In September of 2025 I was part of the media team covering the Alps Divide Ultra Cycling event. A 1000km off-road ultra bike packing event from Menton on the Mediterranean coast of France to Thonon-Les-Bains on the shores of Lac Leman. This is a series of interviews, footage and race commentary that originally went live on both my Instagram and the DotWatcher.cc Instagram to provide ongoing insight into the race.
By the end of day 1, the refuge at the start of the Salt Road was getting quite busy. As this was where Lloyd and I were staying that night it allowed me to catch up with some of the riders.
Right. Good evening and um welcome to the Refugeio Malla um which is where Lloyd and I have been staying tonight. Uh as expected, it’s turned into a little bit of a uh ultra party. Um let me just spin you around. Um we’re just uh lots and lots and lots of riders in already. Um and the refuge over the road is uh just as busy. So, uh, let’s let’s go and have a chat to a few. Uh, right here I am with Let me Oh, can I just grab this chair? Uh, sorry. I’m I’m going to give you the microphone. So, we got Han and what was your name? Han and Jim. You’re Earthworm Gym, right? No, no, different gym. Two gyms. Two gyms. Okay. Well, that’s a bit confusing. Uh, right. I’ll start with Han. Han, how you doing? I’m at the moment. Uh, this is doing me very good. Very good. I um I had a bit of stomach problems from all the the sugar, but uh this goes down pretty well. Yeah. Did you uh did you expect to find this refuge open tonight or was this a surprise? I was hoping it, but yeah. No, I I figured we could at least grab a bite. Um well, I was I was looking at the time, so uh kind of pushed on to be here before 10. So, uh yeah, lucky we made it. Then lucky there was at least something. So, uh, yeah. Cool. That’s And Jim, um, how’s your day going? Yeah, not too bad. Not too bad. Um, just kind of tapping it tapping away. Um, sort of used the thought of there being a bed here to motivate myself up this climb, right? There isn’t, but it motivated me up the climb, so that’s kind of fine. Can’t argue with that then. So, I think Bivy somewhere close. And yeah, don’t want to do the next bit in the dark because I think it’s going to be very beautiful. So, want to enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, I did it in the rain and you couldn’t see anything. And I do feel like I missed out. So, yeah, doing it in the daylight and enjoying it is is probably a good idea. Well, look, it looks like you’re tucking into some very nice apple pie there. I can confirm that it is delicious. And uh glad you had a great day, guys. And we’ll catch you on the road. coaches.