The metaphorical hockey stick of tech stories coming out of Unbound is starting to tick upwards and, as we approach the final couple of days before the race, we've spotted what looks to be a new Campagnolo gravel groupset.
Spotted aboard the bike of Italian favourite in the Men's 200, Mattia de Marchi, is what appears to be a new rear derailleur aboard his Basso race bike. The Italian is sponsored by Campagnolo, but the rear mech fitted to his bike is unlike any of the brand's existing options.
The find comes just two weeks after a different Campagnolo groupset was spotted at the Grande Partenza of the Giro d'Italia. That groupset, we're almost certain, will be a replacement for the brand's top-tier Super Record Wireless range, thanks to some subtle logos on show on the front derailleur.
Campagnolo has yet to officially launch that groupset, but even so, having compared the images against De Marchi's bike here, it's clear that this is not that. At least not entirely.
The shifters here look to be exactly the same. The thumb shifter, which marks a significant u-turn for Campagnolo after ditching it two years ago, is very clearly a fixture.
The front derailleur also looks to be the same, with the groove up the centre the main departure from the older Super Record Wireless front mech.
Where this groupset does differ from the previous leak, however, is at the rear derailleur.
There are a few similarities, such as the design of the parallelogram and the shape of the cage as it enshrouds the lower pulley wheel, but it features a silver circle at its centre.
Upon close inspection, hard to make out in the photos we managed to take, the word 'clutch' is etched into that silver finish.
A clutch is a mechanism that adds tension to the chain, particularly when riding over rough terrain. In most cases, a lever or button allows the rider to engage it for the aforementioned tension increase and then release it to facilitate easier maintenance or wheel removal.
Road derailleurs – namely the new Super Record Wireless derailleur we spotted at the Giro – tend not to need one, since the road is rarely rough enough to cause the chain to bounce uncontrollably. But they are prevalent on gravel derailleurs, where rough surfaces are plentiful.
We also count 13 sprockets on De Marchi's cassette. Campagnolo's existing Ekar groupset has been 13-speed for a number of years already, and while it'd be a safe assumption that this could be the new Ekar groupset, the inclusion of the same shifters seen on the Super Record Wireless road groupset suggest this might simply be a gravel-focussed iteration of that, similar to how SRAM has an XPLR derivative of its Red, Force and Rival road groupsets.
In either case, we're hopeful – if even a little expectant – that this means Campagnolo's first wireless gravel groupset is almost ready for launch.
We managed to get a heap of photos of the new bike, so check out the rest of those below.
