{"id":700863,"date":"2026-05-29T05:11:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700863\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:11:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:11:27","slug":"this-bike-won-the-first-unbound-gravel-20-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/700863\/","title":{"rendered":"This Bike Won the First Unbound Gravel 20 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

What did gravel bikes look like before the true specialist machines we have today? We caught up with Dan Hughes, the first Unbound Gravel champion, to check out the bike he rode to the win in 2006. <\/p>\n

Listen to this articleListen<\/p>\n

Updated May 28, 2026 02:50PM<\/p>\n

When Dan Hughes<\/a> and 33 other people lined up in a dingy hotel parking lot in May of 2006, nobody knew that 20 years later, the 200-mile ride they were about to do would become a global sporting event. At the time, they were just concerned with making it through the 200 miles of gravel one mile at a time, with flat tires the expectation and appropriate equipment a notion without an answer.<\/p>\n

Yet, even though that original race is a far cry from what Unbound Gravel<\/a> is now, it is still riding bikes when all is said and done. So, we took the 20th anniversary as a chance to ask Hughes to grab his original Kansas gravel grinding machine and head into the Flint Hills with us and give a rundown of what Unbound tech was when the whole circus started in a dingy hotel parking lot.<\/p>\n

Gallery: Dan Hughes\u2019 Inaugural Unbound Gravel Winning Bike
\n\"Dan<\/a>Dan Hughes with his Steelman cyclocross bike. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailA lot has changed in off-road cycling tech in the last 20 years. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailA 52\/36T 2x chainring setup is a far cry from the 1x setups and gear ratios of today. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailCampagnolo shifters reflect a time when the Italian brand was on top of drivetrains, and before electronic shifting took over. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailThis cassette leaves a lot to be desired for going uphill. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailNo disc brakes here. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailCarbon fiber on a derailleur, now that\u2019s high tech! (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"Detail\u201cgravel bikes\u201d were still a distant concept in 2006. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailThe tire selection was definitely not as wide as today\u2019s era of 50mm+ tires, but the tread pattern was ready for rough conditions. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailThere were quite a few hand positions on these drop bars, and arguably much less grip at the hoods available than one would prefer off-road. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailExternal cable routing kept things simple. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailYes, that\u2019s a tube *gasp* (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailShimano Dura-Ace cranks break up an otherwise Campagnolo drivetrain. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailThis bike was far from the fully integrated carbon cockpits of today. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"DetailThe locals approve of this piece of history. (Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"Detail(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"Detail(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)
\n\"Detail(Photo: Logan Jones-Wilkins\/Velo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What did gravel bikes look like before the true specialist machines we have today? We caught up with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[168574,49,48,635,55293,82,255159,255160,99778,222517,54267],"class_list":["post-700863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-audio-true","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-gravel","tag-sports","tag-tag-bike-check","tag-tag-dan-hughes","tag-tag-gravel-bike","tag-tag-unbound-gravel","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}