GRVL for your Eyes Only!
words James Ion
Classified Cycling has been making moves in the cycling scene since its inception in 2019. The brainchild of Roëll van Druten and Mathias Plouvier, the company started, like many other tech companies, in a small room with just an idea, that idea being to create the “Ultimate Upgrade” with its Powershift Hub.
With its claims of 99% efficiency, weatherproofing, and ability to shift under load, it seemed only natural that they would look to GRVL as a means to showcase their equipment.
In 2023, in collaboration with Ridley Bikes, they launched their first professional GRVL team with Dutch rider Piotr Havik. Since then young Belgian talent Daan Grosemans has joined the team along with Toby Perry and last year’s Gravel Earth Series winner Annabel Fisher. All under the watchful eye of Classifieds Event and Athlete Manager Nick Sannen. I caught up with the Ridley x Classified Fueled by Foodmaker team manager to get the low-down on how the team’s season has gone so far and what’s to come!
“Luxury RV’s” is the answer Nick gives me when asked how he got into cycling team management, not your usual route. According to Nick his work with the family business renting luxury mobile homes at Moto GP and Formula 1 races led to him becoming good friends with the American Moto GP rider Nicky Hayden working as his assistant. Following the sad death of Nicky Hayden after being hit by a car while out cycling, Nick used his assistant experience in his next role, working with long-time friend and colleague Tom Boonen (who is also now an investor in Classified).
Nick was on his way to combining his passion for cycling with his promotional and management work ultimately leading to his current position as event and athlete manager at Classified
“I joined Classified in January 2022 after meeting with Mathias Plouvier some weeks before Christmas and had some conversation with them and the next thing I knew I signed for Classified, great Christmas gift!”
“I could see GRVL was gowing not just in terms of racing but the community aspect too” - Nick Sannen
Like the rest of us, Nick was not unaware of a growing GRVL scene with more races, more events and more potential customers. It made sense to start looking for a suitable athlete to represent Classified on the fast dirt tracks. “I had been watching Piotr for a while” Indeed so had a lot of people after his 12th place finish at the inaugural Gravel World Championships in 2022, ahead of none other than Peter Sagan and finishing first amateur. “I reached out to him via Instagram and just went for a ride with him” recalls Nick, “we talked about his goals and the Classified tech, he liked what he saw and was on board”. Piotr debuted for the team on his personalised Ridley Kanzo at 2023’s Unbound Gravel in Kansas.
“We wanted to be fully professional, so Piotr was provided with not only bikes but support at races, nutrition from sponsor Foodmaker and sports nutrition from Precision Hydration we wanted him to be as successful as possible”.
What has impressed Nick the most is the community aspect of GRVL “You see it at races, after everyone is finished everyone has a story to tell, they come together as a close-knit community, it’s very special and unique to GRVL” However the results were not as good as they hoped for and Nick could see that Piotr needed the extra support from his own GRVL community, he needed teammates.
“I kept seeing this kid pop up on Strava, taking segments all around where I live” - Nick Sannen
Any successful team needs more than one member, so in 2023 Daan Grosemanns joined the team. After Nick found him, literally, under his nose, “Daan lives just 8km from me and was showing great results and producing great content, so like Piotr, we went for a ride together and Daan joined the team”. With a bigger roster came more sponsors with Rapha, KMC, Bike7 and Cyclis Bike Lease getting involved which meant the roster could get even bigger.
“I like to stay in contact with my riders and to listen to their input about races and the other riders, it was their feedback that led to us approaching Toby Perry, who came from a road background but was having great results on the GRVL.” Nick though wanted to make the team complete and find a top female rider, and there does not come much more top than the 2023 Gravel Earth Series overall winner Annabel Fisher “Her results just speak for themselves, she was without a team so it was a perfect opportunity”
Team now complete, I wanted to find out more about the structure “The riders have no worries about anything” says Nick “The riders get bikes from the Ridley GRVL range, all with individual paint jobs, sports nutrition is covered, they even get meals sent to them from Foodmaker!” The team got together at the beginning of the year. all sharing an Air B&B to plan out the season together. “We are a team, but the riders can plan their programme and goals”. However, at the big races, they will be going as a Team to target the win, such as the Traka in Spain, and Unbound in the States.
The season has had a mixed start with some great results (Piotr Havik: 1st GC Gravel Tierra de Campos Annabel Fisher 2nd GC Gravel Tierra de Campos and 4th at UCI Wörthersee to mention a few) but also some sad news in the injuries to Daan (fractured vertebrae) and Toby (broken hand) and just last week Anabel suffered a crash in the neutral zone at the Traka fracturing some ribs and a breaking a knuckle.
“It’s a dangerous sport! The level is just getting higher and higher. You sometimes don’t see what’s coming and then bang!” - Nick Sannen
In terms of recovery Toby is now back on the bike and should hopefully be back racing soon, Annabel despite her injuries is off to Australia for the UCI Gravel World Series race (Finishing an impressive 3rd!). Daan is taking longer but is hitting the rollers twice a day. “They are so committed and professional it’s impressive, especially for young riders like Daan and Toby”
Hopefully, it should go well as next up for the whole team is Unbound! “The whole team will be going, it’s a big goal for us” I wanted Nicks take on team tactics in GRVL racing “Oh definitely, it is becoming more important, you see it more and more” Indeed it seems to be quite a European phenomenon as the riders over in the Life-Time Grand Prix, despite being in “Factory Teams” tend to race for themselves. It could then be an advantage for the Euro teams heading there “Well they will have to learn to deal with that” says Nick clearly relishing the challenge “It’s a huge goal for us and for me, I want to go there and win! When Daan is fit he can provide a lot of support for Piotr and hopefully we can do something special”.
I asked if Nick had any tips for us mere mortals “Stay behind us” he said jokingly “but seriously be selective, it can be easy to overdo it so pick an important goal and focus on that.
The most important question is whether the team prefers Coffee Stops or a Post Ride Beer. “For me, it’s both, but for the team, they are super professional so for them it’s Coffee Stop, especially for Daan, our barista!”
A big thank you to Nick for taking part. If you want more info on the Ridley x Classified Fueled by Foodmaker Team head over to their Instagram Page and their YouTube Channel
All Photos courtesy of Nick Sannen