After four seasons on the WorldTour, Abi Smith has swapped slick for knobbly tyres, and made a fresh start in gravel racing.
The 23-year-old will ride this year as part of Ribble Outliers, the off-road squad created by the Lancashire-based bike brand. The change comes after two seasons blighted by injury with Picnic PostNL, during which time she suffered three concussions which kept her sidelined for months at a time.
“It was definitely time for a change,” Smith tells Cycling Weekly at her new team’s season launch in London. “It was a big decision. I had to put my brave hat on.”
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The Yorkshirewoman’s introduction to gravel came last autumn, when she competed at the Welsh round of the UCI Gravel World Series on a borrowed bike. “I wasn’t quite sure how I’d do,” she says, “but I came second.” She then upgraded that result to the top step in her second event – the 13.8km time trial at the British Gravel Championships – which she won ahead of Sophie Wright and Josie Millard, both of whom are now her team-mates.
“I think that was the best day of my year,” Smith says of the victory. “For years and years, I hadn’t raced for myself. It was a home race for me because I grew up around Dalby Forest, so it was really special.”
Smith spend 2024 and 2025 with Picnic PostNL.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Smith’s goal in her first year as a gravel pro is to win a race. More important than that, though, she says: “I want to enjoy the racing and just have fun with the team.” It’s a simple joy she’s been lacking in recent years, due to head injuries from crashes, and worries of falling down again.
“I haven’t got the fearlessness that some people do,” she says. “Crashing is one of the main reasons I’ve stepped away from road racing. I know it still happens in gravel, but the fields are much smaller, and you’re in control of your own decisions and choices. There’s not quite the same domino effect that there is in road racing.
“The risks and the danger I was having to put myself in, for no good reason sometimes, was just not worth it in the end. There’s more to life than taking hits on the head.”
Smith’s choice to swap disciplines also stemmed from what she refers to as “team issues” at Picnic. “I felt like I was just doing a job and not having fun anymore, and that’s not why I entered the sport,” she says. “I was in quite a bad place mentally with it all. About halfway through 2025, I got to my last straw – I knew that I had to step out of the road scene for a bit.”
When Smith’s contract with Picnic ended last year, she and the team mutually agreed not to renew. It marked the end of her chapter as a WorldTour rider, one that began when she was recruited at 19 by TIBCO-SVB, the team that later became EF Education.
Alongside her racing this year, Smith is also undertaking an 18-month apprenticeship in conservation. The commitment meant that, after her season opener at Spain’s Santa Vall last month – in which she placed 16th on the first stage then withdrew with knee troubles – she returned home to North Yorkshire for a course in handling chainsaws.
“It’s pretty much a ranger job, which is all really new, and I’m learning loads,” she says. “I love being outside every day – I think I’m slightly feral.”
Smith will target three big events in her gravel calendar: the UK’s Dirty Reiver and The Gralloch, as well as the 360km-long The Traka in Spain – “I’ve not raced for six or seven hours before,” she says.
After that, she’ll change back to slick tyres, for a day at least, for the British Road Championships at the end of June. The route is yet to be announced, but Smith is crossing her fingers for a “long, hard race”, the type she’ll now grow accustomed to in gravel.
“I would really love to be road national champion,” she says. “I’m quite sure I’ve still got that in me. It’s always been on my list.”
This interview first appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 5 March 2026. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.
