2025 Life Time UNBOUND Gravel presented by Shimano Race Highlights

Watch the full Race Highlights of the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix’s second stop at Life Time UNBOUND Gravel presented by Shimano. With the fastest gravel riders on the planet and unexpected twists and turns throughout the whole day, there was no telling what was coming next.

From the women’s 4-up sprint between Sofia Gomez Villafane, Rosa Kloser, Cecile Lejeune, and Lauren De Crescenzo to two new north course records being broken, race day in Emporia was absolutely buzzing.

Unexpected breakaways, historic records, wrong turns, and so much more…

🎥 Watch now and follow along as the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix unfolds.

Official podium jersey brought to you by Pas Normal Studios.

Learn more about the Life Time Grand Prix: lifetimegrandprix.com
Learn more about Life Time UNBOUND Gravel presented by Shimano: unboundgravel.com

heat Heat [Music] [Music] We’re in beautiful Emporia Kansas where thousands of riders mark their calendar each year for the opportunity to take on miles and miles of the gorgeous Flint Hills [Applause] The North Course is punchier and chunkier It’s a beast It’s I mean chunky like the gravel It’s just like these massive rocks This event takes respect and it takes significant preparation It’s one of the most unpredictable races because of flat tires and mechanicals that can happen to equipment It’s just a beatdown Like I don’t care how hard you train I don’t care how gnarly of terrain you ride on on a regular basis To race 200 miles on this terrain is just so destructive High speeds more chaos in the field Everyone’s just up in the game Like it’s just one little notch after one little notch The competition level is through the roof I think this is probably the most competitive field we’ve ever had A result at Unbound means a lot because it’s a race that people around the world have heard of Unbound started in the parking lot on the northwest side of town with 36 riders Um and most of them were from just around the region It was not a big national event It’s changed a lot Obviously starting in 2006 with uh no GPS and just Q sheets In the early days it was a little bit more choose your own adventure if you will 20 years ago Emporia was not a cycling town There were a dozen of us that rode bikes Now there are hundreds of the 4,000 people lining up to take on Unbound 10% of them come from within a 20m radius of Emporia Kansas It has completely transformed the identity of who we are right here in Emporia Lifetime coming on board with us in 2019 was a big game changer Um Lifetime definitely believes in building community and healthy way of life There’s a history before lifetime at Unbound Gravel and there’s a history in Emporia Kansas before Unbound Gravel And it’s our job to preserve the ethos of the event and to ensure that when people leave Emporia Kansas they know what the Flint Hills is who the people that live here are what they do But it’s this community that makes Unbound Gravel so special There are rocks flying everywhere There are crashes happening It is really hard to focus for 10 and 1/2 hours Perfect world scenarios don’t exist in Unbound I don’t know if anyone has ever finished Unbound and not just had everything hurting It just beats up your entire body [Applause] It’s such a race of attrition You’re going to feel it so bad Just brutal all the way around [Music] Unbound is the champagne of gravel baby is the biggest gravel event in the world from what I hear and I’m new to racing and I thought there’s a lot I can learn out here um not just from the course but from the people that are involved I rode 300k a couple of weeks ago um on the road and that was all right Um but this has got a bit more climbing than I had in that and uh I’ve never ridden that far before so it’s not far outside but it’s enough to be intimidating a little bit My son is actually in one of the races So we decided to come down here and watch him and make ourselves useful Just means the spirit of gravel and just like it’s like there’s no limits You’re going to be maxed out It’s going to be a mental challenge It’s going to be a physical challenge and you’re out in the middle of nowhere and it’s just you your bike and you know whatever you can put together mentally on the day You know whatever comes out of the wash is going to come out you’re going to have a real winner Man this is my first time here and so far the atmosphere uh people uh is something else is amazing Amazing Amazing Definitely they will this will be in my calendar every year [Music] Uh we’re going to do the Unbound Gravel 2025 You know it’s we’re coming up on uh what is it like 4:30 now Um we’re in a pretty good place with the setup Um you know nothing’s left now but the riders You know we’re just waiting on them to get here and get this thing going A little bit about our course map out there today We’ve got I want to walk everyone through what our riders are going to be facing those first 25 odd miles heading north out of town Kind of a gentle start to the day letting all our riders know what they are in for Doesn’t come until about mile 26 or so but that’s going to be the first real section of the race that everyone considers That’s C Reserve Road The first section of pretty challenging gravel up that way From there it’s on to Escridge which of course is the first neutral water stop of the day Just beyond Escridge of course the infamous Divide Road section Another challenging spot Then it’s on to Alma in the first of two checkpoints out on the course After that Little Egypt is always one of the toughest sections of the course That’s going to come right around 104 miles From there we’ll head towards Council or Alta Vista rather where they’ll continue to head southbound And Council Grove then will be the second feed zone out on the course where they have an opportunity to connect with their staff for the final time of the day Just south of Council Grove the course starts to head a little bit more eastbound and at roughly 75 miles That’s when they start to hit the Lake Cahola area Twostep climb wide open One of the last big challenges that they face before they start to make their way back into town after Lake Kahola gets a little bit rolling No big significant clines or significant gravel sectors on the way back into town but wind is the story of the day at that point Crosswinds and tailwinds will be pushing the riders all the way back into town Highland Hill by the university the final hard section before finishing right back here on Commercial Street This year at Unbound Gravel presented by Shimano we have the biggest field that we’ve ever had in its 19-year history Over 5,000 athletes racing across all the distances It’s going to be the biggest day we’ve seen yet here in Emporia And it’s also stop number two on the 2025 Lifetime Grand Prix Yeah I’m ready Yeah Now I’m just excited What’s the plan for today Oh trying to survive Yeah No no plans Yeah just trying to enjoy it It’s birthday Don’t forget Absolutely I’ll wish him a happy birthday out there Right Currently sitting second overall He’s the champion of South Africa Welcome Matt Beers [Music] your current overall leader of the Lifetime Grand Prix Welcome Mr Keegan Swenson Yeah And in 3 2 1 [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Well this year we’ve got more international competition than ever It’s been great to see almost 50% of our riders in attendance for our Pro Men’s Lifetime Grand Prix event coming from overseas Again that first 25 or so miles relatively tame in terms of the Flint Hills gravel that the riders see but always a very fast pace as they make their way towards call reserve road And that opening pace that was upwards of about 24 25 m an hour And what we saw happen was uh we saw a big group pacing kind of coming out of the uh of the start there We saw some riders with a little mishap early but the big talk was we saw a big group of roughly 15 riders separating very early Looks like that group includes Cam Jones Simone Pel Toby Reed and Mazwartz Schmidt Well if this group stays out in front it could make for some very interesting moves later on in the race Well as always one of the notables in our men’s field is Alexi Varmmulan We caught up with Alexi before the race Um okay The goal of today is kind of twofold One want to be ready for rule of three I want to make sure don’t get injured nothing stupid happens and also can can race effectively Got a little 55 mile ride Um I’m Alex McMan I race bikes professionally and I’m probably most well known for riding with my little dog Willie So racing gravel professionally in the US has changed quite a bit from what I grew up doing on the road gone from very focused racing on winning and that being the only focus of the day to the minute you’re off the bike you have so many other jobs Yeah we are still answering your questions from last time Um there’s always been this dream to create things that inspire people but also educate along the way We kind of had this idea about 3 years ago about how why don’t we do a YouTube channel little vlog style here a little race report there But I was very excited by this idea that you could reach people who weren’t at the race And so how do you give them something to interact and be involved with or motivate them to come the next year It’s through content It’s just I really enjoy talking to people I enjoy being around the expo I enjoy creating content It’s not stressful to me See a lot of guys kind of wrapping their bars further I think it’s just being honest with yourself knowing that okay I have this amount of time and this amount of hours to do things and I need to build this week out so that I can be the best athlete I can at the end of the week Um while doing as many of these uh off the bike endeavors that I’ve been asked to do going into this year the Grand Prix is my entire focus Doing other races around it but they’re all a chance to prepare for the Grand Prix I think the first couple years of the Grand Prix I was just trying to figure it out see what I wanted to do It worked out I was lucky sometimes This year I want to put some pressure on myself I want to try to win it Want to take down the King Keegan Racing to win is different This also means racing to possibly lose A lot of these races there’s so many great guys now that you can’t win by just sitting there and hoping that you’re the best at the finish line cuz it’s not going to work I’d love to be going to Unbound to Had Keegan but I’m not To me when I started this year tactically I said “No questions asked I have to beat Keegan at Seotter or Unbound.” That’s the mindset I don’t need to win the race I have to beat Keegan [Music] Unbound to me is mentally tough It is really hard to focus for 10 and a half hours and not make a mistake And I’m talking about not hitting a rock not taking a corner wrong not overlapping a wheel getting all your food being able to eat all your food It’s It’s never ending It’s a lot about luck but it’s at the end of the day it’s a lot about how mentally resilient are you because something’s going to go wrong How do you solve it I think I’m most excited to just go out there and race I know I’m fit Um I think always the first race of the year is nerve-wracking but once you kind of set a pecking order um it’s just about getting down to business and racing a bike like you know you can Well let’s see if Alexi has it in the legs today Hey what do you guys think Are you ready to send our women out there on courts Ladies and gentlemen your current overall leader of the Lifetime Grand Prix Welcome Sophia Gomez Visha to Vamporia Please welcome back Paige Onweller Let’s try this one more time Hey Emporia are you ready All right now you all warmed up and ready to go here today Our women are going to bring in the heat out here on course We are going to go at 6:05 So riders we will give you a little count and and Porter you’re going to make noise one more time in three two one We are under And our women’s race is underway It’s a stacked field here today and looks to be an exciting race Five minutes after six so 15minute gap once again just like we did last year Oh man what I’m so excited for today’s race The women put on a show last year I expect the same thing from them today And as the women roll off the line you know and then you can feel those nerves and they got off to a great start and we’re just waiting to see what happens today at the finish line Yeah it was a great start for the women and lots going on in that first part of the women’s race We know there was a couple of crashes early on It looked like nobody got really injured Most of the riders uh save one I think got back in the mix Here we see the crash Uh as as you said there we believe there was one rider who wasn’t able to get going Emily Newsome was one of the riders down who was I think the last rider to get back on her bike but she did catch back up to the group So she’s now in the in the big chase again I think maybe to get a little more information we’ve got our friend Lauren Hall out there following along at the front of the women’s race So we should probably move on over to Lauren And Lauren what is going on up there at the front We are only a couple of miles into the race guys and we’ve already had a touch of wheels a small crash The anticipation of today has been so intense trying to figure out tire choices leading into the conditions of today having so much rain the last couple of days and uh I think everyone has changed over and over their tire choices Woo Got some bubbles coming through already This is going to be a great day These women are flying [Applause] Uh the real story was uh Gabby Traxel getting off the front pretty early Merida Yeah Um but Gabby Traxxler was the story of the morning as she went off the front solo Former road racer had a major major crash in 2023 uh has been able to bounce back from that and has now devoted her time to gravel racing in 24 and here she’s back again in 25 Yeah Gabby again so much as I think about a 2 and 1/2 minute lead at one point which was which was really quite impressive Our women’s chase is full of notable athletes including the likes of Paige Onweller Lauren de Cresenzo Meisa Rollins and many more Meisa Rollins is fighting in this chase pack She’s a former winner of the Leadville Trail 100 and is set up for a huge day here at Unbound Let’s hear a little bit from Me Lisa Since winning Leadville I went from sort of being like a top 20 finisher to now I’m consistently finishing top five or just outside of the top five in every race and always sort of being a part of the main group or what’s happening in the race I wouldn’t say that before I won Leadville I was not strong enough It was just it was something clicked and now I feel confident and I’m ready to be a part of the race I mean before that I always struggled with confidence and believing in myself and not really sure if I belonged Every time I saw myself on a start line I always kind of like counted myself halfway in not fully in But yeah I think sort of proving what I knew deep down that I was capable of has sort of helped me build confidence to know that yeah I was selected in the Grand Prix to race because I can race and I can race well In these long really really hard races you have to have some kind of like emotional attachment to winning because they’re really freaking hard And that’s the deciding factor in the last hour in the last 10 miles in the last 5 miles at the last moment is who really freaking wants it Everyone’s going to have some kind of low in the race Not every low is created equal but everyone will have lows So if you can make it through your low the best I think that’s who wins Unbound It’s always great to hear from me Lisa but before Divide Road a group of four women broke away hunting down the current leader the Canadian Gabby Traxler [Music] Coming at about mile 45.5 Divide Road presents one of the toughest stretches of terrain on the entire route Following Escridge this roughly six milei stretch is a straight shot with a relentless onslaught of rough rocky paths setting the stage for the challenges to come [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Let’s catch up with our men We have them screaming up front It is now single file They are pinned rolling in 40 plus miles into this like they are fresh Looks like Simone and teammate are doing a great job out front here today Time to get some fuel Keep those tanks topped off as much as possible The last few miles and kilometers there was not any chance of grabbing a bottle or getting any hydration in They were in the drops There was no sitting onto the hoods The terrain was just too gnarly and the pace incredible today So much stress on the front end of this pointy group So many new players The Euros have come over done their homework wanted to get out front and the rest of the experienced players hoping that they can keep that contact But man it got narrow back there These two really pulling away right now The remaining 18 behind doing what they can to get hydrated but they are losing a little bit of contact This may be the break As Simone Po and Cameron Jones begin their breakaway let’s check in with the women All right guys We have just come through some of the muddy sections that everyone was checking out at uh pre-race pre- rides Gabby basically has her choice of line selection It looked like she was running a more of a slick uh in the center of her tire with just a little bit of knobbyby on the edge And when she came through that mud section just right there I mean you could definitely tell she was all over the road and really fighting that bike and trying to keep it upright But again that’s she would rather pay the price here Hence her part of her probably some of her race strategy to be up the road and be more efficient with that slick versus having a more knobbyby tire that’s going to bite more in that uh in that mud But yeah she is still she’s just smoking it right now Likely for a bit as the women chase add another rider to the hunt Let’s check in with the men [Applause] Cam Jones and Simone Po are still leading at the front of the race making it look awful easy But the burning question is will they be able to hold on to this lead Well that’s anyone’s guess at this point But for now let’s check in with Nat Ross just in front of the leaders at the base of Christy Road We got the kiwi and the Swiss leading the cows up the pasture here They think they’re going to get fed but these two really breaking away from the main group out of sight And look at the gap that they have put down today Very cohesive These two breakaway strategists have put it together The formula is working for them in their favor Okay at this aid 70 miles into the race focus strategy Cam looking for his crew Simone has got the BMC team out here ready to do a bottle handoff and then some You can tell from the lenses on these guys that the visibility if they can get a swap of glasses or lenses they will take it more intritically Here we go Simone off with the pack Cam trying to get visibility of his crew Simone dropping one pack There he goes Look at that Smooth from Joan Got another pack He is topped off ready to go Cam still looking for his crew in the feed zone And at roughly mile 70.6 Cam Jones and Simone Po still lead the Chasers by about 2 minutes Heading out of our first feed zone Po appears to slow down just a little bit for Cam to catch back up so they can continue to work together Well the Swiss veteran knows it’s still a long way to go and the odds are better with a little bit of help Gabby Traxxer continues to maintain her lead heading into Christy Road but the gap has significantly decreased The chase group has now dwindled to only three but they’re reeling in our leader [Music] [Applause] [Music] And they pass her just before the feed zone at mile 70 Heading into this feed this gives us a new lead group consisting of Lauren Stevens Carolina Migon and Cesaly Decker with a 2 and 1/2 minute gap over Traxler and a 7minute gap over the chase group [Applause] Emily let’s touch base with Lauren and see what’s going on at the front of our women’s race Fast dusty course How does it get any faster Oh my gosh we just seeing Caro just over cooking that corner right there Oh my goodness Saving it Coming back and yeah you just got to think everyone is working well together Even though you say like P Normal they may not essentially be under they’re on the same kit maybe not the same team but yeah everyone working well And let’s just stop and take a moment to recognize just how amazing our athletes are While leading the race Simone Po pulls out chain lube and offers to help lube Cam Jones chain while they’re racing Sure it gives them an advantage to continue riding with a partner to share the workload at the front but what a class act [Music] All right we’re here at the notorious Little Egypt mile 104 It’s a 2.3 mile long section It includes two descents and two climbs And you drop down into this descent first and it gets narrow really quickly as you come around a corner kind of off camber corner across this bridge dive into these trees It’s beautiful It’s one of my favorite sections And right now there’s a bunch of standing water right at the bottom in that in that turn Absolutely single file through here Um I remember actually last year uh Mate Mahoric the current world champion double flatted right in this section but it just causes mayhem The climbs are hard but the descents are absolutely as decisive So this is the first climb of two on the little Egypt section It’s really steep one of the steepest climbs on course It’s really narrow but everyone talks about the rocks Um regardless of whether all the potentially muddy sections on the rest of the course dry out or not this part will be gnarly cuz it’s rocky Um you can see just how big the stones are and because uh it’s getting to be you know make or break time in the race People are getting tired Line choice is really tough A lot of times there’s really only one good line because of how rocky it is If you want to switch sides on the two track because someone else in front of you is losing the wheel in front of you it’s going to be hard to switch lanes Um this this section is just notorious for being pivotal in the race And a lot of it is because of this climb right [Music] here Here come our two leaders around the corner just about to enter into Little Egypt Pillow and Jones are still way off the front at this point about a 7-minute lead ahead of the Pelaton going into the very same spot And we’ll jump back in time and see the Pelaton coming around that very same corner again nearly 7 minutes down and trying their hardest to catch up to these two leaders who seem absolutely unstoppable on the day As our men’s chase group now heads into Little Egypt we’ve got Keegan Swenson Toby Reed Brendan Johnston Ian Boswell Yasper Oakleion and Yurus Annewenhouse Let’s see if this star-studded group can make any headway into catching our two leaders One of those men in the chase group the Frenchman Ugo Du unfortunately found himself just a little spent at Little Egypt and decided to pull out of the race I was expect expecting one better day because it’s my birthday today but I decided to to to don’t continue because uh was uh was impossible today Well I’m sorry to hear that What What do you want to say to Axel to cheer her on She’s very very strong She very strong I I’m the first uh first love of first love of Axel So yeah I will I will follow this with for sure We see Paige Onweller on screen and we got a chance to catch up with Paige before the race and here’s what she had to say My name is Paige Onweller and I am a professional off-road cyclist I ride bikes fast sometimes This is one of the bikes I’m going to race This is likely the race bike Uh this is a checkpoint set up with two twos front and rear Uh it’s what we call the the beefy boy So we are about just over a week out from Unbound I head there early because I really like the community and I love the riding there All right bike number two It’s such a important race and an important week that you really do need a lot of extra time to prep everything and recon The amount of equipment that you need to bring to unbound is pretty insane More wheels more bikes Uh this is a new bike Me personally I have really good support I’ll be bringing two bikes and five wheel sets That just speaks volumes to the equipment that you need but also the carnage of the course You have to have your equipment dialed You have to have backups You got to be ready to break anything during recon week and have another ready to go In 2023 I had pretty bad mechanical that ended my day You come to expect these mechanicals and you also come to respect the race I line up at Unbound knowing there’s a chance that I have a day ending mechanical again You have to accept that it can be gut-wrenching to say the least You build your whole first part of the year for this race So to come back and have such a good year just meant a lot It was really validating because that race and that community is just important to me and I want to do well there 2024 Unbound set the precedent for gravel for all events Historically gravel has always been a mass start event So the elite men the elite women and amateurs we all start together However in 2024 Lifetime at Unbound they did a separate start And that was the first time the women truly had our own [Applause] race We had a nineup sprint for the win at Unbound which is amazing We showed the world how cool and how strong and how dynamic like our race can be It’s just a totally different experience That was the first time we’ve ever raced together all of the women In the end I feel like we really put on the show that we’re capable of Good job No matter what my result would have been today that was definitely the highlight of the race And it’s just so cool to see the women like doing it Unfortunately Paige was dropped from the chase group at just after Little Egypt So maybe not the day she’d been hoping for You know every year we go faster I think there’s no way we can possibly go faster and then it just happens again The depth of field just continues to increase Um all that said I do think there could be some historically fast conditions this year Uh that all that rain that we got midweek Um like Nat was kind of referencing does create some extra tackiness and traction in those corners Um and even on a course like this that’s so long that’s so rugged um that doesn’t have as many twists and turns maybe as some other gravel courses um traction still does matter Momentum absolutely matters And even though those might be small differences over the course of 200 miles it all adds up But right now we’re looking at our women’s the chase group It’s now down to eight riders So curious to see if that gap is going to come down We see G in there We see Sophia in there as well So yeah again we wonder if maybe there’s a little more unity Maybe there’s a little more cohesion in there Uh LDC at the back of the just a rut Yeah she just got sideways in a rut and it was uphill too Uh it’s devastating to see LDC crash like that She’s so well known for her breakaway game but it looks like this year may not be in the cards Here’s the dust off This was a prize in 2021 This is my belt buckle Should really do something with this like turn it into a belt or something So I am known as a bit of a breakaway specialist It’s my signature move I guess I do a lot of things that just feel right in the moment Just the solo breakaways Ultimately I just really like riding by myself I think I like taking the risk People are scared to do it but I like to be brave and embark on like 90 mile breakaway Her second win at the rat She’s got to be so happy with this I’m willing to take the chance and do what it takes I hate placing expectations on myself coming into these races The feel is as deep as ever The competition is stacked All I can do is have my own best personal performance And it’s like Russian roulette out there Anything can happen at Unbounds As long as I know I can put it all out there I’ll be stoked Well getting back up from her crash LDC was able to catch it back up to the group and hang on So well maybe her day isn’t over after all Um you can just have a a little crash at any moment That doesn’t help the morale It doesn’t help you physically It’s just another barrier on top of the distance on top of the heat on top of the wind and on top of the competition Let’s touch base with the men The the chase behind has a lot of work to do There is still a small group between Oh we got a crash here Keegan’s down Keegan is down Jeez that’s a big blow We’ve not talked about him a whole lot today And this is not the way we wanted to talk about him That’s the thing you know there there are technical sections on this course but a crash like that can happen anywhere That was a dead straight section of road Looks pretty smooth and it just takes a a quick uh quick moment and your race can completely change Simon you’re definitely showing some of the the signs of strain as well So yeah anybody’s guess right now as both riders wearing that fatigue uh very clearly on their shoulders This is one of our men’s chase groups and on one of our other camera angles a minute ago I saw one of the SWAT club guys literally stop pedaling and start stretching which means cramps Um and it looks like this main chase group has completely exploded at this point Window of opportunity is is not it’s not closed completely but it’s it’s it’s really come down a lot I mean I think really they would have had to have kind of lit that fire almost an hour ago at this point cuz that gap was so big And you know you know the the shorter the runway gets the the less time you have to really get this done So with our men now through feed zone number two at Council Grove Cam Jones and Simone Po are still in the lead with now a 9-minute gap over the chasing group Our leading trio of women Cararolina Migon Lauren Stevens and Cesaly Decker continue to add time over our chase group through feed zone number two That gap now stands at nearly 14 minutes [Applause] But that doesn’t last long because just past mile 148 is when we start to see some cracks in our leading trio Karolina puts down the hammer and while Cesley tries to respond Lauren gets dropped off the back This leaves Carolina in the lead of our women’s race with Cesaly Decker trailing in second and Lauren getting caught by the chasing group coming up from behind The four women catching up and passing Lauren are last year’s winner Rosa closer Cesily Ljun your series leader Sophia Gomez Avisha Fany and Lauren de Cresenzo And you know early on I always like to say early in a bike race everyone feels good but eventually you have to pay the piper Um and I think we’re seeing that now It has become a race of in large part groups of twos and threes maybe four which is different than last year Yeah it’s it’s vastly different than uh than any addition I’ve seen You know very often we see those small breakaways but then it’s generally a reasonable size chase group coming up from behind as now you can clearly see our riders going along the top of the the Cahola Lake there And you know again a wide open section there kind of on both sides And so I imagine a a good bit of wind coming across It looks like they’re actually in little bit of an echelon formation there of the wind probably coming from uh the right just a little bit The upper right there is they’re flying Yeah they’re moving right It’s so easy to see using the those cement blocks in the background as an indicator [Music] Okay we’re here at mile 176 on Kola Hill which happens to be the longest climb on the course It’s about a half mile long Not very long as uh compared to maybe some other climbs out there but you hit it really deep in the race Um it looks like on Saturday it’s going to be hot it’s going to be sunny This climb is also super super exposed If it’s windy there’s nowhere to hide Um back in 2019 I remember actually cramping on this hill even though it’s not that long So uh once once you’re that deep into the race um Kola Hill is definitely really going to hurt And one other cool thing about this section of the course is most of the pros will be catching a lot of the hundred mileers at this point And oftentimes there’s a long line of people even just walking up this climb cheering for the pros as you know we rip by trying to decide our race So uh it’s a classic part of the Unbound course [Music] Well Kola Hill the real deal It is pointing straight up There are a lot of folks going different speeds You can see the excited folks don’t know what’s going on Cam just a little bit of tap saying “Guess what guys We are rolling through.” Kind of like the tour kind of like the Gro on those mountain tops This is out in the Flint Hills These two are now trying to stay keep their momentum What a gap they have over the chase They know it They’re getting their first real splits Cam soaking some stuff up Some information These guys are thirsty It is full exposure out here Once we pass the lake you could just tell the winds are howling So filling you in from the field from our perspective One more hill to go Highland Hill is fast approaching That’s going to be the final opportunity to use any sort of an incline as a springboard And we’ve been saying it We think Po may be uh ready to play out that card but we are going to see here momentarily All right Cam In my opinion even though he knows he might be strong in her sprint he’s got to assume that maybe Simon is going to wa Look at this Look at this Look at this I was just going to say he’s riding away Cam Jones with the attack right from the front So Simon Jones wasting no time Po literally no response So this is the move Cam Jones looking back over his shoulder out of the saddle again A big acceleration as he’s now coming into that deviation area So Cam Jones making the moves along the home straight here And I’ll tell you what we couldn’t have asked for a better day coming across the line with a huge win at the 2025 Lifetime Unbound presented by Shimano Cam Jones out of New Zealand will be your champion on the day Yeah Coming in with a welldeserved silver medal and not too unhappy about it Tossing a bottle to the crowd Simon Palo the aggressive rider Tourn Road doing what we know he can do He’s just enough in the tank Takes one look back Toby Road will be your bronze medalist here today with a wellexecuted sprint [Music] [Music] Hi everyone I am Meredith Miller and I am here with Cameron Jones your unbound 200 men’s winner Not only did you punch your ticket for the wild card selection so you are now in the Grand Prix for the rest of the year but you won Unbound with a long se uh long range attack with one other rider Did you plan on doing that from the very beginning Uh I think like I was saying to you yesterday I was like it’s probably in my best interest to play it safe cuz there’s more than just like the race on the line there’s the the chance to be in the Grand Prix that could potentially lose if I did do sort of anything reckless But I was the whole time just saying “Who am I kidding I’m just going to ascend it.” Um out on my wrecky rides I thought that sort of towards the end of Divide Road would be a nice place to be in the front It looks like it last year it sat up a bit and then that next little loop there’s some some technical stuff It’s always nice to be able to ride the front and actually see where you’re going It’s It’s safer so you when you can see any obstacles Um yeah I end up going a bit earlier than than I planned Um it sort of was all strung out coming into Escridge and yeah saw Keegan and my buddy Max sort of chopping off at the front and I went to join in the fun and then rolled through and they all stopped So I just like kept on going and um I was like “Oh I’m committed now.” So managed to bridge across to there’s actually quite a big group up the road I hadn’t really taken much notice of what was going on and they were all spread out through throughout divide road and again it was good to have everything sort of in single fire and spaced out so I could see where I was going and just rode straight through the the initial break We’ve got a a great chasing group but they’re uh as unified as they seem they’re actually losing time still Let’s uh check in with Lauren Hall Maybe she can give us a little more insight as to how these splits are going on up there Yeah Bill you know you were talking that there was only 20 30 miles left but we are in those long late miles right And every hill is really starting to add up Carol is definitely starting rocking side by side taking on fuel And when we were going up and over Hill she was given the look back because she didn’t know that split I think she now knows the split to that chase group But uh yeah like you’re saying always cognizant of what’s behind you but Carol is definitely pushing forward But yeah Minan still looking strong Decker her teammate back there just about five minutes down in this chase group Uh maybe they were looking pretty unified now looking maybe a little less so as they’ve reeled in Stevens And we talked about uh the potential for that earlier They knew three riders went off but that was so many hours ago that uh they’ve caught one of them now So maybe they’re kind of you know not resting on their laurels a little bit but they’re like “All right we we kind of close that chapter so we’re going to take just a little bit of a breather right now.” And you know obviously that’s not going to help their cause into uh trying to compete for those top two positions So here we are on Highland Hill the final incline of the day and doesn’t have to worry about a surprise attack from anybody You know can just ride her tempo a little bit and it’s going to be one of the biggest wins as we’ve got uh one of our great fans out there and I bet she’s looking at that hot dog and maybe salivating a little bit about uh what’s to come here to enjoy the fruits of her labor She is celebrating So what a great champion out here today to cap off our women’s elite 200mile race Round number two of the lifetime Grand Prix Your champion just about to get herself across the line It looks to me like there’s a whole lot of emotion in this finish I would imagine some tears are being shed because what a day on the bike The crowd showing their love the hands in the air well before the finish line And I’ll tell you what it’s you couldn’t ask for a better finish in this 2 hours solo to take the win here Silver medal ride on the day going to go to Cesaly Decker And she’s looking like uh she can’t even celebrate right now She’s she is cooked And here comes our women’s chase getting ready to fight it out for the third step on the podium here at Highland Hill Oh Cecile making the first move here Huge acceleration from Cecil Lune right now Hard to see if anyone was able to follow her wheel Not surprised given the way that out Okay we see the wheel there That’s Rosa right there Yeah Rosa Rosa very quick to react Remember when Sophia attacked a while ago Rosa was the first one to respond to Sophia Look at Sophia’s body language the shoulders That would Oh look at this One rider going the wrong way Rosa going the wrong way making that turn So that’s going to be uh potentially a big issue if if Cecil Lune Yeah Cecil Lune realizes what happened Waiting to see if Sophia makes the big move around Rosa not making a move There goes Cecil Lune up along the fencing Lun coming up That door going to stay open It’s going to be Oh this is down to the wire Sophia looks like she’s going to have enough Can Rosa come on by Oh all the way to the line That is close It looks from our vantage point like Sophia just got that one on the line What an amazing finish [Music] Hey this is Pac McKelvin with today’s winner Ko who just finished a 40mile solo 2hour solo Tell me about what was going through your head those last couple of hours I just thought if I was stupid or genius Um yeah I I I didn’t know if I will make it to till the finish I would say till last 5k really you you didn’t know that you had a 18minute lead well Cesaly was maybe I think six seven minutes back but to the third group you had a huge lead okay I I was not aware I knew that Cesily was back but I also know know that she’s super strong uh and you also can have a flat you can crash you never know so you were on the gas all the way until Highland Hill or when did you allow yourself to start enjoying it a little bit Uh yeah the the last uh tarmac climb then I knew that I won Uh and I started to really smiling and just just couldn’t [Music] believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] Yeah Nothing I’m [Music] done Heat Heat [Music] Oh my Oh no [Music] [Music] H Fire [Music] [Music] [Music]