Dot Comms x Seek Travel Ride - Tour de France (Randonneur) Special - Samuel Thompson’s Record Breaking True Tour of France.

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Hello, Samuel Thompson here, the host of dot Com Coach
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with ASO dot CC and occasional rider of bicycles myself
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and I've got a special episode to bring you today,
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the Tour de frances On. At the moment, the problem
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is that the modern version of the race is no
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longer true Tour France, and it all seems a bit
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easy with team support, rest days and daily massages. Those
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listening to this podcast are likely more interested in events
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akin to the early days of the tour, whether others
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had to fend for themselves, carrying all their spares and
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organizing their own accommodation. The stages were also longer in
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these days. For example, the nineteen twenty five tour was
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five four hundred and thirty kilometers over eighteen stages, with
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many over three hundred kilometers and the longest being four
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one hundred and thirty three kilometers. In many ways, modern
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self support is Ultracycling hawks back to these days carries
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forward their principles and spirit. There is, however, an existing
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event that combines the two, one that I have intimate
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personal experience with. I realized I don't talk much about
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myself on dot COM's but the time he feels appropriate
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to share an interview I did with Bella Molloy, who
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was the host of the Sikh Travel Ride podcast last
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year following my completion of the Tour de France Randomner.
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Established in nineteen fifty eight, the Tour de France Randowner
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is essentially a permanent random a demarketed by sixty one
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control points, often in emblematic locations such as Omaha Beach,
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Carravour de lab and the Col de Tormalai, that leads
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riders on a roughly four thy eight hundred kilometer true
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Tour France. In twenty twenty five, I set out to
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complete this route in under thirteen days and thereby bettering
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the existing fast this name time, which was held by
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Christophe Alaghere since twenty eleven. This wasn't just about a
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performance orientated goldo, as the elements of travel and personal
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discovery were just important to me as the outcome, similar
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to the way early riders of the Tour de France
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embarked on their tours, I gained so much from this
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experience and am keen to promote the Tour de France
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Rando know more widely as offers the opportunity for anyone
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to experience it in a manner that suits them best. Anyway,
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we go through all this in our chat, So before
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I hit play, I'd like to thank Better for sharing
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this episode and recommend that you check out the Seek
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Travel Ride podcast for other inspired recollects journeys by bicycle.
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I will also leave some links in the show notes
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for some of the pieces I've written about my told
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of France randoner, including my daily voice notes recorded along
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the way. I hope you enjoy, and we'll catch you
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soon for some more regular ultrasyc and coverage on dot
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COM's It was Yeah. It was effectively an excuse to
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throw in a tail dent. I had the idea there
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that I still had a few days I could get
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that sorted and tore my way back to where the
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start was. So I spent I think I spent five
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days on the road doing what I thought I wanted
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to do, but I never really enjoyed it because I
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always had this, I always had this sentiment hanging over
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me that I wasn't there to do this, and that
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really reinforced this aspect of me to try and separate
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it to when I'm racing a race. When I tour,
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I Tour.
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Welcome to Seek Travel Ride. We share the stories and
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experiences of people taking amazing adventures by bike, whether it's
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crossing state boarders, mountain ranges, countries or continents. We want
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to share that spirit of adventuring on two wheels with
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our listeners. Hello, listeners, it's Bella Moloy here hosts to
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Seek Travel Ride and welcome back to another episode. Now.
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A little while ago, I featured Samuel Thompson just before
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he set off to take on the Teries Routier Challenge.
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It was a full lap around France, seven hundred and
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fifty kilometers around fifty thousand meters of climbing, and he
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had to pass through sixty one control points along the way. Now,
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before Samuel set off on that ride, we discussed his vision,
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his prep, what he was most looking forward to, which
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fair to say, maybe it was consuming a truckload of
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French pastries that would have been high up on his list. Well, anyway,
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I'm happy to report Samuel went out did the ride
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and he didn't just finish it, he set a new
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world record. He completed it in twelve days, fifteen hours
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and five minutes becoming the first person to do so
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in under thirteen days. Now with the benefit of being
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able to reflect on his achievements, Samuel has been It's
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magnanimous enough to offer up his time so that we
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can chat about his experience fully, and in order to
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do that properly, it means winding back and getting a
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picture of Sam the writer himself, because you don't just
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magic your way into a world record. And while it
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no doubt took months of preparation to set off on
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this specific challenge, you could argue Sam's actually been building
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up to this for many years. He made his first
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start in ultracycling in twenty seventeen at the Transatlantic Way
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in Ireland, and since then he's taken on events in Norway,
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the UK and Europe. He's often featuring at the very
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pointy end of the leaderboard, sometimes in that coveted first
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place position. Sam's also harnessed all of his own personal
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experience and now works as a coach where he focuses
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on helping others chase their ambitions. But you'd be wrong
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to think Sam's focus is just purely ultracycling, and when
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he isn't challenging himself in these kind of events, you'll
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likely find him taking on a petty tour of his
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own because he just genuinely enjoys riding his bike, albeit
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he does so doing incredibly long distances pretty much every
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day now. Perhaps it's an excuse to feed his arm
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and croissant addiction. We'll get to ask sam that soon. Regardless,
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he's also very much against the notion of suffering and
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to test the idea that you should feel miserable taking
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on these kinds of roads. So it's time to learn
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more about Samuel, how he came to take on the
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terse Routier challenge and also how many croissants did it
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actually take to set a new world record twelve days,
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fifteen hours, five minutes. Samuel Thompson a big warm welcome
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to the show.
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Hi Bella, thank you, thank you for having me back on.
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It's a pleasure to be here.
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It's great to see you virtually, having actually seen you
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in person during your events, Sam that was an awesome
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little time we get to spend together here after you'd
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had the dash up, the parasoured Colder Aspen and the
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Colder Tormalai. It's awesome to see you, I guess in
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your element face to face.
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Yeah, that's right. I think that was one of my
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one of my favorite parts of the route actually coming
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on early. It was some of the roads I'm familiar
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with having done them in previous events, but they were
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always different each time, as the first time I've been
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at the Tormalay during the day and to meet you
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at the Boston I think I called you my Boulane angel.
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Yes, I brought you some pastries, didn't I.
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That fueled me for the rest of the morning and.
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It got you up the salaw and allbisc afterwards. I
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can't wait to dig into your adventure, Sam and I've
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got a bucket load of questions for you. But the
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first question I start my show with Samuel and I
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ask it of all my guess is Samuel Thompson, do
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you remember the very first bike you ever rode?
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Yes, it was. It was a black mountain bike from Halford's,
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which people from the UK will know all about Halford's
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because everyone gets their first bike from Halford's.
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So Ozzie here people not from the UK. Is Halford's
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like the bike store that you've see in every single
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city or what is Halford's?
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Yeah, it's one of these big, big, out of town
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retail type stores. It also sells a lot of car stuff,
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but everyone has a bike section. They're very reasonably priced,
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and I think it's just what parents think of when
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they're buying their child a bike, that you go to
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Halfords to get that bike.
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Okay, so your bike was a Halford's bike, a mountain bike.
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Did you ride bikes? Hepes? Growing up?
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I rode a lot as a child, just around the
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local area, getting up to all sorts of good not trouble,
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of course, but not particularly in this sporting sense. When
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I was that age. It was more seen as a
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form of transport, form of getting around the place.
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Yeah, And has that stuck with you? Like, do you
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use your bike to commute to places?
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Now?
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I know you live in France now and cycle communing
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in France is pretty it. We're pretty well set up
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for that. But do you are you a cycle commute now?
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As well?
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Well? As I work from my apartment, generally my my
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commute and take and take you very long. In terms
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of how I how I get around, yeah, is it's
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largely by bike. I haven't owned a car in more
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than fifteen years. Now I start a driving license, So
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I'm not totally against that form of transport, but I
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just feel for the lifestyle I built for myself, the
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things that I do that I could, the bike facilitates
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generally my needs in that.
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Sense I mentioned in my introduction there, Sam, how you
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know you've you've sort of got what is about eight
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years now where you've really been in the ultra scene
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lining up at events prior to that? How does someone
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get into long distance events like this? Like were you
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riding for sport? Were you riding for fitnes? Were you
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doing cycle tours that just kept getting longer?
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Like?
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How did Samuel Thompson the ultra cyclist get birthed?
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It's difficult to pick one moment potentially, I had. I
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bought my first road bike, racing bike when I was
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at university, so during school and before cycling wasn't it
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still wasn't really seen as a sport for me. I'd
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got into running at a reasonably competitive club level, and cycling
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was at that point sort of cross training alongside. But
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one element which had really attracted me even from that
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side was that element of travel, that of adventure. I
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think if I were to cite one inspiration early on
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that was freeding Mark bay once First Around the World book,
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where it was quite far from the sort of endeavors
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we are seeing these days in similar similar record attempts.
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I think he averaged around one hundred miles a day,
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which is it's not he wasn't he wasn't dawdling, but
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he was taking rest days. He was he was essentially
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making up as he as he went along and just
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reading as much about the adventure he had going to
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all these places. The route he took was particularly interesting
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in that time, going through the Middle East and through
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East Asia as well, and that was quite inspiring to
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see how someone could combine that. Obviously it's an athletic endeavor,
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but also that element of a voyage of seeing places
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and experiencing things while carrying all you need on your bicycle.
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It's funny because I sort of reflect back when you're
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hearing you say that, because it was actually the very
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first I guess bike travel cycling related book that I
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ever read as well, Sorry Mark. I think it was
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like on sale for two Uzzi dollars or something at
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a bookstore, but I saw it and I thought, oh wow,
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that looks interesting, and I certainly In fact, I'm even
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wondering if I would classify myself as someone who was
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even cycling for sport at that time. It was really
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just peauking my interest of what a bizarre, unique thing
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to do. I always say on this podcast, Sam that
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I feel like I highlight like the point one percent
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of the world because it normalizes these type of things
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like what you're doing. People who ride around the world,
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people who even take a month off to ride somewhere.
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It's actually not that common. So I can understand you're
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getting inspired by Mark. But did you then go on
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your own little bike adventure or was the Transatlantic Way
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in twenty seventeen the first sort of voyage from you know,
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an adventure and a bike sort of journey that you took.
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Yeah, it actually took me a little while to get
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around to doing my first my first major trip on
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a bike. I was I was more focused on running
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at a time, and continued that for a number of
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years afterwards. And there was only really when I started
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to pick up some injuries from running and I started
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use the bike more and more, firstly for sports fitness,
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and then this idea kept creeping in my mind of
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using it more to facilitate facility's travel element. So it
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was twenty fourteen that I first planned my own overseas
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independent trip. I was living in London at a time.
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I sackled down to Portsmouth on the coast and got
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the ferry to Santander northern Spain, and then rode through
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Spain back up through France to get the ferry back
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from layout of so that was over about ten days.
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Very different, even though it was only just over ten
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years ago. The way I approached it was very different today.
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I mean, the whole industry in terms of how you
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can equip yourself and the knowledge that there is out
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there is developed massively set off with what was essentially
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an entry level road bike with panniers, not much else
243
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in terms of equipment, so I was very very rear loaded.
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I broke a spoke on my way to Portsmouth, managed
245
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to get her repaired. Looking back now, I don't know
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how that bike held together with the amount and I
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was carrying, but I just yeah, I just loved it all.
248
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And things slightly escalated.
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Since then got out a little bit out of hand.
250
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Did you find you loved it from the first few
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moments of that trip, like you Obviously you dealt with
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equipment failures, you know, within the first day, I think
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you said, But I often find on the very first
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trip we take, even if we ride bikes for fitness,
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it's very different proposition to putting panniers on a bike,
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especially a road bike, and then all of a sudden
257
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taking off. And I say especially a road bike, because
258
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if you've got a road bike, chances are that's what
259
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you ride daily, and road bikes are built for speed
260
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and being swift and being quick, and as soon as
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you lump panniers on the back, all of a sudden,
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it's not so swift anymore. So did you find that
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that there was a baptimism and fire that took place
264
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in the first few days or were you just leaned
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rid into the adventure and soaking it all up.
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I think the letter obviously there was an adjustment to
267
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make in terms of how to buy candles, how it
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felt riding it, but I don't seem to record it
269
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holding me back too much, probably because I had I
270
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had a different attitude of the way of riding there.
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It was a case of probably treating it more a
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sporting aspect than I would do now. But no I
273
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seemed to in that sense. I seemed to adjust to
274
00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:45.039
it fairly quickly, and I from my memories of that trip,
275
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I yeah, seemed to seemed to enjoy it all and
276
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didn't really didn't really feel like obviously there was a
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lot of developed as the trip went along, but I'd
278
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also planned it out quite rigidly. I'd planned and booked
279
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where I was going to stay pretty much every night,
280
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so I I had the schedule to stick to it.
281
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In that sense, I think they the way that went
282
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about that sort of even carries through to how I
283
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approachings now. We've always liked to be quite organized and
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when I can be in advance, sometimes to my detriment,
285
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but I think that served me well in that sense. Yeah.
286
00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:27.360
Well, I was just reflecting back on our first conversation
287
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about the whole Teres Routier challenge, and I remember you saying,
288
00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:33.279
you know, there was months of research into this project.
289
00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.799
It's not like you decided on it in three weeks later.
290
00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:38.200
You all, right, let's see how we go. There was
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00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:41.320
a lot a lot of research went into it that
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00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:44.559
very first trip. There's obviously something happened because a few
293
00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:47.360
years later you are at the Transatlantic Way start line.
294
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That's an ultra event. I'm not sure which distance you
295
00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:51.600
were taking on because I think they have two distance
296
00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:55.159
categories in that event, but regardless, on the Transatlantic Way
297
00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:58.480
there you're almost guaranteed, well you're guaranteed some pretty lumpy,
298
00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:03.639
hilly terrain and some strong westerly wins. Right, So how
299
00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:06.759
did you end up to signing up for that and
300
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getting into the ultra scene.
301
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Well, the major the major entry point there was discovering
302
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or Ax and it was I entered my first or
303
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:23.880
AX event because of a friend who was preparing for
304
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:28.160
Paris Prest Paris in that year twenty fifteen, and they
305
00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:31.160
had they had done their two entry k already and
306
00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:36.079
were about to do a three hundred K and I
307
00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:40.079
basically joined them for that, and so three injured K
308
00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:42.319
was my first, was my first ord Ax. I remember
309
00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:46.680
finishing late in the night. It was quite a traumatic experience,
310
00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:52.440
but they made it through a run and thank you,
311
00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:57.400
and yeah, it ended up with that that year. I yeah,
312
00:17:57.559 --> 00:18:00.279
ended up doing a six hundred K a cup of
313
00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:03.960
months later and was sort of found myself immersed in
314
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:09.000
that world of doing more calendar ord Ax events, wanting
315
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.759
to wanted to complete the Super under Nurse series, and
316
00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:19.640
obviously from there that was essentially in the entry points
317
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of this world where you started to hear about the races.
318
00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:25.480
It must have been the trans Continental Race I'd heard
319
00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:27.480
of first at that time.
320
00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:30.680
Been really young in its infancy then too, right, like
321
00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:34.160
the first edition was what twenty was it twenty thirteen?
322
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:35.920
I think it was twenty thirteen, so it must have
323
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been you know, it must have been looking at the
324
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third fourth editions at that point.
325
00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:43.079
Wow, I've got to ask you know how you said
326
00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.119
you did the first Order Acts of three hundred, love
327
00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:49.119
that and then you did the six hundred. Did you
328
00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.079
end up doing the qualifiers and trying to get into
329
00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:54.960
PBP that time as well? Or No?
330
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:57.599
No, I think I was a bit late starting then.
331
00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:02.079
I can't remember it being a massive objective of mine
332
00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:05.319
at that point. I still haven't done PvP to the States.
333
00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:08.880
It's coming up a couple of years.
334
00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.960
Potentially presentially in twenty twenty seven. But no, at that
335
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.559
point I think it was it. Yeah, it wasn't my
336
00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:16.160
objective for that year.
337
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:20.759
So start line of an Ultra and they're very different
338
00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:23.359
to an Order Axe in that, you know, the self
339
00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:26.160
supported method. It's not like you've got places where you
340
00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:29.279
can check in have stuff shipped. You know, there's food
341
00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:31.680
from a canteen, there's beds laid out that you can
342
00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:34.640
rent by the hour or whatever. In the community hall
343
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.680
with all the volunteers. It's very different proposition. What was
344
00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:42.240
it like changing the style of events you are now
345
00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:45.400
riding from those two hundred or three hundred k ord
346
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:47.319
axes to all of a sudden now you're on an
347
00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:48.240
ultrop event.
348
00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:52.720
Yeah, I felt like the transition was essentially fairly, fairly
349
00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:56.240
natural because even a lot of the ord Ax events,
350
00:19:56.519 --> 00:19:59.640
especially in the UK, they are what they've term X rated,
351
00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:03.839
where which there's nothing saucy about that. It's just that
352
00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:09.200
there aren't any facilities available for once you started and finished.
353
00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:14.359
Basically the controls, well, there are controls along the way,
354
00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.400
but it's either get a receipt from a cashpoint or
355
00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.880
proof of passage on your own, so that they aren't
356
00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:25.759
as facilitated as some others. So it felt natural in
357
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:29.279
that sense. I'd also obviously be doing not more riding
358
00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:33.720
in preparation where it was independently arranged, so that style
359
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:38.559
of riding I was used to doing doing overnighters, doing
360
00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.640
some point to point rides, and I'd also done a
361
00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:44.799
few more independent tours in that intervening period, so I
362
00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:48.240
was quite used to those individual elements. Maybe what I
363
00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:53.000
was less prepared for was that trying to string it
364
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:58.519
together over a week, that sort of unknown of riding
365
00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:02.559
those sort of distances they are to date, and managing myself,
366
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:06.480
my sleep, all of these things in a single event.
367
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:09.400
Because it was it was twenty five hundred kilometers, there
368
00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:12.759
was only one distance at that time. We had very
369
00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:15.839
challenging weather conditions as well in that year, as is
370
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:18.880
typical in Ireland. At the start of June, I was
371
00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.359
even even blown off my bike once by a gust
372
00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:21.839
of wind.
373
00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.960
Every now and then, see me think about an ultra again,
374
00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:29.599
and the one I would do if I was doing it,
375
00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:32.400
I've always said would be Transatlantic way. But then I
376
00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.400
sort of think, yeah, I don't know. I hear people
377
00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:37.920
tell the stories that you do and think maybe I'd
378
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:39.480
just like to do that as a bike tour.
379
00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:43.599
I think the one thing's really struck out from that
380
00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:47.880
which has since become a recurrent theme and always it's
381
00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:50.759
always been there in terms of traveling by bike is
382
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.920
how kind, generous and welcoming the locals were, and Island
383
00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:59.200
it was just on a different level. If if I
384
00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:01.319
mean people were showing trust in what you're doing. If
385
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:06.079
you ask something for someone, they will go above and beyond. Yeah,
386
00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:10.440
there's so many of these amazing encounters that such a
387
00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:13.799
friendly place. And oh yeah, I say it's not just Island,
388
00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:16.319
but in Ireland it was particularly evident.
389
00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:22.000
Oh. I remember interviewing Sirsha Potty High. Sirsha and she
390
00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:26.680
had gone to Ireland to get some more experience sort
391
00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:29.279
of wild camping on her own, and she said that
392
00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:31.839
she realized very quickly that if she wanted to, she
393
00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:34.200
could probably never ever pitch her tent because the first
394
00:22:34.279 --> 00:22:36.240
night she stayed with friends, who then linked her up
395
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.359
with friends of friends and friends of friends, and as
396
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.599
her route kept going on, she always had somewhere where
397
00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:43.079
she was offered to stay. That's sort of the Irish
398
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:46.400
hospitality there. In Spade, I wanted to take you to
399
00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.839
the event because I've got a quote from you where
400
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.519
you say that the Transatlantic Way was certainly a baptism
401
00:22:54.599 --> 00:22:57.519
of fire, wind and rain. I made almost all of
402
00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:00.079
the common rookie errors, but I was gripped by the
403
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:02.599
thrill of the race, and I learned so much from
404
00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:06.119
the experience. After the first couple of days, my body
405
00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:09.079
was beginning to fall apart, and I also spent far
406
00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:12.400
too long obsessing over the tracker and my race position.
407
00:23:13.079 --> 00:23:15.799
I now rarely even check a tracker during a race.
408
00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.160
I prioritize focus of my own performances as this is
409
00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:22.039
the only thing that I have control over. I want
410
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:24.119
to take you back to that the baptism of fire.
411
00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:26.839
Can sort of understand we were talking about the weather
412
00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:30.480
and then having to manage all of those variables yourself.
413
00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:33.480
I can understand that the element of all of a
414
00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:36.599
sudden having a tracker where you can not just see
415
00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:39.920
your progress, but everyone else's around you progress, that was
416
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.480
obviously something that took your focus during the event as well.
417
00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:45.960
Yeah, I think far too much so in that case,
418
00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:51.920
that was it was quite a thrill to be in
419
00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:55.480
that competitive element and see where you were placed against others.
420
00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:58.400
But when it got to the point I was tracking
421
00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:02.359
it so often it and this is what the concern
422
00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:05.839
I have about doing this now or advising others to
423
00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:08.400
do this, is how it then affects your own strategy.
424
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:13.720
That these things, they are essentially long individual time trials,
425
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:18.519
and that element of pacing, however we're however, looking at
426
00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:21.680
that should be similar whether you're doing a ten mile
427
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:24.559
time trial or a thousand mile time trial. That at
428
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:28.119
any point is that it's that great Chris Boardman quote
429
00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:30.920
that any point you should be asking yourself, am I
430
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:34.599
well can I continue at this pace? Basically if the
431
00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:38.160
answer is no, then you're going too fast. If the
432
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:40.799
answer is yes, you're not going fast enough, but the
433
00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:45.079
answers maybe, then that's that's just about right. So I
434
00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:48.559
think a similar concept can be applied can be applied
435
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:51.240
to here that it shouldn't really matter what other people
436
00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:55.039
are doing around you, that you do your best and
437
00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:58.799
the outcome will take care of itself. It really depends
438
00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:01.680
on how as a person and you react to what
439
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:03.440
other people are doing around you. I think if it's
440
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:06.119
a case of just giving your self information, potentially you
441
00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.279
could use that as motivation if you feel like you're
442
00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:12.240
potentially slacking off, to remind yourself that you are in
443
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:15.079
a race, that could be a positive thing. But then
444
00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:19.079
if you see if what other people are doing is
445
00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:22.680
going to affect your strategy, especially when it comes to
446
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:26.119
sleep patterns. If you think I need to need to
447
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.119
cut down on sleep or push too hard, and then
448
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.200
I think it's it's often just going to come back.
449
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.680
And buy it, like with a Transatlantic way. Did you
450
00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:38.079
find that since then, because you've done a number of
451
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:41.240
ultras since then, have you had the discipline to not
452
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:44.559
really focus on the track and or do you find
453
00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:47.720
that you do have to constantly remind yourself, don't focus
454
00:25:47.720 --> 00:25:49.799
on that, Samuel, focus on yourself, what are you doing?
455
00:25:49.880 --> 00:25:53.240
And and now that's become just inherent in how you
456
00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:53.720
do things.
457
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:57.559
Now, Yeah, I think it's become natural now. I I
458
00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:01.039
haven't really felt the need to check the tracker during
459
00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:05.319
the race. I've recently considering whether potentially there are certain
460
00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:08.279
points in the race where it could help potentially towards
461
00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:13.440
towards the end. But I've done the Actually the first
462
00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:16.880
the first event where I didn't look at a tracker
463
00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:21.559
at all was the Transparentese race in twenty nineteen, and
464
00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:23.680
I had an idea of where I was because there
465
00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:26.200
was a couple of controls where I knew where I
466
00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:31.720
had come into those controls. So the the well at halfway,
467
00:26:32.039 --> 00:26:34.200
I knew I was second going into that control, and
468
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:36.160
i'd seen the person who had I sort of crossed
469
00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:38.160
paths of him on and out and back, and so
470
00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:39.599
I spent a whole of the second half of the
471
00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:42.440
race sort of wondering where I was and in a
472
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:45.480
way sort of telling myself, potentially, I'm leading here, and
473
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:50.000
that was a real motivation boost to me. Maybe if
474
00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:54.160
I knew that other people were out of reach, or
475
00:26:54.200 --> 00:26:56.200
if I knew for certain that I was ahead, then
476
00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:59.559
maybe it would have impacted me negatively. So I didn't
477
00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:02.200
I didn't want to change the tracker in that sense.
478
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:05.880
He ended up the person who ended up winning overtook
479
00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:09.240
me on the road withoute hundred kilometers to go, and
480
00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.319
I didn't know whether it was first or second, but
481
00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:14.279
I knew that he was moving a lot faster than
482
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:17.119
I was at that point, and so I just did
483
00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:20.200
what I can do. So in that sense, reflecting on it,
484
00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:22.200
I don't think looking at the tracker would have changed
485
00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:24.960
anything to me. I felt like I had done the
486
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:28.440
best I could in terms of my strategy for the race,
487
00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:32.480
the way I rode. If I knew like someone finished
488
00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:36.720
half an hour before me, and I just can't look
489
00:27:36.759 --> 00:27:40.000
back and say I should have done this differently because
490
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:43.160
something else may have come up. So that's the way
491
00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:45.920
I look at these things, especially. I don't like to
492
00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:48.160
look back after an event and think, oh, if only
493
00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:51.799
I found an hour here an hour there, because everyone
494
00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:54.000
else is saying that. So if we all find an hour,
495
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:55.519
we're all just going to be in the same position,
496
00:27:55.559 --> 00:27:58.160
but moved up an how quicker. And if this thing
497
00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:00.960
didn't happen, something else could have happened. So it's more
498
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:06.119
of a case of managing what happens rather than say,
499
00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:08.519
rather than looking back and saying all these what ifs.
500
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:12.200
Yeah, something that comes to my mind when there's things
501
00:28:12.279 --> 00:28:14.279
like a tracker where you can see where you are
502
00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:16.319
and in an ultra where you can see where your
503
00:28:16.359 --> 00:28:20.000
competitors are, especially if you're attacking it like a race.
504
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:24.319
I've often wondered with the mental mindset of is it
505
00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:28.480
harder if you're the one being chased or if you're
506
00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:31.240
the one doing the chasing as well? Like have you
507
00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:34.400
found yourself on both sides of that coin? Then yeah.
508
00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:37.319
But I think it's also important to remember, especially when
509
00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:40.160
these things play out of such long periods, that those
510
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.640
differences can be artificial. In terms of sleep patterns. If
511
00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:49.519
people have got slightly different sleep patterns and where you're
512
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:52.680
at one point doesn't make a huge difference. When I
513
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.160
look back on, especially over the past few years, the
514
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.279
strategy I've often taken in longer events is and that
515
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:04.160
I did on this lap of France, is sleep early,
516
00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:07.440
start early. So that means you look at the tracker
517
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:11.039
for most races at ten pm, I've probably been sleeping
518
00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:13.359
for the last two hours, so there's going to be
519
00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:16.400
quite a lot of people ahead of me. But come
520
00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:18.680
to a in the morning, I'll have been moving for
521
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:20.680
a couple of hours. They will still be in bed,
522
00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:23.480
so that position has changed. So it depends when you
523
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:26.200
look at the tracker, and it's something unless you've been
524
00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:31.839
tracking everyone's movements, everyone's patterns that second, that instant in
525
00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:36.640
the moments snapshot isn't always the best reflection. And then
526
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:40.440
that's before we come into how sustainable people, especially people's
527
00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:43.240
sleep patterns are. If some people are really pushing it,
528
00:29:43.319 --> 00:29:46.119
potentially they've skipped a night of sleep to get to
529
00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:50.440
this certain position, that's not going to be sustainable. So again,
530
00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:54.720
not getting carried away with other people's actions, when it's
531
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:59.440
just trusting your own strategy and seeing where that places
532
00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.000
you at the end. I think, yeah, that's often often
533
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:05.559
going to be the best reflection of overall performances.
534
00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:08.839
Yeah, it's interesting as well, just you know, how we
535
00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:11.599
were talking about the evolution of these type of long
536
00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:14.359
distance things, even you know when we talk about Mark
537
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:16.880
Beaumont and how he set the world record initially and
538
00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:19.640
then how the records have been set ever since, and
539
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:23.079
how there's been such a big change and changes in equipment,
540
00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:25.079
Like how you could carry equipment on your bike, you know,
541
00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:26.960
ten years ago to how you can carry it now
542
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:31.200
is so different. I feel with each ultra the sleep strategy,
543
00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:34.599
that thing is changing as well, and I wonder if
544
00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:37.599
it's changing in the other direction. And what I mean
545
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:40.240
there is I know there's people that are lining up
546
00:30:40.279 --> 00:30:43.400
at events having as little sleep as possible to ride
547
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.480
as far as possible each and every day on the
548
00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:49.039
minimum amount of sleep that they can still sustain. But
549
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:52.559
I also think, and maybe I'm not sure that there's
550
00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:54.920
anything other than just a few people that I've noticed,
551
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:58.680
I feel though, saying that people are looking at sleep
552
00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:02.319
in a different way and sleep patterns and sleep cycles
553
00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:05.839
and how long is a sleep cycle and how when
554
00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:07.440
do I want to be a waking up from a
555
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.680
sleep cycle in terms of how I go with things.
556
00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:13.240
I think Transcontinental's just finished up, and I remember reading
557
00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:16.839
a few quotes from Lee Wilcox, and she was saying
558
00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:19.720
how it's been one of the races where she's physically
559
00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:22.240
felt really good, and she thinks it's because of the
560
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:24.319
extra sleep that she's allowed herself to have.
561
00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:27.920
Yeah, And even the winner of that race, Victor PERSONI,
562
00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:31.400
when you're looking at his percentage stop time, he's at
563
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:35.240
seventy percent moving thirty percent stopped, which I don't think
564
00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:38.200
i've ever seen for trans Continental races usually more than
565
00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:41.319
eighty percent for the winner. And you'll see as well
566
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:43.880
at his average moving speed was the highest, highest of all,
567
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:47.319
which often is the case for the winner. But I
568
00:31:47.359 --> 00:31:50.839
think what we're seeing now, in part, is that the
569
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:54.319
general standard moving up, so it's not enough just to
570
00:31:54.359 --> 00:31:57.440
be able to cut down your stop time, which obviously
571
00:31:57.480 --> 00:32:00.960
includes sleep time, is as far as possible and just
572
00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:03.000
hope that just by moving more a slow speed is
573
00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:05.079
going to get you there. I think that standard has
574
00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:08.559
risen so much that you have to be fast and
575
00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:12.240
to be able to facilitate that to sleep well, which
576
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:14.519
I think is a healthy thing for this sport. That
577
00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:18.240
to see it as a who can sleep less competition,
578
00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:22.759
it's not a healthy thing to be promoting and especially
579
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:26.480
being a fairly I know, I know ultra distance events
580
00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.359
have been around for a long time, but in this
581
00:32:28.599 --> 00:32:32.000
in this sense with we don't know long term consequences
582
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:36.880
of doing that. And there have been some some research
583
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:40.119
studies which have particularly focused on ultra distance likely who
584
00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:45.160
that have outlined that point that there are potential consequences
585
00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:49.759
not just physical but long term mental health. And it's
586
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:54.799
something where potentially a couple of events where I potentially
587
00:32:54.839 --> 00:32:57.880
haven't gotten asleep during them, that it's not just the
588
00:32:57.880 --> 00:33:01.920
physical recovery afterwards, it's that mental recovery too. So I
589
00:33:01.960 --> 00:33:04.759
find when I have managed that better, and I find
590
00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:07.200
with experience, I have done that better into something I
591
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:11.000
tried to promote and transmit to other people that your
592
00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:14.680
overall experience is so much better, you'll feel better physically
593
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:20.680
and I truly be performance then follows that obviously there
594
00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:24.000
has to be an efficiency element that we can't sleep
595
00:33:24.039 --> 00:33:26.319
eight hours a day. We can take on these events
596
00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:29.519
however however you wish. But if we're looking at wanting
597
00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:34.640
to optimize overall performance in a healthy way. You can't
598
00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:37.200
really get away with sleeping eight hours a night and
599
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:38.960
hope that hope to ride as fast as you can
600
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:40.599
in between and make up the gap. There has to
601
00:33:40.599 --> 00:33:44.160
be some some give and take there. But finding that healthy,
602
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:47.880
healthy equilibrium I think is really important, and it's really
603
00:33:47.880 --> 00:33:51.119
promising to see that those who are taking that approach
604
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:54.319
are being rewarded in some of the more competitive events now.
605
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:58.799
And I mean there's events now which have minimum or
606
00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:02.799
minimum time that you can take, or there has to
607
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:05.480
be a set amount of time elapsed before you can
608
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:07.960
actually reach your checkpoint, which is sort of looking at
609
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:10.840
making sure that people are actually stopping and taking time
610
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:14.079
an hour hopefully resting or resting. Whether they're sleeping when
611
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:16.519
they're stopped, I don't know, but I can't imagine it
612
00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:19.079
takes much effort to fall asleep when you when you've
613
00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:21.519
been riding for twenty two hours. Although I guess you
614
00:34:21.559 --> 00:34:23.440
could go the other way. You could go the other
615
00:34:23.480 --> 00:34:27.039
way and be completely wired. Something I wanted to know was,
616
00:34:28.119 --> 00:34:30.679
you know, when I look at the events that you've done,
617
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:34.599
you've you know, like your track records pretty amazing. You've
618
00:34:34.599 --> 00:34:37.400
got some fairly high places there, You've take some some
619
00:34:37.519 --> 00:34:40.719
first places, You've done some fastest known times before as well.
620
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:44.480
Have you always been motivated to race these events? Because
621
00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:47.199
I feel like there's two There's two types of people
622
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:48.960
that turn up to the start lines. There's people who
623
00:34:49.039 --> 00:34:51.079
are doing it for the challenge of themselves to see
624
00:34:51.079 --> 00:34:53.599
whether they can get there. And then there's people who
625
00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:57.440
you know they still have that element there because it's
626
00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:00.960
all an unknown in an ultra but also know that
627
00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:04.000
with their capabilities they could actually push for, you know,
628
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:06.280
a podium or a first place or something like that
629
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:06.880
on GC.
630
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:12.360
I think when I enter events like this, of course
631
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:14.719
I want to complete the routes, and I think that
632
00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:17.719
has always got to be the first objective. I mean,
633
00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:20.880
it's not an all or bust thing for me. I
634
00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:25.400
want to I want to do the event and enjoy it,
635
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:28.119
and I think being well prepared puts you in the
636
00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:32.239
best position to enjoy it as you're going along. But equally,
637
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:37.559
entering events, particularly ones which are termed as races, I
638
00:35:37.599 --> 00:35:39.880
want to treat them as a race, and there is
639
00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:45.519
a competitive aspect there and it's something which I try
640
00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:48.719
to balance with what I do, so I like to
641
00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:53.159
make time and this have this counter aspect with the
642
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:56.719
more touring side, the riding for riding on my own
643
00:35:56.800 --> 00:35:59.880
terms for enjoyment. I can choose the route. I can
644
00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:02.800
who's how I take it as I go along. So
645
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:07.000
then when I do enter a race, which I mean
646
00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:11.960
we're not talking about numerous times a year. I'm generally
647
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.639
doing events of this nature two or three times a year.
648
00:36:16.360 --> 00:36:18.679
So I find if I have that balance, it means
649
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:21.559
when I enter what it termed the race, I can
650
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:24.079
treat it as a race and commit to it in
651
00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:26.440
that sense because I'm not feel like I'm missing out
652
00:36:26.519 --> 00:36:29.599
on Oh, I don't want to say the more pleasant side,
653
00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:32.519
because I think that's another thing that there's rewards for
654
00:36:32.559 --> 00:36:34.960
both sides. And I think there's a really rewarding aspect
655
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:38.320
for being competitive and treating yourself and putting yourself in
656
00:36:38.360 --> 00:36:41.679
that way. But there was a stage where I felt
657
00:36:41.719 --> 00:36:45.400
like I was doing too much on that and missing
658
00:36:45.440 --> 00:36:48.079
out on the other side of being able to have
659
00:36:48.159 --> 00:36:52.639
the afternoon of still runing decent, decent distances but not
660
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:56.119
feeling that pressure to always be moving. So I think
661
00:36:56.440 --> 00:36:59.039
including both of those in what I do helps me
662
00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:01.960
to get the both get the best out of either side.
663
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:05.719
You say that now, reflecting back at that time, did
664
00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:07.960
you realize that you were you were stuck in that
665
00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:10.039
I've got to do more, got to do more cycle.
666
00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:16.239
I think so, and potentially having some success feeds that
667
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:20.199
feeds into that as well. And potentially I was caught
668
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:23.960
up a bit too much on the competitive side and
669
00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:29.159
losing sight of why I wanted to do these events
670
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:31.920
in the first place, which was combining both that venture
671
00:37:31.960 --> 00:37:36.800
side with the with the competitive aspect. And the timing
672
00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:40.440
probably didn't help because I think we were in particular
673
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:43.199
talking just after the COVID period where I had a
674
00:37:43.239 --> 00:37:46.199
couple of years where I mean I did a couple
675
00:37:46.239 --> 00:37:48.159
of trips around the UK where I was living at
676
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:53.559
that time, but I couldn't travel further afield. So yeah,
677
00:37:54.039 --> 00:37:58.159
I felt like there wasn't that balance, wasn't wasn't quite
678
00:37:58.239 --> 00:37:58.679
right there.
679
00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:02.519
I mean, you can that the COVID period's pretty stark
680
00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:05.440
on your race calendar, in your event calendar, because you know,
681
00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:07.559
we start in twenty seventeen, you build up, you have
682
00:38:07.599 --> 00:38:09.639
a few events at twenty nineteen, and then bang, there's
683
00:38:09.679 --> 00:38:13.880
nothing I think until twenty twenty two, which was COVID,
684
00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:18.000
and then you did we mentioned twenty nineteen transparentees you
685
00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:20.559
came second, so you lined up in twenty twenty two
686
00:38:21.079 --> 00:38:25.760
when it reinstated and could run again. That one ended
687
00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:29.239
up with you scratching, and that I feel, reflecting back
688
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:31.960
on what you've done and your approach to events, that
689
00:38:31.960 --> 00:38:34.480
that scratch was sort of a bit of a pivotal
690
00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:36.280
learning point for you as well.
691
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:43.400
Massively and in retrospect, I think it was a good
692
00:38:43.440 --> 00:38:47.559
thing to go through that. Potentially there was many things
693
00:38:47.559 --> 00:38:49.840
I could have done, especially to be in a better
694
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:56.199
mindset for that event. But it really made me reflect
695
00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:00.199
on why I was in that position, and I was
696
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:03.800
really determined to use it as something to learn from.
697
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:10.000
It made me maybe really concentrate on I ended up
698
00:39:10.039 --> 00:39:14.920
reading a lot about how people turned failure into success,
699
00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:18.599
and it's made me sort of term me it's not
700
00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:20.719
really a failure. I could use it for use it
701
00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:25.280
for a positive sense, and I feel like that has
702
00:39:25.320 --> 00:39:29.440
really benefited me since and especially how I my mindset
703
00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:34.039
going into these events. One. I remember being quite sort
704
00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:37.199
of intimidated going in that into that event by by
705
00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:42.400
the unknown aspects, by not knowing where where you're going
706
00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:44.199
to end up that day, how you're going to figure
707
00:39:44.239 --> 00:39:47.480
out where you're going to sleep, what you're going to
708
00:39:47.519 --> 00:39:50.719
do if if things potentially go wrong. It probably wasn't helped.
709
00:39:51.239 --> 00:39:54.400
I think there was a bit of them pathetic fallacy
710
00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:56.239
going on at the start of that event, because it
711
00:39:56.280 --> 00:39:59.519
was rotten weather starting at starting at beer Ritz.
712
00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:02.880
It was it's very Shakespearean to begin with, yeah, something
713
00:40:02.920 --> 00:40:05.280
about record rainfall in a few days before, So I
714
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:07.840
think that just had me a bit anxious as well,
715
00:40:08.599 --> 00:40:12.400
and that played out in my mindset during the event.
716
00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:15.719
I never I was putting pressure on myself in terms
717
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:18.519
of the performance aspect. I never really allowed myself to
718
00:40:19.199 --> 00:40:23.599
enjoy it. And then ironically, as soon as I felt
719
00:40:23.639 --> 00:40:26.199
like I felt like things had turned a corner, and
720
00:40:26.239 --> 00:40:31.239
then I found myself with blowing off my re attire
721
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:34.400
on an off road section in the in the middle
722
00:40:34.400 --> 00:40:38.559
of the mountains, just on off road bit near near Arandra,
723
00:40:39.159 --> 00:40:42.679
which it ultimately was the straw.
724
00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:44.679
Which broke the camel's back.
725
00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:48.519
It was a straw which broke the camel's back. It
726
00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:52.079
was Yeah, it was effectively an excuse to to throw
727
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:54.920
in the towel then, and I had the idea there
728
00:40:55.199 --> 00:40:57.960
that I still had a few days I could get
729
00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.599
that sorted and tore my way back to where the
730
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:02.440
start was. So I spent I think I spent five
731
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:05.320
days on the road doing what I thought I wanted
732
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:08.480
to do, but I never really enjoyed it because I
733
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:10.960
always had this I always had this sentiment hanging over
734
00:41:11.079 --> 00:41:14.159
me that this wasn't why I wasn't there to do this,
735
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:17.920
and I was sort of trying to use another nice,
736
00:41:18.039 --> 00:41:22.039
nice turn, trying to polish a turd, and it's it
737
00:41:22.199 --> 00:41:24.920
just made me that really reinforced this aspect of me
738
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:27.800
to try and separate it too. When I'm racing a race.
739
00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:29.599
When I tour, I tour.
740
00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:33.480
Yeah, And it's interesting you say that. I know I've
741
00:41:33.519 --> 00:41:35.760
only ever done one ultra before, Sam, and it was
742
00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:37.880
itty bitty compared to what you've done. But I do
743
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:41.920
remember distinctly at one point wishing equipment failure on myself
744
00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:44.440
just so that I could have an excuse to not continue.
745
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:47.400
So I feel like I've been in that mindset before
746
00:41:47.519 --> 00:41:50.239
where I know that physically I probably could go on,
747
00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:51.920
but wouldn't it be great if there was a reason
748
00:41:51.960 --> 00:41:53.840
why I couldn't and then I could just get out
749
00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:57.320
of here. And I don't know, like I've analyzed that myself.
750
00:41:57.320 --> 00:41:59.880
I mean, nothing did happen. I did continue, I finished,
751
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.239
and everything went fine. My saddle saws would probably argue
752
00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:08.800
the other way, But all jokes aside. I do wonder
753
00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:13.679
whether sometimes are we looking for that excuse for ourselves.
754
00:42:13.800 --> 00:42:15.719
Is it an excuse or is it the excuse that
755
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:17.920
we want to hold up if we scratch because of
756
00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:20.000
the perception of what other people will have thought if
757
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:22.719
we scratched. And I often wonder because there's such a
758
00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:25.400
mental load on this, and I think when you're in
759
00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:27.800
an event, you can't see it because all the people
760
00:42:27.880 --> 00:42:30.079
who are cheering you on and are near and dear
761
00:42:30.119 --> 00:42:32.360
to you are only wishing you well and are already
762
00:42:32.400 --> 00:42:33.920
proud of you for doing what you're doing in the
763
00:42:33.960 --> 00:42:36.119
first place. No one's going to be on gee, Sam,
764
00:42:36.199 --> 00:42:38.920
you should have bucked up there and kept going. Well,
765
00:42:39.159 --> 00:42:41.360
that's an assumption. I don't think your friends and family
766
00:42:41.480 --> 00:42:44.360
be thinking that, But when you're in the race, that's
767
00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:46.199
possibly what you're thinking. Oh, what's such and such going
768
00:42:46.239 --> 00:42:48.400
to be thinking of? You know, So, if you've got
769
00:42:48.440 --> 00:42:51.159
something that's like an equipment failure, Well that was out
770
00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:53.039
of my hand, so I had to scratch, like do
771
00:42:53.400 --> 00:42:54.559
you see where I'm coming from with that?
772
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:59.239
Yeah? And you also raises the point of what truly
773
00:42:59.360 --> 00:43:03.280
is in our control in these in these events, and
774
00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:08.519
it makes me think of this element of luck, and
775
00:43:09.719 --> 00:43:11.519
I'm trying think of a good way of a good
776
00:43:11.559 --> 00:43:13.480
way of wording it that I think we can put
777
00:43:13.679 --> 00:43:17.320
luck in our sides on our sides A lot of this,
778
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:20.440
especially when you're talking about equipment and so on, that
779
00:43:20.760 --> 00:43:23.800
it shouldn't be. I mean, think some things may happen
780
00:43:24.119 --> 00:43:26.760
which you can have predicted that aren't you in your
781
00:43:26.920 --> 00:43:30.280
on your control. But I think a lot in your preparation,
782
00:43:30.360 --> 00:43:33.199
whether that's choosing the right equipment, maintaining it, make sure
783
00:43:33.239 --> 00:43:36.480
it's making sure it's in the best condition as possible beforehand,
784
00:43:36.679 --> 00:43:40.280
can put luck on your side in this case. So
785
00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:43.159
I do think we should we should be careful when
786
00:43:43.199 --> 00:43:45.679
we sort of say this thing happens. It was a
787
00:43:45.719 --> 00:43:48.440
mechanical so it wasn't it wasn't me. I think it's
788
00:43:48.440 --> 00:43:51.119
all this is all rolls into part of the challenge
789
00:43:51.239 --> 00:43:54.440
that it's physical, but it's also you're riding a bike
790
00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:56.719
which needs to be needs to help you facilitate that
791
00:43:56.760 --> 00:43:57.159
as well.
792
00:43:57.840 --> 00:43:59.760
Yeah, and it's sort of like what equipment do I
793
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:01.760
put with it? And if I have to take an
794
00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:04.440
off road parkour, what tire width am I choosing? What
795
00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:07.559
wheels am I choosing? And what am I prioritizing? Is
796
00:44:07.599 --> 00:44:10.199
it the nine hundred kilometers in an ash fold or
797
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:13.920
the twenty five kilometers on you know, crappy, rocky gravel
798
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:16.480
or stuff like that as well the other element that
799
00:44:16.519 --> 00:44:18.760
came across there, And it's something it's an ethos of
800
00:44:18.760 --> 00:44:22.039
yours which you've taken towards. I think every event, and
801
00:44:22.159 --> 00:44:25.559
especially in the teris Routier was this idea of preparation
802
00:44:25.679 --> 00:44:29.360
over planning and to prepare properly but not to be
803
00:44:29.400 --> 00:44:33.119
too rigid in your planning. And I remember when you
804
00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:36.000
were talking about Teres Ridier in the aft of you know,
805
00:44:36.039 --> 00:44:37.800
looking back and reflecting on it, you were like, did
806
00:44:37.800 --> 00:44:40.880
I have a plan the distinction I would make plans
807
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:43.119
go out the window on the first day if they're
808
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:47.320
too rigid. I was prepared, not planned rigidly. Can you
809
00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:50.280
sort of go into that a little bit deeper and
810
00:44:50.320 --> 00:44:53.960
what you mean by being prepared over setting plans.
811
00:44:54.440 --> 00:44:58.519
Yeah, in terms of planning in this context, I would
812
00:44:58.519 --> 00:45:00.920
sort of to find that as saying I'm going to
813
00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:07.119
ride four hundred kilometers a day, or even maybe you could,
814
00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:09.119
maybe you could be a bit more nuanced about it
815
00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:11.280
and say I'm going to ride three inch and fifty
816
00:45:11.320 --> 00:45:13.960
kilometers day on a flat but in the mountainous parts
817
00:45:14.039 --> 00:45:18.400
three hundred kilometers. And the problem with plans of this
818
00:45:18.519 --> 00:45:22.880
sense is firstly how much control you have over them,
819
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:27.039
especially when we're defining them by things like things like
820
00:45:27.119 --> 00:45:31.280
distance that the wind's blowing the wrong way. You could
821
00:45:31.480 --> 00:45:35.400
be exceeding that, or you could be behind on that,
822
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:38.440
And I think you're putting your success down to something
823
00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:41.480
which isn't totally in your control. And my concern that
824
00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:43.960
is not just if you are behind schedule, but if
825
00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:45.840
you're a head of schedule as well, if you've got
826
00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:47.760
things carefully planned out over a number of days, it
827
00:45:48.239 --> 00:45:51.760
just throws it out in that sense. In that way,
828
00:45:51.960 --> 00:45:57.599
I believe preparation is a better term. I think what
829
00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:02.400
I like to do is give myself of all the information,
830
00:46:02.679 --> 00:46:05.639
prepare all the information in advance, so that when I'm
831
00:46:05.679 --> 00:46:08.079
on the road any given point, I can make the
832
00:46:08.159 --> 00:46:11.039
right decision and not have to go searching for that information.
833
00:46:11.920 --> 00:46:16.360
That comes down to finding out or equipping myself with
834
00:46:16.519 --> 00:46:19.679
knowledge of what is ahead of my head on my
835
00:46:19.800 --> 00:46:23.400
route in terms of resupply, what the major what the
836
00:46:23.440 --> 00:46:28.000
major challenges are, mounting passes and so on, and having
837
00:46:28.119 --> 00:46:31.960
ways of well this particular app which I've been using,
838
00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:36.559
having things like like waymarks on your on your routing
839
00:46:36.559 --> 00:46:39.760
platform and so on, just so that it takes away
840
00:46:39.760 --> 00:46:41.880
a lot of the a lot of the thinking when
841
00:46:41.880 --> 00:46:46.519
you're on the move, potentially in a stressful situation, which
842
00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:48.440
is usually when you have to resort to this this
843
00:46:48.480 --> 00:46:49.280
sort of information.
844
00:46:49.960 --> 00:46:52.440
And is that a learned thing because you've had to
845
00:46:52.480 --> 00:46:56.239
do the thinking and the stressful stuff. Where had you
846
00:46:57.119 --> 00:47:00.440
prepared a lot more prior or research than that would
847
00:47:00.440 --> 00:47:02.519
be something that you wouldn't have to concern yourself with.
848
00:47:03.159 --> 00:47:05.920
I think that it's something which seemed to have come
849
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:09.480
naturally to me. I remember even in Transatlantic Way making
850
00:47:09.639 --> 00:47:13.360
root notes of at this at a certain kilometer, these
851
00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:16.199
are the towns, these are what you can get there,
852
00:47:16.400 --> 00:47:19.119
and as things have developed, I've been more thorough of that.
853
00:47:19.800 --> 00:47:22.880
It's essentially just making sure that I'm not going to
854
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:25.039
get caught out, not being able to resupply and not
855
00:47:25.079 --> 00:47:28.960
be able to find somewhere to sleep, and adding as
856
00:47:29.039 --> 00:47:31.840
much detail. Always think the more of this research you
857
00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:33.719
can do in advance, unless you have to do and
858
00:47:33.760 --> 00:47:36.719
a go. Even found going around France that a lot
859
00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:38.400
of the time I didn't have to refer to this
860
00:47:38.519 --> 00:47:41.360
because I'd been over it quite a few times. I
861
00:47:41.519 --> 00:47:44.599
had a good idea what was what was coming up next.
862
00:47:45.280 --> 00:47:49.760
So it also ingrains in you what you are going
863
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:52.159
to expect on you. I think I remember even there
864
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:54.639
were certain towns I sort of knew where near what
865
00:47:54.760 --> 00:47:56.599
side of the town the supermarket was at.
866
00:47:56.760 --> 00:48:01.320
So wow, you really did thoroughly prepare. And actually, let's
867
00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:03.880
talk about your lap around France as you've sort of
868
00:48:04.280 --> 00:48:07.519
called it the terse Routier Challenge. Listen as I did
869
00:48:07.519 --> 00:48:11.480
a full mini midweek episode with Samuel talking specifically about
870
00:48:11.480 --> 00:48:13.199
this challenge before he went out and set it out.
871
00:48:13.199 --> 00:48:15.840
But for the benefit of those people who haven't heard that,
872
00:48:16.800 --> 00:48:20.800
tell everyone about terse Routier, what it is and how
873
00:48:21.039 --> 00:48:23.239
all of a sudden you became can I say obsessed
874
00:48:23.280 --> 00:48:24.119
with doing it?
875
00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:27.559
Oh, it's quite a long story. So it's effectively the
876
00:48:27.639 --> 00:48:32.000
Tour de France Rondon Air, which is a I would
877
00:48:32.039 --> 00:48:36.880
describe it as a permanent aord Ax rundern a event
878
00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:40.840
which is run by a Parisian cycle club since nineteen
879
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:45.960
fifty eight. Anyone can Anyone can register to take part
880
00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:50.559
and they can choose to start anytime in the year
881
00:48:50.599 --> 00:48:54.119
where the mountain passes are accessible, so usually between June
882
00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:58.760
and September Timetember year. I don't think it is available
883
00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:01.280
to open and join the winter, but yeah, you wouldn't
884
00:49:01.280 --> 00:49:05.800
g over those climates during them anyway. There are sixty
885
00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:09.159
one control points which you must pass through and gain
886
00:49:09.480 --> 00:49:12.480
gain proof of passage by a basically by stamp in
887
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:17.239
a breath card type type object, and you can start
888
00:49:17.280 --> 00:49:21.800
and finish anywhere on the route, which Handley where I live.
889
00:49:21.880 --> 00:49:24.480
The town of Monosky in south of France is a
890
00:49:24.480 --> 00:49:27.960
control point on the route, so the choice was simple
891
00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:31.320
for me to start and finish there. You can also
892
00:49:31.360 --> 00:49:35.679
take it in clockwise or anti clockwise EVA direction and
893
00:49:35.760 --> 00:49:43.079
apart from that the rules are fairly relaxed. Although generally
894
00:49:43.440 --> 00:49:47.440
all axes randonna's are seen as seeing self support in
895
00:49:47.440 --> 00:49:51.480
individual challenges, this one does stress that it should be
896
00:49:51.519 --> 00:49:55.519
seen as an individual effort, but the rules do allow
897
00:49:55.599 --> 00:49:58.840
for support in some senses. The only thing which isn't
898
00:49:58.880 --> 00:50:03.079
allowed in that way is having a follow car a
899
00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:05.880
following car on the road at all times, but if
900
00:50:05.880 --> 00:50:08.519
you wanted to, you could have a caravan meet you
901
00:50:09.199 --> 00:50:11.559
at certain points, or you can sleep in it during
902
00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:14.079
the night. So it's up to the person themselves how
903
00:50:14.159 --> 00:50:16.199
they want to treat this. I get the impression most
904
00:50:16.239 --> 00:50:20.119
people do take it on as self sufficient in a
905
00:50:20.159 --> 00:50:22.719
broad sense and see it as that see is that
906
00:50:22.760 --> 00:50:25.920
personal individual change. I think it attracts that type of person.
907
00:50:26.679 --> 00:50:28.559
I have to say, since I first learned about it,
908
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:30.559
I've been tempted by it. Not to set a record
909
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:32.440
by any measure. I would very much do it in
910
00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:36.079
the touring style, but it has made me sort of think,
911
00:50:36.079 --> 00:50:39.079
oh wow, that'd actually be quite a way to see
912
00:50:39.800 --> 00:50:41.400
a lot of you know, like you said, it's that
913
00:50:41.480 --> 00:50:45.199
true lap of France as well. Where did you discover
914
00:50:45.280 --> 00:50:48.960
it and how long were you prepping before you decided
915
00:50:49.119 --> 00:50:51.480
that's it? I think was it June? What date in
916
00:50:51.559 --> 00:50:54.840
June did you take off with the fifteenth? Yeah? So
917
00:50:55.119 --> 00:50:57.719
how you know? And that was for anyone listening in
918
00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:00.679
the far future. Samuel did this from June fifteen, twenty
919
00:51:00.719 --> 00:51:04.760
twenty five. So how did you decide period of time
920
00:51:04.920 --> 00:51:09.400
passed from Oh wow, this is interesting to June fifteen,
921
00:51:09.440 --> 00:51:10.239
twenty twenty five.
922
00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:13.480
I believe. I believe maybe in a number of years
923
00:51:13.519 --> 00:51:16.519
ago I came across that this thing existed, but hadn't
924
00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:19.039
looked into it too much. I was I was vaguely
925
00:51:19.559 --> 00:51:25.079
aware that Christophe Aligher, who had previously held the held
926
00:51:25.079 --> 00:51:27.840
the fastest time. He is a two time winner of
927
00:51:27.880 --> 00:51:30.719
the trans Continent to Raso, is quite quite well known
928
00:51:31.159 --> 00:51:34.239
in this scene. I was aware that he had he
929
00:51:34.280 --> 00:51:37.639
had set this record, but it was only it was
930
00:51:37.679 --> 00:51:40.840
two years ago that I distinctly remember this taking a
931
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:43.199
grip on me. Let's say it was around the time
932
00:51:43.320 --> 00:51:47.480
where I was firmly set with this intention to move
933
00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:49.880
to France. At the time, I've always I had a
934
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:50.360
love of.
935
00:51:50.320 --> 00:51:53.119
The country, and not just its pastries.
936
00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:56.320
Oh well, that's that's all forms forms part of it.
937
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:58.880
There are rumors that I just moved here from access
938
00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:03.320
to goodvin Wiser that will not confirm or denying anyone.
939
00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:09.280
So it was around this time, which it was the
940
00:52:09.400 --> 00:52:14.239
route in itself that's the challenge. And part of it
941
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:17.639
comes back to what I was saying about being inspired
942
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:20.440
by Mark Bowman and the other people have done around
943
00:52:20.440 --> 00:52:24.519
the world and similar similar records of that nature that
944
00:52:24.519 --> 00:52:28.199
the idea of, I mean, the races have one pool
945
00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:31.880
being competitive against others in a particular moment of time,
946
00:52:31.960 --> 00:52:34.039
but being able to do something where you are the
947
00:52:34.119 --> 00:52:40.159
fastest that's ever done. That that's always really really attracted me. Obviously,
948
00:52:40.239 --> 00:52:43.199
riding around the world is quite a difficult logistical thing
949
00:52:43.239 --> 00:52:45.480
to do, so I was always sort of on the
950
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:48.800
lookout for what could be sort of my equivalent to
951
00:52:48.880 --> 00:52:52.440
that in a given given sort of where I'm at
952
00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:55.960
in my sporting journey in that sense, and what is
953
00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:59.679
what is logistically feasible in that sense. So this really
954
00:52:59.719 --> 00:53:02.239
quot in that way that it was. It was something
955
00:53:02.280 --> 00:53:04.559
which in a way I know it's a big thing
956
00:53:04.599 --> 00:53:06.480
of lap in France, but to be able to get
957
00:53:06.519 --> 00:53:11.039
my head around and also the what where that fastest
958
00:53:11.079 --> 00:53:15.039
time was was of course no way easy, but it
959
00:53:15.199 --> 00:53:18.840
was something which I had done those sort of distances
960
00:53:19.039 --> 00:53:23.039
over a week ten days, so it was it was
961
00:53:23.079 --> 00:53:26.800
a stretch, but it was a possible next step. So
962
00:53:26.840 --> 00:53:31.119
I think a number of these factors all came together
963
00:53:31.400 --> 00:53:34.480
to make me sort of seriously think about this. In
964
00:53:34.559 --> 00:53:40.280
terms of timing, I had thought about June or September
965
00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:43.239
seemed like the best best times to avoid when the
966
00:53:43.239 --> 00:53:46.239
major holiday seasons are for a number of reasons, which
967
00:53:46.280 --> 00:53:48.280
I think worked out well for me doing it in June,
968
00:53:48.360 --> 00:53:52.880
especially finding accommodation. You would think that the weather would
969
00:53:52.880 --> 00:53:55.960
be not quite as hot, but maybe we'll come on too.
970
00:53:56.199 --> 00:53:57.559
That wasn't quite the case.
971
00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:05.159
Never ending hate work, and yeah it.
972
00:54:05.159 --> 00:54:08.199
Was being my first year after moving to France in
973
00:54:08.280 --> 00:54:11.920
twenty twenty four, the timing wasn't going to be great.
974
00:54:12.159 --> 00:54:15.440
So towards the end of last year, towards the end
975
00:54:15.480 --> 00:54:18.320
of twenty twenty four, once I'd finished the event I
976
00:54:18.360 --> 00:54:21.639
was doing in August, I set out a firm intention
977
00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:24.079
that this was going to be my big project for
978
00:54:24.159 --> 00:54:29.400
twenty twenty five and started the long process of putting
979
00:54:29.440 --> 00:54:33.239
things into place for that to happen in June in
980
00:54:33.400 --> 00:54:34.239
twenty twenty five.
981
00:54:35.159 --> 00:54:37.480
Did you leading up to it, were there ever any
982
00:54:37.519 --> 00:54:40.239
moments or doubts of whether you could take to the
983
00:54:40.239 --> 00:54:43.360
start line, Like did you have any injury setbacks or
984
00:54:44.519 --> 00:54:47.000
mental doubts? Or anything like that, or was it just
985
00:54:47.239 --> 00:54:52.880
all in full focus? And again, preparation, prior preparation prevents
986
00:54:52.920 --> 00:54:56.000
piss poor performance. Always think of that. But was it
987
00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:58.159
down to all your preparation led you being able to
988
00:54:58.199 --> 00:55:00.000
take to the start line or were there doubt?
989
00:55:01.400 --> 00:55:04.719
I wouldn't say any any huge doubts. I felt like
990
00:55:04.840 --> 00:55:09.880
it was natural process along the way. Yeah, and then
991
00:55:09.960 --> 00:55:12.639
it was it was a long road. I kept saying
992
00:55:12.639 --> 00:55:14.960
along the way that the riding would be the easy bit,
993
00:55:15.079 --> 00:55:17.760
after after all that went into it beforehands, and in
994
00:55:18.599 --> 00:55:21.559
relative terms, let's say it wasn't. It was far from easy.
995
00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:25.519
There was one time I simply remember one morning when
996
00:55:25.519 --> 00:55:28.679
I was out and I thought to myself, like, this
997
00:55:28.840 --> 00:55:32.159
is it's quite a big thing to prepare for. As
998
00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:35.159
much from the logistics side of what I wanted to
999
00:55:35.199 --> 00:55:37.760
make it, I thought, should I not just enter the
1000
00:55:37.760 --> 00:55:42.119
trans Continental race instead? That's like that's a similar, similar distance.
1001
00:55:42.159 --> 00:55:44.320
I haven't done it. I always think one day I'd
1002
00:55:44.320 --> 00:55:46.400
like to, I'd like to do it. But then I
1003
00:55:46.480 --> 00:55:50.320
was thinking it's in a way that's it's it's going
1004
00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:53.000
to be a similar sort of duration to do the events.
1005
00:55:53.119 --> 00:55:55.079
Then I would have to get from get to one
1006
00:55:55.159 --> 00:55:57.800
end of Europe and get back from the other. So
1007
00:55:58.119 --> 00:56:01.400
I'm starting finishing from where I live. It's not it's
1008
00:56:01.719 --> 00:56:05.079
it's probably going to take less time out of my
1009
00:56:05.400 --> 00:56:07.079
out of my day to day life to do this.
1010
00:56:08.079 --> 00:56:11.719
So in that sense, I think once I got my
1011
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:15.079
head around that, then there was there was nothing else,
1012
00:56:15.159 --> 00:56:21.000
which in terms of major doubts saying that, when I
1013
00:56:21.320 --> 00:56:24.719
when I'm really and even now sitting sitting down afterwards,
1014
00:56:24.719 --> 00:56:29.039
when I think about what that entailed doing distance wise,
1015
00:56:29.440 --> 00:56:32.960
the average was of the previous record was around three
1016
00:56:32.960 --> 00:56:37.360
age and seventy klumeters a day, and I think it's
1017
00:56:37.400 --> 00:56:40.519
all around February time, where it was a long time
1018
00:56:40.559 --> 00:56:44.400
since I'd done that amount in one day. Thinking about
1019
00:56:44.440 --> 00:56:46.599
the time that takes and then doing that in the
1020
00:56:46.679 --> 00:56:50.920
day day after and after just thinking of it like that,
1021
00:56:51.119 --> 00:56:54.400
it's still now it seems like quite a daunting thing
1022
00:56:54.440 --> 00:56:57.960
to do. So again, it's one of these things that
1023
00:56:58.480 --> 00:57:00.960
you've just got to, as I said, trust the process
1024
00:57:01.159 --> 00:57:04.559
that I would be building up to it on the day.
1025
00:57:04.679 --> 00:57:08.920
I have things in place so that that became natural
1026
00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:12.719
to me. And it's a different case once you get
1027
00:57:12.719 --> 00:57:16.000
into it than sitting down before or after trying to
1028
00:57:16.039 --> 00:57:18.840
sort of get your head around those pure numbers.
1029
00:57:19.159 --> 00:57:22.400
You know how there's sixty one control points when you
1030
00:57:22.440 --> 00:57:24.679
see them on a map of France on the hexagon there,
1031
00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:27.800
does the route nearly make itself? Or were there long
1032
00:57:27.880 --> 00:57:31.559
stretches where there's multiple road choices you could choose, and
1033
00:57:32.199 --> 00:57:36.400
you know, there's a lot like in terms of route planning,
1034
00:57:36.440 --> 00:57:38.199
and what I want to get to here is there's
1035
00:57:38.199 --> 00:57:40.159
some ultras where the route is set. You don't have
1036
00:57:40.199 --> 00:57:42.119
to think about a thing, right, you plug it in
1037
00:57:42.320 --> 00:57:45.760
and you follow the course. There's some ultras where there
1038
00:57:45.800 --> 00:57:48.320
are checkpoints like I guess you got sixty one in
1039
00:57:48.320 --> 00:57:50.440
this one, or you know the trans con had so
1040
00:57:50.519 --> 00:57:54.000
many control points and parkurse that, but how you connect
1041
00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:57.679
them up is totally your prerogative. How did it match
1042
00:57:57.719 --> 00:57:58.719
with the Teresa routier?
1043
00:57:59.639 --> 00:58:02.559
So the organizers do give what they call a park
1044
00:58:02.599 --> 00:58:07.559
called deep, which is a I would potentially term it
1045
00:58:07.599 --> 00:58:12.320
a recommended recommended routes similar with a lot of ward
1046
00:58:12.320 --> 00:58:17.480
decks or rondera Brether events that it's not mandatory and
1047
00:58:17.920 --> 00:58:23.199
it often takes often avoids the busy roads which I
1048
00:58:23.239 --> 00:58:25.639
would naturally try and avoid anyway.
1049
00:58:25.880 --> 00:58:28.599
You don't want to be on them anyway. I hate them.
1050
00:58:28.960 --> 00:58:29.760
They're horrendous.
1051
00:58:31.480 --> 00:58:35.920
But there were some sections where it was potentially potentially
1052
00:58:35.960 --> 00:58:41.280
what well, not busy roads, but other roads where potentially
1053
00:58:41.320 --> 00:58:46.719
call them the tourists, the tourist route, not the tourist
1054
00:58:46.760 --> 00:58:54.000
rout but the touristic route where there were more direct options,
1055
00:58:54.800 --> 00:58:58.840
which we're not talking about going on dual carriageway instead here,
1056
00:58:59.280 --> 00:59:05.639
but maybe a slightly less scenic route in places. I
1057
00:59:05.679 --> 00:59:09.719
started off using the park or Deep and tried to
1058
00:59:09.719 --> 00:59:13.519
make modifications which were trying to optimize the route for
1059
00:59:14.159 --> 00:59:18.119
both in my preferences and trying to yeah, cut see
1060
00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:20.119
if I can cut off any of the any of
1061
00:59:20.159 --> 00:59:23.000
that distance and innovation, because that that's what it came
1062
00:59:23.039 --> 00:59:25.199
down to. I think I think their route was about
1063
00:59:25.239 --> 00:59:30.280
fifty kilometers more, and there was definitely one section where
1064
00:59:31.159 --> 00:59:33.960
there was. It took in a couple of Gratudors coals
1065
00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:37.599
in the Pyrenees, which the park Deep goes over. The
1066
00:59:39.239 --> 00:59:40.519
I sorry, I forgot the name of it.
1067
00:59:42.280 --> 00:59:43.840
I can name a few for you if you like.
1068
00:59:44.480 --> 00:59:51.039
Before the colder Monte from the east, all the colderport, Yeah, yeah,
1069
00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:55.800
the cold it goes over that, and I think they
1070
00:59:55.800 --> 00:59:59.280
were it didn't go to Monte, but effectively I managed
1071
00:59:59.320 --> 01:00:02.800
to cover a thousand to climb for an extra ten
1072
01:00:02.840 --> 01:00:05.679
to twenty kilometers, which I thought was a was a
1073
01:00:05.719 --> 01:00:06.440
good trade off.
1074
01:00:06.880 --> 01:00:09.119
Yeah, especially the Monte is a leg breaker as well,
1075
01:00:09.119 --> 01:00:12.440
Like it's not an insignificant ten kilometer climb.
1076
01:00:13.079 --> 01:00:15.960
And I'd already ridden a poor Desbad twice. I wasn't
1077
01:00:16.000 --> 01:00:17.840
didn't feel like I was missing out anything there, but
1078
01:00:18.119 --> 01:00:21.199
I felt like in this in this sense, I was
1079
01:00:21.239 --> 01:00:24.800
also conscious that in terms of planning to route, that
1080
01:00:25.559 --> 01:00:28.519
what may look the quickest route on paper isn't always
1081
01:00:28.519 --> 01:00:31.400
the quickest. I found this to my detriment. Afterwards, I
1082
01:00:31.480 --> 01:00:35.599
realized why the organizers had rooted around a couple of roads.
1083
01:00:35.599 --> 01:00:38.039
There was a I think people were written in France
1084
01:00:38.119 --> 01:00:40.480
may know sort of the roller coaster roads I'm talking
1085
01:00:40.480 --> 01:00:42.960
about where it's dead straight for ten kilometers and goes
1086
01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:45.880
like slightly uphill, slightly down here. You can sort of
1087
01:00:45.880 --> 01:00:48.079
see the next ridge ahead and think that's the last one,
1088
01:00:48.119 --> 01:00:51.719
but it keeps going, and it just especially when you're fatigued,
1089
01:00:51.719 --> 01:00:53.800
it just SAPs your momentum because when you're fresh, you
1090
01:00:53.840 --> 01:00:57.880
can sort of carry a momentum down on the descents
1091
01:00:57.920 --> 01:01:00.320
and carry it up up the uphill. But when you're
1092
01:01:00.840 --> 01:01:02.239
when you're fatigued, you're.
1093
01:01:02.159 --> 01:01:04.360
Free wheeling on the downhill. You don't care about carrying
1094
01:01:04.360 --> 01:01:06.400
them into You're just caring about not peddling.
1095
01:01:06.480 --> 01:01:08.760
Now you're shifting up through the gears and the way
1096
01:01:08.800 --> 01:01:12.119
and the way back up. So yeah, in that case,
1097
01:01:12.199 --> 01:01:15.679
maybe there wasn't much. There wasn't much in terms of
1098
01:01:15.719 --> 01:01:18.079
how long it would take, but it's just quite mentally
1099
01:01:18.159 --> 01:01:21.639
sapping being on those roads. Yeah, even if it maybe
1100
01:01:21.679 --> 01:01:27.519
a slight slight extra distance innovation taken the quieter roads,
1101
01:01:27.920 --> 01:01:32.840
that keeps your interest and it's a more engaging experience.
1102
01:01:33.800 --> 01:01:36.440
Now. I had the pleasure sam of being part of
1103
01:01:36.440 --> 01:01:39.280
your I Guess Race Update commentary Tame, which meant I
1104
01:01:39.320 --> 01:01:41.960
was in your awesome little WhatsApp group getting your lovely
1105
01:01:42.039 --> 01:01:44.480
voice messages at the end of every day. And it
1106
01:01:44.559 --> 01:01:47.400
was amazing how long some of those messages would become listeners.
1107
01:01:47.440 --> 01:01:50.079
Like what started out as you know, seven or eight minutes,
1108
01:01:50.119 --> 01:01:52.440
I think as the as the Teresa Routy Year project
1109
01:01:52.440 --> 01:01:53.920
gone on, I think I think we were hitting like
1110
01:01:53.920 --> 01:01:57.280
twenty seven minute updates by the end of it, which
1111
01:01:57.360 --> 01:02:00.480
I think was keyed to being tired and so taking
1112
01:02:00.519 --> 01:02:02.440
longer to think about what you wanted to say, but
1113
01:02:02.519 --> 01:02:06.760
also potentially being separated from people to speak to for
1114
01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:09.039
such a long period of time that you've got quite
1115
01:02:09.079 --> 01:02:12.000
a lot to update people on. But something that you
1116
01:02:12.039 --> 01:02:14.840
had said sort of I think it was maybe even
1117
01:02:14.960 --> 01:02:19.000
three or four days in, was this idea of not
1118
01:02:19.159 --> 01:02:22.679
wishing the time away, like not setting out early in
1119
01:02:22.719 --> 01:02:25.519
the morning thinking gosh, I can't wait till this day
1120
01:02:25.559 --> 01:02:28.199
is done, because what was the point of doing it?
1121
01:02:28.280 --> 01:02:30.880
And it sort of goes back to that ethos that
1122
01:02:30.960 --> 01:02:36.039
you have of melding this whole idea of a competitive
1123
01:02:36.039 --> 01:02:39.199
aspect and pushing yourself and seeing how far you can
1124
01:02:39.239 --> 01:02:44.079
go with that idea of enjoying the journey and enjoying
1125
01:02:44.159 --> 01:02:47.199
the ride and having a bit of the to reste
1126
01:02:47.199 --> 01:02:50.920
element of it all attached to it as well. Did
1127
01:02:50.960 --> 01:02:54.400
you find that you were successful in being able to
1128
01:02:54.440 --> 01:02:57.639
do that, in being able to enjoy yourself a lot
1129
01:02:57.719 --> 01:02:58.679
during the ride too.
1130
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:02.880
Of course, it's all easy to say sit here afterwards
1131
01:03:02.960 --> 01:03:07.079
and say that I loved every moment of it, because, yeah,
1132
01:03:07.519 --> 01:03:11.679
when you're out there for so long, even though there
1133
01:03:11.679 --> 01:03:17.000
weren't any huge ups and downs. In fact, I can't
1134
01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:22.480
really think of any any massively down moments that I am.
1135
01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:25.280
I did feel like the way that I wrote the
1136
01:03:25.320 --> 01:03:29.599
approach I had helped me to enjoy a lot of
1137
01:03:29.599 --> 01:03:32.760
it in the moment, and like you said, there, it's
1138
01:03:32.760 --> 01:03:37.559
a case of I came to the realization that if
1139
01:03:37.559 --> 01:03:41.840
I'm wishing away a time, what I mean sometimes if
1140
01:03:41.880 --> 01:03:43.760
you're just doing a day ride, you know you can
1141
01:03:44.400 --> 01:03:46.320
you're going home afterwards, you can put your feet up
1142
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:49.960
and relax. I knew basically I was at the end
1143
01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:51.880
of each day I was going to go to sleep
1144
01:03:52.079 --> 01:03:55.679
and get up four or slightly more hours later and
1145
01:03:55.800 --> 01:03:59.320
start doing it again. In that sense, it wasn't like
1146
01:03:59.440 --> 01:04:03.360
that great thing afterwards to be looking forward to, and
1147
01:04:03.920 --> 01:04:08.320
to remind myself another cliche, it's about the journey. It's
1148
01:04:09.360 --> 01:04:11.239
when I look back afterwards, I'm not going to remember
1149
01:04:11.360 --> 01:04:13.599
the moment I finish, whether that's the moment each day
1150
01:04:13.679 --> 01:04:15.280
or the moment at the end. It's going to be
1151
01:04:15.320 --> 01:04:18.920
those moments or those experiences along the route which I
1152
01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:20.480
go through, which are going to be the things which
1153
01:04:20.920 --> 01:04:25.599
stick in my mind. Really, something which has really helped
1154
01:04:25.639 --> 01:04:29.920
me to in the moments to think about this is
1155
01:04:30.679 --> 01:04:34.400
what I sort of like to ter reverse anxiety. That
1156
01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:39.199
we're really good at being anxious about things which essentially
1157
01:04:39.679 --> 01:04:43.639
are things which may happen in the future but haven't
1158
01:04:43.639 --> 01:04:48.960
happened yet. But we are bringing all that discomfort, those
1159
01:04:49.519 --> 01:04:54.920
negative emotional emotional feelings into the present moment to something
1160
01:04:54.920 --> 01:04:57.920
which may or may not happen. But we don't do
1161
01:04:57.960 --> 01:05:01.639
the opposite with good things. We think of it as
1162
01:05:01.719 --> 01:05:04.960
type two fun and I will suffer through this moment
1163
01:05:05.039 --> 01:05:07.480
and have some fun later. This is come back to
1164
01:05:07.679 --> 01:05:10.119
my Well, I don't like about this whole this whole
1165
01:05:10.119 --> 01:05:12.880
suffering term that if we're gonna we know we're going
1166
01:05:12.920 --> 01:05:15.119
to enjoy it later, why not try and take some
1167
01:05:15.239 --> 01:05:19.039
of that sort of reverse anxiety and experience it in
1168
01:05:19.079 --> 01:05:22.159
the moment and take some enjoyment from it. It's another thing,
1169
01:05:22.239 --> 01:05:25.639
which is it could be seen as a as a concept,
1170
01:05:25.719 --> 01:05:30.079
which yeah, it's all good saying saying that, not being
1171
01:05:30.079 --> 01:05:32.840
in that moment, but I think you really are present
1172
01:05:32.960 --> 01:05:36.519
and you can keep this in mind, then it can
1173
01:05:36.559 --> 01:05:38.400
make your overall experience that much better.
1174
01:05:39.320 --> 01:05:39.559
Yeah.
1175
01:05:39.599 --> 01:05:41.400
Well, I guess someone could hear you say that now
1176
01:05:41.440 --> 01:05:43.360
and say, oh, yes, Samuel, but you're saying that with
1177
01:05:43.360 --> 01:05:46.000
the benefit of hindsight sat in a comfy chair. But
1178
01:05:46.159 --> 01:05:48.000
what I want to do because listeners, I have all
1179
01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:51.920
these voice messages and I have got one lined up,
1180
01:05:52.119 --> 01:05:54.119
so I want to play it for you, Sam. It
1181
01:05:54.400 --> 01:05:57.079
really goes into a lot of what you were saying there,
1182
01:05:57.639 --> 01:06:00.679
and this I believe was on I think you might
1183
01:06:00.679 --> 01:06:03.119
have been the second last day, so.
1184
01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:06.880
It's going to be hardening to character down, but been
1185
01:06:06.920 --> 01:06:07.719
coming in the headspace.
1186
01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:10.960
Now I know what I do is why were they
1187
01:06:11.320 --> 01:06:15.280
that all things are pleasing about this? I just found.
1188
01:06:16.599 --> 01:06:19.559
I find enjoyment out about you. I've never saw pushed
1189
01:06:19.599 --> 01:06:25.840
away the time because I know it's steam tug. I'm
1190
01:06:25.840 --> 01:06:30.960
just doing the same. Then the next day and the
1191
01:06:31.079 --> 01:06:32.320
trunk sort of takes some enjoyment.
1192
01:06:32.960 --> 01:06:38.800
Why we're gratitude? He's going through my mind a lot today.
1193
01:06:38.639 --> 01:06:43.079
Like how brut four lives have been we when we
1194
01:06:43.119 --> 01:06:44.639
have the opportunities these things.
1195
01:06:46.719 --> 01:06:49.280
Yeah, So the word you were using there was gratitude,
1196
01:06:49.920 --> 01:06:52.000
and that came in a point where I think you
1197
01:06:52.039 --> 01:06:55.920
said there was about fifty kilometers to go, and you
1198
01:06:56.000 --> 01:06:59.320
know why wish the time away? Being the moment I've
1199
01:06:59.360 --> 01:07:01.719
chosen to do this is the other element of it,
1200
01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:03.800
And I think it also to me it comes down
1201
01:07:03.840 --> 01:07:06.719
to there's a big side of when people look at
1202
01:07:06.800 --> 01:07:09.880
ultra events and that whole glorification of type too fun
1203
01:07:09.960 --> 01:07:12.679
and suffering and gritting and getting through not saying that
1204
01:07:12.719 --> 01:07:16.199
people don't do that, and power to everyone. But you're
1205
01:07:16.280 --> 01:07:18.599
very much on the other side of that's not why
1206
01:07:18.599 --> 01:07:20.480
you sign up for these. You don't sign up for
1207
01:07:20.519 --> 01:07:23.159
these to glorify the idea that you had Type two
1208
01:07:23.239 --> 01:07:24.880
fun and you gritted and you got through it like
1209
01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:27.599
you actually did enjoy yourself and you were grateful, and
1210
01:07:28.079 --> 01:07:30.159
you're the person that's choosing to do this, and what
1211
01:07:30.239 --> 01:07:32.559
an absolute privilege it is that you're able to do
1212
01:07:32.639 --> 01:07:33.280
this right.
1213
01:07:34.159 --> 01:07:38.239
And that words gratitude I stream. I can't remember who
1214
01:07:39.079 --> 01:07:42.800
who it was, who I specifically remember saying this beforehand,
1215
01:07:42.840 --> 01:07:45.800
but it was just that word was so simple going
1216
01:07:45.840 --> 01:07:48.840
through my mind, that it's a privilege that we get
1217
01:07:48.880 --> 01:07:51.760
to enjoy doing these things. So to sort of frame
1218
01:07:51.800 --> 01:07:54.599
it as we're suffering through, we're not having a good time,
1219
01:07:54.719 --> 01:08:00.320
I think it's not being grateful for these opportunities we have. Yeah,
1220
01:08:00.440 --> 01:08:03.199
the places we get to go that day in particular,
1221
01:08:03.559 --> 01:08:07.599
I'd done those four big passes in the Alps, the
1222
01:08:07.599 --> 01:08:11.280
gold All and made Lane, the telegraph, Glibya double account
1223
01:08:11.280 --> 01:08:14.519
as one, the Isuad. And that was at the end
1224
01:08:14.519 --> 01:08:16.640
of the cold of Var, at the end of that day,
1225
01:08:16.880 --> 01:08:19.920
and I just may be on such a high, and
1226
01:08:21.399 --> 01:08:23.399
partly because I knew I just after that bit, I
1227
01:08:23.479 --> 01:08:25.840
just had to descend down to down to where I
1228
01:08:25.880 --> 01:08:28.880
was staying for the night. But it was also at
1229
01:08:28.880 --> 01:08:33.159
that stage where I could I could visualize where where
1230
01:08:33.199 --> 01:08:39.359
the finish was, and I felt like I got into that,
1231
01:08:39.359 --> 01:08:42.279
that sustainable rhythm, even even at that stage so far
1232
01:08:42.359 --> 01:08:45.560
in as I said in that clip, it was that
1233
01:08:45.680 --> 01:08:50.079
became what I did each day, And why wish the
1234
01:08:50.119 --> 01:08:52.880
time away when this was what I was looking forward
1235
01:08:52.880 --> 01:08:55.199
to doing for so long and there I was in
1236
01:08:55.239 --> 01:08:59.039
the middle of it. Another example of this, which coming
1237
01:08:59.079 --> 01:09:02.239
back to the track of thing and knowing where we
1238
01:09:02.279 --> 01:09:06.680
are even I wasn't and the planning point as well,
1239
01:09:06.720 --> 01:09:10.479
I wasn't keeping a track on this how many kilometers
1240
01:09:10.479 --> 01:09:13.279
a day I've done counting down From that sense, my
1241
01:09:13.359 --> 01:09:17.880
focus was generally on keeping my moving time as high
1242
01:09:17.920 --> 01:09:21.640
as possible, to say, working backwards from I need to
1243
01:09:21.640 --> 01:09:23.760
be sleeping at least four hours each night, trying to
1244
01:09:23.800 --> 01:09:26.680
cut down how much time I stopped during the day,
1245
01:09:27.119 --> 01:09:29.760
so trying to get around sort of this fifteen sixteen
1246
01:09:29.760 --> 01:09:33.000
hours moving time during the day. Yes, so that was
1247
01:09:33.039 --> 01:09:35.479
my focus that in that respace. So I didn't I
1248
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:39.319
wasn't sort of knowing like, I'm exactly a halfway. I
1249
01:09:39.359 --> 01:09:43.039
need to do this many kilometers on average to finish
1250
01:09:43.119 --> 01:09:47.520
in thirteen days. And my mum had sent me a message.
1251
01:09:48.079 --> 01:09:50.159
I remember reading it when I was at Scherbourg, which
1252
01:09:50.199 --> 01:09:52.600
I think was it must have been just after halfway,
1253
01:09:53.520 --> 01:09:57.319
and she said just after half just over halfway, well done,
1254
01:09:57.439 --> 01:10:01.079
and she knows that I don't being told anything about
1255
01:10:01.119 --> 01:10:04.279
positions and so on. So I totally said better, you shouldn't.
1256
01:10:04.359 --> 01:10:07.239
You shouldn't have told me that, mum, because I didn't know.
1257
01:10:07.359 --> 01:10:08.960
I was. I think a few other people a message
1258
01:10:08.960 --> 01:10:11.439
me anyway, saying but halfway, so I did, I didn't know,
1259
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:14.520
but I generally said that means it's less than half
1260
01:10:14.560 --> 01:10:18.359
the fun to go. And so even in that stage
1261
01:10:19.079 --> 01:10:21.479
I was aware that I was really I was settled
1262
01:10:21.479 --> 01:10:26.239
into it. It felt like it was a sustainable effort,
1263
01:10:26.479 --> 01:10:30.199
which which I think is important when you're out there
1264
01:10:30.239 --> 01:10:33.479
for the best part of two weeks. You just both
1265
01:10:33.520 --> 01:10:36.560
for your physical mental well being. You can't be suffering
1266
01:10:36.600 --> 01:10:39.000
the whole way round because you're not going to get
1267
01:10:39.000 --> 01:10:41.199
the best performance out of it. And I think that
1268
01:10:41.359 --> 01:10:45.960
enjoyment side plays into the performance. I say this whenever
1269
01:10:46.000 --> 01:10:48.720
I talk about this, so some people probably heard me
1270
01:10:48.760 --> 01:10:53.079
say it before, but you never hear the people who
1271
01:10:53.079 --> 01:10:57.039
are successful, who are winning races, breaking records. They don't
1272
01:10:57.079 --> 01:11:00.319
say it was a great performance, but I really hated
1273
01:11:00.399 --> 01:11:03.039
every moment and it was a complete suffered my way around.
1274
01:11:03.479 --> 01:11:06.279
They always look back and say, well, it's probably it
1275
01:11:06.359 --> 01:11:11.760
probably some element of having having rose tinted glasses afterwards,
1276
01:11:12.079 --> 01:11:15.359
But I truly believe that that if it was. If
1277
01:11:15.399 --> 01:11:19.439
it was otherwise, then people would would say this more.
1278
01:11:19.920 --> 01:11:24.600
But yeah, it's that enjoyment side plays into plays into
1279
01:11:24.640 --> 01:11:26.720
good performance. If you enjoy what you're doing, you're motivated
1280
01:11:26.760 --> 01:11:30.000
to keep doing it and you're going to be in
1281
01:11:30.039 --> 01:11:35.319
a better place mentally. So yeah, come back to it,
1282
01:11:35.319 --> 01:11:40.479
it's it's enjoying enjoyment has that has that positive consequences.
1283
01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:44.159
Were they parts of the course where the enjoyment was
1284
01:11:45.399 --> 01:11:48.960
super high? And what I mean by that was just
1285
01:11:49.239 --> 01:11:52.720
as we are whenever we're setting ourselves a goal on something,
1286
01:11:52.720 --> 01:11:56.119
and when especially for yourself, Sam, and when you've intrinsically
1287
01:11:56.119 --> 01:11:58.760
looked at a route and looked at the waypoints and
1288
01:11:58.840 --> 01:12:01.560
studied the roads, like you you knew what side of
1289
01:12:01.560 --> 01:12:03.880
the road a supermarket would be on in a town,
1290
01:12:04.640 --> 01:12:09.039
there's obviously then milestones, maybe mental milestones of things to
1291
01:12:09.039 --> 01:12:10.800
get over there. You mentioned the other day where you
1292
01:12:10.840 --> 01:12:12.840
had four or five coals in a day. I know
1293
01:12:12.880 --> 01:12:15.239
the day that I met you, you were done. You'd
1294
01:12:15.239 --> 01:12:18.560
done parasawled Aspen Tormalae blew my mind because I saw
1295
01:12:18.600 --> 01:12:21.039
you at the the bottom of the descent of the Tormalay.
1296
01:12:21.119 --> 01:12:23.000
I think it was like ten oh five in the morning,
1297
01:12:24.079 --> 01:12:26.359
because my original plan, listeners, was I was going to
1298
01:12:26.399 --> 01:12:28.800
meet you at the summit, and thank god, and the
1299
01:12:28.840 --> 01:12:30.960
reason I didn't was because well, you were happy to
1300
01:12:30.960 --> 01:12:33.800
get up at like I don't know, ridiculous o'clock. I wasn't,
1301
01:12:34.479 --> 01:12:38.560
so I could only make it to the bottom. But
1302
01:12:39.079 --> 01:12:40.560
and then you know, you went on and did so.
1303
01:12:40.560 --> 01:12:42.640
The Laura and all bisk that day and the Alps
1304
01:12:42.680 --> 01:12:45.840
you had big days and they were the really lumpy
1305
01:12:45.880 --> 01:12:49.079
areas of the course, admittedly, but were they the ones
1306
01:12:49.119 --> 01:12:51.119
you were looking forward to the most, or there were
1307
01:12:51.159 --> 01:12:56.199
sections that like that, you nostalgic sections that you knew
1308
01:12:56.439 --> 01:12:58.520
mentally would lift you up as well, that they might
1309
01:12:58.560 --> 01:13:01.800
not be the epic summit mount and views, but nostalgia.
1310
01:13:01.880 --> 01:13:05.159
Maybe I rode through here in twenty fourteen when I
1311
01:13:05.199 --> 01:13:08.119
was riding back up to Lava precisely.
1312
01:13:08.359 --> 01:13:12.159
So, Yeah, naturally I'm drawn to the mountains. That's that's
1313
01:13:12.199 --> 01:13:15.479
my that's my terrain. That's probably the easiest side of it.
1314
01:13:15.640 --> 01:13:18.119
And I think the days in the mountains from a
1315
01:13:18.159 --> 01:13:21.119
mental perspective that in some ways easier to cope with.
1316
01:13:21.359 --> 01:13:23.159
You go up a mountain, you've got you got the
1317
01:13:23.239 --> 01:13:26.039
intermediate targets TAIM four, that's what we have to think
1318
01:13:26.039 --> 01:13:28.319
about for a couple of hours, and so it takes
1319
01:13:28.399 --> 01:13:33.079
care of itself. It's this route. Potentially the more difficult
1320
01:13:33.119 --> 01:13:37.399
bits were going up the west, where I mean it's
1321
01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:45.600
all the nothingness of the Yeah that, yeah, I think
1322
01:13:45.640 --> 01:13:49.319
I was fortunate I did that wells Fortunately I did
1323
01:13:49.319 --> 01:13:50.840
it at night. I don't think there was much else
1324
01:13:50.880 --> 01:13:53.560
to see. No disrespect to people who live in the land,
1325
01:13:53.600 --> 01:13:54.920
but I don't think there was much else to see.
1326
01:13:54.920 --> 01:13:58.560
If I've done that in Hala either all places to stop.
1327
01:13:58.760 --> 01:14:00.960
To be honest, there wasn't yeah, wasn't much. I went
1328
01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:03.720
through and I did find a belongree vending machine there
1329
01:14:03.920 --> 01:14:08.159
which was out of everything, which just compounded my misery
1330
01:14:08.319 --> 01:14:12.000
that morning. Not that not that it was miserable, but
1331
01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:16.119
on balance it was. Yeah, it was.
1332
01:14:16.399 --> 01:14:19.199
It was the silver lining had not appeared yet exactly.
1333
01:14:19.439 --> 01:14:24.079
Yeah, but yeah, precisely there was. There was a lot
1334
01:14:24.119 --> 01:14:26.960
of parts of the route which held which had that
1335
01:14:27.079 --> 01:14:31.760
nostalgic element. There was some stretch of the road even
1336
01:14:31.800 --> 01:14:35.319
from that first trip in twenty fourteen. I remember this,
1337
01:14:35.439 --> 01:14:38.000
and this comes back to having knowledge with the route
1338
01:14:38.000 --> 01:14:40.199
as well, that I stopped in this town called Saints.
1339
01:14:40.479 --> 01:14:43.079
I knew where the Caraful was because I just think
1340
01:14:43.079 --> 01:14:45.720
they remember when I When I got there, it was
1341
01:14:45.720 --> 01:14:49.680
a Sunday afternoon and I checked into a bbing ourked
1342
01:14:49.720 --> 01:14:52.359
day of any supermarkets open. She was like, no, it
1343
01:14:52.399 --> 01:14:55.479
was a Sunday afternoon, but there is this carafour which
1344
01:14:55.520 --> 01:14:57.560
is open in the afternoon. So I remember having to
1345
01:14:57.560 --> 01:15:00.000
wait till three pm to go there. So when I
1346
01:15:00.039 --> 01:15:02.880
passed through this time, I knew exactly exactly where it was.
1347
01:15:03.279 --> 01:15:07.359
And it already brings back memories of that time. There
1348
01:15:07.399 --> 01:15:11.520
was other moments, Brittany, I quite enjoyed because I was
1349
01:15:11.560 --> 01:15:13.399
familiar with a lot of places. I did this really
1350
01:15:13.479 --> 01:15:16.159
nice events at the end of last year called Lette Breton,
1351
01:15:16.800 --> 01:15:20.399
which one of my friends helped to organize, and I
1352
01:15:20.520 --> 01:15:24.760
rode around with a friend during that as well, And Yeah,
1353
01:15:24.800 --> 01:15:27.680
it was just a really nice, really nice event to
1354
01:15:27.760 --> 01:15:31.199
pass through places sort of in the different context. It
1355
01:15:31.239 --> 01:15:35.439
gives you that element of having an idea where where
1356
01:15:35.479 --> 01:15:39.560
you are. It also adds this feeling of making progress
1357
01:15:39.560 --> 01:15:42.960
as well, that you're you're linking up these places from
1358
01:15:43.399 --> 01:15:47.800
distinct parts of my memory, but linking them up together.
1359
01:15:48.479 --> 01:15:53.000
And another place which which I really enjoyed actually was
1360
01:15:53.000 --> 01:15:56.439
was running around Normandy because in sort of the mid
1361
01:15:56.520 --> 01:15:58.800
twenty fifteen so I took a few trips over there
1362
01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:01.439
as it was easy to get to across the getting
1363
01:16:01.479 --> 01:16:05.159
the ferry across from the UK, So there was plenty
1364
01:16:05.159 --> 01:16:10.159
of places. Again i'd stayed in before even even remembering
1365
01:16:10.960 --> 01:16:13.640
on a school trip you went to stay in Normandy
1366
01:16:13.640 --> 01:16:15.399
as well, so I sort of havn't had my mind
1367
01:16:15.560 --> 01:16:19.000
of where am I own in relationship to this. Yeah,
1368
01:16:19.039 --> 01:16:23.279
elements like that, where I was passing places which potentially
1369
01:16:23.640 --> 01:16:27.640
just looking at on a map or just purely cycling
1370
01:16:27.960 --> 01:16:30.560
wouldn't have had that much interest. There was always something
1371
01:16:30.640 --> 01:16:34.359
going through my mind to, yeah, to help put these
1372
01:16:34.399 --> 01:16:37.439
in some sort of context. And again that's what really
1373
01:16:37.520 --> 01:16:40.399
really attracted me to this whole route that it was
1374
01:16:41.000 --> 01:16:43.359
getting to see all these different parts of France's the
1375
01:16:43.439 --> 01:16:46.279
familiar parts, and there was other areas which were very
1376
01:16:46.319 --> 01:16:48.720
new to me as well. Yeah, being able to experience
1377
01:16:48.800 --> 01:16:54.279
the country, feeling how distinct things changed throughout each region,
1378
01:16:54.520 --> 01:16:59.039
but still having this overall cultural familiarity to me as well.
1379
01:16:59.399 --> 01:17:03.199
It's pretty I remember that as well, having done many
1380
01:17:03.239 --> 01:17:06.079
rides around France, now not all around France and not
1381
01:17:06.119 --> 01:17:08.119
all in one go like you have, but you do
1382
01:17:08.319 --> 01:17:12.319
see those distinct regional changes where you know you're in
1383
01:17:12.359 --> 01:17:14.920
a different place, but there's still a cultural familiarity that's
1384
01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:17.920
there as well, and there are different cultures within departments
1385
01:17:17.960 --> 01:17:21.199
and regions as well, which you know, France is very
1386
01:17:21.199 --> 01:17:23.720
proud of that, and they're different to Noir and they're
1387
01:17:23.760 --> 01:17:27.319
different cuisine in places as well. Something that we in
1388
01:17:27.359 --> 01:17:30.640
the commentary team were quite happy to be updated on
1389
01:17:30.920 --> 01:17:34.960
was your nutrition, which, to be honest with you started
1390
01:17:34.960 --> 01:17:39.359
out with how many you know, viennoiseris how many croissants aremored?
1391
01:17:39.359 --> 01:17:42.439
Croissants are you going to be devouring around France? But
1392
01:17:42.680 --> 01:17:45.840
quickly turned into the croissants. I mean you did devour them,
1393
01:17:45.880 --> 01:17:48.680
but all of a sudden it became about ice creams
1394
01:17:49.079 --> 01:17:52.920
because you found yourself writing this in exceptional heat through
1395
01:17:53.000 --> 01:17:55.840
the majority of the route bar a few days, and
1396
01:17:55.960 --> 01:17:58.640
ice cream was the way that you were able to
1397
01:17:59.199 --> 01:18:01.680
deal with that. Do you just let the listeners know?
1398
01:18:02.000 --> 01:18:04.479
Like the record for number of ice creams in one day?
1399
01:18:04.800 --> 01:18:05.399
What was it?
1400
01:18:05.640 --> 01:18:07.399
I think we were on about nineteen, but then.
1401
01:18:07.520 --> 01:18:10.840
I remember nineteen nineteen ice creams? Listeners? Can we just
1402
01:18:10.880 --> 01:18:11.840
can we just put that out there?
1403
01:18:11.880 --> 01:18:12.000
Now?
1404
01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:15.199
Hang on? Did that include like I would call it
1405
01:18:15.239 --> 01:18:17.279
an icy pole? If I don't know when you call them?
1406
01:18:17.319 --> 01:18:18.399
What what do you call them?
1407
01:18:18.880 --> 01:18:22.800
Well? Well, maybe like ice pops? But the only brand
1408
01:18:22.840 --> 01:18:25.199
I was interested in was Calipos in that sense, that's.
1409
01:18:25.079 --> 01:18:28.039
It, Calipos. Did your nineteen include Calipos?
1410
01:18:28.319 --> 01:18:30.119
I think that was the question, wasn't it. Whether it
1411
01:18:30.159 --> 01:18:34.159
was I can't remember it was eighteen eighteen or eighteen
1412
01:18:34.199 --> 01:18:36.520
without or nineteen without but there was only a couple.
1413
01:18:36.560 --> 01:18:38.880
It was mostly I was mostly in towards ice creams,
1414
01:18:38.920 --> 01:18:42.119
maybe a couple of maybe a couple of Calipo chasers.
1415
01:18:41.760 --> 01:18:45.760
There, wow, and with your ice creams because something else
1416
01:18:45.800 --> 01:18:47.920
and we should talk about nutrition a bit more seriously
1417
01:18:47.960 --> 01:18:51.680
here as well. But something that did start happening for you.
1418
01:18:52.319 --> 01:18:54.880
I can't remember. I had been five or six days
1419
01:18:54.880 --> 01:18:58.039
in was you started. Your mouth was quite sore, so
1420
01:18:58.159 --> 01:19:02.000
actually what you could fysically eat and chew without pain
1421
01:19:02.279 --> 01:19:05.159
became something you had to think about. And I think
1422
01:19:05.199 --> 01:19:06.960
the ice cream sort of helped a little bit with
1423
01:19:07.000 --> 01:19:09.000
that as well. Or do you feel the ice cream
1424
01:19:09.039 --> 01:19:09.520
brought that on?
1425
01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:13.520
No, It's been a common occurrence of me that my
1426
01:19:13.600 --> 01:19:17.520
mouth has been quite sensitive if I if I take
1427
01:19:17.520 --> 01:19:21.119
on too many sugary items, and I think it may
1428
01:19:21.399 --> 01:19:25.319
also be to do the acidic items as well, because
1429
01:19:25.359 --> 01:19:27.000
I can cope with it for a few days, and
1430
01:19:27.039 --> 01:19:29.279
I've experienced this and other events as well, but then
1431
01:19:29.640 --> 01:19:35.159
my tongue in particular becomes very sensitive and I find
1432
01:19:35.199 --> 01:19:39.720
it difficult to well. It then becomes unpleasant to eat
1433
01:19:39.720 --> 01:19:42.279
things that are I don't think it's just overly sweet.
1434
01:19:42.279 --> 01:19:44.960
I think it's more more things which we've got that
1435
01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:50.119
acidic element. So even even things as basically, because if
1436
01:19:50.119 --> 01:19:52.560
I get like a pizza slice or something, the tomato
1437
01:19:52.680 --> 01:19:55.479
on there will really react in my mouth. So I
1438
01:19:55.479 --> 01:19:58.479
had to be really were conscious. I mean, I could
1439
01:19:58.520 --> 01:20:00.319
still take them on, but it just takes in away
1440
01:20:00.319 --> 01:20:03.079
a bit of the pleasure of eating them and sort
1441
01:20:03.079 --> 01:20:05.199
of after effects. It was maybe when I've hurt a
1442
01:20:05.199 --> 01:20:08.159
bit for a while, so I was, yeah, really trying
1443
01:20:08.159 --> 01:20:11.640
to privilege things which were still I could still take
1444
01:20:11.680 --> 01:20:14.880
on sweet things, but more basics, I sort of joked,
1445
01:20:14.880 --> 01:20:17.840
there was more sort of anything brown was usually good,
1446
01:20:18.399 --> 01:20:22.199
and yeah, creamy things which cooled down my mouth were
1447
01:20:22.359 --> 01:20:26.640
often good. So that's where ice creams were good. Actually, yeah,
1448
01:20:26.800 --> 01:20:29.319
chocolate was as well. That's got that sort of acidic
1449
01:20:29.359 --> 01:20:32.520
element to it. That was that was after cards.
1450
01:20:32.399 --> 01:20:34.600
Was like drinking yogurt something that you turned.
1451
01:20:34.399 --> 01:20:38.199
To, Yeah, fairly fairly often things like kfee as well,
1452
01:20:38.279 --> 01:20:41.399
but I think the coolness of the ice cream seems
1453
01:20:41.399 --> 01:20:43.840
to help as well. So yeah, there was a tactical
1454
01:20:43.960 --> 01:20:45.159
element in this.
1455
01:20:45.560 --> 01:20:48.640
Coming to having so many as well. Was that sort
1456
01:20:48.680 --> 01:20:52.199
of like a serendipitous thing where at one stage I
1457
01:20:52.239 --> 01:20:54.520
think you'd stopped at a supermarket and you can't just
1458
01:20:54.560 --> 01:20:56.359
buy one ice cream, you have to buy a box
1459
01:20:56.359 --> 01:20:59.079
of six. And then did you realize, well, actually that
1460
01:20:59.079 --> 01:21:00.800
box of six was pretty good. So if I just
1461
01:21:00.840 --> 01:21:02.479
do that three times, I.
1462
01:21:02.439 --> 01:21:04.199
Think it's sort of another thing. Is another one of
1463
01:21:04.199 --> 01:21:07.359
these things just escalated that. Yeah, first I was sort
1464
01:21:07.359 --> 01:21:11.359
of seeking out individual ones, but then yeah, I just
1465
01:21:11.399 --> 01:21:14.720
think you remember on there was an afternoon, one of
1466
01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:18.000
one of the first really hot days when I was
1467
01:21:18.520 --> 01:21:22.640
in the in the sort of Bordeaux region and went
1468
01:21:22.760 --> 01:21:25.760
to went into a superette and all they had was
1469
01:21:25.760 --> 01:21:29.479
a six pack, and I thought, this sounds like a
1470
01:21:29.479 --> 01:21:31.680
bit much, but I'm gonna have to going to have
1471
01:21:31.680 --> 01:21:34.159
to do this, is this or nothing? And then once
1472
01:21:34.159 --> 01:21:37.680
you've done it once, it seems to become acceptable. So yeah,
1473
01:21:38.159 --> 01:21:41.720
most it was only in small places that you that
1474
01:21:41.760 --> 01:21:44.119
you could often get single ice creams in France, So
1475
01:21:44.159 --> 01:21:46.159
I say I was I was really forced to.
1476
01:21:46.119 --> 01:21:50.119
Get you would just budget conscious, really you value for money, And.
1477
01:21:50.119 --> 01:21:51.920
It did get to that stage as well. When I
1478
01:21:52.039 --> 01:21:53.840
then when I had the option to get single ones,
1479
01:21:53.840 --> 01:21:55.319
I thought, if I'm going to get two, it's going
1480
01:21:55.359 --> 01:21:57.000
to cost five euros. But I can get a pack
1481
01:21:57.039 --> 01:21:59.520
of six for four euros, So I do.
1482
01:21:59.560 --> 01:22:01.640
That with quick sants in my area because they have
1483
01:22:01.720 --> 01:22:04.039
this deal where if you buy three, you get one free,
1484
01:22:04.039 --> 01:22:06.399
so you get four for the prices three. And often
1485
01:22:06.439 --> 01:22:08.159
if I'm buying any of it might be buying two,
1486
01:22:08.319 --> 01:22:10.079
one for me, one with my husband, and I just think,
1487
01:22:10.119 --> 01:22:11.880
well three is only one extra, but then I get
1488
01:22:11.880 --> 01:22:13.560
another one and then I can have two to stash
1489
01:22:13.560 --> 01:22:17.399
your bag? Does escalate quickly? Can I ask? Because I
1490
01:22:17.439 --> 01:22:20.119
know you know we're speaking now, time has passing to
1491
01:22:20.159 --> 01:22:22.720
you finished Turis Rudy air and you did just recently
1492
01:22:22.760 --> 01:22:25.239
take a what I would call I don't know that.
1493
01:22:25.319 --> 01:22:26.960
Can I call it a mini tour? Because I mean
1494
01:22:26.960 --> 01:22:29.880
you did ride the UK and back and with some
1495
01:22:29.920 --> 01:22:32.760
transport in between. But have you found that you've needed
1496
01:22:32.800 --> 01:22:35.840
to wean yourself off having six ice creams at once? Like?
1497
01:22:35.880 --> 01:22:36.840
Can you keep it to two?
1498
01:22:37.119 --> 01:22:41.319
Or it's something I'm quite good at separating what I
1499
01:22:41.399 --> 01:22:44.000
do in the bike to what what I eat in
1500
01:22:44.119 --> 01:22:47.640
normal in normal day to day life, Like it's I
1501
01:22:47.800 --> 01:22:50.760
just have two compartments for them. I know some people,
1502
01:22:50.920 --> 01:22:52.520
some people say they can't keep setting food in the
1503
01:22:52.560 --> 01:22:54.880
house because they know they eat it, but I've got
1504
01:22:54.920 --> 01:22:56.960
a I can sort of see our corn eye, sort
1505
01:22:56.960 --> 01:22:59.239
of like an under the cupboard bit, just full of
1506
01:22:59.680 --> 01:23:01.880
food only in the bike, and I don't even think
1507
01:23:01.880 --> 01:23:04.159
about it, easing it in day to day. So in
1508
01:23:04.159 --> 01:23:07.359
that sense normal life, I'm not going to go and
1509
01:23:07.359 --> 01:23:09.720
buy a six pack of ice cream. But as soon
1510
01:23:09.720 --> 01:23:11.279
as I sit on the bike and ride over one
1511
01:23:11.319 --> 01:23:14.520
hundred kilometers, then that instinct is kicking him straight away.
1512
01:23:14.600 --> 01:23:17.600
You've normalized it for yourself, now, haven't you. There's no guilt,
1513
01:23:17.600 --> 01:23:21.319
no guilt there. I remember once saying my husband and
1514
01:23:21.359 --> 01:23:22.920
I we were on a ride, I think it was
1515
01:23:22.920 --> 01:23:24.560
actually when we wrote it, when we did our Raid
1516
01:23:24.600 --> 01:23:27.520
Pyrenees ride, and we were at a campsite and I
1517
01:23:27.680 --> 01:23:29.840
was on food duty at the supermarket, and I know
1518
01:23:29.960 --> 01:23:34.159
he likes rice pudding. Now I detest the stuff. Don't
1519
01:23:34.159 --> 01:23:36.119
ask me why, I just don't like it. And I
1520
01:23:36.119 --> 01:23:39.159
remember I couldn't find him like a two pack, so
1521
01:23:39.199 --> 01:23:40.520
I had to get him a four pack, and I
1522
01:23:40.520 --> 01:23:42.960
remember he ate all four at the campsite and his
1523
01:23:43.039 --> 01:23:45.479
initial reaction was, no, one should eat four of these
1524
01:23:45.520 --> 01:23:48.800
in one go. But now he's normalized. Actually, in that setting,
1525
01:23:48.880 --> 01:23:50.000
it would be quite okay.
1526
01:23:50.640 --> 01:23:54.680
Yeah, and no seriousness the amount of calories I was
1527
01:23:54.720 --> 01:23:59.119
burning each day, he was, Yeah, it was needers. You
1528
01:23:59.239 --> 01:24:02.039
just can't place what you are what you're burning when
1529
01:24:02.039 --> 01:24:05.560
you are riding two first a day, from what you
1530
01:24:05.600 --> 01:24:08.359
can physically take on or from what your body can
1531
01:24:08.399 --> 01:24:11.199
process as well. I mean even after all that, looked
1532
01:24:11.239 --> 01:24:13.600
to myself in the mirror afterwards, and I could physically
1533
01:24:13.680 --> 01:24:15.800
see no that I'd lost weight during it.
1534
01:24:16.359 --> 01:24:18.079
One of the things and we've touched on it is
1535
01:24:18.079 --> 01:24:22.199
the idea of preparation v planning, and the weather is
1536
01:24:22.239 --> 01:24:25.800
an element that you cannot you cannot forecast it's going
1537
01:24:25.840 --> 01:24:27.920
to be you know, even even with the best forecast,
1538
01:24:27.920 --> 01:24:29.000
and you're not going to know what's going to do
1539
01:24:29.039 --> 01:24:31.800
for thirteen days and all but a few days you
1540
01:24:31.880 --> 01:24:35.279
had extreme heat to deal with, and that's where I
1541
01:24:35.319 --> 01:24:38.399
guess you stay. You made the decision to stay in
1542
01:24:38.479 --> 01:24:41.760
hotels for this, so you were you weren't biving your
1543
01:24:41.840 --> 01:24:44.960
inside hotels. But something that you did do very early
1544
01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:48.840
on to deal with the heat was you would ride
1545
01:24:49.279 --> 01:24:52.319
super super early, like and I can't even call it
1546
01:24:52.319 --> 01:24:54.199
the morning, can I The times that you left some
1547
01:24:54.319 --> 01:24:56.479
days because it like, oh, I'm getting up. We'd get
1548
01:24:56.520 --> 01:24:59.039
your voice messages at like nine or ten, or if
1549
01:24:59.279 --> 01:25:01.239
maybe eight and like, yeah, I'm going to be leaving
1550
01:25:01.279 --> 01:25:02.920
in four and a half hour. Might be setting off
1551
01:25:02.920 --> 01:25:06.359
at midnight or something. But then with the idea that
1552
01:25:07.000 --> 01:25:09.800
you're not going to be continually riding in the heat
1553
01:25:09.800 --> 01:25:12.479
of the day, because in France, when it's that hot,
1554
01:25:12.600 --> 01:25:14.920
it's not like it gets to five pm and it
1555
01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:17.159
magically it cools down. Actually, the hottest time of the
1556
01:25:17.239 --> 01:25:21.199
day is often six and the temperatures will stay elevated
1557
01:25:21.239 --> 01:25:24.239
for quite some time as well. Was that a strategy
1558
01:25:24.279 --> 01:25:26.560
you've employed in other events or was that something that
1559
01:25:26.600 --> 01:25:29.479
you had just decided, Okay, I need to change and
1560
01:25:29.479 --> 01:25:30.840
adapt and this is how I'm going to try it
1561
01:25:30.880 --> 01:25:31.319
out here.
1562
01:25:31.640 --> 01:25:34.840
Yeah, it does. It depends to an extent on the
1563
01:25:34.920 --> 01:25:39.640
nature of the event. I think this tactic definitely lends
1564
01:25:39.680 --> 01:25:43.600
itself to longer events when you have the opportunity to
1565
01:25:43.720 --> 01:25:46.359
establish a routine. A lot of it comes back to
1566
01:25:46.760 --> 01:25:49.920
it's about how many hours during a twenty four hour
1567
01:25:49.960 --> 01:25:53.479
period you're riding. It doesn't matter how you split up,
1568
01:25:53.800 --> 01:25:56.159
there's any certain amount. There's only twenty four hours in
1569
01:25:56.199 --> 01:25:58.680
a day that you can work with. So if you
1570
01:25:58.760 --> 01:26:01.720
keep riding late into the night, that means the next
1571
01:26:01.800 --> 01:26:04.239
day you're starting later. They've got to ride in late
1572
01:26:04.319 --> 01:26:08.239
into the night. Again, it seems to be this common
1573
01:26:08.319 --> 01:26:10.680
thought that you need to ride late in tonight otherwise
1574
01:26:10.680 --> 01:26:14.359
you're slacking off. You can't stop early. But taking that
1575
01:26:14.520 --> 01:26:16.680
view that as long as you're putting in the hours,
1576
01:26:16.720 --> 01:26:18.760
it doesn't matter what time, if what time of day
1577
01:26:18.840 --> 01:26:22.039
that happens, and that then that comes to the considerations
1578
01:26:22.079 --> 01:26:25.600
of whe is the optimal time to be to be riding,
1579
01:26:25.680 --> 01:26:28.760
when to be resting, which is going to vary in
1580
01:26:28.760 --> 01:26:32.399
different different circumstances. For me here, my main considerations were
1581
01:26:32.800 --> 01:26:36.479
I was sleeping indoors every night, so that meant making
1582
01:26:36.560 --> 01:26:39.239
things as easy as possible to find either a hotel
1583
01:26:39.600 --> 01:26:43.239
or they use there BnB sometime sometime as well. Trying
1584
01:26:43.239 --> 01:26:47.079
to check into an into a hotel in rural France
1585
01:26:47.079 --> 01:26:50.600
at midnight is often quite difficult, so moving that forwards
1586
01:26:50.640 --> 01:26:53.479
means you don't have to worry about arranging for keys
1587
01:26:53.520 --> 01:26:55.279
to be left or so, and you can check in
1588
01:26:55.520 --> 01:26:59.000
fairly normally. There's also at that time, I mean supermarkets
1589
01:26:59.039 --> 01:27:02.800
in France don't stay and super late either seven pm
1590
01:27:02.880 --> 01:27:06.039
eight pm. Usually. I know there's other options for food
1591
01:27:06.079 --> 01:27:08.520
as well, but I quite like to I'm stopping for
1592
01:27:08.640 --> 01:27:10.119
night to be able to stuck up for that night
1593
01:27:10.199 --> 01:27:13.319
for that next morning. So then if especially was starting
1594
01:27:13.319 --> 01:27:15.760
early in the morning, I'm sufficient for a long period
1595
01:27:15.800 --> 01:27:18.319
of time, so I could do those two things, those
1596
01:27:18.359 --> 01:27:22.119
two things at once. I'm not stopping super late. And
1597
01:27:22.159 --> 01:27:24.800
then the temperature, that heat was a big part of
1598
01:27:24.840 --> 01:27:27.920
it as well. By starting early in the morning, it
1599
01:27:28.000 --> 01:27:30.399
mean meant I've got a large number of hours in
1600
01:27:31.039 --> 01:27:34.319
before the heat at the coolest, coolest time of the day. Obviously,
1601
01:27:34.359 --> 01:27:36.760
the coolest moment is just before the sun comes up,
1602
01:27:37.319 --> 01:27:42.520
and I think it also helps that transition of I know,
1603
01:27:42.720 --> 01:27:45.720
I know at this point there wasn't any particularly cold temperatures,
1604
01:27:45.720 --> 01:27:47.479
but I think it helps if you're already riding when
1605
01:27:47.479 --> 01:27:50.000
you're going into the coldest, coldest part of the night,
1606
01:27:50.159 --> 01:27:52.720
rather than going out straight away to the coldest part
1607
01:27:52.760 --> 01:27:55.800
and then having to warm up into it the final
1608
01:27:55.880 --> 01:27:58.520
part of this. I'm sure there's more. What I can
1609
01:27:58.520 --> 01:28:03.800
remember top my head is around that transition from day
1610
01:28:03.840 --> 01:28:08.560
to night that I love riding into into the sunrise,
1611
01:28:08.680 --> 01:28:11.560
and I think most people can relate how sort of
1612
01:28:11.600 --> 01:28:13.600
boosting that is, sort of seeing the.
1613
01:28:13.479 --> 01:28:15.239
Sun come up super energizing.
1614
01:28:15.880 --> 01:28:20.840
Definitely the opposite riding into night can be more difficult,
1615
01:28:20.960 --> 01:28:23.600
I think, I say, I say fortunate, But part of
1616
01:28:23.640 --> 01:28:25.279
the reason I wanted to do it in June was
1617
01:28:25.319 --> 01:28:31.600
having maximal daylight conditions. But stopping earlier meant I didn't
1618
01:28:31.600 --> 01:28:34.039
have to go throughout transition from day to night. There
1619
01:28:34.159 --> 01:28:37.920
was yeah, I read this around France and saw two sunsets,
1620
01:28:37.920 --> 01:28:39.640
and that was on the first night and the last night.
1621
01:28:39.680 --> 01:28:41.520
Every other night I was in bed when the sun
1622
01:28:41.640 --> 01:28:43.840
when before the sun had gone down. So it just
1623
01:28:43.880 --> 01:28:46.600
shows you don't have to be riding deep into every night.
1624
01:28:47.000 --> 01:28:49.399
It comes down to it comes back to that sort
1625
01:28:49.399 --> 01:28:52.279
of the whole, the whole sort of suffering and flogging
1626
01:28:52.319 --> 01:28:56.039
yourself thing that this was a tactic which I wanted
1627
01:28:56.079 --> 01:29:00.520
to be sustainable, and getting to routine of it as well.
1628
01:29:01.119 --> 01:29:04.560
It's another thing which which I believe in a lot,
1629
01:29:04.880 --> 01:29:08.880
and it's partly personal to me. I'm a creature of routine,
1630
01:29:08.960 --> 01:29:11.920
once creature of habit, creature of routine. Once I get
1631
01:29:11.960 --> 01:29:14.479
into that, then it becomes natural to me. So I
1632
01:29:14.520 --> 01:29:17.039
wanted that to be the case. Here, and it definitely
1633
01:29:17.199 --> 01:29:21.159
was that if I kept switching my hours asleep, if
1634
01:29:21.159 --> 01:29:23.000
I've roarned more one day, I know that's going to
1635
01:29:23.000 --> 01:29:25.600
compromise what I'm doing the next day. Equally, if I
1636
01:29:25.680 --> 01:29:28.319
kept pushing back the time I was sleeping, I knew
1637
01:29:28.359 --> 01:29:30.279
I would have to make up for that sometimes. So
1638
01:29:30.319 --> 01:29:33.239
I did manage to find this nice equilibrium in the
1639
01:29:33.279 --> 01:29:35.960
middle where it was quite It did fluctuate a bit
1640
01:29:36.039 --> 01:29:38.880
depending on circumstances, but I was quite consistent in the
1641
01:29:39.039 --> 01:29:40.800
times of day I was writing as well.
1642
01:29:41.359 --> 01:29:44.439
Something that's occurred to me is just in the way
1643
01:29:44.439 --> 01:29:48.079
we've discussed things, and you know, even looking chronologically back
1644
01:29:48.119 --> 01:29:51.720
through the events that you have done, is you've there's
1645
01:29:51.800 --> 01:29:54.119
moments where you've learned big lessons, and you've put the
1646
01:29:54.199 --> 01:29:56.520
lessons you've learned from that forward to the next thing
1647
01:29:56.520 --> 01:30:00.039
that you do. I imagine that plays part of the
1648
01:30:00.079 --> 01:30:03.560
process when you're actually coaching people, because this is something
1649
01:30:03.640 --> 01:30:05.359
that you do now as well. Isn't it that you
1650
01:30:05.880 --> 01:30:09.279
coach as well and you share learnings from this. How
1651
01:30:09.279 --> 01:30:13.640
did you get into coaching and how has your own
1652
01:30:13.760 --> 01:30:17.399
personal experience informed how you coach people?
1653
01:30:17.920 --> 01:30:20.640
Yeah, in terms of how I got into coaching. I
1654
01:30:20.640 --> 01:30:27.159
think it's it's as much well supposely comes into both
1655
01:30:27.199 --> 01:30:31.640
aspects of it that I really really liked that idea
1656
01:30:31.960 --> 01:30:34.640
of being able to take the experiences I have, the
1657
01:30:34.720 --> 01:30:38.840
learnings learnings I've had, and be able to help facilitate
1658
01:30:39.000 --> 01:30:43.640
other people with their own endeavors. And it felt like
1659
01:30:43.640 --> 01:30:46.680
a sort of natural process over a number of years
1660
01:30:46.720 --> 01:30:53.600
that from speaking to people, giving people advice on certain aspects,
1661
01:30:54.359 --> 01:30:59.680
and then taking quite interest in that more sort of
1662
01:30:59.760 --> 01:31:03.880
into into the performance and training side. When I look
1663
01:31:03.960 --> 01:31:07.800
more into this, there wasn't and there still isn't that
1664
01:31:08.000 --> 01:31:12.319
much formal advice on how to how to go about
1665
01:31:12.399 --> 01:31:14.920
these sort of things, whether you are racing with your
1666
01:31:14.960 --> 01:31:18.039
doing things like all axes, random as. There's a lot
1667
01:31:18.079 --> 01:31:22.039
of a lot of bro science out there. If you
1668
01:31:22.079 --> 01:31:24.479
ask questions on forms and someone, people will tell you
1669
01:31:24.520 --> 01:31:27.239
what they did, but haven't really got a reason to
1670
01:31:27.319 --> 01:31:30.640
back that up. And a lot of the training advice
1671
01:31:30.760 --> 01:31:36.439
comes from what typical traditional typical not right, but traditional
1672
01:31:36.720 --> 01:31:43.479
cycling disciplines do, which and what I believe now is
1673
01:31:43.560 --> 01:31:48.600
the the basic training principles. There's there is these are
1674
01:31:48.640 --> 01:31:50.600
always going to be the same. There's there's going to
1675
01:31:50.680 --> 01:31:53.560
be some overlap there, but then actually applying that to
1676
01:31:53.840 --> 01:31:56.399
what is a very unique discipline, both in terms of
1677
01:31:56.479 --> 01:32:02.600
the physiological elements and all the other bits which go
1678
01:32:02.760 --> 01:32:07.199
above and beyond that, the logistical, the self management, nutrition side,
1679
01:32:07.920 --> 01:32:10.880
that's all so distinct to this area that that's what
1680
01:32:10.960 --> 01:32:14.279
I found. It was a struggle for me to find that.
1681
01:32:14.760 --> 01:32:20.039
So what I wanted to do is to equip myself
1682
01:32:20.079 --> 01:32:27.199
with that basic knowledge of cycling, of cycling coaching, but
1683
01:32:27.279 --> 01:32:30.439
then look to apply that to what is unique about
1684
01:32:30.479 --> 01:32:33.840
the ultra distance scene. And that's where what I like
1685
01:32:33.920 --> 01:32:39.159
to offer is this is this understanding, this grounding in
1686
01:32:39.159 --> 01:32:42.279
in the scientific elements and taking what there is out
1687
01:32:42.319 --> 01:32:45.560
there in terms of research, because there is a growing
1688
01:32:45.600 --> 01:32:50.439
amount both just dedicated to culture distance and extrapolating what
1689
01:32:50.560 --> 01:32:54.119
there is which is just specific culture distance, but elements
1690
01:32:54.119 --> 01:32:56.960
of it which are important for what we do, and
1691
01:32:57.000 --> 01:33:01.479
then adding that with the experience I have through doing events,
1692
01:33:01.640 --> 01:33:05.119
through doing my own independent travel, but also recognizing that
1693
01:33:05.840 --> 01:33:09.680
these experiences there, they're individual to me. Everyone I coach
1694
01:33:09.760 --> 01:33:13.239
and work with our individuals as well. So what works
1695
01:33:13.239 --> 01:33:16.119
for me isn't necessarily going to work for others, but
1696
01:33:16.159 --> 01:33:19.239
I think it can form the way that I approach this,
1697
01:33:19.840 --> 01:33:24.119
and I think that experience experiences is a large part
1698
01:33:24.159 --> 01:33:27.760
of this, especially as it is in relative terms quite
1699
01:33:27.760 --> 01:33:30.279
a quite a new, quite a new discipline.
1700
01:33:30.880 --> 01:33:32.880
We should give a shout out like, if people are
1701
01:33:32.880 --> 01:33:35.439
listening to you now and want to have some help
1702
01:33:35.479 --> 01:33:38.880
from someone with a load of experience in this space,
1703
01:33:39.039 --> 01:33:42.079
how can they find you online? How can they get
1704
01:33:42.119 --> 01:33:43.800
into this a little bit more well?
1705
01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:47.640
The coaching business I run is called AS That's a
1706
01:33:48.119 --> 01:33:51.520
C I E R and the website is as dot
1707
01:33:51.680 --> 01:33:53.640
c C. I tend to want to say that in
1708
01:33:53.720 --> 01:33:57.439
French in a French way because it is. It's the word.
1709
01:33:57.479 --> 01:33:59.880
It's a word for steel in French, and I used
1710
01:33:59.880 --> 01:34:03.479
to in Sheffield, which is a steel city. So allying,
1711
01:34:03.600 --> 01:34:07.239
allying or forging the two together is a was a
1712
01:34:07.319 --> 01:34:08.239
nice way here.
1713
01:34:08.359 --> 01:34:10.960
I was Samuel thinking that it was like a nod
1714
01:34:11.039 --> 01:34:14.880
to a good sturdy steel bike getting you across the distances.
1715
01:34:16.760 --> 01:34:19.840
The steel bike, the bike on a was made in
1716
01:34:19.880 --> 01:34:23.760
Sheffield as well, so it's a nice nice link there too.
1717
01:34:24.000 --> 01:34:26.000
There we go, listeners. I'll put a link to that
1718
01:34:26.159 --> 01:34:28.760
in the show notes and also to your Instagram account
1719
01:34:28.800 --> 01:34:32.119
as well, which it's Terese. Is it Teresa dot Routier.
1720
01:34:32.439 --> 01:34:34.239
That's that's correct, with an E on the end of
1721
01:34:34.359 --> 01:34:35.880
toyst Yeah, there is.
1722
01:34:35.920 --> 01:34:38.520
Indeed, I will have links there. Click on those and
1723
01:34:38.560 --> 01:34:41.359
you can get in touch with Sam as well. Before
1724
01:34:41.359 --> 01:34:43.720
I wrap it up, I think it's a pretty important
1725
01:34:43.800 --> 01:34:48.600
question coming into the finish, rolling back home into the
1726
01:34:48.399 --> 01:34:51.720
into that finish line area there at man Osk. How
1727
01:34:51.720 --> 01:34:53.800
did you feel on that day and how do you
1728
01:34:53.840 --> 01:34:56.800
feel about it now reflecting back on it too.
1729
01:34:59.079 --> 01:35:03.760
Another one went easy to view, maybe maybe gold tinted
1730
01:35:04.920 --> 01:35:10.399
glasses this time, because it was and I'm I'm sure
1731
01:35:10.399 --> 01:35:13.800
I don't think I'm exaggerated, and I really felt it
1732
01:35:13.840 --> 01:35:17.760
at the moment because I was heading west during that
1733
01:35:17.840 --> 01:35:22.319
final stretch. The sun was setting that evening and I
1734
01:35:22.399 --> 01:35:25.720
was back on familiar terrain in the area I live
1735
01:35:25.800 --> 01:35:30.039
in is in Provence, and it's quite a distinct landscape
1736
01:35:30.239 --> 01:35:33.439
and it's something which I just I personally think it's
1737
01:35:33.600 --> 01:35:38.199
the most beautiful landscape there is. And just being back
1738
01:35:38.239 --> 01:35:42.880
then familiar surroundings with this with this sunset which just
1739
01:35:43.239 --> 01:35:46.920
made everything so golden. It was. Yeah, just I've just
1740
01:35:46.960 --> 01:35:50.279
got this great image in my mind and even the
1741
01:35:50.479 --> 01:35:54.680
very last checkpoint was that this this village called Tortal,
1742
01:35:55.520 --> 01:36:00.920
which I thought was appropriate as well. Every tour needs
1743
01:36:00.960 --> 01:36:03.560
a tour tour, and so that was there, that was
1744
01:36:03.600 --> 01:36:07.439
there to finish. And it was a village which I've
1745
01:36:07.439 --> 01:36:10.159
been through a couple of times before on my way
1746
01:36:10.600 --> 01:36:13.119
towards nice As where I was coming from, but in
1747
01:36:13.760 --> 01:36:15.880
I think it was in the winter both times, and
1748
01:36:15.920 --> 01:36:19.000
it was just a really quiet little village. It's one
1749
01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:21.560
of the Les Plu Bowl Village de France.
1750
01:36:21.840 --> 01:36:23.600
So oh, I love that. I want to make a
1751
01:36:23.640 --> 01:36:25.800
cycling route which just takes those in. I think that
1752
01:36:25.840 --> 01:36:27.479
could be my wal to race root.
1753
01:36:27.399 --> 01:36:31.039
Here and this I think it's about half eight in
1754
01:36:31.079 --> 01:36:34.279
the evening, and this place it was well, it was
1755
01:36:34.359 --> 01:36:36.039
it was a bit too hot in the afternoon, but
1756
01:36:36.079 --> 01:36:39.319
it cooled down by then and it was just the
1757
01:36:39.359 --> 01:36:43.239
atmosphere there was. There was somehow there was about four
1758
01:36:43.319 --> 01:36:46.520
or five restaurants that sprang up in this village, all
1759
01:36:46.560 --> 01:36:49.479
on this on this square. There was just people out
1760
01:36:49.920 --> 01:36:53.520
enjoying this evening, just such a confuter atmosphere. It was
1761
01:36:53.520 --> 01:36:55.399
a bit annoyed because the first restaurant went in wouldn't
1762
01:36:55.399 --> 01:36:56.479
give me a stamp, so I had to go to
1763
01:36:56.479 --> 01:36:59.319
another one. So yeah, maybe like wasted two minutes, but
1764
01:36:59.479 --> 01:37:01.520
apart from that, it was just that just gave me
1765
01:37:01.600 --> 01:37:06.159
this this really nice vibe to then carry on towards
1766
01:37:06.199 --> 01:37:10.199
the end. From then on, I knew, I knew the roads,
1767
01:37:10.640 --> 01:37:13.399
I knew, Yeah, I knew where I was at, which
1768
01:37:14.079 --> 01:37:16.000
sometimes that can play in your mind when you notice
1769
01:37:16.000 --> 01:37:19.119
sixty kilometers left, But in the grand scheme of things,
1770
01:37:19.159 --> 01:37:21.840
I knew sort of there it was, it was going
1771
01:37:21.920 --> 01:37:24.720
to happen. And then there was this final hill which
1772
01:37:24.760 --> 01:37:28.439
I've done many times before, which then you get to
1773
01:37:28.479 --> 01:37:31.079
the top and have a view over the a view
1774
01:37:31.119 --> 01:37:34.720
over the town. You can see the lights, and just
1775
01:37:34.760 --> 01:37:37.640
from there sort of knew, like I knew I'd done out.
1776
01:37:37.640 --> 01:37:39.159
I knew even if I had to walk the rest,
1777
01:37:39.239 --> 01:37:41.680
I could get there own times. I think that was
1778
01:37:41.840 --> 01:37:44.560
that point which I yeah, stopped for a couple of minutes,
1779
01:37:44.600 --> 01:37:49.359
took a photo and yeah, then then went down. Sort
1780
01:37:49.359 --> 01:37:51.199
of felt like I was a bit on auto pilot
1781
01:37:51.359 --> 01:37:52.439
coming back home from there.
1782
01:37:52.720 --> 01:37:56.119
And does it feel real reflecting back, like obviously you
1783
01:37:56.159 --> 01:37:58.960
know you did it, You've got every every bit of proof,
1784
01:37:58.960 --> 01:38:03.319
you've got, your your your breve. There Official World records later,
1785
01:38:03.680 --> 01:38:04.479
does it feel real?
1786
01:38:07.119 --> 01:38:14.239
It's it's one which because it's it's such a such
1787
01:38:14.239 --> 01:38:16.359
a big thing, such a big thing. To get my
1788
01:38:16.399 --> 01:38:19.640
head around that sort of trying to envisage it all
1789
01:38:19.680 --> 01:38:24.800
in in one single thought, in one single ideas quite difficult.
1790
01:38:24.840 --> 01:38:28.319
I think it's And there's so many things which happened
1791
01:38:28.319 --> 01:38:31.960
along the way, which I mean you take hours to
1792
01:38:32.720 --> 01:38:35.960
go through them, but such such positive memories that come
1793
01:38:36.000 --> 01:38:42.880
from it. I think it's, yeah, such a positive overall experience,
1794
01:38:43.640 --> 01:38:46.920
and it's difficult to beforehand to visions how I'm going
1795
01:38:47.000 --> 01:38:49.319
to feel about it afterwards. In some ways you sort
1796
01:38:49.319 --> 01:38:53.359
of think my whole life's going to change, and but
1797
01:38:53.800 --> 01:38:56.720
I think it's also important to recognize sort of to
1798
01:38:56.760 --> 01:39:00.000
be grounded afterwards as well, like, yeah, it wasn't amazing
1799
01:39:00.159 --> 01:39:03.479
thing to do, but at some point I've got to
1800
01:39:03.479 --> 01:39:06.359
get back to got to get back to doing things
1801
01:39:06.439 --> 01:39:12.359
which which I need. Well, I don't wonder it's not
1802
01:39:12.439 --> 01:39:16.119
as if, not as if I'm sort of loath to
1803
01:39:16.159 --> 01:39:17.760
get back to day to day life because I really
1804
01:39:17.840 --> 01:39:21.760
enjoy what I'm doing, but at some point, yeah, you've
1805
01:39:21.760 --> 01:39:25.000
got to resume what is what is normal life afterwards,
1806
01:39:25.720 --> 01:39:28.159
So it's a really it's not a great answer answer
1807
01:39:28.239 --> 01:39:32.159
that question. But in a way, I'm still still processing
1808
01:39:32.760 --> 01:39:37.800
what happened, and I in a way I sort of
1809
01:39:37.840 --> 01:39:41.399
asked myself what next. But the difficult thing about that
1810
01:39:41.560 --> 01:39:45.479
is that this, the whole route, the whole concept, meant
1811
01:39:45.640 --> 01:39:47.840
so much to me that I I'm sort of in
1812
01:39:47.960 --> 01:39:52.319
a moment where I struggle to find something which has
1813
01:39:52.399 --> 01:39:57.359
such resonance in terms of the roots, the whole France aspect,
1814
01:39:58.079 --> 01:40:01.479
that bit around having that achievable target to go for.
1815
01:40:02.159 --> 01:40:05.720
So yeah, in a way, I'm not hurrying myself to
1816
01:40:06.039 --> 01:40:08.760
find something to try and replicate it, replace it, because
1817
01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:12.039
I know I won't be able to. In some way,
1818
01:40:12.880 --> 01:40:15.560
I've been quite interested to there have been some accounts
1819
01:40:15.560 --> 01:40:17.600
that I've been reading of people who've done this route
1820
01:40:17.640 --> 01:40:20.359
in the in the nineteen seventies, which is a whole
1821
01:40:20.399 --> 01:40:23.640
nother issue of how remarkable is they were doing this
1822
01:40:23.680 --> 01:40:26.960
without a GPS guard in them.
1823
01:40:26.439 --> 01:40:29.000
The bikes that were using and equipment they used.
1824
01:40:29.279 --> 01:40:32.039
Yeah, but what was interesting there was there was a
1825
01:40:32.039 --> 01:40:33.840
bit of a bit of a sort of to and
1826
01:40:33.880 --> 01:40:36.720
fro battle going on between a few people who trying
1827
01:40:36.760 --> 01:40:41.239
to set the best time, and so that the best
1828
01:40:41.279 --> 01:40:45.479
time from nineteen seventy eight had stood until twenty eleven,
1829
01:40:45.479 --> 01:40:48.600
which is when Christal Vanaguer wrote in just say thirteen days.
1830
01:40:49.319 --> 01:40:53.079
So I wouldn't be averse to a few other people
1831
01:40:53.640 --> 01:40:56.640
setting out there still, And maybe that would if someone
1832
01:40:56.720 --> 01:40:59.119
better is my time, maybe that would give me motivation
1833
01:40:59.239 --> 01:41:03.239
to go back because it's something which, yeah, it's so much,
1834
01:41:03.279 --> 01:41:06.000
could interest me to do it again at some point.
1835
01:41:06.319 --> 01:41:08.359
I don't think that's going to be next year or
1836
01:41:08.399 --> 01:41:11.039
the year after, but if someone knocks off a couple
1837
01:41:11.079 --> 01:41:13.720
of hours from what I did, then maybe I'll have
1838
01:41:13.760 --> 01:41:15.079
to go back out there.
1839
01:41:15.279 --> 01:41:17.800
Yeah, Or I mean, maybe you do it in reverse,
1840
01:41:17.880 --> 01:41:19.960
maybe you see what it's like going in the other direction.
1841
01:41:20.279 --> 01:41:23.920
Well maybe, but I think the way I did it
1842
01:41:24.039 --> 01:41:28.039
in the mountains, it turned out I was mostly going
1843
01:41:28.079 --> 01:41:32.960
downhill on the drags, So I think doing it that way, well,
1844
01:41:33.560 --> 01:41:36.640
maybe it'll evens out. But yeah, it could be consideration
1845
01:41:36.760 --> 01:41:38.800
to do it the other way. It will seem new
1846
01:41:38.840 --> 01:41:39.159
that way.
1847
01:41:39.199 --> 01:41:42.199
Then I should know the answer to this question, and
1848
01:41:42.279 --> 01:41:43.920
I probably did at one point in time, but I
1849
01:41:43.920 --> 01:41:47.199
don't now. Was there a final crossant tally, like was
1850
01:41:47.239 --> 01:41:49.039
there a final pastry tally for.
1851
01:41:48.880 --> 01:41:52.159
This well, I was hoping my commentary team would keep
1852
01:41:52.199 --> 01:41:52.800
tabs of this.
1853
01:41:53.279 --> 01:41:55.720
No, we lost tabs of that because you kept flooding
1854
01:41:55.760 --> 01:41:56.479
us with ice cream.
1855
01:41:58.560 --> 01:42:03.039
I think we're probably we're probably looking at three or
1856
01:42:03.039 --> 01:42:08.439
four days, so so may actually, well, there was a
1857
01:42:08.479 --> 01:42:11.600
couple of days where I did a couple of supermarket
1858
01:42:11.600 --> 01:42:13.600
once and there, and I think I regretted those.
1859
01:42:13.640 --> 01:42:16.680
On the account. I'm not sure, Yeah, no, not sure.
1860
01:42:16.840 --> 01:42:19.680
I must say one of my high points was annoying
1861
01:42:19.720 --> 01:42:22.560
that you would stop in Utrotat at the same laundry
1862
01:42:22.600 --> 01:42:25.119
I had been a few months earlier, and we both
1863
01:42:25.159 --> 01:42:28.039
reached the same conclusion that the croissants from there are
1864
01:42:28.079 --> 01:42:32.159
the absolute bomb, buttery, flaky, beautiful. I know you had
1865
01:42:32.279 --> 01:42:34.720
rain and you you couldn't enjoy it in a perfect setting,
1866
01:42:34.760 --> 01:42:36.199
but oh, ten out it.
1867
01:42:36.239 --> 01:42:36.479
Well.
1868
01:42:36.960 --> 01:42:40.439
Do I ever give a quest very very very close.
1869
01:42:41.319 --> 01:42:43.079
For improvements you do?
1870
01:42:44.319 --> 01:42:46.520
All right, Sam, it's time to wrap the show up.
1871
01:42:46.600 --> 01:42:48.880
I could talk to you for ages, because we certainly
1872
01:42:48.880 --> 01:42:51.720
didn't go into every detail of every day. But I
1873
01:42:51.760 --> 01:42:54.640
love that we've got a pretty good roundup of you
1874
01:42:54.880 --> 01:42:59.720
as an ultra rider, as someone who's also a not
1875
01:43:00.399 --> 01:43:03.319
the enjoyment of actually traveling by bike as well, and
1876
01:43:03.359 --> 01:43:06.000
how you've melded the two together. You are now I
1877
01:43:06.079 --> 01:43:07.920
guess to seek travel Ride. You get to choose a
1878
01:43:07.960 --> 01:43:10.840
song that goes on the seat travel Ride music playlist
1879
01:43:11.279 --> 01:43:14.079
at playlist one song chosen by every guest to be
1880
01:43:14.159 --> 01:43:17.399
the soundtrack to their adventures. What song are you going
1881
01:43:17.439 --> 01:43:20.840
to pick for you? And this to erase routier challenge.
1882
01:43:20.960 --> 01:43:24.319
There's a real backstory behind this. It's a really abstract one,
1883
01:43:24.319 --> 01:43:25.800
so I'm not sure if anyone have heard of it,
1884
01:43:25.880 --> 01:43:30.199
but I'll choose Dollar William by Hue and Cry.
1885
01:43:30.800 --> 01:43:31.760
I certainly don't know.
1886
01:43:31.720 --> 01:43:37.279
What briefly explain explain why. Basically, my mum had the
1887
01:43:37.359 --> 01:43:40.039
cassette of this. I think it was one of her
1888
01:43:40.039 --> 01:43:43.039
favorites from back in the back in the eighties and
1889
01:43:43.479 --> 01:43:45.039
used to play it in the in the car who
1890
01:43:45.119 --> 01:43:46.600
and choose to drive me to school when I was
1891
01:43:46.600 --> 01:43:49.319
in primary school. So I've always got like a nostalgic
1892
01:43:49.359 --> 01:43:52.199
element to this and ended up being it was the
1893
01:43:52.279 --> 01:43:55.199
last thing that I listened to before I before I started.
1894
01:43:56.079 --> 01:43:57.479
It's the sort of thing I listened to I listened
1895
01:43:57.479 --> 01:43:59.359
to rarely, but like on special occasions.
1896
01:43:59.720 --> 01:44:01.520
Oh it's like your special song.
1897
01:44:01.720 --> 01:44:05.880
Well, the whole the whole album is so, but it
1898
01:44:05.920 --> 01:44:08.479
was this song in particular. There was one of the
1899
01:44:08.479 --> 01:44:10.800
ones listened to in the morning, and it just kept
1900
01:44:10.840 --> 01:44:15.840
going through our mind like the chorus. Yeah, just especially
1901
01:44:15.880 --> 01:44:17.600
in the Alps. It was like two weeks later after
1902
01:44:17.640 --> 01:44:19.119
I listened to it, it just kept going through our
1903
01:44:19.119 --> 01:44:20.279
minds like the same refrain.
1904
01:44:21.199 --> 01:44:24.560
That's hilarious because one thing I remember is I asked you,
1905
01:44:24.600 --> 01:44:26.159
do you ever listen to music, like how do you
1906
01:44:26.239 --> 01:44:28.960
keep your mood up? And your answer was never with music,
1907
01:44:29.039 --> 01:44:31.920
always with food, because you didn't listen to music here.
1908
01:44:31.960 --> 01:44:34.199
So but I love that this song somehow became an
1909
01:44:34.239 --> 01:44:37.119
eworm for you along the way anyway.
1910
01:44:36.760 --> 01:44:38.439
That's why, because I didn't listen to anything, so it
1911
01:44:38.439 --> 01:44:39.840
was the last thing I listened to just stayed in
1912
01:44:39.840 --> 01:44:43.600
my mind and well, and then then the point point
1913
01:44:43.640 --> 01:44:47.119
afterwards like well, when I finished the rides were coming
1914
01:44:47.119 --> 01:44:49.479
into my nosk. I thought I'd thought about this a
1915
01:44:49.479 --> 01:44:51.520
few days beforehand on the road, like how I'm gonna
1916
01:44:51.520 --> 01:44:54.159
feel and some reads I thought I'm probably gonna cry
1917
01:44:54.199 --> 01:44:56.199
while I've sort of seen the town sign or anything.
1918
01:44:56.199 --> 01:44:58.640
But I was very stoical about it when I got
1919
01:44:58.720 --> 01:45:00.960
there and it sort of felt like just it felt
1920
01:45:01.000 --> 01:45:02.720
like I was an auto pilot for that last bit,
1921
01:45:03.159 --> 01:45:06.119
and even like that that evening, I think, like I
1922
01:45:06.279 --> 01:45:08.960
f it was massively emotional. And then the next morning
1923
01:45:09.359 --> 01:45:11.479
I sort of had a relaxed morning, had a couple
1924
01:45:11.479 --> 01:45:13.520
of crossings and so on, and then I put on
1925
01:45:13.560 --> 01:45:16.600
this album and as soon as I heard the songs,
1926
01:45:16.800 --> 01:45:20.079
I just started crying and I had but it was
1927
01:45:20.119 --> 01:45:24.600
such it was such a cathartic outpour, and I just
1928
01:45:24.640 --> 01:45:26.800
sort of remember sort of like sitting down in my
1929
01:45:26.880 --> 01:45:30.600
kitchen for like ten minutes. I couldn't stop crying, but
1930
01:45:30.640 --> 01:45:34.239
it just felt so good to get out, and yeah,
1931
01:45:34.239 --> 01:45:36.640
there we go. Maybe it was all the emotion came
1932
01:45:36.680 --> 01:45:42.119
out then, because like afterwards, like I don't think as emotional,
1933
01:45:42.119 --> 01:45:44.920
sort of thinking back to it now, but actually seeing
1934
01:45:44.960 --> 01:45:47.680
family recently and talking about it did sort of bring
1935
01:45:47.720 --> 01:45:51.880
it back a bit. But yeah, it's I quite like,
1936
01:45:51.960 --> 01:45:55.359
I quite like sort of having that emotional element to
1937
01:45:55.399 --> 01:45:55.760
it too.
1938
01:45:55.920 --> 01:45:58.520
So it's definitely your song, and it's now on the
1939
01:45:58.520 --> 01:46:01.319
playlist listeners. You can check it out on Spotify or
1940
01:46:01.319 --> 01:46:04.199
Apple Music. I've got links to it in the show notes.
1941
01:46:05.600 --> 01:46:07.159
I'm going to play it as soon as I finish this,
1942
01:46:07.319 --> 01:46:10.720
just so I can see see the quirky special song.
1943
01:46:12.039 --> 01:46:15.720
Yeah, sort of a classic eighties type. So I don't know,
1944
01:46:15.840 --> 01:46:18.279
I think this sort of thinking. If I didn't have
1945
01:46:18.279 --> 01:46:20.720
an emotional connection to it, I don't think I sort
1946
01:46:20.720 --> 01:46:24.560
of think much of it. But yeah, I've been interesting
1947
01:46:24.600 --> 01:46:25.760
to hear here.
1948
01:46:25.880 --> 01:46:27.479
You thought, I think.
1949
01:46:27.279 --> 01:46:28.159
It's catch you.
1950
01:46:28.560 --> 01:46:31.520
I'll put myself in that element and put my Sam
1951
01:46:31.560 --> 01:46:34.199
hat on and put myself in that place, all right.
1952
01:46:34.359 --> 01:46:37.439
Second last question, You got a choice to make one day, Sam.
1953
01:46:37.520 --> 01:46:39.880
You can go left and you will be writing on
1954
01:46:39.920 --> 01:46:43.479
the most corrugated washboard road in the world. There are
1955
01:46:43.520 --> 01:46:46.720
no ends insight to the bumps on this road. They
1956
01:46:46.720 --> 01:46:48.880
will shake you around like no tomorrow. There is no
1957
01:46:49.000 --> 01:46:51.560
smooth traces. Or you can go right, but you are
1958
01:46:51.600 --> 01:46:53.720
going to be writing into the biggest dirty head wind
1959
01:46:53.760 --> 01:46:56.000
of your life and there's no let up there either.
1960
01:46:56.039 --> 01:46:57.319
Which one are you going to choose?
1961
01:46:57.920 --> 01:47:03.079
Erm, I thought you're going to ask the uphill or headwinds?
1962
01:47:03.119 --> 01:47:03.880
One that's easy.
1963
01:47:04.119 --> 01:47:06.479
No, no, no, no, uphill had to get ditch because
1964
01:47:06.479 --> 01:47:08.319
everyone chooses the climb, and rightly so.
1965
01:47:08.600 --> 01:47:14.600
Well, i'ld say headwinds, but for good reason, because if
1966
01:47:14.640 --> 01:47:17.800
I was on corrugated road, I couldn't possibly hold my
1967
01:47:17.840 --> 01:47:19.760
ice cream at the same time. So I think in
1968
01:47:19.880 --> 01:47:23.239
order to facilitate my ice cream intake, I would choose
1969
01:47:23.279 --> 01:47:23.760
a headwind.
1970
01:47:24.000 --> 01:47:26.560
Oh, I love that. It's come back to ice cream.
1971
01:47:27.920 --> 01:47:30.039
You know what, though, A question I thought I could
1972
01:47:30.079 --> 01:47:32.439
use which would bring the hill back with Would you
1973
01:47:32.560 --> 01:47:37.880
rather go uphill? Would it be uphill forever, uphill into
1974
01:47:37.920 --> 01:47:41.520
a into headwinds, uphill with a tail no uphill with
1975
01:47:41.560 --> 01:47:43.520
a tailwind, or downhill in a head wind?
1976
01:47:44.119 --> 01:47:45.039
Up in a tailwind?
1977
01:47:45.399 --> 01:47:46.720
It would be uphill with a tailwind.
1978
01:47:46.720 --> 01:47:48.840
Would Yeah, that's easy a non.
1979
01:47:48.680 --> 01:47:52.560
Real existing tail wind though, right, because tailwinds on a
1980
01:47:52.560 --> 01:47:56.119
hot day tailwinds on an uphill do not help. Yeah,
1981
01:47:56.159 --> 01:47:58.359
you actually would prefer a hot wind, even if it
1982
01:47:58.359 --> 01:48:01.640
feels like a blow dryer on a uphill circuit. Whereas
1983
01:48:01.680 --> 01:48:04.359
you know, the downhill with a dirty head wind where
1984
01:48:04.359 --> 01:48:08.000
you have to pedal when you shouldn't, that's mentally that
1985
01:48:07.760 --> 01:48:09.720
that that mentally takes a toll as well.
1986
01:48:09.800 --> 01:48:12.199
Yeah, I had this in the Alps, but I'm sure
1987
01:48:12.199 --> 01:48:13.880
I got a head wind up with climbs as well.
1988
01:48:14.720 --> 01:48:16.039
There was coming down.
1989
01:48:16.119 --> 01:48:18.239
There is wide it's always a head wind in the
1990
01:48:18.359 --> 01:48:21.600
valley coming down the valleys. Definitely here in the Pyrenees,
1991
01:48:21.800 --> 01:48:23.520
you get a head wind in the valleys and it's
1992
01:48:23.600 --> 01:48:26.000
just like ah.
1993
01:48:25.079 --> 01:48:27.319
Yeah coming down these sort of one or two when
1994
01:48:27.319 --> 01:48:29.960
you've got a roaring hot headwinds.
1995
01:48:29.760 --> 01:48:31.439
And you got a pedal yeah, and go up the
1996
01:48:31.439 --> 01:48:33.920
gears and actually put effort in. Yeah, you feel robbed.
1997
01:48:34.199 --> 01:48:37.000
All right, final question for you, Sam, I'm going to
1998
01:48:37.159 --> 01:48:38.760
be really keen to hear your answer to this one.
1999
01:48:38.880 --> 01:48:40.640
I just want you to finish this sentence for me,
2000
01:48:40.800 --> 01:48:43.520
and that is the best thing about taking a bike
2001
01:48:43.600 --> 01:48:52.640
adventure is bust ons. Yeah, definitely right, never endings a bye, Oh,
2002
01:48:52.680 --> 01:48:54.760
I love it. Just come back to food once again.
2003
01:48:55.039 --> 01:48:58.880
I think there's I think there's a whole cultural element
2004
01:48:58.960 --> 01:49:01.119
in that as well, So I will not talking about
2005
01:49:01.119 --> 01:49:03.359
a food and talk about the whole experience, the whole
2006
01:49:03.359 --> 01:49:04.479
experience of it as well.
2007
01:49:04.960 --> 01:49:08.079
Yeah, although can I just say something I have observed
2008
01:49:08.079 --> 01:49:10.720
here in France is in Australia, you would go for
2009
01:49:10.760 --> 01:49:14.079
a ride with mates and you would always joke that
2010
01:49:14.119 --> 01:49:15.880
the best part of the ride is actually the whole
2011
01:49:15.920 --> 01:49:17.680
reason of the riders to stop at the bakery at
2012
01:49:17.680 --> 01:49:20.159
the end of the cafe at the end. I've observed
2013
01:49:20.159 --> 01:49:22.560
here in France that's not a real big deal. People
2014
01:49:22.600 --> 01:49:24.880
don't sort of have the post ride stop or the
2015
01:49:24.880 --> 01:49:25.880
mid ride pause.
2016
01:49:26.840 --> 01:49:28.600
We should introduce that pause.
2017
01:49:28.640 --> 01:49:33.640
Croissant, Yeah, exactly exactly What are you doing? I guess
2018
01:49:33.680 --> 01:49:35.640
they're just used to it, aren't they. They probably see
2019
01:49:35.680 --> 01:49:37.319
us having them and go, what are you ordering a
2020
01:49:37.399 --> 01:49:39.800
croissant for now? It's not breakfast? And how are you
2021
01:49:39.800 --> 01:49:44.520
going to dip it in your non existent coffee? All
2022
01:49:44.640 --> 01:49:47.359
jokes are like Samuel Thomson, it has been an absolute pleasure.
2023
01:49:47.600 --> 01:49:51.079
It's been absolutely awesome to dig into your story again
2024
01:49:51.520 --> 01:49:54.760
having discovered this was going on for you for you know,
2025
01:49:54.880 --> 01:49:57.079
I had the awesome pleasure of being a teeny tiny
2026
01:49:57.079 --> 01:49:58.880
little part of it when it was happening, as well
2027
01:49:58.880 --> 01:50:01.199
meeting you there on the road to be able to
2028
01:50:01.399 --> 01:50:03.560
hear your full story, get a better picture in my
2029
01:50:03.640 --> 01:50:06.479
mind of you and how it led you to drawing
2030
01:50:06.560 --> 01:50:09.920
up this challenge, to finishing it off as well. But
2031
01:50:10.039 --> 01:50:13.279
something I really love is, as I mentioned during the show,
2032
01:50:13.600 --> 01:50:16.279
with each and every sort of challenge you've set yourself
2033
01:50:16.359 --> 01:50:19.800
or ride or tour or whatever, you've sort of learnt
2034
01:50:20.079 --> 01:50:23.760
things and applied them going forward, and that's awesome as well.
2035
01:50:24.000 --> 01:50:26.319
I came across a quote which you sort of hinted
2036
01:50:26.359 --> 01:50:29.159
at when we were talking about the end there, and
2037
01:50:29.199 --> 01:50:32.119
it was all about you sort of reaching that end
2038
01:50:32.159 --> 01:50:34.760
point there in man Osk, and you had said I
2039
01:50:34.840 --> 01:50:37.439
was heading west towards the setting sun in the most
2040
01:50:37.479 --> 01:50:39.640
beautiful light, got to the top of the climb, I
2041
01:50:39.680 --> 01:50:42.640
had a clear view, the moon was hovering above. I
2042
01:50:42.720 --> 01:50:45.279
just took a couple of minutes there soaking it all in.
2043
01:50:46.159 --> 01:50:48.119
I think you're well within your right to take more
2044
01:50:48.159 --> 01:50:50.600
than a couple of minutes, take a couple of years
2045
01:50:50.600 --> 01:50:52.920
if you like, soak it all in. You don't need
2046
01:50:53.000 --> 01:50:56.439
another thing to start planning towards. This was a big
2047
01:50:56.479 --> 01:50:58.279
part of your life. You can be damn proud of
2048
01:50:58.359 --> 01:51:02.119
doing it. Take it all in, take stop, and more importantly,
2049
01:51:02.119 --> 01:51:04.439
thank you so so much for sharing your stories and
2050
01:51:04.520 --> 01:51:06.920
experiences here on the podcast at Seek Travel Ride.
2051
01:51:07.079 --> 01:51:10.119
Thanks better. Maybe I'll put around the world to record
2052
01:51:10.199 --> 01:51:11.600
attempts on ice for a couple of years.
2053
01:51:11.600 --> 01:51:15.520
Then yeah, that's the way there we go. Listeners, what
2054
01:51:15.600 --> 01:51:18.800
did you think about Sam's massive ride and effort there
2055
01:51:18.840 --> 01:51:22.720
on the terse Routier. I absolutely love it as a concept,
2056
01:51:22.760 --> 01:51:25.920
and I don't joke. I can see myself embracing the
2057
01:51:25.920 --> 01:51:28.119
idea of doing my own little personal bike to it
2058
01:51:28.239 --> 01:51:31.199
on this route or something of the sort. What I
2059
01:51:31.279 --> 01:51:34.000
really liked there were the nuggets of wisdom that kept
2060
01:51:34.000 --> 01:51:37.840
coming out from Sam. The idea of preparation over making
2061
01:51:37.960 --> 01:51:41.000
big plans. I've said it in many episodes before, The
2062
01:51:41.039 --> 01:51:44.479
idea of packing a good dose of flexibility in you
2063
01:51:44.680 --> 01:51:47.520
whenever you go on any type of bike adventure, whether
2064
01:51:47.560 --> 01:51:50.680
it's a planned route, an ultracycle race, or a bike
2065
01:51:50.760 --> 01:51:54.760
packing multi nier. Flexibility is king because we don't have
2066
01:51:54.800 --> 01:51:57.960
control of everything, and having to be rigid and set
2067
01:51:58.000 --> 01:52:00.840
in a structure can often take the fun and enjoyment
2068
01:52:00.880 --> 01:52:04.119
our way from these things too. The other big one
2069
01:52:04.119 --> 01:52:07.880
for me was that word of gratitude and acknowledging that
2070
01:52:08.119 --> 01:52:11.239
when we're doing these challenges and again, whether it's an
2071
01:52:11.279 --> 01:52:15.079
ultracycle race or your own multi day multi week, could
2072
01:52:15.119 --> 01:52:17.560
be a multi year cycle to us. There are tough
2073
01:52:17.600 --> 01:52:20.840
moments on the road, but always reminding ourselves how privileged
2074
01:52:20.840 --> 01:52:23.600
we are to actually be doing that thing, to just
2075
01:52:23.680 --> 01:52:25.920
be cycling, and that's all we have to think about.
2076
01:52:26.039 --> 01:52:29.239
Riding our bikes somewhere we're having an adventure. It can
2077
01:52:29.279 --> 01:52:32.520
be hard physically, but the idea that we have to
2078
01:52:32.560 --> 01:52:35.479
suffer through things, I think that's a misnomer as well.
2079
01:52:35.479 --> 01:52:38.560
And it's something that Sam is all about embracing and
2080
01:52:38.720 --> 01:52:42.479
is the gratitude and the joy that comes with the
2081
01:52:42.520 --> 01:52:45.640
bike travel side of these crazy challenges that he takes
2082
01:52:45.640 --> 01:52:49.000
through himself. I have really enjoyed those bits of wisdom
2083
01:52:49.039 --> 01:52:52.319
from him, and I hope that he does just pause
2084
01:52:52.399 --> 01:52:55.560
and take stock and take a big dose of pride
2085
01:52:55.720 --> 01:52:58.720
to what he's done as well. Now, listeners, if you
2086
01:52:58.760 --> 01:53:01.479
are enjoying the interviews here that I'm putting out as
2087
01:53:01.520 --> 01:53:03.840
episodes on Seek Travel Ride and you'd like to show
2088
01:53:03.880 --> 01:53:07.000
some appreciation, you can do so by buying me a
2089
01:53:07.079 --> 01:53:09.800
virtual coffee. Head to buy me a coffee. Dot com
2090
01:53:09.800 --> 01:53:13.199
forward slash Seek Travel Ride, buy me a few virtual coffees,
2091
01:53:13.319 --> 01:53:15.960
but more importantly, let me know what is it that
2092
01:53:16.000 --> 01:53:18.680
you love about the podcast and where is your next
2093
01:53:18.680 --> 01:53:21.880
bike adventure going to take you? And until the next episode,
2094
01:53:22.000 --> 01:53:23.880
I'm Bella molloy. Thanks for listening.