In the world of ultra-endurance bikepacking events, Sofiane Sehili is widely considered to be the G.O.A.T. He has either won or set the Fastest Known Times (FKTs) in many of the world’s major ultra-endurance races including winning three Silk Road Mountain Races back-to-back and winning the 2022 Tour Divide despite some biblically awful weather conditions. With the 2024 season now well underway, we sat down with Sofiane to talk about his aims for the year, cargo bikes, his newfound love of sleeping and future thoughts of retirement to become a furniture maker.
As we chatted with Sofiane, he was sitting outside in the garden of his relatively newly acquired farmhouse located in the hills to the north of Toulouse. The sun was shining brightly and he looked happy and excited about what 2024 was going to bring.
“It finally is sunny” he said “We've been waiting for this a long time. Pretty much the reason that we bought a house here is that we expected that the weather would be better than in Paris [where he lived with his girlfriend Fanny before]. And it has not really been so far.” He continued “During this winter it's a bit frustrating because, obviously better weather was one of the main reasons we decided to move here. Well, actually I just moved here at the minute, because Fanny still has to be in Paris for work. I go back to Paris fairly regularly, but it’s been a bit frustrating because it's a really beautiful playground here, but when the weather is not that nice, it's like you just don't want to go out, you know? Fanny has not been here that many times yet because her work doesn't really allow to her to do so. It's a long train ride, more than six hours so it's not like you can hop on a train Friday at 7 p.m. and be straight here. Whenever she is here though it's nice. We go out on walks, which is kind of weird because I don't really like walking, but walking in the woods here is nice!”
“I’ve been doing lots of work with a jackhammer and the problem is that you end up with a lot of rubble.”
When we arranged our interview Sofiane admitted he’d been spending lots of time recently working with heavy power tools.“I’m looking forward to Spring, just to be able to ride more if nothing else. But you know, the reason that I've not been riding much is also because there's a lot of work to be done on the house. I’ve been doing lots of work with a jackhammer and the problem is that you end up with a lot of rubble, and that rubble has to go to the recycling centre. The cargo bike is in charge of doing that, which is pretty heavy. I guess it’s good training, but I just hope I don't hurt my back.”
“I got my leg chewed up by a dog during my ride down through Greece to get to the start.”
We got into the conversation properly by looking back at how his 2023 season went. “I can't say that I was off on the right foot because the first event of the year was the Hellenic Bike Race and I got my leg chewed up by a dog during my ride down through Greece to get to the start. I actually couldn't race, so I had to withdraw. Then I carried that injury into the Highland Trail 550 so I had no fitness when I showed up for that race. I just didn't really have any other choice than to take it easy and just finish it. At least I got have to go around and see what the course actually is like. We had great conditions, though, so I don't really feel like I completed an actual real challenge! Some people even got sunburned, which doesn't happen in Scotland very often. So that was the start of the start of the year. Interesting, but not very successful! Then I went to Norway for the inaugural Bright Midnight, which I managed to win. So, it felt like the season was finally starting.“
“Even though I got off to a catastrophic start with a big crash in the first hour, I managed to overcome that and finally win the race.”
Sofiane continued with his overview of 2023 “ My big, big goal for last year was the Triple Crown - winning the Silk Road Mountain Race for a third time in a row. That was my main focus and was also my main challenge in that it was the most disputed Silk Road Mountain Race ever, with just the best line-up – the highest quality you ever had on this race and probably in any given bikepacking race. That was quite a big challenge! Even though I got off to a catastrophic start with a big crash in the first hour, I managed to overcome that and finally win the race, which I was very happy with. So, you could say that winning the Bright Midnight and then winning the Silk Road Mountain Race, it made for a pretty successful season. Then I went to Portugal for one last race, which was TheGOATS. My objective there was clearly just to have fun, to see Portugal, enjoy the course and coincidentally to also enjoy an entire week of absolutely wonderful weather. In October. I had a ton of fun in Portugal. I don’t really remember what my finishing place was, but that's that's not that important. I was just out there to enjoy myself. “
We asked Sofiane next what he does to try and stay fresh when his season is so long and so diverse?
“Fitness is not really a problem.” He replied “In a typical year, I'll try to have one big bikepacking trip in the winter to make sure that I’m in shape. A couple of years ago it was in Colombia. Last year was in Southeast Asia, although that was a little bit more than a little bikepacking trip - it was a three-month backpacking trip. So, I try to stay busy in winter. Then as soon as the season starts properly, I try to have a nice balance of shorter events and then a few long races. Basically what I do is when I have a big race, afterwards I just try to just have low-intensity rides and make sure that I recover. I think that recovering is actually more important. When the season starts, it's just a matter of being able to recover from these efforts. If I have enough time to do some proper intensity training between two races, which was the case for example last year between the Bright Midnight and the Silk Road Mountain Race, then I will do it. Sometimes it's just about really managing the fatigue, like in 2022 when I did both the Tour Divide and the Silk Road, I didn't really train between the two. I just recovered as much as I could.
“When I showed up there, I knew that there was no way I was going to actually race. I was just physically and mentally tired.”
Staying mentally motivated is actually the bigger challenge. Usually at the end of the season, it's when I'm not motivated anymore, especially if I've had a very successful season or a somewhat successful season, like my last two seasons where I won two races. If you look at TheGOATS, when I showed up there, I knew that there was no way I was going to actually race. I was just physically and mentally tired. That was the same for the Rhino Run the year prior. I just really needed to recover. Sometimes the seasons are really long. But I don't insist on racing every race to the best of my ability. “
This led very neatly on to talking about Sofiane’s plans for this year. We asked him whether it was top secret or whether he could talk about it?
“There's one thing that is top secret at the moment. But the other things are not top secret at all – I’ve been talking about these things for a long time. So, the first one is a bit of a spur-of-the-moment. I kind of was like, yeah, why not? It's The Traka Adventure, which is 560 km with 10,000m of climbing. I felt like it was a good opportunity because Fi’zi:k, that I will be working with for the next few years, are a sponsor of the event. A lot of ultra guys have signed up for this new format Traka event. For me it's just a good pre-season warm-up. I think it's going to be quite fast relative to how ultras usually go, so it will be a good kick-off for the season. The Traka as a whole is quite a big event, so it's some nice exposure for my sponsors. Even though my sponsors never actually ask me for any specific event, I also try and remember who they are and it's always good for them if I'm on a bigger stage rather than a smaller one. Since my other targets for the season are still rather confidential, I think it's nice to be at a higher-profile event, even if it's not a distance where I will be the favourite. It's supposed to be a nice course and it's not that demanding as it’s only 500 km, so I think it's just a good opportunity to start the season. Then I will be going back to the Highland Trail 550 to get some kind of revenge after last year where I couldn't really race to the best of my physical ability because of that dog bite. In October, I will be going to Arizona, for the Arizona Trail Race. The route is around 800 miles and it should be a fun one. So those are my official goals and objectives and races for this year. “
“Even the bigger media outlets out there were covering the race - especially because I raced without stopping.”
We commented that Sofiane’s schedule included a mix of gravel events and full-on MTB events, which led us to talking about his bike sponsor plans for 2024 and beyond. We first heard of Sofiane during the infamous 2020 Atlas Mountain Race, which he won partly due to his strategy of reducing sleep to an incredibly small amount.
“The same thing happened to Bombtrack as what happened with you. Pretty much every time they were opening up a cycling website, my participation in the AMR was popping up because I was racing that entire thing without sleeping! Because the race took place in February, nothing was really going on in the cycling world, so even the bigger media outlets out there were covering the race - especially because I raced without stopping. It was like every day and every night, people would just wake up and the big question was has he stopped? Has he slept? It kept on like that for four days. "
Image courtesy of Florian Boquet/Bombtrack
"There was a lot of a lot of attention on this race. People just saw me do that and couldn't really believe that it was possible. The same thing happened to Bombtrack. After the race they got in touch and they asked me if I had a bike sponsor. I told them that something was supposed to happen with another brand prior to the race, but it didn't happen, so I was actually free. And that's how I started riding with Bombtrack. I rode for them for two years, but then I got a big offer from Vitus. I was really happy with Bombtrack, but professional bike packers don't exactly make a lot of money, so any increase in my income was obviously welcome. At that time, Bombtrack didn't have a big marketing budget, so it made a big difference for me financially to move from them to Vitus.
“I've been in a hospital bed with a broken bone wondering what's going to happen to you.”
While I was still riding for Vitus, a good friend of mine, Clement, who organises a race in the north of France, messaged me to ask if I had heard that Manuel from Bombtrack had broken his femur while riding the Veneto Trail. I contacted him and we exchanged a few messages because I've been there. I've been in a hospital bed with a broken bone wondering what's going to happen to you. If you're going to be able to ever ride as you used to and stuff like that. So, it always feels a bit personal when somebody you know gets injured like that. I tried to bring a little comfort to him because it was really important for me to get that comfort. When I was in a hospital bed with a broken bone, Manuel sent me an email to see how I was doing. After his crash, it was a shit situation for him with hospitals and surgery for sure, but it helped start a really positive conversation between us and he suggested that at some point we could try it again and see what's possible.“
I did a couple of years with Vitus, but then towards the end of last year, their parent company went into administration, so I found myself without a sponsor. I had kept in touch with Manuel during my time at Vitus because I had left on good terms and he's a good guy. At one point he had told me that if ever I wanted to come back to Bombtrack, things had changed there and they would have more ways to support me. When it was in the news that things weren’t going well with the parent company of Vitus, Manuel sent me an email and said ‘I hope you're doing okay?’ It wasn’t a scavenger-type email, you’re free of contract type thing, he just wanted to know how I was doing. It was friendly and not at all done in a business manner."
Having chatted with Sofiane over the course of the last couple of years, we knew that one of his reasons for signing with Vitus was that they could offer him a range of bikes to ride – everything from road to XC MTB, whereas at the time Bombtrack couldn’t. We asked him if this had changed?
“You're right. The Vitus range covered everything from a pure road bike all the way to a full-suspension mountain bike. This turned out to be a decisive factor in the negotiations with Bombtrack, as they are currently working on a full-suspension mountain bike, that I will get to race in Scotland and Arizona. It turned out to be a big change from the situation that they were in four years ago when we started working together. Their range is now a lot more complete, but most of all, it feels adapted to what I intend to do as a racer. “
“I realised that I don't need to do everything that is in my power to lead the race from the front.”
We moved on next to talking about Sofiane’s riding style and strategy in the events that he targets. When he first broke onto the scene, he was famous (infamous?) for the fact that he could ride huge distances without sleeping. When we chatted last year though, he said that he had changed his style a bit and was now trying to get more sleep each night so that the quality of his riding when he was awake was better. He could probably go faster for a certain number of hours if he got some more sleep, rather than going slowly for a longer period. We asked him what had led to this change in mindset?
“I think I'm just more confident now in my ability and I think I know where I stand in kind of the hierarchy of ultra-distance racers and in bikepacking. I used to always like being in front. It always reassured me. But now when I'm not in front, I don't feel like it's going to be impossible to catch up with whoever is leading, or the couple of other racers that are in front of me. I have enough experience now that I have caught people that I know that it's possible. I realised that I don't need to do everything that is in my power to lead the race from the front. The most important thing is to be leading for the last few kilometres! Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you if you've led for a thousand km or for ten kilometres. I also started to understand that everybody needs to sleep. Everybody's going to sleep at some point. So, I’m a bit more strategic about it. I will sleep when it’s the best time for me. I don't actually need to open up the biggest of gaps by not sleeping all the time.”
Finally, we asked Sofiane what he thinks the future holds in store for him. He’s getting to the point where his trophy cupboard must be overflowing (ignoring the fact that most ultra races don’t have any form of prize for winning them of course….)
“I definitely feel like I have ticked off a lot of things, but I also feel like I still have a few things to prove. Like for example, winning some more technically challenging offroad races and maybe also at some point, winning an ultra on the road too, as weirdly enough it’s never happened. So, there's still a few things that I want to do. There's definitely not a lot compared to where I was six years ago. I don't feel the need to win another Silk Road Mountain Race for example – I think three is a good number. And it will take a long time before somebody is able to win it more than three times consecutively like I have. "
“I knew back when I started this, that it would only be a chapter of my life”
"I don't think that retirement is that far away. I'm 42, so I don't feel like I'm on the decline. I feel like I can still have a few good years where I will be on par with what I've accomplished in the last couple of years or so. I knew back when I started this, that it would only be a chapter of my life. It's also something that's nice about me starting late. When you start late in sports and when you start as an adult that has experience in another part of life, you know that it's a chapter and you know that it's going to end at some point. Then it's just a matter of choosing when you end it and being ready for what happens next.
In terms of what happens next, obviously cycling is always going to be a part of my life, but I would also love to do something else. Learn a trade, for example. I love working with wood. Now I have my own place in the countryside, so I can have a workshop and maybe start building furniture, something like that. Maybe the ideal future for me would be to live in my place, have my workshop and learn how to be a woodworker and then sometimes go on bikepacking trips. There's also something that is true, that once you have built a community of people that like to follow your adventures, they're still there and as long as you keep going on adventures, they're still interested in what you do. They're still interested in your personality. I feel like there's a bond that is created at some point. I think I'm a bit dreaming of a hybrid life - one where I'm more like kind of working with my hands, which is something I've always dreamed of. And then I can also keep on riding and maybe keep a little bit of sponsorship. Maybe not the same kind of level as I currently have, but something that would still help with setting up projects like expeditions, records and stuff like that. “
And with that, we signed off. We’re confident that Sofiane is going to be found at the 'pointy end' of ultra races for a good few years yet. But we can also imagine him at some point working in his workshop, with beams of sunshine punching their way through a haze of wood shavings, a concentrated look in his eye and a determination not to sleep before he’s finished creating his latest work of art.
Images courtesy of Fanny Bensussan except where credited.