SBT GRVL × Ride for Racial Justice

Steamboat Springs, Colorado’s upstart gravel event prides itself on welcoming everyone. This year, it’s going further, by partnering with Ride for Racial Justice to bring 25 BIPOC cyclists to the competition. “We thought it was a great chance for us to drive inclusivity and diversity in our race,” says SBT GRVL owner Amy Charity, who says she sees this as just the beginning. “We’re really shifting what cycling culture is about, in a good way.”

RFRJ founder Marcus “Big Legs” Robinson, for one, can’t contain his excitement. “What’s about to occur on the fifteenth of August, twenty-five people of color on a start line for a major bike event,” he says, “[that’s] never happened [before].” As the program’s driving force, Robinson is now prepping the riders with help from sponsors like Wahoo — and getting equally stoked about ripple effects. “Each athlete is going to go home and create more programs ... using the bike as a vehicle to start conversations and be that voice in the community that’s not been heard.”

CLOCkWISE fROM TOP LEfT KC Cross; Krystal Salvent; Thomas Lai; Jené Etheridge; Dwayne Burgess; and Diana Diaz are just six of the 25 stoked riders SBT GRVL and RFRJ are bringing to town to race over rocky roads this summer.

“Each athlete is going to go home and create more programs ... using the bike as a vehicle to start conversations and be that voice in the community that’s not been heard.”