Pizza is Just the Catalyst: A Ride with Berlin’s Pizza Gravel

Words and photos by Sam Rice

Berlin is not a city for everyone, but it’s undeniably a city for anyone. It’s a hotbed of cultures and contrasts, people and personalities, energies and eras. A place where insomniac techno club rats and Sunday flea-market families collide in perfect harmony.

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But what happens when COVID-19 forces the flea-markets to close? When Berghain shut its doors to ravers, and the street-art-filled walls of Kreuzberg are emptied of tourists? Well, Berliners don’t care to follow the mainstream and instead turn constraints into creativity. Not even a pandemic can quash this city’s spirit for reinvention and joy. And by joy, of course, I mean pizza and bicycles.

Open for business

A love-child of the COVID-19 lockdown era, Pizza Gravel (@pizzagravel) is a community-focused weekly gravel ride based in Berlin, Germany. Founded by Kyle Ponce in the summer of 2020, the genesis story of the group is as international as the city it was conceived in.

Originally from Southern California, Kyle was a regular at the hugely influential “Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time” (The Passage) before moving to Berlin. A group ride like no other, The Passage explored far-flung areas of Los Angeles on bike and saw riders battle every type of route possible, from shredding in storm drains to trespassing up the Hollywood Hills. Each week, riders set out on a unique route based around a different theme—sometimes historical, sometimes conceptual, oftentimes nonsensical. The Passage routes aimed to strike a balance between seeing new things and seeing old things anew.

“Those rides were truly transformational for me and really pushed my whole understanding of what riding bikes meant,” Kyle explains as he sips on a beer outside his neighborhood Späti (a local convenience store). “We’d meet at Koreatown’s California Donuts with zero prior information on the night’s antics: no route, no GPX file, and no expectations. We just followed the ride leader and hoped for the best,” he continues. “At first I was nervous about the lack of information, but once I accepted it and embraced the freedom it brought, my whole attitude changed. I realized I didn’t need a fancy bike computer and I didn’t need to religiously follow a GPX track to enjoy myself. It was way more fun to get lost with a bunch of strangers somewhere in LA at midnight,” Kyle beams as he finishes his beer.

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“It was the start of summer, and COVID-19 was running rampant throughout Europe. Lockdowns were in full swing, and everyone was forced into a state of anxiety,” Kyle explains. “Social gatherings and dining in at restaurants were strictly prohibited, but daily exercise and eating pizza a-la-curb was perfectly legal,” he explains with a cheeky smile.

So, along with a couple of buddies, Kyle started searching for the undiscovered pizza spots of Berlin and began linking them to the strange roads and gravel trails that lay just within the city limits. The recipe was deliciously simple: each week, they’d meet up at 7 p.m., get lost somewhere new—Passage style—stop for at least two pizzas, and ride long into the night powered by dynamos, pepperoni, and moonlight.

Long live Pizza Gravel

We’re 15 minutes late by the time we roll up to the Pizza Gravel meeting spot: an old church in the Schillerkiez neighborhood of Neukölln. As the sun ricochets off the red bricks and casts its tangerine tones on the gravel below, a group of more than 30 riders is lit up like a stage show. The crowd is as diverse as the bikes on display, with everything from custom built Stridsland and Drust ATBs to Ti gravel grinders, 90s MTBs, and an Omnium cargo rig completing our motley crew.

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While we wait for the stragglers, pre-ride beers, bike chatter, and anticipation for tonight’s ride fills the air. Bec and I move around the various groups, oscillating between rapid meet and greets and blinding riders with our camera flashes. Concerned that the first pizza stop might take too long with such a large group, Kyle swiftly takes the group’s pizza order and at 7:15 p.m. whistles loudly, signaling the start of the ride.

Out of the red-brick sanctuary, we head straight into the iconic Tempelhof. Now a disused airport space, Tempelhof epitomizes modern-day Berlin. Once a stage for Hitler to address the masses and later home to the Berlin Airlift, it’s now a symbol of freedom, unity, and refuge from war. Since it shut down as an airport in 2008, it’s become the home of the largest refugee camp in Germany, temporarily housing more than 2,000 people in its various hangars and outside spaces.

The sound of whirling freehubs fill the air as we descend upon the runway. Intermingled with the rollerbladers, longboarders, and baton twirlers, our ragtag group of 30 shares in the warm summer early evening sun. Birthday parties, after-work socials, and family BBQs erupt around us. The smell of charcoal fills the air, and our collective desire for our first slice of pizza grows stronger. Luckily for us, we’re just around the block from our first stop, and Maestro Kyle has it all under control.

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Nearby, al fresco diners sit outside a restaurant sharing carafes of wine, having plates of pasta, and enjoying each other’s company. It’s an idyllic European setting until we arrive and engulf the sidewalk. Bikes lean against walls, van doors, and closed-up shop fronts. It’s a kind of chaos, but the dining Berliners don’t even bat an eyelid. They just smile and return to their wine. They’ve seen it all and much more before.

Within minutes, our pizzas start to arrive, and it’s each to their own. Benches, bins, saddles, and cargo bike platforms become makeshift tables for one. There are pizza boxes and people and drops of marinara sauce everywhere. It’s glorious. In between the crust critique and fierce slice bartering, the community really gets going. “Pizza is just the catalyst,” one rider tells me. “When I moved to Berlin, I didn’t know anyone at all. But through the Pizza Gravel community, I’ve met some really great people who have now become some of my closest friends.” She continues as she folds a slice of pizza and takes a giant bite.

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It’s not just the Thursday ride outs that the PG crew shares; they also organize overnighters in the surrounding Brandenburg forests, coffee outside meetups, winter ski trips in the Alps, and MTB rides in the neighboring Czech Republic. They also regularly lend each other gear and helping hands and exchange a broad range of ideas and advice.

For Kyle, the best part of pizza gravel is the community of people who show up each week. “With Berlin being such an international city, it’s amazing to see how diverse our community is. We have folks from India, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, and all across Europe. I love hearing stories about new people who have moved to Germany and have formed new friendships through PG. For me, PG is an incredible place to connect with new and interesting bike people.”

Welcome to Sandenburg

First pizza demolished and boxes stacked high, it’s time to ride. We leave the bustling city bike lanes and flow through the affluent backstreets of Charlottenburg. Lined with international embassy buildings, striking museums and Berlin’s largest surviving royal palace, it feels a million miles away from Neukölln. It’s 9 p.m. as we enter the Grunewald Forest on the western edge of Berlin, and as the last light fades, the pastel tones of Europe’s endless summer sun flood the sky. Big candy-floss pink clouds plume and coalesce as we ride deep into the forest united by bikes, carb-comas, and the shared unknown of the trail ahead.

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Fast-rolling gravel takes us deeper still into Grunewald’s leafy lair, but it’s not wolves, bears, or spiders that catch us unawares here; it’s the sandy sections that creep up quick and make for some unexpected slip ‘n‘ slide moments. The group fractures around the sand. The chubby-tyred gravelleurs fly through with no worries, while the single-speeding city bikes take a little more persuasion. By the time we’ve regrouped ahead, the sun has dipped behind the trees, and it’s a whole new world.

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Plunged into darkness, the true essence of Pizza Gravel unfolds. Dynamo lights spring into action, and a sea of red tail lights punctuate the forest. The excitement builds and a childlike energy pulses throughout. Forced to focus on nothing but the narrow shard of light ahead, I sink into a deeply meditative state. Breath, body, and mind in synchronicity now, I wonder: What is it about riding at night that feels so magical? Why, when the world around us is exactly the same as it is in the light, does the darkness feel so renewing? Suddenly, out of nowhere, the tail lights clump together, and everyone is forced to hike-a-bike down a sketchy stair section.

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The group concertinas in size for the rest of the evening. The faster riders shoot ahead, buoying one another down the moonlit trails, while the chillers take their time navigating the forest. On most group rides, this is the fracture point where people get dropped and left behind. But not at Pizza Gravel. “This is not a race. Keep it pizza pace,” Kyle tells us as he shepherds the group together for an announcement.

“Okay, so it’s 11:30 p.m. now, and there’s still 20 kilometers and one pizza stop left to go on the route. So, if anyone wants to head back home, this is a great bail-out point,” he gestures to the road that cuts through the forest. After a few minutes’ consideration, a group of riders band together and take his exit strategy. With plans at 9 a.m. the next morning, Bec and I follow their lead and head home to bed.

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My head crashes into the pillow, but sleep isn’t on the menu right now. I feel tired but somehow full of energy. Full, but somehow hungry for more. New to Berlin, but somehow deeply at home here. Maybe that’s the true power of a community like this? Maybe that’s the true power of bicycles? Or maybe it’s tonight’s pizza giving me some trippy cheese dreams? Whatever it is, the Pizza Gravel crew have stolen a slice of my heart, and I’m excited to see where this community goes next.

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