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I don’t think the carbon Topstone was out for Kanza 2019. The Supersix looked the right choice for Old Man Mountain as it was pretty smooth. Lachlan rode the Topstone for GB Duro and Badlands. Ted King has been on the Topstone for gravel for a while, so I’d expect to see EF on it again pretty soon. I’ll defer to your insider knowledge, but surely they’d ride the Topstone for Unbound or similar now…?
snoops-
No, Topstone is pretty far from what you would want to be riding at the pointy end of a fast paced ‘proper’ gravel race, amongst select group of riders who are at the top of the game currently… which is what the final selection at Unbound will always be. Yes, Topstone is a gravel bike, but I wouldn’t call it a gravel ‘racing’ bike by any means. It has old man geometry….. kingpin rear end would be far from ideal in an out and out sprint situation. It’s more suited to long distance mixed terrain races like GB Duro, or events like Grinduro that have a wide variety of terrain, including proper singletrack off road sections and the like. It’s also a bit of a porker thanks to the kingpin system.
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EF riders haven’t ridden actual gravel bikes in any gravel races to date, they have chosen to ride either the SuperX or the SuperSix. The bikes they are riding in that pic you linked are SuperX’s, which is a CX bike, not a gravel bike.