Underbiking Lives! A Road Bike Just Swept Gravel Nationals.

Trek swept the elite titles at the US Gravel Nationals, but not with the bikes that you—or seemingly Trek—expected. The men’s and women’s races were won on the Trek Domane, the brand’s new endurance road bike.

Both Cobe Freeburn and Paige Onweller won their respective races on the Domane with 45mm tires. The bike has a stated official clearance of 40mm, but as is often the case, there was room for a rider to push beyond that limit by a few millimeters. Typically, the stated clearance allows for 6mm of clearance around the measured width of the tire, with some variation depending on rim width.

In other words, putting 45mm of tire on a 40mm bike is not something that you should try at home, but pros often are willing to risk a bit of frame damage for boundary-pushing setups. The Trek Domane that both of the riders rode certainly pushes that boundary.

Nevertheless, for both Onweller and Freeburn, pushing the boundary of Trek’s new road bike proved fruitful. On a course like the one in Minnesota, a race defined by a healthy dose of pavement, hard-packed dirt, and punchy climbs, the unorthodox combination of the endurance road geometry, incredibly lightweight frame, and generous all-road levels of clearance worked undoubtedly well for the Trek pros.

Here are the details:

Why was the Domane right for the job?

Although Trek might not admit it, when the brand unveiled the new version of the Domane in August, the bike immediately stood out as a class leader in modern endurance road bikes that embraced performance around larger tires. Like the Allied Echo that also debuted this year, the Domane always had an eye towards light gravel, even if its main focus was on endurance road riding.

Additionally, Trek’s current gravel race option, the Checkmate, was launched in the midst of gravel’s pivot to bigger tires. Not quite anticipating the dramatic shift in tire width to come, Trek launched the Checkmate as a very aggressive gravel bike that itself had a stated maximum tire size of 45mm.

You can probably see where I am going with this.

Effectively, the Domane and the Checkmate only have a 5mm difference in clearance. Geometry-wise, the bikes are also very similar, with the Domane on the conservative side of road bike geometry and the Checkmate on the aggressive side of gravel bikes.

The big upside to the Domane, however, is weight. In total, Onweller and Freeburn were saving over two pounds of total system weight. Both riders likely had the lightest bikes in the elite fields. While weight isn’t always a huge factor in gravel racing, on a course like the one in Minnesota, it is.

With 7,000 feet of climbing spread over 100 miles and seven fairly smooth, steep climbs, two pounds can add up quickly. And without loose, rough downhills to tip the racing back in the favor of more burly bikes, the math quickly points to the Domane as the best bike in Trek’s lineup for this specific gravel race.

“In my first year riding for Trek, I had a Domane in my repertoire of bikes to choose from, and I loved that bike,” Onweller told Velo. “It’s significantly lighter than the Checkmate, and the new model is perfect for races like Midsouth, SBT, and this Gravel Nationals.

“I had been wanting to race and ride that bike for a long time before I actually got it.”

Turning that desire into reality, however, was a bit trickier than you might expect.

Despite the success, Trek has been reluctant to celebrate the Domane publicly

On the surface, one would think that if a brand produced a new road bike that won both gravel national titles, they would celebrate that victory. With the Domane, that’s not the case.

There have been posts from Trek about the victories, but neither the Instagram post nor the blog post celebrating the win noted the bike the riders used at all. Beyond the visible head tube on the Instagram post, there is essentially no public acknowledgement of the Domane’s role in the win from Trek.

When asked about details about the bike, Cobe Freeburn declined to publicly comment on his bike choice. Onweller spoke to us about the details; however, it is worth noting that she is out of contract with Trek at the end of the year.

A Trek representative also didn’t offer further details or commentary around the bike choice when Velo reached out for comment.

From all accounts, it appears that Trek does not want to make a big deal—or any deal at all—that on the right course, the new Domane can win professional gravel races. With that public silence on the bike’s success, it is surprising that Freeburn and Onweller were able to even race the bike in the first place.

“For me, the reason why I wanted to ride the bike was that I was just familiar with it,” Onweller said. “Because I raced the bike my first year, and I knew it was a snappy, light bike. It wasn’t a matter of if I wanted to race it; it was a matter of whether I could get access to it.

“So, in the end, I was glad Trek let me borrow one for the race. I only rode it a couple of times before, but it was great.”

There are a couple of reasons why Trek might be trying to be low-key around the Domane racing and winning the US Gravel Nationals. First off, the Domane is not a frame approved by the UCI. Since builds using this frame are more often than not below the UCI weight limit, it is not a bike meant for pro road racing and thus hasn’t gone through the UCI approval process. For non-UCI gravel races, that doesn’t matter, but Trek might want to be careful with its messaging to potential racers who might run into UCI issues.

Similarly, since the Domane has a stated clearance of 40mm tires, the fact that both riders went beyond that could also be part of the picture. Nevertheless, that is nothing new, especially for Trek athletes who have been consistently running 50mm tires on the Checkmate with its 45mm of maximum tire clearance.

Speaking of messaging, the choice to stay quiet might have to do with Trek’s marketing priorities. While Trek seems poised to update its gravel bike line next year, it currently still has the Checkmate and Checkpoint as its gravel models (along with a more adventure focused full suspension Check-OUT). Trek might see celebrating the Domane’s success as coming at the expense of the marketing around the Checkmate.

Nevertheless, whatever the reasoning is for the approach, it is strange to see a brand not celebrate a decisive tech choice by one of its professional athletes. Especially in gravel, where so much of the most compelling content is built around tech choices.

It also should be said that the Domane is a fantastic bike. We have done extensive testing on it, including with 40mm gravel tires, and it seems well within the bike’s wheelhouse to race in a gravel event like the Minnesota Nationals course.

Breaking down the bike builds

As we mentioned, we could not get photos of either bike build, but we have been able to obtain a few details of both Freeburn’s and Onweller’s builds.