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News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n In an exclusive interview, the Kiwi privateer talks about the unorthodox approach that toppled multi-time series champion Keegan Swenson and reshaped the gravel hierarchy.<\/p>\n Josh Weinberg, Scott USA, SBT GRVL<\/p>\n By the time autumn rolled around, Cameron Jones had time to breathe. The bike was hung up, the legs were tired, and the season that took him from the gravel backroads of Kansas to the thin air of Leadville was behind him. After a whirlwind year, Jones found quiet: camping, shuttling, and watching the leaves fall \u2013 a stark contrast to the chaos of going from competing for a Life Time Grand Prix wildcard to dethroning the sport’s dominant rider, Keegan Swenson, as overall series champion.<\/p>\n A year ago, Jones wasn\u2019t even on the series’ start list. He\u2019d been left off the Grand Prix roster entirely, his 2024 season \u2013 including eighth place at the Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL and 17th at Unbound \u2013 somehow not enough to earn him a spot among the invite-only elite. But rejection became fuel. From the moment he lined up at the 2025 Sea Otter Gravel round as a wildcard entry, the 25-year-old from New Zealand was racing with something to prove, and by the time he rolled into Emporia, Kansas for Unbound, he didn\u2019t just prove he belonged. He claimed gravel’s biggest victory and set the stage for an equally remarkable feat: becoming overall champion of a series he hadn’t been invited to race at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Cameron Jones fueled his way to Unbound glory<\/p>\n Jones kept his engine running at top shape for nine hours with 200 g of carbs per hour from a homemade energy drink, jam sandwiches, and a little \u2018bro science.\u2019<\/p>\n With the season wrapped up, Jones shared his thoughts on his remarkable season. From his early-season motivation to becoming the first athlete to end Swenson\u2019s reign in the series, along with his rudimentary approach to equipment testing, Jones is an open book, a rider who works with what he\u2019s got and lets his legs do the talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n From rejection to redemption<\/p>\n The 2025 season got off to a bumpy start for Jones. After a 2024 debut in the US gravel scene, the Life Time Grand Prix was the target until he discovered he hadn\u2019t made the cut, failing to be selected for one of the 22 automatic roster spots <\/a>in the overall series.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a bit of a hit because I put a lot of effort into last season to try and get results at Life Time races against these guys to show I was good enough,\u201d Jones explained. In addition to his strong showings at Sea Otter and Unbound, Jones raced to 15th place at SBT GRVL, and 4th in the overall general classification of the Oregon Trail five-day stage race.\u00a0He thought that would be enough, until it wasn’t.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just Jones who was surprised. \u201cKeegan and a bunch of the guys even messaged Life Time asking why I wasn\u2019t in,\u201d he said. The support boosted his confidence, but 2025 still wasn\u2019t shaping up as planned. Rather than letting the setback derail him, Jones used it as motivation. \u201cIt definitely gave me a bit of extra fuel to train and make sure I could prove a point,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although he had not automatically been included in the series, there was still a chance to build the season he had hoped for. Having applied to be part of the series, he was eligible for one of the three wildcard spots. Those allowed the best-placed riders based on accumulated points after Sea Otter and Unbound to gain entry to the Life Time GP series overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Sea Otter in Monterey, California he took to the start surrounded by the full Grand Prix roster \u2013 the same names that had initially been chosen over him. In 2024 the Sea Otter round was the Fuego XL mountain bike race, but for 2025 it shifted to a longer gravel race. The course was dusty, technical, and brutally fast \u2013 the kind of racing that suited Jones\u2019 strengths. And he rode like his season hung in the balance, because in many ways, it did.<\/p>\n When the dust settled, he finished 12th, right in the middle of the series field. It wasn\u2019t a fluke or a stroke of luck \u2013 it was a statement. The measured Kiwi, absent from the original script, had forced his way into the conversation.<\/p>\n From that point on, Jones\u2019 season began to gather momentum. What felt like rejection became the perfect catalyst, proof that sometimes, being told you\u2019re not good enough is the best motivation.<\/p>\n The Breakthrough: Unbound<\/p>\n After that first taste of proving himself at Sea Otter, the question became: could he do it again, when it mattered most? For Jones, that answer came in the Kansas heat.<\/p>\n Unbound was always the goal. Jones didn\u2019t hide it; it was the race he\u2019d built his entire 2025 season around. He\u2019d raced Unbound once before. His 17th place in 2024 was a respectable result for the privateer, but in Jones\u2019 eyes it was more a lesson in strategy and focus. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the smoothest race, strategy-wise,\u201d he said, looking back. That debut proved he had the legs to compete, but he needed to minimise the chaos, avoid mechanical issues, dial his nutrition, and benefit from a little good fortune. For 2025, he wasn\u2019t there to survive; he was there to win.<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Alex-Hunt-150x150.png\")
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Jones rode to top-20 finishes at Unbound and SBT GRVL, catching the eye of his competitors in his debut season. <\/p>\n
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