Words James Ion - Photography Mats Palinckx
Piotr Havik almost didn't make it. A talented rider on the road, he raced for the Rabobank development team and had a taste of the World Tour as a Stagiaire at Katusha in 2017 before joining the strong Conti Team Beat Cycling in 2018. Things were progressing when he moved to the Pro Team ranks in 2020 being signed up for the Riwal Readynez Cycling Team.
Sadly, this only lasted a year before he was back at Beat Cycling.
“2021, I had no plan” reflects Piotr “I didn’t want to go back down and start again. I managed to get a contract with Beat, but I also had to find a part-time job as it just isn’t possible to do it.”
He went on to get some good results, but in his own words he felt “lost”
“I was lucky that I had the education to fall back on [he studied Sport Management - Ed] this meant I could supplement my passion. But the loss was there, I knew I still had the ability, it felt like I had not fulfilled my potential, it was not how I wanted to end my career”
The desire still burned bright, his ability was never in question, but at 27 the opportunities to make it to the World Tour, especially as a sprinter or classics rider, were becoming more unlikely.
Mats Palinckx
“I rode over 50 professional races in 2021, it was just becoming unmanageable, but you don't push your dream to the side”
So he went for it.
At the end of the 2021 season, he stepped back from road racing and began to plan his new career.
“You can’t hold it back” Piotr tells me when talking of GRVL. It had been on his radar for a while and an opportunity came about to work with CUBE cycles. They were the ones to provide him with his first GRVL bike. “I was happy for the chance, I had a bike but sadly they were not ready to support a full-time programme”.
Despite this, in 2022 at the inaugural GRVL World Championships in Vento, Piotr finished a more than respectable 12 in the elite ranks. Considering the calibre of the other riders and that he was essentially operating as a part-timer, this is some going, he even finished in front of a certain Peter Sagan.
This result brought him to the attention of Nick Sannen of Classified. After a ride together and discussing the Classified system Piotr joined as their full-time Pro GRVL rider, a team of one but with full backing.
“I really believe in the product, you have to have this to get a long-term partnership”
The first season was not stellar, there were some good results but it was a frustrating year for Piotr, he still had the legs, but out on the course it just wasn’t happening. Was he worried?
“No, it was a now or never moment to become a Privateer, I didn't want to have any regrets, and I knew it would come”
This self-belief would pay off. The team was bolstered with new riders in 2024 and they had a full race programme. Piotr started with a bang winning overall at the GRVL Stage Race Ibereolic Gravel Tierra de Campos, and taking 2nd at the UCI GRVL race in Limburg.
At the Traka things didn't go so well as he finished in a disappointing 25th.
“In this sport, you cannot get a big ego, racing is racing and for sure you go for it 100%, but there is never any complaining. Even if you drop back, riders are still going for it, as it is never over until it's over”
Mats Palinckx
How then does he manage this, how does he keep his expectations in check, as a professional winning is a goal, no matter which way you look at it, and if you are winning how do you make sure you don't start believing your hype? “Good question” replies Piotr before taking time to think about his answer “At the Traka I had a lot of mechanicals, chain dropped, it was not a great day, but I was happy to finish. Road racing is all about performance, all about results. GRVL is too, but it's different. Lots of riders are there to get the best result on the day and to finish the race having an adventure. Victories are great and give you confidence that everything is working but I do not expect to just win, anything can happen so I push myself and enjoy the experience”.
“In this sport, you cannot get a big ego, racing is racing and for sure you go for it 100%, but there is never any complaining. Even if you drop back to riders are still going for it, as it is never over until it's over”
This leads us nicely to a great example of this never-give-up mentality, this year's Unbound! “At 80-100km I saw others suffering. I was feeling good so it gave me the motivation to push on. After the first feed zone, I could see other riders dropping off. Arno [Arno Van den Broeck, who was only called up 7 days before - Ed] gave me support to get to the front group, he had a great ride considering his late entry.”
How was the prep for the race? “ We arrived the week before the race and stayed in Topeka, just north of Emporia. This gave us some quiet time away from the noise of the pre-race expo and events, plus it was a lot cheaper! It also gave us a chance to check out 70% of the course as this year the race followed the north route.”
This was the second year at Unbound so the first time tackling the north route “It is harder, there is more elevation and no open ranges to ride to across, on the south route you get to ride between cows!”
Despite this being a tougher route the overall winning time was the fastest ever recorded [Lachlan Morton won in a time of 09:11:47 - Ed] and came down to a sprint for 1st and 2nd as well as the rest of the podium. “That was a bitter pill” reflects Piotr “ I knew Tobias (Kongstad) was fast, but I messed up and sprinted too early I opened a gap on the last kicker, forcing him to chase, and I thought that would be enough, but he still had a bit left to take third spot!”
For the eagle-eyed out there, you might have noticed that the Ridley bike Piotr sprinted to the finish with a slightly different Kanzo Fast. My sources have told me about a prototype in the works so I asked Piotr if he could tell me more about it. “No” he replied with a smile. So, we best keep our eyes open for more on that.
As mentioned in the feature article this month Team Tactics are becoming more relevant, did Piotr see any of this at Unbound or the other races? “It is becoming more of a team sport, but I hope that a team won't decide the race. However, I do not see team tactics as being a big benefit. You cannot control everything, you cannot even see everything. I don’t think you can hold it back from being more present but I also do not see it as changing the sport, a team would need a lot of money to have the riders sacrifice their chances”
Before we hung up on each other there was one more question to ask. If you go on Piotr’s Instagram page at the top is a pinned reel of him drinking a beer during the GRVL World Championships in Italy (it is very cool so go check it out) will there be a repeat of that this year in Belgium “The beer here is good” jokes Piotr “In Italy I was out of contention so I thought why not, but if I have any chance at this year’s worlds I will save the beer until after!”
One thing is for sure Piotr Havik has made it and no matter what he will keep going to the finish!
You can find out more about Piotr on his Instagram and about his team at Classified
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