational, right? Like if they go and I'm stuck in the middle of the group, I can't respond.
So, I kind of have to rely on someone else to do it or for them to blow up. I think for me, I'm just making splits, you know, just continually making splits throughout the day, hitting my fueling and hydration, and getting to the end with as much energy as possible so that in those last couple hours, I'm the strongest. Hey everybody, let's take a quick break to talk about the bike I'll be riding this season, Reap.
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I absolutely love my one and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Back to the show. I I love to race stage races with like the Tour of Ireland's on at the moment and historically it's been eight days.
It's peeled back to five this year. But when as in the 8day race, you kind of look at it and go, "Okay, day one any one of the 180 competitors can win. We're all starting on a level time.
" Then you get into day two, it's like, okay, 20 guys at the back have lost time. Okay, there's only 160 of us win. So my goal each day is to stay in that group of riders who can still win.
And I often thought, is that the approach for something like this? If I was going to race it with legs, you're trying to stay in that group that still has a chance of winning for as deep into the race as you possibly can. Exactly.
Yeah. And that's kind of what those sections before Little Egypt do, right? It's kind of like maybe the roller stages that eliminate 20 people, but you know, if you're in the group, you don't notice kind of thing.
And then Little Egypt is like the mountaintop finish, right? where it really appels down to like okay now there's 10 or 20 guys from these 180 that can win still and I think it's if you look at Unbound as a stage race like that each key section is a stage and it will peel people from the group and the goal is to make it with as little energy spent as possible. How steep is Little Egypt?
I don't actually know. It felt really steep at five hours last year. It depends how good your legs are.
Yeah, exactly. Not as steep as lookout. I recently rode a climb that I've ridden a thousand times and I was like riding it with bad legs thinking, "Is this got longer?
Don't remember it being this long." On a race that long, you surely go through like periods of a dark night, like the soul is starting to just play tricks on you. Do you have any strategies for keeping motivated during those periods where you're just like, what am I doing out here?
Uh, I don't know if there's any strategies. I mean, I've kind of just always motivated to be in the front. So, I think in those moments, it's kind of like, you know, you know, it'll come back around.
So, you kind of just, I mean, or even if it doesn't, you kind of have to commit either way. So, I think just kind of committing to the effort. And I think that's part of a good taper is not only recovering physically, but recovering mentally because it's going to be a really hard day.
So, if you're already like mentally stressed or fatigued going into Unbound, then then you're on the back foot. So, I think it's it's a matter of kind of almost preparing for that war ahead of time. Is there anything that you bring like unexpected that you know say someone like me who shows up and has never ridden Unbound would just totally overlook?
Like I've heard people bring in like paint brushes to pull some of the muk clear on the mucky days. Is there any weird stuff like that that you're bringing? Uh that is definitely one people bring paint sticks to be able to push the mud off their tires while they're riding.
Uh I wouldn't say anything weird. Uh that's pretty I bring I bring uh obviously flat kit. I bring a bunch of plugs, bring bunch of gels.
Um I'll be using Carbu's new caffeine gel uh throughout the race. Yeah, nothing weird. Maybe just more more gels, more plugs, more tubes.
I say I was speaking to someone I can't remember who it was. world throw rider and we were talking about advice for someone doing the wrong longest ride of their life and his advice was a long ride is just like a short ride only longer. I was like that makes no sense.
And he's like it does make sense if you think about it because you just need all the same stuff. You just need more of it. Yeah, that's fair.
I was like actually is kind of fair. Okay, let's uh let's have a bit of crack with this one. Uh we'll revisit this because we're going to do an Unbounds uh postmortem afterward.
Who was on the podium this year? Men's on and women's race. Oh boy.
Putting me on the spot. Um, I'd like to see Paige Onweller win the women's. I know Sophia will be somewhere there in the top three.
Um, who else? And I'll go with Hannah Otto. I don't know in what order, but those those three I'll go with them.
I've had two of those three on the podcast. Yeah. And then on the men's, you always got to back your horse.
I will win. I love it. And then I think Matt will figure it out this year and be on the podium as well.
Not figure it out, but I feel like for how good he is, I think ninth is his best so far. So I don't I think he's he's shooting for more. Um, and then I'll go with Zack Colton for third guy.
Okay. No, doesn't have the form. I just he wins a lot, so I'm not going to put him on my my predicted podium.
We'll see what happens. Uh, Dylan Johnson had a bad spill during the week. Yeah.
Train and crash. Historically, he finishes 17th. Will Dylan's absence affect race dynamics or is just one person just not influential enough to change race dynamics?
I think one person at Unbound isn't. I think Dylan's also very good at racing his own race in terms of how he races. So, I think even if it was Keegan that got injured and wasn't there, he wouldn't that would influence the race.
It's just such a deep field and there's always people coming from Europe and there's a lot of strong guys. So, it's one one person isn't enough to change the race. An interesting exercise I recently had with someone I was chatting to a YouTube consultant.
We're talking about growth and he's saying like before a video goes out let's benchmark what success looks like. And I thought actually it is really interesting because some videos you'll have a different expectation of performance than you will with other videos or podcasts. And I think it's interesting to pull that across into a cycling arena.
Obviously, you want to win every race. But when we revisit this in the postmortem for you to have a successful day at Unbound, what does that look like? Is it a resultbased?
Is it expectationbased? Is it power numbers based? Or is it something entirely different?
Yeah, it's it's never results based for me. Um, I'm kind of a outlier in terms of you could probably just send me off with my power meter and my intervals and no racing and I would be very happy. I really enjoy just seeing where my progression is year-over-year and racing is kind of an outcome.
I mean, I enjoy racing, don't get me wrong, but it's not who I am. And I think that's that's a separation I've made in the last few years in terms of racing is what I do, but it's not who I am. And I think for me, it's all about effort.
You know, if I if I look back and say, well, I could have made that split if I digged a little harder or, you know, I I gave up mentally before I did physically, then for me, that's that's room for improvement. But if I cross the line saying, "Hey, like that was everything I had on the day and I just wasn't good enough," then those are the races I'm most satisfied with. Like going back to Schwamagan last year, like second is a great result and you know going up against Keegan in the sprint is also a great result, but it it was the result was the outcome.
I committed to my plan. I stuck to everything and I gave it everything I had. So, I was satisfied not because I got second.
I was satisfied because when I crossed the line, that was the best performance I had on the day and Keegan was just simply better. And that for me is is always hard to accept because you want to win. But you can be satisfied with that and say, "Hey, okay, I've learned this, this, and this, and now we can move on to the next thing.
" So, for me, it's all about effort and execution. If I feel like I put out the best effort I had on the day, then that's success. It's a nice way of looking at it.
Uh to finish up, there's a bunch of people for the first time, some of them have sent me Instagram messages in the past couple of weeks looking for tips. I'm like, you're asking the wrong person for tips. They're going to Unbound for the first time and they're unsure of what lies ahead for them.
What do you wish someone told you for your first Unbound or that you could, you know, pass on this piece of advice to them? Um, be prepared for anything in terms of don't run light tires. Don't don't try to skimp.
It's a 10-hour day at least, so you're going to have to have a a durable bike and body. Um, eat eat and drink as much as you can and like you said, you're going to go through all sorts of mental and physical states and just kind of stick with it, you know, one foot in front of the other. And if you're making forward progress, you're making progress.
Alex, best of luck. I'm excited to see how you get on. And we will chat on the far side.
Keep the rubber side down. Thank you. We have three long form podcasts every week.
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