The ultra-cycling world is in mourning following the death of one of its luminaries, Max Riese. The Austrian was an accomplished ultra-distance racer, as well as the founder of gravel and ultra-riding community GravGrav.
The 33-year-old placed fourth in last year’s Tour Divide – the blue riband ultra-bikepacking event. More recently he won the Hellenic Mountain Race in May and was second in the Silk Road Mountain race in August. Both major events on the ultra-racing calendar.
“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we share the news that Max Riese passed away in a fatal accident on the 15.09.26,” read a statement released by GravGrav on social media last night.
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It continued: “As we all know, Max is a special soul. Although ultra-racing is an individual pursuit, Max cared deeply about the people and the community around it.
“He leaves behind an irreplaceable space, in the larger community, for gravgrav, but mostly for his family, for Lisa, and his closest ones.
“Let’s all continue riding, exploring, bringing people together, and keep connecting the community Max cared about so deeply. Your spirit will live on in our hearts, in our ideas, and in our actions. You will be missed more than words can express.”
It finished: “See you around, Max”.
Tailfin, whom Riese represented as an R&D rider, posted a message on Instagram saying: “Rest in peace, Max Riese. A teammate, a friend and a competitor. Your spirit will live on through the community you built. See you on the climb, Max.”
At once affable and passionate, Riese has featured in the web pages of Cycling Weekly previously. We ran the story last year when he set a record for a triple Everest, which he completed near his Salzburg home. He also appeared on Cycling Weekly’s Going Long podcast, where he spoke about how he discovered a love of ultra-riding, including confounding restaurant proprietors by being able to order two pizzas in one go.
“It fascinated us,” he said. “It was just this idea, like, ‘can we do it?’. Like going from Salzburg to Munich and back in one day – over 500 kilometres. We had a bunch of friends that basically said, ‘how about we try and do this route in 24 hours’? And it was just fun. Also the surreality of like, after 14 hours or something you arrive in Munich after 300 kilometres, and you go into a pizzeria and order two pizzas at once, and they look at you like ‘Okay….”
Cycling Weekly‘s thoughts are with Max Riese’s family and friends at this difficult time. The ultra-riding community will miss him.
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