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.
In this clip I chat with Rachael and Lynne at the start line about why they chose this race
Cool. Uh, so I am Rachel Fox, cap number 23, and I stay in Edinburgh in Scotland. And I am Lynn Diamond Davis, and I am captain number 14. And I am from Pee Bowls in Scotland. Okay, cool. So, part of the strong Scottish contingent that we’ve got here. Um, are you excited? Yeah. Nervous. Also nervous. Yeah. Now, now that we’re here, we’re very excited. Yeah. Cool. Uh, what drew you to this event? you first drew me to this event. Um, I didn’t read the small print. I went, I’ve never cycled the Alps before. It’s bound to be hot and sunny and I picked it and then I looked at all the photos from last year and thought, “What on earth have I done?” I looked at the snow. I looked at the elevation and everything like that. So, yeah, I’m quite impulsive and I just went eeny miny mo. That one will do. That sounds good. But so far, it’s good. and Rachel. Uh well, so before I was a mountain biker, I was a whitewater kayaker and we used to come to the French Alps like every year. Uh and so part three of the course goes through all the places that I used to kayak through. So like Briansson and Barcelonet and Gilstra. So I have all these memories of being there like in the valleys with my kayak being terrified. Now I’m going to come back with my bike being terrified of whole different things. Um but I thought it sounded great. So, I signed up and then I looked at the elevation profile and I thought, “Oh dear.” And and so, how’s preparation gone? Uh, we both got new bikes, which is good. Yeah. Okay. Well, there’s the question. Gravel bike or mountain bike? Mountain bike. Okay. Uh, full sus or hard tail? Hard tail. Hard tail. Hard tail rules? We can have that debate later in the pub. Uh, cool. And um so you feel like they’re all nicely set up now. You got them all dialed in, ready to go? I think so. Rode to Monte Carlo today. That worked. Excellent. Did you do a lap of the Grand Prix course? No, we did not. Possibly. I don’t know. Did we? I don’t know. We won’t tunnel. Maybe we did. We found a lot of steps. Uh and what are you most looking forward to? Um getting out there after the pedals start turning and I’m basically on my own. I’m a Todd. Just exploring. That’s my favorite bit. Yeah. Yeah. When the field just falls away and it’s just you and the mountains and riding a bike. That’s what I love. Awesome. Awesome. Well, look, have a have an incredible race, both of you. Uh, who’s who’s the money on to win between you, then? 100%. A general rule is first person there buys the beers. Can do that. Easy peasy. Right. Well, have a great race. Thank you for talking to us. We’ll see you out on the road. Cool.