Puppy paws position set for a comeback at 2023 Unbound Gravel

Bar top hacks spotted to pad the bar tops so riders can adopt the UCI-banned position in comfort at the elite race

The decision to ban the use of aero bars and extensions among the elite men's and women's racers at Unbound Gravel 2023 has led riders to look for other ways to add comfort when adopting a more aero riding position.

Over the 200-mile course of the elite event, aerodynamics play an important role and, in previous years, aero bars or extensions have been de rigueur among the top racers, with last year's winner Ivar Slik equipping his Wilier Rave SLR with extensions custom 3D printed to fit the bike.

Dylan Johnson has headed to the wind tunnel to quantify the advantages that aero bars can provide and came away with a 41-watt saving from getting long and low on the bike. That's a big gain that won't be available to elite riders in this year's race.

But pack racing has largely replaced solo efforts at the pointy end of gravel races, so Slik, for example, says that he spent around 15 per cent of his time on his bar extensions at last year's race.

The ban means that riders are looking for different ways to reduce their frontal profile and so improve their aerodynamics when riding the Flint Hills.

That's led to several bikes that we’ve spotted in the run-up to tomorrow's race being adapted so that riders can adopt the "puppy paws" position more comfortably, with their forearms resting on the bar tops.

Although the UCI banned the ride position last year, gravel racing is still outside the UCI's reach, so that riders are not subject to the UCI's ban.

Here are three adaptations to the tops that caught our attention.

Innokenty Zavyalov has adapted his Vision Metron 4D bars with extra tape and padding towards the stem. Interestingly, as is now common with aero profile bars, the outer section of the tops is untaped, despite the extra vibration that will be transmitted from the gravel when riding with his hands on the bar tops.

Dylan Johnson has gone further, with the Black Inc one-piece bar/stem on his Factor Ostro Gravel fully taped despite the likely loss of efficiency for his aero profile tops. The central section has been heavily over-taped though, to provide some extra padding when resting his forearms on the tops.

Kerry Werner has purpose-designed protection on the Coefficient RR Carbon bars on his Kona Libre. You can't see in the shots, but the Coefficient bars not only have a 12-degree backsweep and 7-degree flare to the drops, they also slope downwards by 15 degrees through the tops. There are two positions on the underside of the tops in which wired Shimano satellite shifters can be sited.

The bars’ slope gives an aggressive aero position in the drops, but Werner has also fitted Coefficient's rubber top grips to his tops. Although these are primarily designed to provide grip when holding the tops in wet weather, they should provide some extra comfort when resting his forearms on the tops.

Adaptations for riding puppy paws are among the more innovative hacks we’ve seen on bikes at Unbound Gravel in recent years.

We’ve got a rundown of other tech to expect to see to help riders squeeze a few extra watts out of their bikes and maybe the winning edge.

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Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way.

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