51h35 of cycling and just 10 minutes of sleep, are you up for it?
After ultra-trailer Jean-Philippe Tschumi, a new Softcom ambassador is joining the ‘One step ahead’ family! Bruno Wicht has been working for Softcom for 3.5 years as a Software Engineer, but alongside his job, his passion is road cycling. In particular, road bike races – ultra long distance. 🚴♂️
In June 2022, he will take part in his first long-distance race, the Race Across France, covering a distance of 1’090km and 22’000m of ascent! Previously, he had done a bit of mountain biking and a few races, but never more than 150km and 5’000m of ascent. It was during a cycling trip that Bruno met other cyclists and discovered the world of ultracycling. Two years on, he’s still as keen as ever and has 6 races to his name. But how does it work in practice? In a nutshell, you have an organised start and finish and the rest is completely autonomous. In other words, you organise your route (although you still have to pass through a few checkpoints), your food, sleeping arrangements, etc. You organise yourself as you wish, with just one objective in mind: to be the fastest. 🎯 Ultracycling has been attracting growing interest in recent years, and there are more and more races all over the world.
Much more than just a bike race, Bruno Wicht confirms that it pushes you to go beyond your physical and mental limits. What he appreciates so much about this discipline is the solitude and freedom. Bruno describes himself as more of a solitary bird, even though he also likes to meet up and chat with other competitors at refreshment points, but being alone with yourself for several days and having to think about just 4 things: following the course, drinking, eating and sleeping (we don’t know if we can really call that sleeping… 🥱 ) is what he loves and what makes this sport so special in his eyes. Thanks to the stamina and mental toughness he’s acquired, he faces everyday challenges more easily. He says he’s more resilient when faced with stressful situations and thinks in stages, as he does with his projects at work. Of course, there’s a final goal to reach, but we’ll get there by taking one step at a time.
Where does he find the time to train while working 100% at Softcom? It’s simple: he turns every journey into a bike ride. Every day, he rides from Romont to Lausanne and back, sometimes with a few whimsical changes to the route to increase the difficulty. And at weekends, it’s all about long rides of between 100 and 150km!
His next challenges? With his thighs barely rested after his last race in May 2024, the MittelGebirgeClassique, where he came 2nd by covering 1’060km / 22’000m of ascent in 51 hours 35 minutes and no sleep, he’s off again this weekend. For his 7th race, the challenge will be considerable… around 4’000km with around 40’000m of ascent between Cartagena in Spain and Giovinazzo in southern Italy. It’s a race that combines mountain passes (something he particularly enjoys) with the flatter parts of Spain. His goal? To finish in less than 10 days, sleeping 4 hours a night. In October, he will take on a race he has already completed in 2022, the Two Volcano Sprint.
The whole Softcom team wishes Bruno a great race! ‘Sky is the limit’ as they say! 💪🏻 If you want to follow his performance: Madcap.cc
