Teamwork makes the dream work in the event known as Rebound, where gravel riders all over the world will put their wheels together to ride one million miles in a day.
It’s a fun concept: here’s what we know so far…
Rebound is a Shimano and Live Slow Ride Fast (LSRF) collab, and it runs on June 3. “The goal is simple,” the companies said in a press release. “To ride a million miles in a single day: United in Gravel, We Ride.”
The rules are equally simple, they said. To participate, you can start from anywhere and cover any distance over 25 miles. It breaks down to several distance brackets: more than 25 miles (40 km), more than 50 miles (80 km), more than 100 miles (160 km) or more than 200 miles (320 km).
Kickers: Start time is 6 a.m. local time (“SHARP!”), you can only stop twice, and post-ride celebration is “mandatory.” The event’s co-sponsors call it a “race,” but it’s unclear whether you can win or lose. As well, the million-mile benchmark looks somewhat random. If the whole world rides a million miles on this semi-sanctioned basis on June 3, it does not appear that balloons will tumble from the sky as fireworks go off.
Rebound is free to enter and there are prizes on the line — evidently available via something like a raffle, rather than on merit — and you’ll ride in a wide-ranging peloton in a discipline that Shimano and LSRF call the great equalizer of cycling.
“It’s where friends are made, and memories are forged. Whether you’re riding one mile or one hundred; have pro kit or no kit; ride a 10-speed or 11-speed; or hitting paved roads, fire roads, b-roads, or no roads at all,” the press release said. “It doesn’t matter why you’re out there — it only matters that you are,”
Saddle up.
