© BikingMan/David Styv/Magali Paulin
When Danish endurance athlete Helle Bachofen von Echt signed up for her first ever ultra-distance bike race, she had no idea what her limits were. But it turns out the 40-year-old is well suited to grinding out relentless miles for 47 hours without sleep! Helle was the second woman to finish the non-stop, 1000km, BikingMan Oman event, despite being unable to shift gears for much of the race due to a Di2 failure. Eight weeks later she took the win at BikingMan Corsica, a 700km race with 13,000m of climbing.
From troll and dinosaur hallucinations to suffering horrendous saddle sores, Helle, who lives in Dubai and works as a spinning instructor, shared the highs and lows of her ultra experience with me.