Lachy is going to race the 350-mile Unbound Gravel XL.

“I won the 200 last year and that is as good of an experience as you could have at that race,” Lachlan says. “I had my day there and wouldn't have been able to get motivated to get stuck into just trying to do the same thing again. I wanted to try to do something different. The XL is the obvious other option. I thought it would be cool to race overnight, unsupported. It is going to be a very different event and experience this year around. I definitely have to work out a whole new way to race with a different setup, different bike, different approach. It is nice that it is not just going to come and do the same thing.”

Lachy is a racer at heart and racing full tilt for 350 miles across the Flint Hills in Kansas will force him to use all of the power, skills, and smarts that he has been honing since he was a junior back in Australia. Lachlan will have to carry his own food and water, fix mechanicals, and wield his energy wisely over what is likely to be a 20-plus-hour race on chunky, unrelenting dirt.

Once the flag drops, he will be in the flow, flying over the prairie gravel like only he knows how. It’s the extra 150 miles out in the Kansas heat that scares him in a good way. Long days in the saddle are Lachy’s jam. On expeditions like the AltTour, Great Southern Country, and One Ride Away, he pushed the limits of human endurance. Riding for most of a day is what he loves to do. Racing for that long is something else.

Lachlan would love to add another Unbound trophy to the shelf in his California workshop, but the real appeal of racing Unbound XL is the sheer challenge of it. He’s going to roll up to the start line relaxed and let the day be what it will be.

“I am just trying not to get too carried away and overwhelmed by all the buzz and stress and tension that can exist around this race. It has definitely become such a big goal for so many gravel riders. And it's really important, not only for them, but for their sponsors to perform here and that all trickles down to the athletes who are racing and that can be pretty daunting and stressful, so I'm trying to avoid that sort of approach and be like, ‘Okay, cool, I get to come here.’ I get to try something new, and try and soak it all in and be present. There is so much going on here with athletes from all over, which is great, but so much of it exists now for the internet, and I want to try to remember that it actually just exists here in person with all the people that are here and that's what you're here for.”

Unbound will always be about so much more than just the front ends of its bike races. Behind Lachy and his fellow competitors in the elite pack, thousands of gravel riders take on their own adventures in the Flint Hills, testing their mettle over the Kansan dirt. The race is America’s great cycling festival. That’s what Lachy likes about it. He wants to make sure that his experience of Unbound stays close to what has made it special from the start and what continues to make it special for so many gravel riders.

“We have this ritual of driving out here all the way from my home in California,” Lachlan says. “It is cool because you drive essentially halfway across the country. You get to see a lot on the way here. You get to see the landscape change on the drive up. And you feel a bit more connected once you get here. Emporia is a beautiful, quiet place with amazing country roads that just roll out of town. Unbound feels a world away from the first time we came in terms of the atmosphere around it and the importance. I think that trying to remember that it's still the same thing and to approach it that way is important.”

That has sure worked well for Lachlan in the past. However his race goes at Unbound XL, he’ll end the day with one great story amongst the thousands of great stories that will be remembered long after this weekend in Emporia.

Go, Lachlan!

Lachlan is going to race Unbound XL on his brand new Topstone Carbon.

Cannondale’s best all-round gravel bike is built for long, fast days on the dirt. Its superlight Kingpin rear suspension will help Lachlan keep traction on the roughest terrain, so he doesn’t waste a watt across all 350 miles of Unbound XL. The thru-axel pivot on the seat tube provides 30mm of travel to smooth out the chunky gravel he’ll face in Kansas without compromising stiffness or power transfer, so he can sprint out of corners and towards the finish line. Cannondale’s OutFront steering geometry with extra long fork is built to float over the rough stuff nimbly.

Across 350 miles of Kansan dirt, aerodynamics will make a huge difference. Lachlan is running 40cm J-ben aero bars on his Vision HB Metron 4D Flat M.A.S. cockpit, so he can tuck under the wind and save his strength for when it counts. Being able to shift into another position will help him ease the strain of the close to 20-hour day. So will Fizik’s Vento solocush handle bar tape.

Many of those hours will be raced in the dark, or what would be dark if Lachy wasn’t rocking a Knog Blinder X 2300 front light and Knog Blinder R-150 rear light. He has the Knog Blinder X 2300 mounted to his bars, so he can easily flick through the different brightness modes, turning it right up for more technical sections.

Lachlan will run FSA AGX wheels with Vittoria Mezcal 44s, which fly on the straights and grip great in the corners. He will navigate the Flint Hills using his new Wahoo Roam 3 and stay hydrated thanks to his Gregory 3D Hydro 2L Reservoir.

Check out the full specs of Lachlan’s 2025 Unbound XL race bike.