Unbound Gravel is simply wrapping up with one other spherical of spirited racing proper to the road. The occasion has additionally acted once more as a launchpad for a brand new gravel drivetrain seemingly in improvement. This yr, it appears that evidently a brand new SRAM group has damaged cowl after being noticed on a number of bikes.
Regardless of SRAM remaining coy on the brand new elements, it appears that evidently by the point the race rolled round, not one of the riders had been actually attempting to cover something. Within the case above, Keegen Senson posted photographs of his Santa Cruz Stigmata on social media, with the brand new rear derailleur on full show.
The important thing takeaway right here is that the derailleur is visually completely different than any of the present MTB-focused SRAM Transmission choices, and it seems to have a battery mounted to the highest of the physique like the present (and most up-to-date) GX Eagle Transmission. Phrase on the road is that this derailleur is paired to a 13-speed cassette, which provides it another than the just lately up to date SRAM RED highway group.
Judging by the graphics on the shifters, it appears that evidently the group nonetheless runs the latest SRAM RED shifters with up to date ergonomics. Since digital AXS shifters are simply buttons primarily, it needs to be no drawback to alter the shifter to a 13-speed with a firmware replace.
Keegan opted for a inflexible put up for the race, however the lack of a entrance derailleur signifies that the now-unused left shifter could possibly be used to activate a RockShox Reverb AXS dropper put up like current XPLR 1x teams.
For Keegan, he wasn’t in a position to repeat his 2023 Unbound win, ending with a good 14th for the 200-mile Elite race after Lachlan Morton blazed to the end with a time of 9:11:47 — the quickest time to this point.
