Life on the Road: In Conversation with Weronika Szalas
Balancing a life built around the bikepacking with the challenges of racing ultra distance
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Balancing a life built around the bikepacking with the challenges of racing ultra distance
Set against the backdrop of his attempt at the Triple Crown, King of Chaos dives into Justinas Leveika’s motivation, home life, and infectious attitude for life as he aims to race the Tour Divide, Colorado Trail, and Arizona Trail in one calendar year.
Always at the pointy end, his smile is impossible to wipe from his face, find out what it takes to dig so deep.
There’s a logical pursuit among bike manufactures towards creating more capable, more practical, more efficient bikes. But in that evolution, there’s a simplicity lost and a growing disconnect between rider and machine. Through the medium of his highly unpractical single-speed mountain bike, Varun Jyothykumar explores the beauty in struggling across challenging terrain with a single, and often unsuitable, gear ratio.
In 2024, Cordelia Hughes (one half of Roll Models) was lucky to enter GBDURO with her beloved friend and housemate Lucy Wood as the one and only pairs entry. In order not to forget the experience, below Cordelia shares a handful of the stories that remain.
In 2024, Lael Wilcox set a new world record for circumnavigation of the earth by bicycle. For 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes she rode, joined by friends and fans, with her journey documented by Rugile Kaladyte. This is the film of that ride, filled with highs and lows, incredible roads, friends and fans.
Undisputed route-building workhorse, Markus Stitz launches his latest contribution to gravel cycling in Scotland with a brand new guidebook, Gravel Rides Cairngorms & Perthshire. Below he gives us a sneak peak, sharing from it three of his favourite routes.
More Than Two Wheels is a short film by Adam Gairns and Henna Palosaari that follows a surf and bikepacking journey through the rugged Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Traversing a remote coastal road that weaves across five islands, connected by ferries and scattered with white sandy beaches, they set out in search of waves.
The UK Government has confirmed plans to bring cycling legislation in-line with driving laws, which could see cyclists who kill pedestrians serve longer prison sentences. On paper, this might seem like a logical step to improve safety, but the reality is far more complicated.
The Speed Project started as a unique running pilgrimage between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Twelve years later, the race still remains true to their founding principles. No route. No rules. No spectators. For the first time, in 2024 The Speed Project held a cycling race. Whilst the fastest teams would come armed with RVs, support crews and detailed plans to cover the ground in the shortest time possible, three riders decided to do it differently: fully unsupported.
Amidst the well-established adventure cycling scene in Bristol, Roll Models is a brand new mentorship programme empowering women and marginalised genders to ride, as they define it, adventurously. Kicking off a three-part series following their inaugural cohort through the year, we caught up with founders Athlyn and Cordelia not long after they identified their first mentors and mentees and set out their intentions for the year ahead.
In Rupert Barry’s new film, the divide in question refers to the invisible dividing line of the river Monnow’s watershed. From his front door, Rupert plots an off road route following that dividing line, along the Welsh-English border, across mountainous upland and rural lowlands, to explore the landscapes therefore that contribute to his home river.
More than 50 hours of racing condensed into a little over 17 minutes, this is Josh Reid’s self-filmed documentary from this year’s adventure. This year marked the 7th edition of the 600km Dales Divide. From Arnside to Scarborough and back again, the route is a 600km largely off-road coast-to-coast-to-coast adventure taking in the challenging landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales, the Vale of York, the Yorkshire Wolds and the North York Moors.
A motley posse of friends, colleagues, peers and two-wheeled compatriots shared trail and tarmac with a collective goal of just being together. Making space to slowly pootle in good company and dotwatch in real life, away from laptop screens and office chairs. A weekend of high spirits and low temperatures, they’d traverse their own route at their own pace, intersecting racers of the delightfully rugged, boggy, gritty and often very damp Dales Divide.
More than two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Our cells too are composed of about two thirds water. It’s all around us – the reason life itself exists. WOSSA is a brand new bikepacking adventure exploring the vital, life defining journeys taken by water in its various formats across the Alps.
Sometimes all it takes is to ride a bike somewhere and talk to someone new to realise that we’re not so different and often, we want the same things. So, in a society where binary politics and geographies are cut through by anger, fear, and motorways, Middle Ground is a series of artist residencies based on a cargo bike, with the intention to connect and reclaim.
If iconic climbs and secluded gravel roads are your thing, the Torino–Nice Rally has to be one of the best bikepacking journeys imaginable. 2022 marked the sixth and so far, its last official edition of the rally. Below Ray shares some of the moments that stick with him a few years down the line with a selection of images he shot along the way on the sixth edition of the TNR.
In January 2023, Joe set out on what would be an incredible journey south following the spine of the Andes through South America. Combining his two passions – dirt touring and speciality coffee – he started off in Colombia, with an extended tour of Efe Cafetero, the internationally famous Coffee Axis.
Tough, beautiful, and deeply familiar, the days they’d spend riding 250km of mud, wind, and wild Atlantic coastline on these home trails would provide a new perspective of exactly what home that means.
Did you know in the past 15 years there have been more than 1,500 instances of birds of prey persecution in the UK? From hen harriers to white-tailed eagles, peregrines to goshawks, golden eagles to red kites. These amazing birds are being trapped, shot, and poisoned in big numbers, despite being protected under UK laws.
A conversation with Jon Dennis, co-founder of Pedal Collective, Bristol’s bike courier co-operative making city centre deliveries by cargo bike.
Stood nervously at the most northern tip of Europe, the start line of what was to be the biggest journey of his life, Jacob was contemplating what was likely to be several months spent largely alone as he navigated the European Divide Trail. Then he met Anna.
In the North East of England, between vast swathes of exposed moorland and the storm-battered cliffs of the North Sea. In the thick of one of the wettest winters of recent years, Chris rides the brand new YC adventure route, from Scarborough to Whitby and back again.
Following father and son Rich and James Rothwell, The Outdoor Life documents the years spent exploring some of the UK’s wildest landscapes together by bike. The film sees James’ sharp curve into adventure bikepacking, from becoming the youngest-ever rider to complete Scotland’s iconic Highland Trail 550.
The Unionsleden is a brand new 350km cycle route connecting Moss in Norway to Karlstad in Sweden, designed to celebrate the fromer union between the two nations. Chris joins the route’s designer to explore the forests, lakes and endless gravel roads in the province of Dasland in the west of Sweden.
The Zillertal Alps are characterised by its deep gorges, icy rivers, glaciated peaks. Following the creation of a brand new bikepacking route, I headed out for three days of gravel tracks, fast, technical descents and plenty of hike-a-bike on the Zillertal Trail along with the route’s designers.
Every now and again we get to visit somewhere truly special, one of those places and experiences that you come back to over and over. This is a love letter to one such place. A remote refuge deep in the Italian Alps.
The Cheviot Hills are home to the Coquet and the Breamish rivers, two of England’s cleanest waterways, but like every other river in the UK, their health is at risk. We use our bikes to find out more.
From English Channel to North Sea lies the remains of Britain’s oldest road. We pieced together the most rideable sections to create The Old Chalk Way, our long-distance bikepacking route across Southern England.
From the Trossachs to the Outer Hebrides, the Western Highlands to the rugged North Coast, we squeeze together a spontaneous bikepacking trip across as much of Scotland as we have time for.
Earlier this year, Weronika found herself back in her hometown of Katowice in Poland for a prolonged period – the first in more than seven years. Before she headed out back on the road for the summer, we caught up for a remote beer via our respective laptop screens, to hear more about how she balances touring with racing, hearing what she got up to in the summer of 2024 and what she has planned for the year ahead.