A Winning Streak with Robin Gemperle

How did your approach differ between these races?    

For my first one, the TCR, I didn’t have the same confidence that I do now, so it was really about being perfectly prepared and in a mind space that would allow me to go absolutely flat-out for ten days. And being absolutely sure that there was nothing that could distract me during those ten days. 

For the Tour Divide, I had a certain degree of self confidence in terms of my physical capabilities, but I was still quite doubtful when it came to whether or not I’d be able to stay at it for even a few days more. That kind of thought made me really unsure. But the physical preparation was quite similar. The only difference is that I was doing it professionally by that point, so I had a bit more time to train. 

And now with the Silk Road, a major change was definitely recovering after the Tour Divide. The time window after the race was quite short—around six weeks. And I also kind of struggled to be hungry. I wasn’t so sure whether I’d really be able to enter race mode, so there was a certain degree of uncertainty, even though I was 100 percent sure on a physical level that probably no one would be as fast as I am. So, the insecurities were more due to a personal lack of motivation. But that went away when the race started.

So maybe something to take away from the three races is that you never end up with complete self-confidence. There are always some doubts you have to deal with, even if you know that you’re physically quite capable.  

As a race that’s likely been on your radar for a while, what was it like to finally ride the Silk Road? What were some of the biggest surprises/challenges?    

It’s quite funny, actually. Some people might know that the Silk Road has always been the race I really wanted to do when I started with ultra-cycling. But I was always a bit scared of actually doing it. I remember saying to Nelson after the Atlas Mountain Race in 2023 that I wanted to do the Silk Road but still didn’t quite feel prepared. And he said, “Dude, you just won the Atlas Mountain Race, so you should be fine.” But it still took two more years till I really felt ready. 

But due to the fact that I’d really been thinking about it a lot, and because I’d seen quite a few films and pictures about it—and the fact that the whole race is described by the organizers quite accurately and you know what you’re getting into—I’d have to say that the race has been exactly as I expected. I expected it to be really incredible in terms of landscapes, for example. I expected it to be really difficult in terms of resupply. And there, I’d say it turned out to be better than what I had planned; I was able to get in the calories I needed. I knew that there would probably be massive issues in terms of communication with locals, which of course has been the case. But as I had been thinking about it so much, it wasn’t such a big problem.

Speaking of calories and resupplies, the Silk Road has seen many riders scratch due to illness. You seemed to be ok. Any strategy for avoiding stomach issues? 

I think it’s funny, this is also something everybody talks about: getting sick in Kyrgyzstan. And when you look on social media, it really looks like everyone is getting sick in Kyrgyzstan, before the race, during, or at least after it. But it didn’t happen to me, so I wonder if I’m just lucky or if I have some conditions that really help me with these races. With all the other races I’ve done, I never have any issues with my stomach. 

For me, I knew it was a danger, getting sick, and I paid attention to what I was eating. I was not eating any even slightly raw meat. I was not drinking any water from the taps. I really played it safe. But at this point, I kind of understand that it doesn’t happen to me. 

From soaring temperatures to snow, this race seemed to have it all. Can you tell us what factor the weather played in your ride?  

I always doubt if I’ll be able to ride in severe weather conditions. Because, for example, at the Tour Divide, I was very blessed with good weather. But I knew that at the Silk Road, this probably wouldn’t be the case, so I was a little scared. But when you actually do it, you realize it’s not that bad. Weather is usually scary but not really an issue. 

I would say, there were a few situations where it really slowed me down and I had to adjust to the weather. One was on about the fourth day, somewhere up in a high valley where it was minus six degrees at five in the morning before the sun came up, and I just couldn’t continue riding. I had to stop for twenty minutes because the wind with the cold temperatures was just too much. I had to stop and jump around a little. 

But the major issue was on the last night. I had planned to sleep again for 90 minutes because I believe this would have been faster, sleeping on the last night. But it was just too cold to stop, so I decided to ride through the whole night, which at the finish resulted in a 32-hour ride towards the finish, which was quite a lot and not optimal. But that also shows another good aspect of my tactics, which involves a lot of sleep. Because I had slept so much during the nights before, it was not such a big issue to push through the last night since I was not sleep deprived at all. 

And this idea of sleeping a lot and pushing fast was a common theme for all the races? Did that change for any of them?

I would say maybe this is something that has changed in my approach to all three races. I remember during TCR, I was still not 100 percent sure if sleeping more than other riders would really pay off. Then I noticed, yes it does. Then I realized during the Tour Divide that you can really sleep a lot more than others. And now with Silk Road, it wasn’t an option to not sleep enough. It was clear that I would be sleeping for four-and-a-half hours every night. I always slept a lot, but the certainty that this was the right strategy increased during each race.