‘Being a bike rider means riding your bike for pleasure. No matter if it ́s meticulous everyday training or just weekend roll-outs. If you do it cause of love, it ́s the real thing.’
Born and bred in Kiev, Ukraine, it was a move to the Netherlands that set in motion a series of events that led to Steff Gutovaska discovering her passion for two wheels. ‘I got my first vintage road bike when I moved to Holland, you know, you kind of need a bike there to survive,’ she says. ‘The bike followed me to Madrid, where I met one of my best friends who was riding fixed gear back then. I remember how I could not understand why would someone ride a bike without gears and breaks, but couple of months later I owned one myself.‘
What followed for Steff was a period of learning and pushing the limits of riding a fixie. After exploring Madrid and the outskirts, it was a two day ride to a neighbouring city that both lit the fuse for epic rides and led to her embracing modern road bikes...derailleurs and all.
‘We decided to go on a long ride to the nearby city of Toledo and back in two days, after that my knees have never been the same...I got myself a second degree injury and could not ride for a couple of months,’ she says. ‘That is when I got myself a proper road bike to start recovering, I was young and dramatic and thought that road bikes were only for old boring people,’ she says laughing. ‘I was so naive!’
Now based in Barcelona with her partner and fellow NeilPryde bikes ambassador Justin Weeks, Steff has managed to combine her love of riding with her other passion, photography.
‘I almost never leave home without a camera. You never know when you see the next great shot, even if it’s the route you take every week,’ she says.
For this reason you won't see Steff out powerlining on big group rides. She has her small crew and they do what they love.
‘It’s always so hard to find people who like the same kind of rides, have the same pace and most importantly don’t mind stopping for photos,’ she says. ‘I am lucky enough to have found this group, which consists of three guys, Justin being one of them obviously.’
As for her ride-of-choice, just like Justin she's fallen for our feather-weight flyer, the BURA SL.
‘The thing I love about it the most is the stiffness of the frame' she says.‘It’s as if every pedal stroke I can feel each and every watt I put out transferred into the ground.’