Episode 22: Sofiane Sehili sets blistering Tour Divide pace

Slow Guy On The Fast Ride

Sofiane Sehili doesn't mind being alone in the woods. As long as he's on his bike and moving, Sehili has an innate ability to go long periods of time without sleeping. So that makes him perfectly tailored to a race like the Tour Divide. In fact, Sehili is so well-mated to the race that he won it in 2022, all while setting the fastest known time.

On this episode of the Slow Guy on the Fast Ride podcast, Sofiane Sehili joins host Dan Cavallari to talk about his experience on the Tour Divide route. It's a long, difficult journey, and Sehili experienced all four seasons on this 14-day trip. Snow, rain, heat, high altitude, and much more were all on the menu.

Sehili also gives us perspective on what got him interested in ultra-endurance events in the first place. Like so many of us, Sehili's experience with bicycles started simply by commuting to work. He lives in Paris, which isn't exactly conducive to mountain biking, or dirt riding in general. But that's where he fell in love with the bike.

From there, it became clear to Sehili that he needed to venture further out to get experience with long, difficult dirt rides. That's exactly what he did. Before attempting to tackle the Tour Divide, Sehili did other ultra-endurance events. it was over the course of several such rides that he discovered his talents.

Surviving an ultra-endurance event is one thing. Winning one? That's a different beast. Sehili lends some insight as to how he went from simply surviving these rides to winning them.

It doesn't take a lot of gear to take part in an ultra-endurance event. Sehili says it simply takes the right gear. He doesn't carry much on his bike, and he sleeps very little. So his gear choices reflect those tendencies.

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