Late last week, we shared Scott’s teaser of their 32″ gravel bike prototype being raced for the first time over the weekend. Then, on Saturday afternoon, after 21 hours and 20 minutes of wet and dirty gravel racing, including an apparent 13 miles on foot because of extreme weather destroying the dirt roads (Yikes!), Robin Gemperle took the 2026 Unbound XL win on that 32″ Addict Gravel prototype.
Clearly, 32″ wheels are going to continue to make a splash in gravel racing. Let’s take another glance at what makes this bike unique…
Robin Gemperle’s prototype Scott Addict Gravel RC 32″ bike
Look, there’s really no more new tech unveiled in this quick follow-up story to last week’s 32″ prototype reveal. But we can see a bit more of Gemperle’s actual race bike setup. And while we still don’t know much more about his deep aero carbon wheels, we did get a glimpse of the Industry Nine hubs at their core (just like Scott teammate Cameron Jones’ bike).
And it certainly is interesting to see the big-wheeled prototype raced to a win in its first outing.
The dirt of Emporia, Kansas gravel roads that notoriously turns into peanut butter when it gets wet, always means that Unbound can be a brutal testing grounds. And contrary to how clean Gemperle’s bike looked at the finish, it was. It just seems that the XL race was so long, racers had time to clean their bikes mid-race, and were much cleaner at the finish line than at several points through the night.
It’s also worth noting, that even though 237 racers started the 356.5 mile (573.7km) race. Only 59 made it to the finish line. Brutal.
XL-winning setup
Pre-race, we only saw that Robin Gemperle had set up his 32″ prototype 32″ Scott Addict Gravel RC bike with 2 bottle cages and a long aerodynamic Apidura Aero Top Tube Module bag. That extended Apidura bag is available as a pre-order for bolt-on installation, but not yet this 2-strap version.
That certainly wasn’t enough to carry all the fuel & gear Gemperle would need, even though he is said to be “known for packing light“. But on Friday afternoon, he rolled up with the latest Apidura Racing Hydration Vest packed with more fluid and the rest of his essentials. Plus, jersey pockets stuffed to the brim at the start.
As for his ultra-distance cockpit setup, Gemperle was running a set of Profile Design ASC Carbon Supersonic aero bar clip-on extensions with extra-thick forearm pads, clamped to a narrow 360mm flared Syncros aluminum handlebar.
And for lighting, he ran a Supernova B54 high-beam equipped headlight with its big battery strapped over his stem, and his Garmin GPS mounted with zip-ties on top of that. All of it tucks in quite nicely with the high-rise clip-on aerobar setup. Then, out back, his Garmin inReach Mini satellite tracker gets tucked under the saddle, with a simple little Redstream taillight that attaches to a 1/4-turn GPS mount underneath.
Nighttime mudfest for 32″ wheels
A number of readers questioned tire clearance in the initial 32″ prototype story – with not a ton of extra space visible between frame & tire. After all, Gemperle is said to be racing 50mm (2.0″) gravel tires, while most new 32″ tires we’ve seen launched this spring are 2.4″.
But it looks like there was ample mud clearance, at least for most of the race. Race reports do mention 13 miles of running with bikes, though. And there were a bunch of deep water crossing, too.
Racing 32″ vs. 29″ / 700c
It looks and sounds like lower rolling resistance and increased rollover of the bigger wheels were both beneficial to Gemperle over the super long distance, and lower average speed of the XL (16.71mph vs. 22.38mph in the 200). There might not have been quite as much of an advantage for his teammate Jones – 10th-place in the faster-paced 200-mile race, who also looks to have faced much muddier track conditions overall.
It was interesting to note that a lot of the top XL racers were on bikes with wider MTB-style tires or suspension forks for the added comfort to survive such a long distance. So the extra weight penalty of a larger diameter wheel was likely less of a hindrance for Gemperle – with the smoother rolling also allowing him to ride a simpler setup with ‘relatively smaller’ gravel race tires.
Gemperle said after the race that racing the prototype was “absolutely amazing” and that he was “pretty sure that it is faster than what [he] would have been riding otherwise“. The 32” wheels felt faster to him. But racing a unique prototype that so many people worked so hard on, was also a big motivator to push harder.
It’ll be interesting to see where this 32″ prototype does next!
