So if you don’t finish in the top 3, we will take your bike and throw it in the trash; we’ll saw it in two!
This is how the journey of the Reverb riders to Poland began a few weeks ago: with Cristiana, a former professional MTB rider who encouraged Sacha, 49 victories among road professionals and the first gravel race of the UCI circuit ahead to himself, in her peculiar way.
In the video above, you can see summarised in 7 minutes how that weekend went on. Spoiler: unfortunately, there is no picture of a podium with Sacha, but his bike is still intact. If you want to read more, there is also a full blog post here.
What’s Reverb?
But it’s worth taking a step back first and explaining a few things to those hearing about Reverb Cycling for the first time. What is it? According to the website of this collective: “Reverb is embracing chaos – that effect when a clean, distinct sound gets thrown out, bounces off surrounding objects, and comes back dirty, less defined, uncontrollable.”.
Are you still trying to figure it out? Indeed, yes, but like so many newborn projects, it is often challenging to define them. However, we know a few more things about Reverb Cycling than the origin of the name and its meaning:
- It is a newborn collective of cyclists who love to ride mainly on gravel bikes.
- It aims to give, not to have and is dedicated to providing equal opportunities to both women and men to cyclists from all backgrounds.
- It is dedicated to inclusiveness: open to welcoming new athletes and embracing anyone who feels ” Reverb ” as a community member.
These principles, which we fully share at 3T and convinced us to support the project well before the trip to Poland, when it was just something written on a sheet of paper.
Who’s Reverb (so far)?
Yes, but support who? Cristiana and Sacha, which we have already mentioned. But also David, the rider and team manager originally from Minnesota and transplanted to Lucca, or Pierfrancesco, a young sports scientist with a passion for endurance racing.
Or Emma, an Irish ex-swimmer and part of the Artà “La Bicycle” team in Mallorca: one of Reverb’s friend groups, so much so that the riders of both lived under the same roof for a few days in Poland. As a guest rider on Reverb, Emma found herself fulfilling her dream of racing Unbound Gravel without knowing it two weeks before.
The roots of gravel racing
The one in the United States was a pilgrimage. The journey of cyclists who love gravel and racing could only begin like this: in the Mecca of gravel racing, where competitive spirit and drop bars on dirt roads went hand in hand for the first time.
In short, we immediately understood that it wouldn’t be easy but that the satisfaction could be there, just a step away. The full story about those days is here.
Back to Europe
If the start was overseas, all the other appointments have been or will be in Europe. Reverb’s principal, athletic goal of the 2023 season is to qualify as many riders as possible for the Gravel World Championships in October. With such an international presence, Reverb riders are uniquely positioned to represent their various countries. Still, the road to the World Championships must pass through the qualifying events at the UCI Gravel World Series.
The team’s first stop on the Gravel World Series circuit was in Poland, and it was quite an experience shared with the friends of the “La Bicicletta” team.
The firm “overall” roster of 4 women and six men set out to achieve a goal. Ultimately, the team got away with 3 UCI World Championship qualifications from Sacha Modolo, David Van Orsdel, and a stellar performance from Anuchi Gago. The Mallorca native put in a spectacular ride to finish 7th overall and punch her ticket to the World Championships, where she’d be donning the iconic red and gold of the Spanish National team along with Modolo’s Maglia Azzurra and Van Orsdel’s Stars and Stripes.
Ready for next!
And now? What awaits the Reverb riders is a challenging back-to-back: this weekend in Houffalize , for “Houffa Gravel“, where pedalling together with legends of gravel racing like Nathan Haas or Paul Voss there will also be that phenomenon by the name of Wout Van Aert.
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Will it be easy to earn qualification for Kristian and Davide, who will be at the start of the race to represent Reverb Cycling alongside David? Most likely not, but we know they will already have a new opportunity the following week at “La Monsterrato”, and we will update you with the results of both events in a new blog post.
In the meantime, you can follow their Instagram page if you don’t want to miss any of the Reverb stories.
