Cameron Jones won the 2025 Unbound Gravel race in a record-breaking time, and he could be set to go even faster at this year’s edition.
That’s because the New Zealander is set to take to the Flint Hills of Kansas, and the world’s premiere gravel race, onboard a prototype Scott bike with 32in wheels.
Jones says the bike makes him feel as if he's “levitating over the surface” and highlights the advantages of the larger wheel size.
“The driving traction and cornering grip is revolutionary. I'm genuinely scared how fast I'll be able to corner once on a course with proper descents,” he says.
Jones will be racing the 200-mile event on the bike from Scott’s Racing Concept, which develops products and tests them in competition, alongside Robin Gemperle, winner of the 2025 Tour Divide and Silk Road Mountain Race. The two athletes have been testing the 32in gravel bike since last year.
Gemperle says: “We started by riding an unfinished bike, with crucial parts still developing. But ever since, I’ve known that even if there wouldn’t be a single additional test ride, I’d immediately take it to racing once granted permission.”
Scott says Unbound Gravel, which runs from Thursday 28 May to Sunday 31 May, pushes riders and equipment to the limit.
“Unbound Gravel has proven to be the perfect proving ground to take innovation out of the lab and into real-world racing conditions,” it says.
Pure prototypes
Scott adds that the bikes ridden by Jones and Gemperle are “pure prototypes” that will never be released on the market. Maybe predictably, it has shared few details about the project beyond the wheel size.
This fits in with other mainstream cycling brands that have said they are developing prototypes but have remained secretive about plans to release 32in bikes to the market.
BMC athletes raced a 32in prototype at the Andorran round of the XC World Cup in July 2025 and the Swiss company later told BikeRadar it had no plans to release a bike with the oversized wheels.
A few weeks ago, Warren Rossiter tested a steel gravel bike with 32in wheels made by Mercx Bikes – but that too is a prototype.
However, this doesn’t mean bikes with 32in wheels aren’t coming. Merida’s Stephan Seitz said the company is developing gravel bikes and cross-country mountain bikes with the wheel size.
Although he didn’t say when Merida would release its bikes, he said we can expect the wheel size to be the performance standard around the spring of 2027.
But even if larger brands are yet to release 32in bikes, the standard has already become a popular choice for bespoke bicycle builders.
