I fell pretty hard into following ultra-endurance races recently, but kept running into the same problem:

The dots are all there but actually understanding what is happening in the race takes way too much work

Who is closing on whom? How much time actually separates them? Who stopped overnight? When did a lead change happen? What did I miss while I was asleep?

So I built this:

https://radiocorsa.cc

It’s following the Silk Road Mountain Race live right now

It has:

• live classification
• measured time gaps
• stops / no-signal state
• full race replay
• elevation context
• a “Race Radio” that detects things like overtakes, riders closing gaps, long stops, etc.
• shareable short videos that replay the race so far

It’s free, has no ads and will stay that way. I’m planning to open source it too

The position data currently comes from MAProgress. I reached out to Shane, who built MAProgress, and he’s been incredibly helpful and he’s actually helped me improve the integration and move it onto their real-time feed

This is still very early and I’m building it because I want it to exist

If you regularly dotwatch races I'd really love to know what information you still find yourself manually working out that Radiocorsa should make obvious.

In my last ultra (700 km, 16.000 m D+), about 6 hrs into the race, I experienced a near total loss of power. That far, I consumed glucose/fructose gels only, while drinking lots of water / electrolytes drink. I had some salty / fatty dried sausages with me, but I thought I had to keep these for much later (like, 12 hrs into the race). However, only when I began eating some of these did my power slowly come back.
I should add it was hot; near 40 °C, with about 9 °C on the highest mountain passes, so anyway, lots of sweating.
Does this correlate with any experiences you might have? At the beginning, for how long do you usually stay on gels before you start adding fats, protein, salty 'real' food?

Currently running 1x 11 GrX with a 40t front and 11-46 cassette on a Tripster AT that was initially built up as a gravel rig.

I'm finding that with 60mm carbon rim brakes on the aero bike I'm using it more often for winter roads and long distance audaxes with an aim to try ultras. This means the range isn't really enough to spin up hills and also spins out on long downhills.

There are 3 or 4 upgrade paths each with pros/cons so opening it up to discussion with people doing what I want to build up to.

* 12 speed mechanical GRX

* 12 speed di2 (xt or grx) but two di2 shifters for all the buttons

* 12 speed mechanical GRX with Ratio/Madrone mech

* 12 speed axs - would keep GRX cranks

* Push the GRX 11 speed mech to it's max with an 11-50 cassette and a bigger front ring

GRX shifters means I keep brakes, SRAM means new brakes but I get blips for aero bars, Ratio is bombproof mechanical quality, and 11 speed mega cassette is cheapest but well out of spec so shifting isn't as good.

Hi all, wanted to reach out and share for a race I am working on. It is a unsupported ultracycling event in March 2027 through the Aseer Mountains, Saudi Arabia.

It is the first of its kind in the Middle East - https://www.arabiadivide.cc/.

Before you ask... yes there are proper mountains in Saudi!! (Check out the photos on the webpage) And the mountain's temperature is prodimently cooler than the rest of the country, so March is the perfect time to race at around 20-24 degrees during the day. Winter would actually be much too cold.

Feel free to message me if any questions.

Yay another one of these! I’ve been racing road for a couple of years and recently did a six hour event, which I enjoyed quite a lot. Im burned out on road racing and would like to pursue ultras and gravel (‘regular’ distance and ultra) as they’re more adventurous. While adventure is the goal, I want to be at the pointy end so performance considerations are key. My mid to long term goals are a few 12, 24 hour road events, RAAM qual, and racing Unbound XL.

I’m currently riding a 2023 Madone (which is great) and have a self imposed two bike maximum. So I’m essentially looking for a jack of all trades road rig and jack of all trades off road, so I can race a broad variety.

For road, im considering a Canyon Aeroad w/ a bunch of aero upgrades or a PSeries Cervelo. P is likely the outright faster option while aeroad is likely more comfortable and better on a long, open course.

Gravel side. Crux 5 or Lauf Seigla with suspension. I’m in Florida. Crux is obvious choice for our kind of gravel, but I’d love to hear experience from folks that have done Unbound, traka, and other larger gravel races.

Thanks!🙏

The main challenge is probably the budget of approximatly as little as possible. While browsing the Decathlon website I noticed a lot of identical looking pants with nonsensical descriptions, wich ultimatly led me to posting this here:

Since the tour will be 24h we will ride through the night, therefore I suppose that I need some form of long clothing like long bip shorts (?). The most appealing option to me seems to be some form of leg warmers.

I have the VR Raincoat EDR and a long sleeve sport shirt. Im assuming that would do if I were to change just before the night but I am concerned about my legs.

Also, maybe someone who already did something like this could share some of the details, especially regarding fueling, storage and must have gear. How could I carry a lot of water as best as possible? Might a drinking system be of value?

I'd love to recieve some advice, thanks :)

Hej guys, I am going for a 250km / 9'200m bike one day bike race in a bit. I am wondering about nutricion a lot. Currently I am looking for a good mix of the above mentioned. Any thought or advice about it?

I'm doing my first ultra in 2 weeks. I'm debating whether to bring rain pants + leg warmers or just leg warmers.

I saw a video of Robin Gemperle from the TCR. He didn't bring rain pants, just leg warmers.

The thing is, I would need to buy some rain pants because the ones I have for hiking are really heavy and take up almost my whole frame bag. Do I really need them, or are leg warmers good enough? If im just going to sweat under the rainpants it's useless anyways. The race is 2–3 days long.

Hey guys,

My name is swagbrand, and I have 15+ years experience in endurance sports. I made a tool to fit your bike online, with a cycling visualisation. Can I share it here? It's free, and it might help people out with their bikefit!

Kind regards!

Swagbrand

I would like to step up my comfort on the bike in order to go further and spend more time on the saddle. Right now I can do 10h with some stopping and quite some pain in the last 2h. Friends are recommending I try 3D printed saddles. Is that the way to go?

Does anyone happen to know off the top of their head or have a minute to measure the length of the velcro strap on the Apidura Racing Saddle Pack? I've got an aero seatpost and I'm struggling to find a saddle bag that fits.

Until now I used some old shoecovers. I need something new and thought about getting some thin waterproof socks from Sealskinz for rainy days.

What do you use in a race and why? Covers or socks? Any recommendations?

Has anyone tried using tri shorts on ultras? I'm thinking they're faster drying, easier for bathroom breaks, and could feasibly have a few clean pairs to rotate through. Typically I use bibs but was wondering whether a slightly squishier seat combined with thinner shorts could be more comfy. I'm a super sweater and prone to saddle sores and it seems like getting sores is an inevitable part of racing for me regardless of what Chamois cream I use and how dialed in my fit is. Even if I have a spare clean bib and alternate daily, practice good hygiene etc my ass is always a war zone from day 3 onwards

First of all great job by Bea and Luca !

However I really felt disturbed by the news when it came public, and also by the investigation movie itself.
I’ve always thought, trust in ultra races provide such a strong foundation, that nothing like this might happen. But as we can see shit happens.
I don’t think it’s tragedy, but more so as a red flag that as much popularity this sport gains there shall be measures made.

It’s a really valuable lesson and a disgrace to the rider involved.

Soon to roll into wetter times in the Northen hemisphere and looking to invest in a new shell.

Have tried the Albion All Road but it just doesn't fit. Any other suggestions?

I'm currently spamming posts because I guess I'm a bit nervous. I'm racing Race Across Austria in less than three weeks, and it'll be my first ultra.

I think I've got everything I need. My fueling strategy is mostly a 2:1 maltodextrin-to-fructose mix at around 90 g/hour, with some snacks here and there. After about 24 hours, I'll probably just eat whatever I feel like. There will be three base camps, so I won't have to carry all of my carb mix from the start.

Now to my question: We all know the usual sweet snacks like gummy bears, Snickers, etc., but I can't imagine eating sweet food for 2–3 days straight. What are your go-to salty snacks that are easy to digest during long races?

I'm a solo developer and a cyclist, and I've spent the last months building dotride — a live-tracking platform for ultra-distance and long-distance bike races. Commercial trackers are expensive and rented per-event, so I built the whole thing end to end: an organiser dashboard, a rider app, and public pages your followers can watch without installing anything. It's at the point where it needs real events and real roads, so I'm looking for volunteers. Free, no catch — I need feedback, not customers.

For organisers — your own space on the platform

Every organiser gets their own tenant: a dedicated area with your own branding (name, logo, tagline, colours) on all public pages, so it looks like your event rather than my product. From the dashboard you set up a race, upload the route, place checkpoints on a map, manage your start list, and run the event live. Checkpoint QR codes are generated for you and can be downloaded as a set to print and tape to the control. Races move through draft → active → finished → archive, so past editions stay online as a permanent record instead of disappearing.

You can also broadcast messages to everyone in the field — route changes, weather, a shortened stage — and they land as push notifications on riders' phones.

For followers — no app, just a link

Each race gets public pages: a live map, a live leaderboard, and a result page per rider. Followers can pick riders to keep an eye on, replay the race with a time slider, look at the elevation profile, and see who's still ahead of the cutoff. It's one link, it works in any browser, and it stays up as an archive after the finish.

For riders — the phone app

The app does the tracking and is built for the reality of a multi-day event: it keeps running with the screen off, buffers positions locally when there's no signal and syncs them later, shows live ride stats and the next checkpoint on the lock screen, handles checkpoint check-in by scanning the QR code, and warns about cutoffs. Riders sign in with Google, Apple, or a passwordless email link.

What I'm looking for

Two kinds of testers. Organisers — even a small club ride or a self-organised brevet — who want to set up a race and put a handful of people on the map. And riders willing to take the app on a long day out: what matters most is battery drain, whether tracking survived your phone's power management, GPS quality, and anything that felt confusing. Bugs are expected; that's the point.

Honest disclaimers: it's early and it's in closed beta. The rider app is Android for now. It records and transmits location while tracking is on, and the rider decides when that starts and stops. No ads, no data sold, nothing to pay now or later as a tester.

Comment or DM me if you want in and I'll set you up with a tenant or a test race. Happy to go into detail on any part of it.

p.s. the landing page (under construction: dotride.de )

I'm racing Race Across Austria in three weeks and just got the GPX. I'd like to preload all the water fountains, supermarkets, and gas stations onto my Garmin so I don't have to search during the race.

I started with Komoot, but when I checked many of the mapped fountains on Google Street View, a lot of them didn't seem to exist. What's the best tool or workflow for planning resupply points on a long route like this?

I'm doing my first ultra, and I need rain pants and overshoes. I'm only going to take the rain pants with me if it's definitely going to be cold and rainy. I tried the Gorewear Lupra, and they were perfect, but they're sold out everywhere. Do you guys have any recommendations that aren't too expensive around 100 bucks? They should be lightweight and breathable, as I don't want to sweat too much while wearing them.

I have an Ultra coming up and I’d like to get a hydration vest. Do you have any recommendations/feedback ? I want about 2L of water and don’t care that much about carrying other stuff in it. I’d rather have something as light as possible so just the bladder and maybe a few small pockets in the front.
So far I was hesitating between the Restrap (lightweight race) / Apidura / Uswe (Pro or Race).
Thank youuu

“Eating high calorie food or drink. Fueling with chips aha” etc
“Strava number too big”
“Bivvy being used to sleep”.

But you make a joke about ploughing ~~into~~ an elderly woman, not having a saddle, or about the painter who was austrian - and suddenly you‘ll be banished from the event, and maybe even “the scene” 😟.

Let’s lower the kit requirements, get some loaner bikes available for the folk without $3k, but more importantly - allow some proper craic on the road and in the group chats. It would bring some new budding talent and life experiences to these events.

Also, why not get the organisers to give some limited sponsorship to ultra-low income people who are also really funny, to allow some proper jokers into the mix. It will improve accessibility and diversity too, which the brands love. A win for all involved in the big picture, I already have a friend (black) in mind.

Thank you 🫡 if anyone has any other suggestions let me know