Further Perseverance – An Ultra Cycling Documentary

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I’m interested in what was before. And there are routes that go over the mountains, whether it’s a commamino or a trade route or a freedom trail for refugees. I’m interested in what is still there that was an important highway that have been lost. The new exposure light. Oh my god. the Pyrenees. They’re just the amazing border that’s been forever crisscrossed both ways. Like people that escape from Franco came streaming over the mountains. So, it’s sort of like it hasn’t got the we haven’t got the exodus of people that’s going on now at the moment over the borders, but historically it did. [Music] I’m not even at the start and I’ve already got a bike on my back using the rest hiker bike harness. [Applause] This is insane. I’ve not trained for this. Where are we? Uh the refuge of rule which is uh just on the border of Andor which is just over there. So just out of the just out of the Arasia National Park. So we’re in sort of no man’s land almost. So the race go the event not race goes over five times over the border. So using old roots that weren’t tarmaced. So some of the routes that we go over are like were like the major highways 120 years ago but are now sort of not used that much apart from walkers and hiker bikers. I imagine some are going to be back Saturday night. Most of you Sunday night. Anyone? What’s the Who thinks they’re going to be back on Sunday night? Yeah, I think day one is mostly boulder fields. Boulder fields and a few road climbs in between, I think. Have you been here before? Uh yeah, this is my well fifth time at Further and third time starting at um Refuge. Why do you keep on coming back to Camille’s events? What’s so special about Further? Uh well, I said to someone this morning over breakfast, it’s probably uh a lot of it’s the familiarity uh coming back and seeing crazy old Camille who’s pulling faces. Uh and Ben and all the other riders who keep coming back. Um but then the mountains, the wildness, the ridiculousness. Hey, Camille. We are at Dul which is like uh not far from mom. I’m the I’m from the other side of the Karang which is called the the Kuzong which is Sanjir and and this city. So I’m like the the local of the stage. Why do you keep on coming back to further? Oh there is like I love an atmosphere for this these races. Kami is such a good person and all the racers are so cool and that’s a special special race for me. Yeah, Quinton is like 13 or so. Feels like it’s just uh he’s a bastard. How are we feeling? Good. Cold. Waiting to start. Looking forward to getting going. What’s the game plan to start with? You putting your bike on your back or you riding? Uh, I ride down and then put it on my back. I try and skip a bit of the queue. The only thing is, how do you know where you’re going if your bike’s on your back and that’s on you? Go, go. Oh, first ones to have been here. Oh god. I scour maps. I old IGN. I go sort of back 200 years and look for old roots and research what was what was important roots and yeah. So the artague the boulderfield was a massively important route but they all change. is very flexible sort of like because you know it’s always been a a frontier of you know up to a few hundred years ago Europe ended the Pyrenees after that is Africa. The uh the cycling didn’t last long. This is fullon scrambling. Everyone else has mountain bikes or maybe a gravel bike. What have you brought? I brought uh a Brmpton. Why? because I’ve done the event in 2022 on the Brmpton, the chapter 3, the one with the front and the back and titanium. And you punish yourself on the way downs and on the way ups it’s easier to carry and and walk around and in 2023 I did it again and I thought I had optimized everything which wasn’t the case. So I stopped earlier and went back to the refuge to see the people coming in. And this time I have the Tline, the 12speed. I optimized my package and I think it might work out like this. Once I was up there, I knew, okay, it’s just over it’s just over there we go. So it must be it must be so great when you can see a lot of us already. It’s like okay if the weather is not good then then going through that is it’s like the carrots hanging in front like you said before it’s mental that’s the word the mind game crazy mind today. [Music] He [Music] We’re on we’re on a route that was a really important escape route for people that were escaping the Nazis in the Second World War, whether it was downed [Music] um aircraft through or Jews. So this was a route that people would escape to get into Spain. So would they go over some of the passes that we Yeah. Yeah. Really brutal. Yeah. Yeah, but not those ones cuz they were really obvious. They take really dangerous paths. Finally on a road. I’ve currently not benefited in the slightest from having a full sus. We’ve crossed from France into Andor and let’s hope it’s fast rolling for a little bit. Crazy tunnels in Andor. There’s so much road that I’ve just done and it’s quite slow on the mountain bike. How’s it going? It’s going uh slow but steady. Slow and steady wins the race. Right. Just been passed by the fourth place finish in the tour to France Oscar. I’m almost at the top of the portaboose, which is 2,300 m above sea level. It’s been a tough road climb. I think it’s off road after this and descending into Spain to the third country in about 50k. [Music] I’ve also been riding for over 5 hours. Well, moving for 5 hours. One half of the arage is forest. The other side is more um Mediterranean. But so 150 years ago, the blast furnaces and all the industrial revolution was one side of the area, but they the charcoal was brought over from the other side and they brought it over the over the mountain. So you have paths that were used to row row the wood over. Hopefully this isn’t going to persist for for too long. I’m not sure I could hack two days of this. Well, they used to set up like uh stone circles clutchers for ice. So they’d make art man-made um glacia and then they’ harvest the ice and then send it to to loot for the cafes and stuff. I’ve got the bike back on my back and I’m hiking up uh the first proper sector. Oh, it’s a bit gnarly. I got to go this way. Oh my god. Hopefully it’s not slippy. [Applause] It’s starting to rain quite a bit, so I have to put the camera away soon. Um, I’ve got an hour before uh the curfew. There’s a night curfew on this sector, so I’m not allowed to move after 10 p.m. Hopefully, I find somewhere dry. Maybe a cave or something. [Applause] And soon, I’ll have to work out the new exposure lights. It’s sort of What’s happening? H What’s happening? What’s happening? We’re having to hunker down for the night, aren’t we? We’re not going to make the curfew. So, I kindly let you stay in my lovely little old campsite that I spotted for us. Little cave. Yeah. That I thought I was going to have all to myself, but you’ve decided to come along. What is this night curfew? What is this night c? Well, it’s just a curfew. You can’t you can’t go forward after a certain point, which is 10 p.m. You can go backwards to find a safe spot like this. Um I think it’s just for safety as well, isn’t it? So it’s pretty bad further up there. It’s um well, it’s pretty severe climb, no shelter, very high, and it’s very wet now. So um that’s why I’ve decided to um come backwards and uh shall here for the night and if you you know they get disqualified if you carry on. So I don’t want to disqualify. Got the bivvie out. going to have um I’m so glad I brought a thermal, something dry to put on and uh yeah, the ceiling. I’m sure I can My head’s touching it, but it’s somewhere dry and uh lighting myself up with the new exposure light. Oh my god. I know. What you got for dinner? I’ve got an apple. Got a wonderful lime bar. Look at that. Men seem to be getting smaller, don’t they? Look at that. Used to be bigger than that. Yeah, that’s tiny, isn’t it? It’s almost like the um party size, isn’t it? You’re getting celebration. I think I’ve been hard, haven’t I? Never mind. That’s all I’ve got. So, you have much of an option. Luxury. It’s actually quite warm with layers on dry clothes. You definitely need to train for this sort of event. H like I’ve not trained with a bike on my back or like hiking at all. No, I’ve done a lot of bike fitness but not What are you doing with that rock? Oh my god. And I going to shift this one. I’ll get my neighbors across there and we’ll have a bit more. That’s a big rock. Bit of space. There you go. Improvise. Adapt and overcome. Oh, you’re you’re princess and the pee. You are. And what? Princess and the pee. What’s that mean? She has like a mattress. M. And then she’s got like a pee in a mattress. And they keep on putting more mattresses on. She can still see. Feel the pee. Feel the pee. All right. Well, I’ll shift this and it’ll be perfect. It’s going to move. It’s one of little luxuries, isn’t it? That’s it. I’ll send this video to Ben and he be he’ll be sold. He’ll be on the next one. He will not. He’ll be like, I’m not doing that. Now you’ve got a big hole. It’s fine. Well, hang on. There’s another one there. Right. It’s enough of that. That’s all right. That one that better. Oh, that is That’s perfection, isn’t it? This is my happy place. What? This cave. It’s been a pretty good day to be fair. It’s been like amazing scenery. Oh, that’s nice. I’ve never I mean I’ve never been to the the Pyrenees before. Oh, that’s so nice. The refuge was a very cool start. It was just gnarly on the way out. Good morning. Good morning. Sleep well? No, but it was in the dry, wasn’t it? I heard you snoring a little bit, so you must have had a bit of sleep. Well, I heard myself snore. You know when you hear yourself snow I thought it’s now 5:15 so we can move again. It’s no longer under curfew but it’s still dark so it might be a bit dangerous. So pack up slowly and then hit the the trail again. Bikes on the backs. [Applause] So glad I bought this. It was a a last minute thing. What is it? The one on my on the helmet. Like cuz I got the big one. I thought, well, that’ll be enough. And then got a little tiny head torch. I thought I need something else. Oh, 100% for hiking. Yeah. And then great decision. And then it came with the the helmet mount with it. It’s been the best thing. I put it on when I came down the first bit cuz I poke in the tent. I thought, “Oh, they might see me and take pity on me.” Do you want to stay in the rest of you? Look, cuz one of them got a massive tent. I thought nice. And then they’ll say, “Do you want some warm noodles?” And then you ended up in a cave with me. here for you. Reason cool. [Music] I It’s by far the stupidest thing I’ve ever done with a bike. Sketchy as anything. Scrambling the bike on the back. [Music] How far is it to the top? We’ve got point4 of a mile at 35% gradient at the moment through a boulder field. It’s pretty insane view behind you though. This is 100% Mhm. one of the hardest hiker bikes I’ve ever done. I don’t think I’m going to Well, I don’t want to say to you, but I think I’ll make it have to cut out good. There’s the bad weather route. Oh, yeah. So, the bad weather route didn’t miss this out. [Music] Like this is more than a normal scramble. Like the thing is, if you didn’t like film this, no one would like properly understand what this is. It’s just taken 4 hours to do 2 miles, which isn’t great. It’s now 10:41 and not really had a proper meal since starting. So, need to get down off this this sector and get into a town stop and then I think reassess because there’s a hell of a long way to go and I’m not sure getting there by tomorrow night’s doable. We’ve got good views so it’s not that bad. Get to the nearest town, get fed, get water, and then scratch. Scratch. Yeah. Yeah. And then just have a nice leisurely route back. The last time we rode a bike was about 8:00 p.m. last night. It’s now 20 1. Camille wasn’t uh kidding when he said it’s a hiker bike race. A sheep’s testicles is the same circumference as a bulls. He doesn’t agree. It says there’s one, two here. Interesting. Well, that’s it. Scratched. So, it’s not an easy scratch. We’ve got 50k left to ride and we’ve got a a massive road climb and then a hiker bike back up to the refuge. Hand the trackers back, get our bags. Not not what I was hoping, but we’re not going to make it back in time if we kept on going. I can make up all the excuses in the world, but I just wasn’t fit enough for the hiker bike. Had a a lovely stay in a hotel in the uh town just before you climb up to refuge to rule. Me and Andrew um are going to go and get some quasants and then do the uh is it 26k? 26k up to the refuge and then go for a swim. We went past a really nice lake when we were starting the the event. Was it yesterday? No, Friday. Friday. Two days ago. And it was I put my hand in and it was such a nice temperature. So looking forward to that. Oh, there’s a market going on. We’ve yet to ride 100 miles. It’s day three. [Music] pretty high. [Music] I got I got to the first sector. Getting up to the summit was way harder than I anticipated it being. So, I thought I was going to get to the little refuge at the end of the gravel road and I’ll be over the summit. I got there for like 10 to 7. I thought I’d be through the boulderfield on the other side of the pass by, you know, 9:00. I didn’t get to the summit until 10 to 9. And when I went over the summit, it was pissing with rain and the cloud had come in. I descended about 200 m and then realized I was [ __ ] myself. I was like, “This is not good.” I put the bike against a rock face and I walked down a bit to look at the boulder field and I was like, “No [ __ ] way am I doing that in the dark. This isn’t normal. [Applause] This is the walk of shame back to the refuge after scratching. [Applause] There can’t be many ultra races where you scratch and then you got to hike a bike back to the finish. I like events that are like in incredibly mountainous areas and very remote and the Prenees are all of that directly in Europe. So that’s really nice. And it’s about it’s not just cycling. It’s more like mountaineering, cycling, managing weather, managing resupplies, all of that combined. So that’s why I love this event. That is cold. A wee bit chilly. All in the main [Applause] strong feel very strong. Congratulations. Yeah. Old school. Yeah. There’s lots of interesting people that do further. That’s I I love that that you sort of you meet interesting people and people that do interesting things. So not everyone is sort of like primarily a cyclist. Some people are trail runners, adventure adventure racers like ski, you know, just complete weirdos. Well, you got to be to do this. It’s painful. Yeah. Why do you keep on coming back? Cuz I forget how painful it was last year. That’s probably the truth about it. Yeah. No, it’s it’s really uh it’s different. It’s it takes you places you won’t go in a normal time, you know. Okay. You just have to have a bike with you, but just the scenery. Some of the places are fantastic. Ah, Boulderfield. [Music] Pete. Yeah, you should talk to Ask Pete. He knows. Can we talk somewhere warmer or Well, you know further. Comfort is far to seek. It’s just hard to speak when you’re shivering. Yeah. Maybe this sums it up, too. Mhm. We have foggy rain. We have beautiful skies. We have, you know, boulder. Steep boulder fields. Drops. Drops. Yes. Fatal drops. Yeah. Yeah. What could be more fun? That’s where it changes from breathe. We can breathe again. Hello. Cheers. [Music] Oh my god. Are you okay? No way. Further perseverance with that horse. See how it descends. Now we know why he went so fast. He just hitchhiked a horse. Almost. Almost. Yeah, it’s over there somewhere. Just there. Feels very close after the the just Hello. Hello. How you doing? Have your trousers. [Laughter] Congratulations. A right. I’m good. I’m good. I just I couldn’t do it last night. Ah, I was mentally done. Yeah. Now it’s okay. Yeah, it’s good. You go with the Yes, I have to finish. Oh, okay. I’ll complete the loop. Yes. Have an omelette. Come back down. That’s the thing. Oh, yeah. No, I couldn’t. I’ve got I’ve got to finish it. Yeah. No, last night I got to Merk Murka and everything was closed. No, you I was think I was just a bit like an hour after you. So I had like two Snickers and a a bounty to go over and you feel the heat down the valley. Oh yeah. Was really nice. Hot and no sun cream. Are you