At 41, Sofiane Sehili is one of the best cyclists in the world in a still little-known discipline: ultra-distance cycling. Today, he lives from his passion and travels the world to compete in these races of several thousand kilometers in complete autonomy.
When someone asks him what he does for a living, Sofiane Sehili replies that he is a professional cyclist. ” People immediately want to know which team I am racing for or if I am doing the Tour de France “, laughs the interested party. Because Sofiane is a cyclist a little removed from the classic image that the general public has of him. His thing is ultra-distance cycling.
To put it simply, the more than 3,000 kilometers that Tour de France riders cover each summer in 21 stages, an ultracyclist like Sofiane aims to do them in one go in just a few days. ” The rule is that the race lasts several thousand kilometres, we all start together, the clock starts and it’s the first to arrive at the end of 2, 3, 4 or 5,000 kilometers who wins “, he explains. This implies that each runner must manage his diet, his rest times, his sleep or even his mechanical problems without any assistance.
Sofiane Sehili is undoubtedly the best runner in the world on these ultradistance races ” offroad (understand races that do not take place on asphalt roads, but on paths in the middle of nature) and he is one of the few – 10 runners at most according to him – to make a living from it thanks to sponsorship partnerships with brands.
« I started riding my bike to work »
However, nothing really predisposed him to one day be part of the elite of this discipline. ” I was never very sporty, I used to cycle a bit like all kids and then I started cycling to go to work. “recalls Sofiane. At the time, he worked as a documentalist for the magazine Telerama. In 2010, during a six-month trip to Southeast Asia, with $100 in his pocket, he bought a bicycle in Laos and decided to criss-cross the region bikepacking “. He liked the experience and back in Paris, he quit his job to become a bicycle courier. As soon as he has the opportunity, he leaves to discover the world, always on a bicycle. In less than fifteen years, he has already traveled to 50 countries on five continentswith the simple force of his legs.
Sofiane admits it himself, he fell into it ” completely by chance “. In 2016, he registered for his first race and not the least since he aligned himself with the most emblematic: the Tour Divide, or 4,500 km to reach the Mexican border from Canada, crossing all of the United States. “ I’ve always had the propensity to tell myself that if other people can do it, there’s no reason why I can’t. explains Sofiane, who history proves right since he finished third for his first participation. ” This is my first race, I had no experience as an ultracyclist, but I had a lot as a cyclist. I make a lot of mistakes, I don’t have the right sleep strategies, I waste time on bullshit, he remembers. But it’s a long race and as I go along, I learn and I get in tune with others “. After more than ten days of racing, he then managed to get four or five runners up in the last 1,000 kilometers and managed to climb on the podium.
First victories
This first experience definitely inoculated him with the competition virus. Sofiane then goes through the events, which allows her to progress and gain experience, something almost impossible to do in training as it is difficult to replicate such extreme racing conditions. His perseverance finally paid off when he won theItaly Divide (a 1,000 km race through Italy) tied with Englishman James Hayden, then theInca Divide and its 1,700 kilometers in the Andes. In 2020, he continues with his first big victory on theAtlas Mountain Race in Morocco, one of the races most scrutinized by specialists in the discipline. ” There were a lot of very strong guys and I wasn’t very well known in the industry yet. And I ran that race exactly how I wanted to and almost perfectly and I won it. It’s the one that marked me the most, because it’s my most successful victory “says Sofiane.
Over the course of the races, the ultracyclist develops a strategy that often pays off: he sleeps very little (barely two hours of sleep in four days of racing on theAtlas Mountain Race for example) and limit stops as much as possible. This allows him to quickly take control of the race and then manage his effort. ” I prefer to be in front because if I’m not first, I doubt a lot. We push back what we are able to do with the minimum of sleep and downtime “, explains Sofiane who however notes that this strategy is no longer sufficient to win. ” You have to be an athlete, but not only. You have to have the ability to make good decisions despite fatigue, you have to be able to repair your bike, manage your nutrition… “Not to mention the importance of the mental aspect of the race during which all kinds of unforeseen events and moments of doubt force the runners to put themselves ” constant kicks in the ass to move forward ».
The holy grail of the Tour Divide
Despite the successive victories, one race, which Sofiane absolutely wants to win, continues to be missing from her list: the Tour Divide, the first in which he participated. Since his third place in 2016, he “ dream of winning but he would not return there until six years later. This time will be the right one, Sofiane reaches her holy grail and wins completing the 4,418 kilometers of the route in 14 days, 16 hours and 36 minutes. 2022 will be a great year for him since he also wins the Silk Road Mountain Racean 1880 kilometer crossing of Kyrgyzstan through its steppes and peak passes at more than 4,000 meters above sea level, for the second time in a row.
So when we ask him what constantly pushes him to continue pedaling, it’s of course the desire to win: ” What drives me in this sport is knowing if I can compete with the best “, explains Sofiane for whom the victory offers ” a feeling you can’t find anywhere else “. But beyond the competition, ultradistance also allows him to satisfy this need to find himself alone with himself. ” Race time is pure time: 100% of your concentration and your energy are directed in one direction, there’s nothing interfering with that. It is the perpetual movement towards a goal, all your forces are focused on it. In our Western societies we always have dozens of choices to make every day and in the race, you have zero questions to ask yourself. I think it’s very difficult to find it elsewhere ».
More Ronaldinho than Cristiano Ronaldo
A philosophy that leads more and more amateur cyclists to embark on ultra-distance races and which each year puts the discipline a little more in the spotlight. If the competitions remain relatively confidential, they are more and more numerous and more and more publicized. Sofiane has also seen the beginnings of a certain form of professionalization among some of the best athletes in the discipline who surround themselves with coaches and prepare with a scientific approach to performance. He prefers to continue to train “by feeling”. ” If you had to compare me to a footballer, I would be more like a Ronaldinho (a Brazilian genius with a more than questionable lifestyle, editor’s note) here’s a Cristiano Ronaldo (the Portuguese superstar known for his assiduity in training, Ed)”, laughs Sofiane.
« There is very little money in ultracycling. There’s nothing to be gained when you’re first and personally I’d prefer it to stay that way because as long as there’s money somewhere, that’s where there’s cheated “, continues the athlete who also says he is absolutely certain that his main opponents are “ clean even if he concedes that the discipline is not completely safe from being confronted with doping one day if it were to become more professional.
Sofiane Sehili at the Mexican border during her Tour Divide victory on June 24, 2022. © Personal archive/Sofiane Sehili
At 41, however, it is not certain that Sofiane will still be on the circuit long enough to witness this potential professionalization. For him who has none never tired of riding a bike », the sporting retirement is not yet topical. He has just won for the third consecutive time the Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan this Saturday August 19 and he also won on the Bright Midnight, a 1,000 km race across Norway in July. But he already knows that he will not continue ” probably not very long ” the competition. ” I feel that since I won the Tour Divide, I no longer have the same motivation. Mentally, it’s extremely demanding, it leaves a lot of traces ».
For the moment, Sofiane does not yet have a very clear idea of the follow-up that he will be able to give to his career, but whatever he does, the bike will never be far away. ” It’s the center of my universe “, he concludes.
