A new breed of rider is emerging—one who loves the freedom and exploration that gravel culture was founded upon but who has a hunger to ride hard, to go all out, and to explore not just geography but personal limits. This frontier requires a new kind of gravel machine, one engineered not to roam the trails, but to race them.

For these athletes, we engineered Áspero for pure, unapologetic speed, ready to take down finish lines, KOMs, PRs, and FKTs. A bike built without limits, for the riders looking to test them. It’s stiff—Classics-racing stiff—and performs like you’d want a road bike to perform off-road. We think that makes sense, and it’s what we were trying to do when we were stuffing bigger tires into our existing frames and swapping in aftermarket forks to get a 40mm tire up front.

The flip-chip in the fork—we call it the Trail Mixer—keeps the trail measurement consistent whether you choose 700c or 650b tires. This maintains the bike’s personality and handling characteristics when you switch from mid-fats to full fat. There are as many different ways to do gravel as there are gravel bikes these days, but if you’re toeing the start line, looking to stay with the lead group, and contend for the victory, Cervelo Aspero GRX RX600 is the bike to get you there.