Colin Strickland admitted that racing in the Unbound Gravel 200 will be different from winning in 2019, but that is what makes the off-road endurance contest in the Flint Hills of Kansas so attractive to the defending champion.

The day before the race, he had to pick out a bike, set up a new set of wheels, and complete a handmade half-frame bag. There were also tendonitis issues and a new truck transmission to pull his recently renovated vintage "house on wheels" trailer.

"I certainly haven't been racing as many days or as many hours as I used to; I had tendonitis in my knee at the beginning of May and took a couple of weeks off then to work on a project.

"The tendonitis didn't go away when I rode, so I just rested and worked on other things. I made sure the tendonitis didn't drive me crazy."

"So I have a lot less energy and I don't spend as many hard days in the heat. Austin had a very wet spring. Under no circumstances am I going to win by nine minutes again. Still, I am confident we will win. If I'm the betting man, I think I have as good a chance as anyone."

The last edition of Unbound Gravel took place in 2019, the first year of the new ownership with Lifetime. Strickland attacked from a lead group of seven around the 105-mile mark, leaving his rivals in the prairie dust and setting a new course record with a time of under 10 hours by a few seconds.

"This is a fast race. It's a fast gravel race; my travel speed (in 2019) was over 22 miles per hour. I like the undulating terrain. It's very similar to Austin. When the race is fast, it's also very dynamic," the 34-year-old Texan said.

"The surface, the terrain, the cars, the climate, the number of riders, the changing scenery as you ride on gravel.

There will be 911 riders in Sunday's 200 race, a strong lineup that includes former World Tour road pros. With "so many variables swirling" on the gravel and rickety roads, which riders does Strickland consider a threat this year?

"I don't care who the competitors are. And there are so many variables that can happen to anyone in a split second. It's a long competition, so I think it's a waste of time to think about the competition until you're in the final group," Strickland said. [If you put so much energy into focusing on one rider, you lose sight of yourself and get away from getting the bike rolling in the right direction.

In 2019, Strickland won the race by 9:06 over former World Tour racer Peter Stetina, and the top 10 included EF Education Nippon teammates Alex Howes and Lachlan Morton, former race winner and World Tour pro Ted King, and Stetina's Trek Segafredo teammate Kiel Reynen, among other notable roadies. Even without the EF Education Nippo athletes this year, there are a number of active and retired road stars, including Dutchmen Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker.

"Without a doubt, there are some great road engine talents coming in. But honestly, if you've never proven it, who cares? I'm not going to be a fan," said the former champion of the Red Hook Krit Series, an international series of fixed-gear racing.

"Some athletes love climbing. That's what they do, and they like slow battles and long periods of suffering. I like to attack at high speeds. [Peter Stetina likes to attack at low speeds on climbs and hurt people with gravity. I like to hurt people with the wind. We have different styles of riding."

"In road racing, you often win with one big move. Gravel races are very long, varied, and have different terrain. It is like getting rich stacking $1 bills to buy a mansion in Malibu. But we are stacking dollar bills, not thousands of dollars at a time. So we're trying to win the race by stacking individual little vantage points."

Strickland spent Friday afternoon choosing between re-fitting the Allied Able he rode to win in Kansas in 2019 or preparing the new Allied Echo, the model he first used to finish second in the local gravel loco last month, He was choosing a bike.

"The brand new Echo is an impressive aero bike with a variable wheelbase all-purpose bike and integrated, tight components.

"The Able is more rugged, the 1x gravel bike I used the last time I won here. Nevertheless, he was leaning toward the new Echo as sponsor Orange Seal allowed British mechanic Gareth Jones to complete the setup outside the refurbished Spartan trailer on Friday afternoon.

Strickland showed off his bike of choice, the Allied Echo, on his Instagram Live Story (opens in new tab) on Friday night.

The Unbound Gravel is the maiden voyage of the Spartan he purchased in Kansas three years ago. He spent the last year dismantling and renovating a circa-1955 house on wheels and pulling it with a heavy-duty Ram truck.

"We had new electricity, new plumbing, a wood stove, new Styrofoam insulation, all new surfaces inside, and a completely clean, full gut renovation."

Another project during his downtime in May was the design and fabrication of a custom half-frame bag to meet his theories on fatigue. Using basic polypropylene plastic, zippers, and zip ties, he was putting the finishing touches on the aero bag on Friday.

"These types of races require a lot of time in the saddle. That can add up over the course of a day and have a negative impact on performance. That's why I'm designing a half-frame bag. Aero, lightweight bags that can be zipped onto the frame for a quick change of water bladders," he proudly proclaimed.

"It fits nicely, so there's no aerodynamic drag. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. The goal is to put the water on the (bicycle) chassis, not on my personal chassis, to reduce core fatigue."

"I've been working on this for a while now," he said.

With his gravel title defense in Emporia just hours away, Strickland tried not to worry too much about equipment, competitors, or 10 hours of saddle work.

"I build my own bike and race my own bike. That's all I can control."