Before UNBOUND Gravel XL, we took a look at Josh’s Trek Checkpoint and the gear he chose for one of the most unhinged gravel races on the calendar. The plan was simple, at least on paper: ride 350-plus miles through Kansas, stay moving through the night, and try to finish in around 27 hours.
Simple. Definitely not easy.
Now the bike is back in our studio, the race dust is still baked into every corner, and Josh has had some time to process what actually happened out there. So this is the follow-up: what worked, what didn’t, what the bike looked like after the finish, and what Josh learned after spending a very long time alone with his Trek Checkpoint in the Flint Hills.
The quick version: How did UNBOUND XL go?
UNBOUND Gravel XL is already a ridiculous event in a normal year. It is long, remote, self-supported, and very good at turning small problems into big ones. This year added another layer with rain, mud, mechanical chaos, and the usual Kansas “why am I doing this?” energy.
Josh went into the race aiming for a 27-hour finish, which meant he couldn’t just ride strong, he had to keep stops short, manage food, deal with whatever the course threw at him, and not let one bad hour turn into a completely derailed race.
Here’s how it ended up:
Final time: moving: 23h total: 27h
Distance: 275mi
Flats / mechanicals: 1 flat / 4 chain drops
Hardest moment:
Josh’s hardest moment came between rest stop 4 and rest stop 5, a 67-mile stretch from mile 208 to mile 275 that took nearly 10 hours.
“The hardest part was walking for seven hours, 15 miles, and almost getting struck by lightning while hiking my bike in mud in a field,” Josh said. “There was no place to go, no cell service, and I hadn’t seen anyone for the last three hours.”
That stretch pushed the race from hard into full survival mode. Josh eventually made it to the next stop with less than 100 miles left, but the effort had taken a serious toll. An Achilles strain that started around mile 80 had gotten worse, and another severe thunderstorm was rolling in between the final rest stop and the finish.
“The storm was showing a 25 mph headwind for the last 40-plus miles,” Josh said. “I don’t think I would have made it before the 3 a.m. cutoff safely.”
So with less than 100 miles to go, Josh made the call to stop. It was brutal, especially after making it that deep into UNBOUND XL, but it was the right decision. There is stubborn, and then there is smart. After hours of hiking through mud, lightning, no service, an angry Achilles, and another storm moving in, safety had to win.
Best moment:
"The whole thing! But really the people I got to meet and riding in the middle of the night was amazing."
Well said Josh.
The bike after 250 miles
This is the part I was most excited to see: the bike after the race.
A clean race bike is cool, but a post-race bike tells the better story. Always makes me think of Greg Minnaar's 2013 World Champs V10. Pure art, flat tire and all. 
Photo cred: Morgan Taylor
The dust, the mud, the worn drivetrain, the scuffed bags, the tired bar tape, all of that is the receipt. You can look at the bike and immediately tell it had a day.
Or, in this case, a day and a night.
Josh’s Trek Checkpoint came back looking exactly how a bike should look after UNBOUND XL: used, tired, and somehow cooler than before.
And believe it or not, this is after a gas station power-washing.
The drivetrain and tires are usually where you can see what a race like this does to components. Kansas mud and grit does not care how nice your parts are. By the end of the race, everything has been grinding away for hours, and if your chain, cassette, pulleys, tires and brakes are still cooperating, that feels like a win by itself.
Knobs were ripped off from the amount of mud.
Not one part was spared from the mud and grass.
The mud worked its way all the way up the steerer tube.
What worked
A few things absolutely worked, and some of them were expected. Others were very much not.
“Waxed chain, PAINT STICK. Never thought I would ever need it, but man, I did.”
That might be the most UNBOUND XL gear note possible. In a race where mud can turn a bike into a 30-pound anchor, a simple paint stick became one of the most useful tools on the bike. Not glamorous. Very effective.
The cockpit setup was another big win.
“Aero bars are a must for a ride this long,” Josh said. “Just to change up and rest your arms.”
Over 300-plus miles, comfort stops being a luxury and starts becoming part of your pacing strategy. Having another position to rotate into can save your hands, shoulders, neck, and back when the hours start piling up.
Josh was also sold on the suspension fork.
“The suspension fork was a game changer,” he said. “I never realized how much of a difference it made until I got home and switched back to a rigid fork.”
On a race as long and rough as UNBOUND XL, small hits add up fast. The fork helped take the edge off the course, which matters when you’re trying to keep pedaling deep into the night and through the next day.
Lighting and electronics were another place where his setup paid off.
“The Exposure light was the best investment,” Josh said. “I was able to charge my Garmin from the flashlight itself in the morning once the sun came up.”
For a race that runs through the night, lights are not just about seeing the road. They are part of the survival system: navigation, battery management, and making sure your gear keeps working when you’re far from help.
Nutrition was less flashy, but just as important.
“The best nutrition idea I had was salt tablets,” Josh said. “I would just constantly keep eating them during the day.”
He also had a backup plan for his stomach.
“My stomach never had many issues, but a big hack is to bring ginger chews with you for if your gut starts to get upset.”
And while he expected to carry mostly water, the reality of the race changed that quickly.
“I almost never had water in my pack like I thought I would,” Josh said. “It was always full of Gatorade or some kind of hydration mix because of how long I was riding. It was just so hard to keep up with drinking that much water and electrolytes.”
That’s the kind of lesson you only really learn out there. On paper, hydration seems simple: drink enough, eat enough, keep moving. But after hours of mud, heat, storms, and effort, keeping up with fluids and electrolytes becomes its own race inside the race.
What didn't work
Not everything went perfectly, and some of Josh’s biggest lessons were less about the bike and more about what he carried.
“I packed too much nutrition and little things like charge cables and spare nutrition,” Josh said. “Next time, I would pack more for the first one or two stops, then rely on buying my nutrition at the later stops.”
That is a tricky balance in a race like UNBOUND XL. You need to be self-sufficient enough to survive long remote stretches, but every extra item adds weight, clutter, and one more thing to manage when you’re already tired. Before the race, extra food and backup cables feel like smart insurance. After 200 miles, they can start to feel like bricks.
Speaking of bricks, how much weight do you think that mud added?
The big lesson: plan heavy for the early, more uncertain hours, then use later stops to reset. That keeps the bike lighter and makes the whole system easier to manage as fatigue builds.
Josh also came away with a hard lesson about heat, hydration, and managing his body during the worst parts of the course.
“After hiking and being low on water and food with 40 miles left before the next stop, I would try and focus on staying cooler to make sure my body does not overheat,” Josh said.
That stretch was already brutal: hiking through mud, running low on supplies, and still having a long way to go before the next chance to regroup. In that kind of situation, pacing is not just about speed. It is about keeping your body from tipping too far into the red. Staying cooler, slowing down when needed, and protecting energy can matter more than trying to force the pace.
What a fun-looking hike.
In other words, the lesson was not just what to bring next time. It was how to manage the bad moments better once the race stops going to plan.
Would Josh do it again?
"Is this even a question to ask? HELL YEAH I WOULD!!!!!!! When is the next one? Because I will be there!"
Nuff said.
Final thoughts
Before the race, Josh’s Trek Checkpoint was a plan. Every part had a reason. Tires, gearing, bags, lights, cockpit, all of it was chosen for a very specific job. After the race, the bike became proof of what worked, what got tested, and what survived.
Josh’s UNBOUND XL ride was big, messy, exhausting, and probably a little ridiculous. Exactly as advertised.
And the Checkpoint? It came back with a story.
Happy and ready for the course, then... delusional?
