Gravel Bike: Peter Stetina’s Custom-Art Dirty Kanza 200 Trek Checkpoint

The Dirty Kanza was not Peter Stetina’s (Trek – Segafredo) first “alternative racing”—groad, if you will—event but it was his first on Trek’s gravel bike.

Stetina raced and won the Belgian Waffle Ride aboard his Trek Madone road bike with 28mm tubeless road tires back in May. With the famed gravel of the Flint Hills much gnarlier and prone cause flats in even the widest tires with the best sidewalls, a road bike was not going to cut it for Stetina at Dirty Kanza.

Following in the footsteps of Sven Nys in 2018, Stetina swapped his Madone for the Checkpoint gravel bike the company released in 2018. Like Nys, Stetina’s Checkpoint also got a special paint job to personalize the bike.

[caption id="attachment_135919" align="aligncenter" width="941"] Like Sven’s bike last year, Stetina’s Checkpoint got some custom art. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Stetina’s Checkpoint proved worthy at last Saturday’s race. He was the first man to chase after Colin Strickland (Meteor x Giordana) when the front group broke apart around Mile 140 and went on to finish second, all while enjoying the gravel experience.

[caption id="attachment_135503" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina had time for some fun. 2019 Men’s Dirty Kanza 200 Gravel Race. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Today, we take a look at Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike from right after his 10-hour day in the Flint Hills.

[caption id="attachment_135924" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Peter Stetina’s 2019 DK200 Trek Checkpoint

Trek entered the gravel bike market last spring when it released the Checkpoint. When we spoke with Trek last year, the company said the bike is based around the Boone cyclocross bike geometry, albeit with more clearance.

The head tube angle on the Checkpoint is a tad steeper than the Boone and the BB drops a bit further down. The stack on the Checkpoint is a smidge higher, while the two bikes have similar wheelbases.

The biggest departure from the Boone with the Checkpoint is tire clearance. The Boone maybe has room for 700c x 38mm tires, while the Checkpoint is designed to clear tires as wide as 45mm, according to Trek. The extra clearance is achieved in part with a dropped drive-side chainstay.

[caption id="attachment_135925" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina ran 700c x 43mm Panaracer GravelKing SK tires. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Stetina was riding a bike built up around the Checkpoint SL frameset. The frameset uses Trek’s OCLV 500 carbon, the third-highest grade the company uses. Trek opted to use the IsoSpeed decoupler in the rear only after its testing showed that wider tires provided more compliance than a front IsoSpeed would.

[caption id="attachment_135916" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] The Checkpoint uses an IsoSpeed decoupler in the rear. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Custom artwork adorns Stetina’s seat tube and fork, paying homage to his Colorado origins, current California home and hobbies and passions. You can read about each of them on Stetina’s Instagram page.

[caption id="attachment_135914" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Stetina’s fork featured custom artwork. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Stetina followed the trend of running a 1x for gravel with a SRAM 1x Red 1 eTap AXS drivetrain. He attached a massive 48t X-Sync chain ring to a SRAM Red 1 AXS Power Meter crankset with Quarq’s DZero power meter. While Strickland was cranking away on his 46-11 combo, Stetina had a few extra teeth to work with during his chase.

[caption id="attachment_135923" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina attached his 48t X-Sync ring to a Red 1 AXS Power Meter crankset with Quarq’s DZero power meter. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

In the rear, he had a Red 1 eTap AXS derailleur and a 10-33t cassette. Another feature of the Checkpoint is it has the Stranglehold horizontal dropouts that allow for singlespeed converstion. Interestingly, the new Crockett, which was a singlespeed favorite, has dropped the Stranglehold to shed grams while the Checkpoint retains them.

[caption id="attachment_135921" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina ran a SRAM Red 1 eTap AXS rear derailleur with a 1x front. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

For his first Dirty Kanza 200, Stetina opted to run aero bars and even celebrated the decision by getting involved in the #aerowhat discussion on the eve of the event.

[caption id="attachment_135929" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Peter Stetina got aero during his solo chase of Colin Strickland. 2019 Dirty Kanza 200 Gravel Race. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Stetina ran Bontrager Race Lite Aero Clip-On bars attached to his carbon Race Lite handlebar.

[caption id="attachment_135917" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina was on team aero bar with Bontrager Race Lite Clip-Ons. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

When Stetina teased his Checkpoint on Instagram, it had Bontrager GR1 gravel tires mounted, but on race day Stetina rolled to his second-place finish on 700c x 43mm Panaracer GravelKing SK tires mounted to Bontrager Aeolus Pro 3V TLR Disc Road wheels. The new carbon wheels have a 25mm internal width, making them a good fit for the wide gravel tires Stetina ran.

One advantage Stetina had on the other WorldTour riders at the DK200 is with the Belgian Waffle Ride under his belt, the race was not his first groadeo. Stetina had the 130-mile BWR ride to test out his nutrition and dial his setup for DK.

He used a Bontrager Pro Speed Box on his top tube and an Elite Seat Pack in under his Montrose Pro saddle to carry his emergency gear.

[caption id="attachment_135928" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] A Pro Speed Box from Bontrager helped Stetina carry all his nutrition needs. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

He mounted the traditional two bottle cages to the frame, and although the bottles were well-marked, it appears Stetina wound up with one of teammate Kiel Reijnen’s bottles at Checkpoint 2.

[caption id="attachment_135915" align="aligncenter" width="1140"] Stetina opted for two bottle cages and kept them well-organized. It appears he ended up with Kiel Reijnen’s bottle at CP 2, however. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

Although road pedals are more his style, Stetina opted to follow Craig Richey’s advice and run mountain pedals for the DK200. He used the colorful Bontrager Comp MTB Pedal model that is SPD-compatible.

[caption id="attachment_135922" align="aligncenter" width="1233"] Stetina used SPD-compatible Bontrager Comp MTB Pedals. Peter Stetina’s Trek Checkpoint gravel bike. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]

For more on Stetina’s DK200 Checkpoint, see the photo gallery and specs below.

For more from Emporia, see all of our coverage of the 2019 Dirty Kanza 200.

Photo Gallery: Peter Stetina’s DK200 Trek Checkpoint