“komoot events for me are about enjoying an activity, no matter the destination, no matter the statistics. They are more like an excursion than a competition. More like a journey in fact. They’re all about enjoying it while you are doing it.” That was how Nuri Galbe described her participation in the recent GranGuanche komoot Women’s Rally. We spent some time recently chatting with her, talking about both the recent event and her love of bikesketching.
We started off by asking Nuri what she thought of the event? “What an amazing experience! These women are so great to get to know and to ride with, from different backgrounds and ages, so much laughing, suffering and supporting under freezing cold and rainy conditions at times way up in Pico las Nieves, dramatic landscapes that differed from island to island, riding at your pace in small packs and coming together at coffee terraces and spots along the way. GranGuanche was not an easy one, it had a lot of accumulated height. A lot. These are the Canary Islands - from sea level directly up to 2000+ meters height. All the way up, all the way down and then repeat, but they are astonishingly beautiful. komoot women’s rallies are providing an incredible experience undoubtedly worth participating in.”
With a week of riding under her wheels, this was going to be a tough one, but we next asked Nuri what the highlight of the event was? “Oh, there has been so many of them. As well as what I said before, learning from each other whatever the age, even 20+ years difference, was an amazing experience. Agata, this young woman was helped in mechanics by more experienced women. Later in the same ride, she was suddenly solving a bad situation on quite a dangerous road. Luckily her new skills helped us stay safe and made sure we were on time to catch the next ferry. Amazing women, a luxury getting to know and ride with them all. In terms of my personal bikesketching - playing in a shared creative moment with paints and tyres with Lael & Rue to print her tyre tracks on paper. Also, with Ana & Weronika, when waking up and having the minutes to sketch the wild camp in the morning.”
The GranGuanche route was established by event organiser Matt Minelli back in 2021, but komoot had organised this Women’s Rally version of the event. We asked Nuri how she first got involved with them? “I followed them on Instagram. I like their approach to adventure experiences more than competitive statistics and then saw their open inscription announcement. I subscribed without expectations. And the magic happened - I got in.”
The komoot Women’s Rally by design are all-women event. We asked Nuri if it was the first one that she had taken part in and how it differed to any mixed gender events that she’d participated in? “This wasn’t the first one. I’ve participated in a few Girona Gravel Girls all-women gatherings in the city of Girona, Catalonia, which are very encouraging and fun morning rides and are highly recommended! I think women understand and appreciate tough endurance rides in a more supporting experience, because enjoying the ride is the main goal, not the finish line. Regarding mixed gender rallies and rides, they are way different - in these, ride packs are built by level and it’s usually more a self-race than a group experience. Average speed, uphill sprints, time counting, beating statistics, trying to get to the day’s destination as fast as possible is generally the main goal. The faster, the better. They feel much more competition-like, especially if there’s a results sheet involved at the end. Once, in a popular mixed-gender rally, I wasn’t in the main group by far, but when I arrived at the food spot, there was almost nothing left. The organisers said I should have ridden faster….”
The GranGuanche komoot Women’s Rally had more than 200 applications for the 50 places available. We wondered if Nuri knew any of the other riders before she joined them at the start? “None. I only followed some of them on social media.”
The route of the event traverses the length of the Canary Islands chain from north-east to south-west. We asked Nuri which was her favourite island of the six that she visited and why? “They are so different one from another… if I have to choose… the earth colors of Lanzarote and the broken deep cliffs of Gran Canaria.”
What makes Nuri unique amongst the majority of gravel bikepackers is her love of capturing the essence of her adventures in paintings and drawings, what she calls bikesketching. We asked her whether she had managed to find the balance between riding and drawing and how she dealt with the time constraints placed on her by the need to catch ferries between the different islands. “It’s a challenge by itself, yes. And I like it too. But as mentioned before, it’s about learning to go fast and taking advantage of stops – mechanical stops and snack stops for example. Knowing that there are other cyclists behind who I can ride with when they catch me up is great. Also, accepting that I might have to give up so many sketchable places/moments or accepting you might ride alone after the pause if the group keeps going is also a good way to rationalise the decision to ride or to stop. Knowledge of the day’s track length and height gain also helps deciding if you have spare time or not.”
We asked Nuri what the other riders in the event thought of her creating her drawings and paintings during the event? “It was really fulfiliing for me. I felt very loved by them. I think I was also the oldest rider taking part. I received so much attention as what I do is unusual for the other riders to see. I try not to make a big issue of what I do and what I do is usual for me! I felt like I was ‘in the clouds’ as I got so much attention and care. Lots of the other riders told me how amazing it was, but I said it’s not amazing – you can do it yourself if you wanted to. A couple of the girls said to me they wanted to try it when they did overnight bikepacking trips in the future. I had an invite also to go and join a bikepacking trip in Berlin, where I can take my painting equipment along too.”
The $million question was of course, was there anything that Nuri would do differently next time? “Not from a riding perspective - I had an amazing time with my female riding folks. Maybe spending more time at La Gomera’s top laurisilva rainforest, it was a too short ride. About painting gear, this time I didn’t follow my “thirds rule” . I had too many tools in the toptube bar and the zip broke. I also need to figure out a waterproof one too.”
And finally, what about the future? Was Nuri going to take part in any future komoot women’s rallies? “I sure would love to! komoot women’s rally style was amazing because I could sketch with my camp friends, for instance, or drop from a group, knowing other riders would follow, so I get to ride with several of them, or even alone without being really alone. Lael & Rue always stopped to say hi for a little while when they saw me drawing on one side.”
All the amazing images used in this story were shot by @Sami Sauri