Atlas Mountain Race 2024: Vivid in Black and White

It was the night before the start of the 2023 Silk Road Mountain Race, during the last supper, as it were, in a restaurant in Karakol. I told Nelson, the race organizer, “You gotta bring back the podcast. It was epic! Let me host it. You know I can talk!”

Fast forward five months, and I’m walking into the 2024 Atlas Mountain Race registration room in Marrakech with a microphone strung around my neck and my Olympus OM-10 on my shoulder. Here I was, ready to talk and ready to listen. Ready for the experience of ultra-distance racing, but for the first time from the perspective of the media team.

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I’ve always really enjoyed podcasts. They’re such a good way to distract your mind while riding and an imaginative way to share stories and ideas. Back in 2019, I heard the original Silk Road Mountain Race podcast, made by Stefano at Broomwagon podcast. I was bike touring in the Pyrenees and looking for some cycling podcasts for inspiration, and hearing the stories of racers in their own words and how they pushed through what seemed like impossible challenges and kept going made it seem so much more real. I was pushing myself across the Pyrenees—it couldn’t be all that different, right?

The podcast was a huge part of what inspired me to get into ultra-distance racing, and I was sad that the podcast never returned after those early years, which spurred me to suggest the idea to Nelson.

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Registration day for me was a blur. With more than 200 racers in front of me in one place, there are too many interesting stories to tell. It felt like being a photographer on a wedding day. You have one shot at this; if you miss the shot, you miss it forever. Between the stacked field of racers and many intriguing pairs, my work was cut out for me. I had, admittedly, not practiced my interviewing style too much, though I knew what I wanted to ask. People were a little robotic at first, not used to having the microphone stuck in their faces, and it took a while to find their natural voice. By the end of that first day, I had recorded 38 interviews. Damn! Definitely too many, and still just a small portion of the overall field.

Episode One: Calm Before the Storm

 

Throughout the whole of this series, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my editor, Jake Cullen, who went through all my clips in the evenings and put together the episode. Working from Vancouver, Canada, he had the benefit of the time difference to work on editing while I, in theory, slept. In future episodes, I did my darndest to give him detailed edit notes, delete the pieces I knew weren’t golden moments, and encourage him to trim, but this first episode, I threw him and myself well and truly into the deep end.

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For those of you who followed the race, you’ll have heard there was a rather dramatic start to the event, and it was a bit of drama that I was also here for. The story of what happened is fascinating and really quite long to tell here, but it is all laid out in episode two of the series, entitled “Expect the Unexpected,” and if you want the inside scoop, I highly recommend listening to it below.

Episode Two: Expect the Unexpected

 

Once the race eventually got moving, I was in Control Car Two with our kind and well-prepared driver, Rui, friendly and enthusiastic photographer Gavin, and fun and bubbly Federica from PedalEd. We very quickly found ourselves in a comfortable dynamic and routine.

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We arrived at Checkpoint 1 around 2 a.m. on the first night, and although we’d passed many racers to get there, there were already at least 30 racers at the checkpoint in all states. Some leaving, some arriving, many eating, and others attempting to sleep in between the hubbub. I dived into interviewing people and found that the dynamics of the conversations had changed now that we’d left the start line. People’s guards were down, and the conversations flowed much easier. Everyone was excited and fresh, including me. Eventually, I put my head down for a little over an hour of rest at 5:30 a.m.

This became a pattern and a rhythm I fell into, for better, for worse. It’s often said that ultra races aren’t won during the day, they are won at night. Most riders can keep on the bike and ride at a relatively good pace during the day, but how you push the limit during the long winter nights will more likely define your race result. And it often meant—from a storytelling perspective—that there were better stories late into the night and long before the dawn.

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The sun was up, the race had finally begun, and we were on gravel climbs out of perfect terracotta villages in the nothing. This is Morocco. I strolled down the climb and caught racers coming up, stopped a few, and strolled alongside a few others at a casual walking pace, which, over the week, became a favorite style of mine.

Given the chance, I found that these organic run-ins out in the wilderness made for more organic and natural conversations. You get a real feel for being out there with us, too. Walking alongside someone as they climb a mountain, hearing the riders heavy breathing, the crunchy sound of graver under their tyres. With such diverse landscapes, you could create a visual experience from something audible by asking the racers to describe where we were.

Episode Three: The First 24 Hours

 

On this first day, I almost universally heard that riders felt bad. Mostly, they didn’t feel as strong as they wanted for various unrelated reasons. They all had sky-high expectations, whether or not they wanted to admit it. They all wanted success and to feel strong. It’s common that the first big push in these early days has a hard impact on your body. Without time to acclimate to the effort, your body is mad at you, and you don’t have much patience. The result is this frustrating misalignment, and everyone has to rewrite their script a little. But, by day two, almost everyone reports vast improvements—the first demonstration of the temporary nature of their recurrent existential crises.

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After a flat tire at sunrise on day two and more walks out in the hills, we caught up with the legendary Omar for a cup of tea in his little oasis. It was an iconic and mischievous part of the Atlas experience that I simply couldn’t miss recording, even if it seems a little out of context for the uninitiated listener. We then pushed towards the small but bustling crossroads town of Taznakht to catch some riders having dinner and stopping there. After dinner, we continued towards Checkpoint 2, a few more hours’ drive, and didn’t get there until after 1 a.m. I made sure Rui, our driver, stayed awake by gently singing Adele from the backseat and sharing stories from childhood while Gavin and Federica slept. When we eventually arrived, we found a hub of activity. There were over 20 riders at the checkpoint, some already leaving, some still arriving, and many sleeping; my night had only just begun.

Episode Four: Tea with Omar

 

I had many fascinating conversations that night. There were people who had started badly and turned it around for themselves, people who were having to scratch, pairs who had split, people who were just starting to feel good, and, of course, Paul de Tilly’s now infamous accidental 130-kilometre detour. The sleep deprivation was so worth it for the quality of conversation. Once we eventually left, we had a rather colorful and potentially ambitious goal for the end of the day: we were going to climb the Old Colonial Road.

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The iconic part of this beautiful and long climb on an old mountain pass built by the French are the three sections of road that were destroyed, requiring you to hike your bike down a steep and rough canyon and up the other side with your bike.

We knew it was impassable by car, but I had the idea most of the way towards the destroyed section was okay, and I was wrong. We arrived an hour before sunset and were met by an impassable rock wall at the bottom. We’d driven hours to get there and didn’t want the trip to be wasted, so we packed some gear and started hiking up. Ultimately, we hiked eight kilometres up the trail over a few hours into the night. Rui, in his typically well-prepared and thoughtful disposition, had brought our gas stove and supply of ramen noodles, and we ate dinner together under the stars as we waited for riders to come by.

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We met 10 riders in the end, which was well worth the trip, each one more confused about what we were doing there and how we had made it so far. We didn’t get back to the car till after 1 a.m. again, and I found myself recording outros in the backstreets of deserted towns and uploading files to send to Jake while we figured out the best way to get a few hours of sleep together in the back of the car.

Episode Five: Late Nights and Long Days

 

Sacrifices to good rest and adequate nutrition were necessary here and there. They felt worthwhile if it meant getting the best coverage. Many people at home were looking out for updates, from friends and family to the fans of the sport, and it was our job to bring them the news.

The perfect example happened that next morning. We woke up in the car after a mere two or three hours of “sleep” and started heading for Checkpoint 3, assuring ourselves that with the good coffee and breakfast of the checkpoint hotel, we would hit the reset button. After a few hours of driving and a mere 500 meters from the front door of the hotel, we saw the second and third place in the women’s race rolling down the hill towards us while simultaneously watching our dreams of breakfast evaporating. We turned round the car to follow them.

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Nelson jokingly told me before the race that ultra-racing is just practice for ultra-organising, and in the end, he has a point. What I realised during different parts of the experience is that not just functioning but functioning well, keeping a cool head, and being able to interact and work with others when you are very sleep-deprived and haven’t eaten well truly is a skill to be practiced. Fortunately, I’ve had plenty of training in recent years.

Episode Six: Stay Salty

 

As the later days of the race progressed, the conversations continued to improve. People had truly let their guards down by that point—no more energy to present a polished version of self, or no polished self left to present. Entering the mindset of someone exhausted but determined, who can almost taste the victory just over these last big climbs, is a fascinating place to be.

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Throughout the race, everyone I spoke to told me how great an overall experience they were having, but by far, the central recurring theme I would hear over and over during my conversations every day was about the bad times—people’s mental somersaults, turmoil, despair, body aches, insecurities, the lot. You really turn yourself inside out in these races. It’s unavoidable. Of course, as a diligent interviewer, my response every time was, “And what did you do to lift yourself out of this headspace?”

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Racers told me one of two answers 100 percent of the time. The solution was either “I rested for a bit” or “I ate something.” And it worked. You can get lost in these mental spirals and massively overcomplicate the meaning and resolution when you can simply remind yourself you’re a tired mammal that needs its basics and will feel better after.

Episode Seven: Light at the End of the Tunnel

 

The most satisfying part of producing the podcast was making the superhuman very human. The characters are relatable, and the experiences are too. Just as the original podcast had inspired me to apply and take part in my first ultra race, it was important to me that the podcast showed the racers to be the everyday people they are. That all walks of life were capable and what was most important was a bit of grit and determination. Throughout the series, we were able to bear witness to so many moments of joy and also suffering, but all suffering was ultimately conquerable and, importantly, worth it.

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By the time we all made it to the finish line, racers and crew alike, it truly felt like we’d achieved something great and been through something unforgettable. In the end, I was part of creating a series that I’m incredibly proud of.

Episode Ten: The Final Chapter

 

Film Inspiration

Many people who have followed my photographic ventures in the last years know I love film photography, especially for bike trips. The dreamy, hazy, timeless characteristic is reminiscent of the experience itself. On this journey, I knew the official photographers were going to do a fantastic job covering the race with high-quality, high-definition imagery in real-time. To complement it, I wanted my photographic inspiration to have a distinctly dreamy and different perspective of the race experience. Performance sport in black and white film is far from typical, but it’s a flavor I’m fond of, and I hope you enjoy it too.

Further Reading

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