Just last year, Lachlan Morton smashed the existing Unbound course record* with a 9:11:47 finish. But now, Cameron Jones (Scott-Shimano) has obliterated even that. His 8:37:09 finish shattered Morton’s time by more than 34 minutes, a leap almost unthinkable in endurance racing.
It wasn’t long ago that winning Unbound in under 10 hours was considered blisteringly fast. But gravel’s most iconic race has evolved at warp speed. This year, a sub-10-hour finish would have put you 81st. Even Lachlan Morton’s 2023 record time was smashed by over 30 riders, and the previous best on this course was bettered by 41 athletes.
Of course, the conditions can play a massive role at Unbound. This year, the riders were lucky, although the course had been muddy in the lead up to the race, come Saturday, any sign of mud was gone. The heat would play a factor, especially in riders' hydration strategies, with the daytime temperature reaching 30ºC (85ºF).
With the race time shortening by around 13% in the past few editions, power demands have risen. Now, to win Unbound, you have to be even more superhuman. To unpack just what it took, I dive into Jones' numbers to put some context around his 2025 Unbound 200’s victory.
*(Unbound switches between a north and a south course every two years. The last time this course was used in 2022, the winning time was 9:22:04.)
The pace was unreal from the gun
Looking at Jones’ data from the first four hours of Unbound, you would be forgiven for thinking that he had raced the 100-mile course. After the opening hour, which was the only one to average less than 320 watts, Jones went full throttle early. His first four hours read more like a one-day road classic than the opening stanza of a 200-mile slog through Kansas.
Unsurprisingly, Jones’ second hour was the most intense of the whole race, as he decided to throw his cards down and proceed to flip the table with 150 miles of racing remaining. He took off up the road, dragging only Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling) away from the chasing peloton in the process. Regardless of Jones’ exact weight, pushing a normalised power of 388 watts for an hour with nearly seven hours of racing ahead is a bold strategy. Things barely settled much in the following two hours either, with his average power only dropping by 15 watts in the third hour, far from a recovery pace after his effort to shake the bunch.
A 150-Mile breakaway? Why not
After only two hours and nine minutes of racing, Jones made what turned out to be the race's decisive move. Considering the firepower of the riders behind, heading off with just a single rider for company was a gutsy move, but now with the data to back up the ride, Jones looked unstoppable.
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