The Cowboy Way Documentary Short
‘Oty’ Leiva Ojeda, Matt Scarborough, Christian Demuth, and Boyd VanLandghen
In 2025, Otaner “Oty” Leiva Ojeda rode Unbound350 for the third time. People have referred to the race as “the Superbowl of cycling”. Every year, thousands of cyclists—including elite riders—gather in Emporia, Kansas to ride a 350-mile gravel race, self-supported, rain or shine. It’s a brutal and beautiful ride and finishing can mean going as long as 36-hours without sleep, pedaling hard the whole time.
The first year, Oty couldn’t finish because heavy rains turned the road into mud so thick it gummed up the chains of his bicycle. In 2024, he had stomach problems. For this third-times-a-charm ride in 2025, Oty was joined by a film crew and sponsor Matt Scarborough of Bicycle Accident Law to document and cheer on his attempt to finish Unbound XL.
“Your mind will always tell you to quit,” Oty said in the short documentary, called The Cowboy Way (a nod to his nickname, The Cowboy Cyclist). “Riding a bike for 24 hours is going to be painful…everything hurts.”
Behind the scenes at Unbound XL
While race day matters, the documentary shows how much preparation happens before the race even begins. Oty takes his bike in for a tune up, cuts and customizes his handlebars to reduce drag—and so he can carry 100g less weight. Even the day before the race, Oty has logistics to figure out like how to install and use the tracking device given to all racers.
Behind the camera, there was an extra step to capturing Oty’s Unbound XL attempt on film. Video producer Christian Demuth and assistant producer, Boyd VanLandghen, and Oty talked before the race to plan for different shots. “We zoomed in on a map of the route and mapped out the different stops Oty was going to have,” Demuth said. While Oty was riding, Demuth and Van Landghen, had to drive from one point to another and wait for Oty to arrive so they could capture it on film. “The hardest part is there are cyclists coming toward you and you can’t tell who they are at first,” Demuth said. “It’s a lot of ‘get ready and we’ll see if it’s him.’”
To get action shots of Oty riding, the film team had to hang out of a car window in one scene. In another, captured in some behind the scenes footage, viewers can see Demuth actually running beside the bicycle.
Unbound XL pushes the limits for everyone
“Is this healthy? Is this good for my health?” Oty wondered about ultra races during the documentary. The race started at 3pm but the excitement leading up to the race is palpable. For the first 40 miles, he rode quickly. “The energy was over the moon,” he described on film. Then there was a crash which resulted in a rider breaking his collarbone. Weather and physical exertion aren’t the only hardships Unbound XL riders might face on the road.
Because the race is unsupported, riders had to stop at gas stations along the route to refuel, refill water bottles, and do anything else they need to take care of themselves.
By the time night fell, Oty was using his gas station breaks to take painkillers. He told the cameraman, “I’m happy with the results so far but I have a lot of pain and still more than 250 miles to go.”
Demuth wasn’t riding a bike but the race experience wasn’t restful for him either. He woke up at 7am the day of the race and only managed to get a few hours of sleep in between shots. To capture night scenes as well as Oty riding during the day, Demuth had to be awake and ready for each shot.
Lessons from Unbound XL
One of the most touching moments of the documentary came just after Oty passed the part of the race where he DNFd—or dropped out—the previous year. At mile 315, he encountered a rider who was clearly struggling and had run out of water. Oty had little to spare but handed one of his bottles to the other rider. “Take the bottle and thank me later,” he said.
A race like Unbound XL is about finishing and the final race time but cycling, Oty says, is about taking care of each other.
Scarborough, interviewed in the film, said that when he and Oty met during a podcast taping, he realized the Oty “has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve met in a long time.” It was one of many reasons he was so excited that Bicycle Accident Law could become Oty’s sponsor.
Down a water, Oty still managed to finish the 350-mile race in 26 hours, 19 minutes, and 11 seconds. “I wanted to quit so many times last night,” Oty said of the dark, cold portions of the race. He pushed through because he knew his team, his sponsors like Bike Accident Law, and his family were all rooting for him to make it.
Cowboy Way documentary screening brings crowds
A screening party for the documentary in St. Petersburg, Florida was a smashing success. As many as 80 people were in attendance. “It was a huge honor to have so many people watch something I put together,” said Demuth. Many viewers were friends or friends of friends of Scarborough, Oty, or the film crew but all of them shared a love of cycling—or had developed one by the time the film was over.
Demuth, a cyclist himself, said shooting the film made him want to try some ultra races for the first time. “It’s motivated me to get involved as an athlete.”
As Scarborough said on film after Oty’s amazing Unbound XL finish, “If we keep trying, we can accomplish anything we want.”
