Not all gravel races are born equal. Some have views, other have history. Memory Bike Adventure is lucky enough to have both, occupying a unique space on the calendar with a self-supported, technically challenging 700 km event in the Italian mountains. Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Sofiane Sehili was there to race. Here's how he got on.

It's late morning and I'm coasting down a slight incline on a paved road. Despite the smooth surface and gravity in my favour, I can't go faster than 20kph. Because I can't pedal. I'm exhausted. No, it's not that. I am very familiar with exhaustion; up until now, it has never stopped me from pedalling.

This is different. I need to lie down. I need to find a place. And I need to find it now. I spot a closed restaurant with a few benches in the back. That will do the trick. I lie down on a bench. My heart is racing. I’m breathing heavily. I'm nauseous. I understand what's happening. I've been here before. It's heat exhaustion, probably coupled to dehydration. 

It's the heart of the summer in Northern Italy and the temperatures are as high as they can get in this part of the world. The humidity the region is famous for makes it even more unbearable. 

I've been riding in the mountains of Veneto for roughly 15 hours. We left Bassano del Grappa at 7pm for 700 km of gravel racing with a mind-boggling total elevation gain of 20,000 meters. The night brought a little respite in terms of temperatures, but none in terms of climbing. A few hours ago I was battling the steep slopes of a 15km long ascent desperately looking for water. I found a fountain about halfway up the climb and thought I was saved. But now, half asleep on my bench, I understand that it was too little, too late. 

I don't know how long I spend in the shade of that closed restaurant. Anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour. 700 km is not long for an ultra. It will most likely take anywhere between 60 and 70 hours to finish. So, an hour idle is a long time. I know I'm somewhere in the top five, with the lead not that far away. 

Image courtesy of Andrea Peruzzo

It's time for me to get going. Slowly. Very slowly. I know the drill - I need to drink to replace the fluids lost and to eat to replace the minerals. It's hard to eat when you're nauseous but if I don't do it, I won't get better. So, I force feed myself. Salty food. The saltier, the better. Here at elevation, the heat is more manageable than it was during the climb. I'm lucky in two ways. The first one is that I'm on a plateau and I'm going to spend most of the day above 1600m. The second one is that it's getting a bit cloudier. 

I make slow progress during a couple of hours. I stop a couple of times when I feel my core temperature is getting close to the dangerous limit. I can't afford to overheat again. My friend Adrien from Belgium catches me. We reach the first checkpoint in the race and I grab a few chips and crackers. Salt. Precious salt. Adrien lingers and I'm off. It takes me a long time to chew and swallow my food. But I gradually feel better. I'll get over this. If I'm smart, I'll get over this. I have to. I came to Italy in search of my first win of the year after a disappointing start to the season. Mechanicals slowed me down in a mountain bike ultra in Scotland and I couldn’t do better than 4th.

Memory Bike Adventure was created last year by the Enough Cycling collective as a way to showcase the best of what the Veneto and Trentino region have to offer. But also, to take the riders on a journey to the past by riding through some of the most important sites of World War One. Trenches, tunnels, forts, memorials... History is everywhere in these mountains and in this race. A good way to remind you that no matter how hard it seems to be, it's still much easier than fighting in one of the deadliest conflicts in history. 

My enemies during this race are the absurd gradients that I have to battle with pretty much all the time. It is impossible to overstate how steep the roads are in northern Italy. 10% is very common. 12% not rare at all. 15%? Yes they have them too. Up to 20%. Needless to say, I'm really grateful for the new GRX 12 speed groupset and its 10-51 cassette. The going is slow obviously. But on the upside, it gives you time to admire the fantastic scenery. 

At the start of the second night, I catch Anatole Naimi. He doesn't know it (and neither do I) but at that time he's leading the race. We both passed Lukas and Christian while they were resupplying in a town earlier today. Anatole is struggling with several ailments from a crash he suffered in a previous race. I drop him as we race downhill in the dark. He's riding a mountain bike, but with my gravel suspension fork I have no trouble keeping up with the hardtails. I won't see him again. He will stop at the bottom of the descent and drop out. 

Here I am, leading the event despite the heat exhaustion I suffered today. My plan is clear now: ride as much as I can tonight to open up a gap and then hold on to it all the way to the finish. 

I won't lie, that night is a blur. Staying awake proved to be extremely difficult. I had to take multiple naps. Usually after a 12-minute nap, I can ride for a couple of hours. But this time 12 minutes barely buys me half an hour of riding. So, I change my strategy and sleep 5 minutes every 30 minutes until I can finally stay awake.

It’s the second night. And I know there will be a third. I don’t want to think about this now. But it promises to be another hard battle.

Morning comes and my night ride paid off. The two guys chasing me are now two hours behind. There’s roughly 24 hours of racing left, so that’s a nice gap. I have a lot of experience and I know my strengths. If I play my cards right, they won’t catch me. 

My job is to stay well fed and hydrated. And of course, to climb, climb, climb and climb with as few breaks as possible. I only allow myself to stop to fill up my bottles and buy more food. Yesterday I barely ate due to the heat exhaustion, so today I’m almost constantly starving. Even with a lot of experience, it’s hard to resupply the right amount when your appetite goes from non-existent to unsatisfiable. I stop more than I usually do. At midday I make it to one of the toughest hike-a-bike on the course. The view is stunning, but progress is slow. On my Garmin, the elevation numbers keep ramping up. I feel like I’m crawling up these passes. One after the other. 

Finally, around 8pm, after a long downhill, I make it to the valley and get to enjoy a couple of hours of rather flat paved roads. I make good progress. As night comes, I check the tracker to see where the chasers are. Three hours behind. I still have roughly 12 hours of racing. With that kind of gap, I can relax a little bit. I’m at the bottom of the final big climb. It’s almost all paved, but again the gradients are insane. As darkness settles in, I need to stop for a nap. There’s no going around it. 

After sleeping for 10 minutes, I feel energised again. But the previous night was so tough and my lead is so comfy, that I'm determined to stop and sleep for a couple of hours. 

I end up losing quite some time looking for an appropriate place before finding a nice barn with a few old mattresses. It's weird but I have a hard time falling asleep and it's definitely not the deep sleep I was counting on. After a couple of hours, I get going again. The finish is not far. But something I was not expecting happened: Christian and Lukas didn't sleep and they closed the gap I had worked so hard to open. 

The rest of the race is a wild chase with a rare sense of urgency. I'm no stranger to sprint finishes - this time around is actually my fourth, which makes me the ultra-racer that's been involved in the closest finishes. And I always came out on top. I muster the last bits of strength left in my legs and push hard. Full gas to the finish in the Borgoluce vineyard. I reach it first and get showered with prosecco, which, given the heat, feels really nice. I grab the bottle and drink my fill. I did it. I overcame heat exhaustion to win the second edition of Memory Bike Adventure. Lukas and Christian cross the finish line ten minutes later, to take joint second position. 

With the scorching heat, the unforgivingly steep climbs and the numerous rough gravel downhills, this gruelling event saw only four riders ride the whole course far enough to make the cutoff. I'm happy to be one of them. Happy to have seen these places and been part of this unique experience, following in the footsteps of men that fought more than a hundred years ago in the Great War. 

All images courtesy of Chiara Redaschi except where credited.