In his fourth year of the Life Time Grand Prix Brendan Johnston has been climbing to new heights, with the Giant-SRAM rider currently in third overall after delivering his best performances to date at both Unbound Gravel and Leadville Trail 100 MTB.
It’s clear that the multi-discipline rider who first turned professional at 30 as he committed to the US-based series has found his ideal fit and, with the plan being to continue the fine-tuning along the way through this season and beyond, the hope is that there are few limits to how high Johnston can rise.
“I’m still enjoying the process of of getting better,” Johnston told Cyclingnews. “I mean, there is an element of versatility that you need for the Lifetime Grand Prix, which I enjoy.”
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“They are such different competitions, every single one of them you could say, in terms of what you need to be good there, and I think I just have this consistency that has me pretty good at at all of them.”
That is evident by his finishing position in the series overall, which this year has six races delivering an even split between gravel and mountain biking events. Among the group of carefully selected off-road athletes, that represent much of the cream of the crop in the non-UCI sanctioned gravel world, Johnston finished seventh in his first year of competition in 2023. He was then fourth in 2024, ninth in 2025 – after Leadville and Little Sugar both ended with a rock related mishap that caused a DNF – while this season at the halfway point he is at an all time high of third.
A strong finish, is of course a big aim and the consistency he has been delivering is a hard-earned and crucial asset to achieve that end, but as he continues to regularly trek halfway across the world, away from home and his young daughter, Johnston is also looking for something more.
“I want to bag a bigger win,” said Johnston when asked what keeps him motivated as he spoke to Cyclingnews in Australia before heading back for the Chequamegon round on September 19. “I have won a lot of races, but in my mind, none of them were at the pinnacle of the sport. I think, on the right day, I’m capable of doing that, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
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Like many riders, a race Johnston has at the top of his winning wish list is Unbound Gravel but what he has that many others don’t is a remarkably strong record at the race across the past two years as a proof of concept.
It’s an event that he has long thought suited him, though the first year in 2023 was a tough beginning after the peanut butter mud effectively ended his chances 11 miles in. Still, the experience has helped in the build, with Johnston 15th in 2024, fifth in 2025 and fourth in 2026 at the race which rarely unfolds without significant obstacles along the way.
“We’ve had some dramas, but it’s something I’ve come to enjoy,” said Johnston of Unbound. “Also I think I’ve matured in terms of how I view it.”
The seeming inevitability that things will, at some point, go wrong often makes the ability to react well when it does a crucial factor. Another part of that equation, that is becoming an ever more apparent reality, is that it can also help significantly to have strong teammates alongside when things don’t run to plan – Keegan Swenson’s move to give his Specialized Off-road teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt his wheel at Unbound this year being a perfect example.
“You have to put a lot in to be good there,” said Johnston. “You have to build a squad and have the support and invest in all that. You can’t start on the back foot, but even then I know that so much can go wrong, and it plays to have a cool head about how that race generally plays out.
“I think I’m at that point and next year Unbound is the main goal. I think I’ve proven that I’m consistent there and, if we get all the things right, then winning is not out of the question.”
First, though, there is the rest of this season to get through and maintain or, ideally, even build on that third place in the Life Time Grand Prix series. Then, after that, the Giant-SRAM rider also has some big plans for the start to the new year in Australia. That includes taking on the Australian Road National Championships in Perth at the start of January and a fastest known time attempt on the 1,067km long Munda Biddi Trail.
The Australian Road Record Association of Australia has the current record for the charge along the trail from Albany to Mundaring at 2:12:15:00, with the mark set on November 27, 2023 by Jack Thompson.
Johnston’s Munda Biddi pursuit comes on the heels of a brutal challenge at the start of this year, which makes Unbound look like a short effort. During the nearly 4,000km Perth to Sydney record chase Johnston faced vicious energy and time sapping headwinds which hampered his ability to chase the fastest known time (FKT) and also left him with a strained achilles.
Despite that tough experience, Johnston sounds excited about the prospect of going for another FKT.
“I just love to go to the depths and find the way out. And I think there’s a competitive element to like fastest known times that I like.”
Plus, a selective memory when looking back on the Perth to Sydney attempt also seems to be helping.
“When I first think about it, I’ve forgotten all the bad times, even though the majority of it was bad in terms of my experience – the pain and fatigue and injury and all that weather. But all I remember is riding in the sunset with with seven of my closest people with me, supporting me, and doing that for eight days in a row was was awesome,” said Johnston.
“That’s the part I remember. I don’t remember things like my ass bleeding and a lot of a lot of bad things that happened. I don’t I remember them until I seriously think about it. My first memories are all good ones.”
The intensifying discussion and planning around the attempt may be bound to deliver a few more reminders of those painful memories, but Johnston jokingly quipped that “now that I’m saying it out loud I’m probably going to have to commit”.
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