1,000 WORDS UNBOUND Winner telling stories with the Camera

By UNBOUND Staff | Photos by Dan Hughes

When people think of Dan Hughes they may think of him for winning UNBOUND, a record setting four times, placing 8 times in the top-ten, and inaugurated in the Gravel Hall of Fame.

While Dan is passionate about cycling he also enjoys photography and from Dan’s perspective, it’s natural that cycling and photography would go hand-in-hand.

“I think each is a pursuit that requires a modicum of effort, that can be blended with a heaping dose of technical fiddling, to produce a result that passes for pleasing at times,” says Hughes, “and they’re two pursuits I’ve loved doing for a long time.”

Picking up both the bike and a camera in high school Dan would spend pretty equal time riding miles and miles through the Kansas countryside, and spending hours and hours in the darkroom working for the school newspaper.

“I loved that there was always something to tweak on the bike to make it more comfortable, go faster, or make the rides easier over long distances. Likewise with a camera, there was always a wealth of new techniques and equipment to experiment with to try to make an interesting image” Dan said.

Ultimately Dan would find his way to gravel riding and was fortunate enough to be on the ground floor of the burgeoning sport in the early

2000s. Participating in the very first DK200/UNBOUND 200 in 2006, Dan would go on to complete 11 editions of the race, winning four (a record), and placing eight times in the top-ten. Along the way, Dan would also win Trans-Iowa and Gravel Worlds in Lincoln, the only cyclist to ever have done so. In 2022, he was part of the inaugural class of the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame alongside legends like Rebecca Rusch, Mark Stevenson, Corey Godfrey, Kristi Mohn, Chris Skogen, and Bobby Wintle.

“I was lucky to have been around when gravel riding first started and notch some wins before all the fast folks started showing up, but much of those early years was spent messing with equipment and pushing the boundaries of what we needed as riders to complete these crazy distances” Hughes recounts.

Now, as gravel riding has become a driving force in the world of cycling, Hughes has shifted his focus to capturing the stories of riders and the environs they cycle through.

“In all those training miles I did, I would ride past far flung abandoned places and wonder ‘what’s the story behind that place?’ I bet that place had a crazy history. And then equally, during the races, I would think ‘man…this ride is epic…I wish there was someone here taking a picture. So lately, I’ve been picking up my camera as much as I have my bike.” Hughes says.

Covering cycling events like UNBOUND and others, Hughes has built a catalog of images that he hopes tell the story of the places we ride, but also the effort it takes to get there. And the emotions involved.

“The thing I love about endurance cycling is that you’re out there for a long time. Long enough to experience the highs and the lows, and then over again. My friend Rebecca Rusch once gave me great advice in that regard, namely to remember that neither feeling… good or bad…will last forever, and you’ve got ride those waves of emotion. When you come through an effort like that, you come out a different person on the other end. That’s what I hope to capture on the back of the camera.” Hughes said.

Now through UNBOUND, Hughes will have a collection of images on display at his favorite Emporia hangout, Mulready’s, and his work is also viewable at dhughes101.com or on Instagram @dhughes101.

Dan lives in Lawrence, Kan., is the father of three kids, and is currently (and in his words, against his better judgement) signed up to toe the line one more time at UNBOUND 200…this time on a tandem with his fiancé, 5x UNBOUND 200 finisher Paulina