Sule Kangangi is one of East Africa’s top gravel riders and is currently over in Europe taking on some of the biggest gravel events here. We chatted to him about his recent sixth place finish in the Badlands event.
Badlands is described by the organisers as “the definitive bikepacking off-road adventure in Europe”. It’s a 725km point-to-point route and includes more than 15,000m of climbing. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the event is the range of inhospitable landscapes that it travels through. These include the only officially recognised desert on the continent of Europe – the Tabernas Desert; the windswept Cabo de Gata coastal region and the route also climbs the awe-inspiring 3,212m high Veleta Pass.
Sule was one of 265 riders who signed up for the 2021 edition of the event and he finished in sixth place with an incredible total time of 56 hours and 30 minutes. We chatted to him less than 48 hours after he finished racing to get some insight into how the event went.
Gravel Union Hey Sule, how's it going? How's your recovery going?
Sule Kangangi - Well, I feel better now. Today I woke up with a headache, some kind of numbness in my hands and some joint pains. But I feel better now.
GU - What was the event like? Did you enjoy it?
Sule - Well, I don't know. I don't think it's something that people enjoy! I think it was nice until maybe the midnight of the first day. Then you start feeling sleepy and you get these hallucinations. I think at that moment the enjoyment goes away! At that point you go into suffering mode. And I think from that moment on you need to find some other reason rather than just joy to keep yourself going
GU - What was the best bit about the event?
Sule - I'll probably say the finishing line! At the start it was nice – there were big groups of people, who were enjoying themselves and chatting. Once we set off, the first 40kms were quite tough, but it was fun because there were still groups together and you could chat. After the first day, it got progressively hotter and harder.
GU - Have you written in Spain before? Did you know what to expect?
Sule - No, I haven't ridden in Spain before, so I did not know what to expect. I knew from the previous edition, that's going to be hot and very dry as well. But the conditions of the road - I was hoping or expecting maybe a bit smoother than Kenya [where I’m from], but they ended up being similar – actually even tougher than Kenya in places.
GU - What bike were you riding?
Sule – I was using a Giant Revolt Advanced 1. It's quite a nice bike - it's quite good for this sort of stuff like bikepacking. It's just a little bit heavier than what I prefer, but I think it did OK. I fitted it with 42mm tyres, which were great, although next time I might run 40s instead.
GU - What was the competition like? Did you know some of the other riders that were taking part?
Sule - Yes, I did know some of the other racers, but just by reading about them. For example Sofiane [Sehili] and Ulrich [Bartholmös] and Alastair Brownlee - I know him from triathlons. Mattia De Marchi I know from some races in Europe. Although I’ve never raced with any of them, I knew from the start list the stuff that some of them had done before. So, I knew that some of these guys were masters of these types of events.
On the other hand, I was just a rookie who did not know what I'm getting myself into! But I think I can leave with my head held high. Next time, maybe when I'm on the starting line they'll notice me – not just like another random person. And that's that was the whole point of doing the event.
GU – Are you going to do any other events while you're over in Europe.
Sule - Yes, I'm planning to do the Gravel Epic in Switzerland. Yeah. And I'll do Grinduro Switzerland as well. It's the only way I can do stuff, especially coming from Kenya and you don't get a lot of time. So, you try to squeeze in as much as possible when you get the chance.
GU - What was the most useful thing that you learnt from the Badlands event?
Sule - I think packing correctly is very, very essential. Packing and planning. You need to work out where there’s the possibility of filling up with water and food. No matter how much you’re carrying, you never have enough stuff that's what I realised. But also with packing, you don’t want to just chuck everything in your bag. You have to be really specific with what you are going to take and why. That comes from studying the race, studying the weather forecast, thinking about what scenarios might happen. For Badlands I didn’t get it all right, but for my next event I think it’s the thing that can really improve.
GU - What was the most useful thing that you carried with you in your pack?
Sule – There’s quite a few things actually. I think my pump and my power powerbank were the two most useful things.
GU - What did you carry that you didn't need?
Sule - A sleeping bag and an inflatable mattress? For sure those two things I could have got rid of and done without.
GU - Is that because it was warm enough to not need them or because you just didn't stop long enough to need them?
Sule – It was partly because it was warm enough. I realised that if you are really, really tired and it's like warm enough, you just need your jacket and light and you can basically just sleep anywhere. Maybe in other events it’s not like this, but for this one, because I realised your body is just so tired you just sleep anywhere on the floor. Or you can maybe find a seat and then just you can sit and rest and just take a 30-minute nap.
GU - The next two events that you're doing are very different style to the Badlands – they’re shorter, they're more intense, they're more, maybe more organised or more managed. How do you think it will feel to do something so different in such a short space of time?
Sule - I think it's just in the mental side. I think I was more prepared for the shorter events. I was really aiming to go to the USA, so I was more prepared for an intense and slightly shorter style of gravel event. Badlands was actually quite a last-minute decision to take part in. I'll probably be more prepared for the next events although it does depend on how much I recover after this one.
GU - What's your long-term plan? Do you have anything else for the rest of the year or Grinduro and the Swiss Epic the end of the year for you, for racing?
Sule - For me, apart from a few races in Kenya, I think globally this will be the end of my racing year. And then I’ll start planning for next year. I do have a few races in Kenya - I organise my own races there too before the end of the year. But I think this will be my last two big ones.
GU - Where do you want to go in the future? Where would you like to be in two years’ time or three years’ time?
Sule - I want to go races in America first of all. But I’ve also heard of events in the UK like the Dirty Reiver, so I hope that might be a possibility in the future. Maybe I’ll also come back to Badlands at some point too, but mostly I’m looking at races in the USA.
GU – Would you like to turn pro and do it on a more full-time basis?
Sule – I don’t think I want to be full-time racing in ultra-endurance events - I want to be more flexible. I still feel like I have plenty of power, so I can race more intense races. Maybe in the future I’ll turn more to ultra-endurance but for now I feel like I can still something in races like Unbound and SBT. I’d like to do a real mixture of events.
GU – Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us and good luck with the other gravel races you have planned for the rest of the year.
You can keep up with Sule’s adventures on a gravel bike via his Insta profile