Continental Dubnital Race Rapid 29 x 2.0 off road rolling resistance results 📊

Continental's Race King (Dubnital as of 2025) originated in prototoype form during 2007 as the 26 x 2.2" Race King World Cup, ridden to a UCI Wolrd Cup Overall Title by Irina Kalentieva, and released in 2008 to the public in Supersonic and World Cup editions with the Black Chili compound. It took until 2009 for the thicker Protection version to gain the high performing Black Chili compound.

2009 also brought a 29 inch Race King with Black Chili compound and eventually combined this with the Protection sidewall for a fast and durable 29 x 2.2 in 2012 while the 29 x 2.0 variant had to settle for the slower Pure Grip construction, leaving many riders wishing for a high performance Race King in a 29 x 2.0 size. Conti released the tire tested here at the 2026 Sea Otter Classic a couple weeks ago. For all intents and purposes, the 29 x 2.0 Continental Dubnital Race Rapid is THE tire so many have waited to see.

My set of 2.0 Dubs averaged 573 grams and aired up to 50 mm wide on 25 mm internal width Reserve carbon rims. They had a flat bead to bead width of 133 mm reflected in their height off the rim at 49 mm. I used Orange Seal Regular here for the tubeless setup again. Sidewalls are 0.98 mm thick, so very similar to the 2.2 and 2.4 Dubnitals I tested last year. These were very easy to inflate and I have really enjoyed them so far.

Speed wise, these are very fast… competitive with the Schwalbe RX PRO 700 x 50, one of my favorite tires I have tested. The 2.0 Dubnital is also remarkably fast on the smooth pavement test course. The tread has broad coverage to the outer edges, giving some promise of bonus sidewall protection. Yeah, there are faster tires in this size range but not very many! Impressive work from Conti here and big thanks to Quality Bicycle Products making sure I got some of these to test!

All outdoor results my own via Chung Method/VE testing. This is significantly more accurate than rolldown, timed tests, etc. Wattages at speed are calculated from CRR values so easily scale to whatever speed you want.

Note- Everyone wants to know…what pressure am I using? Obviously, larger tires will require lower pressure than smaller ones to get the best speed and handling in general…especially off road. The Wolf Tooth Advanced calculator is very good in my usage for gravel and mtb tires. The Rough Gravel setting seems to get quite close to best pressure for not only rolling efficiency (yes, even on gravel that’s not super rough) but also comfort and handling. I will start with that based on the measured tire size, go ride some, recheck pressure once the tire warms up, then reasess the setting based on how the tire is riding. If it feels obviously harsh, go down 1 psi…. If it feels squirmy or I am smacking the rim on hard hits, I will go up 1 psi, maybe 2 in that situation. Often I end up sticking quite close to what the calculator says initially but it isn't written in stone. Rolling efficiency is actually almost identical (reference some testing I posted spring 2025 for this graphically) across a bigger span of tire pressures off road than most realize, which means it is quite easy to get the pressure where the tire will be fastest…the rest is fine tuning to rider preference. Even though I’m testing, I am also enjoying being out there so take the extra steps to see how the tire performs best. Ultimately there is no magic “best” pressure… it is up to rider preference with no real speed penalty unless you really mess it up one way or another, and that is a big reason I am explaining this in such detail. It’s not to justify my results, it’s to encourage folks to keep an open mind about how they set their tires and get the best ride possible. All the Smooth Pavement testing I do is with the tires set to the PSI I would use for riding on average pavement, so in practice about 5-7 psi higher than I would use for off road riding.

2007 race king World Cup photo credit to Luke Webber (cycling news)