An Unbound Gravel 200 title may be the biggest prize in the discipline but until now many of the stories of how the racing unfolded, even right at the pointy end of the field, were revealed hours or days after the event had concluded given the lack of a live broadcast.
In the past viewers from around the world have been kept informed of what’s going on in real time by regular updates via social media and then also a highlights package in later days, though in 2025 there will be an option to watch the race unfold in real time. A free live stream will be on the Life Time YouTube channel for the first time. It is set to run for nearly seven hours of the 200 mile event, which generally takes well over nine hours for the leading men and ten hours for the leading women.
“At Life Time, we’re focused on elevating the sport of cycling at every level, and bringing live, free-to-stream coverage of the Life Time Unbound Gravel presented by Shimano is a major step in that journey,” said Life Time Senior Vice President of Media and Events, Kimo Seymour, in a statement. “With real-time storytelling, expert commentary, and a global audience tuning in, we are committed to making this iconic race more accessible and engaging.”
The May 31 race, also the second round of the Life Time Grand Prix series, starts at 5:50am CT for the elite men and 6:05am for the elite women, with the YouTube coverage set to begin at 10am. The stream will start with a run-through of what has already unfolded to bring viewers up to date and then continue on through with live cover to the end of both races and the post-race interviews.
Payson McElveen – who last year came eighth but is this year out of the race due to injury – Meredith Miller and Bill Elliston will be leading the commentary with Nat Ross and Lauren Hall out on course to deliver updates.
Live coverage of gravel events in general is limited, given the often grass roots nature of the races and high degree of difficulty presented by the remote and rough terrain, but that is changing as the popularity of the discipline booms. A number of live streams have popped up across UCI gravel events and The Traka 360 last month had extensive coverage with a live stream of more than ten hours, which had 71,000 views.
Life Time has long delivered highlights packages of the races in its six-event Life Time Grand Prix series in the days following the events, the interest in watching how Unbound unfolds made clear by the 737,000 views of last year’s highlights which showed how the race, won by Rosa Klöser and Lachlan Morton, unfolded.
In the Unbound 200 this year Klöser, who is now racing with Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, will be back to defend her women’s elite title but she’ll have tough competition with the likes of Sofía Gómez Villafañe (Specialized) and Paige Onweller (Trek-Driftless), who came third last year, also lining up. In the elite men’s race key contenders include Keegan Swenson (Santa-Cruz), Tobias Kongstad (PAS Racing) – who came third last year and also won the Traka 360 at the start of this month – and Mattia de Marchi.
Unbound 200 is the flagship event though there are a number of other races also unfolding, with an intriguing battle set to unfold in the 350 mile distance as last year’s 200 winner, Morton (EF Education-EasyPost), steps into the fray while in the 100 mile an in-form Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) will be jumping back in, after a foray into the 200 in 2024, to see if she can reclaim the title she last took in 2023.
