IRONMAN Champ Takes to Gravel: Ruth Astle’s Prototype Argon 18 Set Up for Unbound

British IRONMAN champ Ruth Astle has struggled with injuries over the last few years, but as she rounds into full triathlon fitness she’s jumped into the gravel scene to try her hand at a new challenge. After a sixth-place finish at the prestigious Traka 360 (that would be 360 km/ 225 miles) race in Girona, Spain at the beginning of May, Astle got an invite for this weekend’s Unbound pro event.

As she did at the race in Girona, Astle will be riding a prototype Argon 18 that features a number of unique features.

“I have a very special, one of a kind bike,” she said when we found her sneaking in for a coffee after a reconnaissance ride. “This is the new Argon 18 Dark Matter. The reason that mine is still prototype is because they don’t have the complete XXS frame yet. That is coming in July, I believe.”

Astle is running the Classified Powershift System which allows her to go with a 50-tooth 1x chainring on the front and a 10-36 cassette in the rear. She’s riding the TRP Vista groupset that hasn’t been released as of yet. According to Astle, that will be “sent to the media on June 11, so you’ll hear more about it then.” The Vista system is integrated with the Classified system so you don’t need an extra shift button. “It makes it much smoother and easier to go from the theoretical big ring to little ring with Classified,” Astle continued. “It’s also got “Quantum Shift” on it, which is a little bit like Shimano’s Synchro Shift where it will automatically take you from the big ring to the little ring – it works and its cool and its smooth.”

She’s riding 165 mm cranks (she would have gone with 160s, but “needed the wide bottom bracket for the clearance and couldn’t get any wide ones with 160s) with Shimano MTB pedals.

Astle is using the Parcours FKT wheels … With the Panaracer GravelKing X1+ 50 mm tires. “This frame has so much clearance I can run the 50 mm tires even if its quite muddy.”

Because the bike is a prototype, Argon 18 supplied it with the Rock Shox fork since the stock version for the smaller frame isn’t available yet. “I love the suspension – that made a massive difference to me in Traka and I think that, on the long rides, it’s nice to have that bit of give.”

The new Dark Matter frame has a storage compartment in the downtube “where I can keep most of my spares.”

In terms of hydration, Astle is planning on taking two 750 ml bottles with a hydra pack with 1.5 to 2 l.

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