{"id":593699,"date":"2025-11-25T22:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/593699\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T22:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:27:17","slug":"i-could-not-go-backwards-the-ultracyclist-whose-world-record-attempt-ended-in-a-russian-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/593699\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I could not go backwards\u2019: The ultracyclist whose world record attempt ended in a Russian prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf I had known I was going to spend 50 days in jail, obviously I would not have done it,\u201d reflects Sofiane Sehili, almost a month after his return from Russia, having been imprisoned for illegally crossing the border into the country from China.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I mean, looking back at the decision that I made, given my state of mind, there was no other decision that I could have made. I could not go backwards. I could not stay idle. I had to do something. A few other ultracyclists agreed with me. They said they\u2019d have done the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 17,900km, when you\u2019re just 200km away from your goal? You just try to find a way to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sehili is one of the world\u2019s leading ultracyclists, a niche and attritional discipline in which competitors cover huge distances over multiple days. He has won 11 events over his career, including the Atlas Mountain Race, the Silk Road Mountain Race (three times, in 2021, 2022 and 2023), and the 2022 Tour Divide, a 4,300km route from Banff, Canada, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

But on this occasion he was travelling solo \u2014 attempting to break the Trans-Eurasia world record, a mammoth journey taking riders from Lisbon to Vladivostok. The previous record, set by German cyclist Jonas Deichmann, took 64 days.<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something between competition and adventure,\u201d Sehili explains from his home in south west France. \u201cThat\u2019s what attracted me, I\u2019ve never really been interested in races where you do laps. For me, I\u2019ve always seen a bike as a tool to go from Point A to Point B. This challenge was extreme travelling, but it\u2019s still travelling. It\u2019s true to what I think cycling is, or what it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey first piqued Sehili\u2019s interest after Deichmann first set the record in 2017, and after exceeding the German\u2019s daily average on a ride from Paris to Taiwan, he decided to tackle it himself. The war between Ukraine and Russia was the first barrier, which temporarily closed the Russian border, while several attempts were delayed due to potential interest from filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I was like: \u2018OK, I\u2019m not postponing anymore\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is the year I\u2019m going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this is not a challenge to be carried out on a whim. The logistical challenge is huge \u2014 fully self-supported, riders have to carry their own spare equipment, be able to cope with the huge changes in daily temperature, and negotiate passage over the borders of 17 countries. The route itself was vast and complex. Just weeks before he left, Israeli bomb attacks on Iran disrupted his plans to pass through the country, leading to a sizeable reroute.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be problems, and solving them is part of the challenge, as well as riding your bike for 14 hours a day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

From the outside, entering Russia always appeared a highly risky part of the plan \u2014 a global pariah currently at war \u2014 but Sehili had secured an electronic visa. He was not overly worried about the border crossing on the final days of the route \u2014 especially having enjoyed a drama-free passage through 700km of Russian territory in Chechnya and Dagestan. In truth, there had been other concerns throughout the trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything had been going well until Kazakhstan,\u201d he explains. \u201cI had a really big margin over the record, and I was confident that breaking it was going to be a formality. But in Kazakhstan I ended up on some very busy roads with heavy traffic. I was not comfortable riding on them. Huge trucks, day and night \u2014 it wasn\u2019t only risky, it\u2019s also very unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sehili decided to leave, heading to Uzbekistan where he knew it would be quieter \u2014 but more problems arose after he crashed near the border, clipped by the wing mirror of an overtaking driver. Though he was largely fine, his bike lost its front brake, while he couldn\u2019t shift gears on his big ring any longer. Further issues at the border, where they would not let him ride between the countries, forced him to a different checkpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just started losing a lot of time with these border problems, the detours, the mountains, and the unpaved roads,\u201d he says. \u201cI went from being well on track to realising I couldn\u2019t afford to lose another day \u2014 only a few hours here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maintaining his average pace of close to 300km per day, Sehili managed to maintain his challenge. One major hurdle was left \u2014 the final border crossing of the trip, from northern China, close to North Korea, into Russia\u2019s far eastern region of Primorsky. He had just 200km remaining to reach his goal \u2014 but fewer than two days remaining to break the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to a checkpoint that was listed on the visa application as open to electronic visa crossings,\u201d Sehili explains. \u201cBut when I arrived, I found it was only open to be passed on foot by Russian and Chinese nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going over the border by train, as the guards wanted, would have invalidated his record. Another option was to catch the train from Poltavka to Suifenhe, a journey of some 170km, after which he would have had to cycle back to the Poltavka border crossing to continue his journey to Vladivostok.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when I got to the train station, the train had already left, and there was only one per day,\u201d he says. \u201cWith all the setbacks, and half a day wasted at the border crossing, if I had waited for the next day\u2019s train, I would not have made it to Vladivostok in time to break the record. I had to cross it that day \u2014 or the whole world record attempt would have been for nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent an hour or two contemplating what was possible \u2014 and I just couldn\u2019t begin to plan my route back home. I couldn\u2019t make that U-turn after solving so many problems, after being so obsessed with forward movement for two months. I couldn\u2019t turn back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s when I decided to try and see if I could cross the border somewhere else, illegally. I was convinced I would fail, because there\u2019s a lot of surveillance in China, and these are two superpowers that are wary of each other. I was not expecting there to be a hole that I\u2019d be able to sneak through. But I had to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Riding south from Poltavka, eventually the border fence came to a stop. Instead, there was an alley leading to a building, and behind them both, a forest. Sehili began to walk through the trees with his bike before meeting a barbed wire fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed there was a stream going underneath,\u201d he says. \u201cSo it was really easy to go underneath it. You just had to walk through the stream, crawl through \u2014 and there I was. I was in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, continuing through the forest, the scale of his error began to dawn on Sehili. Consulting his map, he saw the road he had planned to take would lead to another checkpoint, while his other option, a set of railway tracks, led to another post. He was still in a form of no man\u2019s land between the nations \u2014 in short, he was trapped.<\/p>\n

Exhausted from days of cycling, with his legs torn and scratched from hiking through the forest, Sehili could not face retracing his steps under the fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d walk to the railway checkpoint and tell them I got lost,\u201d he remembers. \u201cMaybe they\u2019d believe me, and maybe they\u2019d drive me back to China. They were pretty surprised to see me. But they didn\u2019t believe me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The border guards called their superiors, who turned up in plain clothes. Sehili\u2019s electronics were confiscated, whilst, during a barrage of questioning, his interrogators took down each word of his responses. He quickly realised he was not going to be driven back to China. That evening, instead was driven to a cell at a military facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in a pretty dire shape,\u201d says Sehili. \u201cMy mattress was probably only two centimetres thick, or rather thin. There was no bathroom, only a toilet with a sink outside the cell. It was humid, there was no way to shower, and I spent a couple of nights there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I got my stuff back, and they put me in a car. I thought: \u2018Maybe this is where they drive me back to the Chinese border\u2019. But I knew the road, and we didn\u2019t make that turn. Instead of a right, we kept going straight. Then we arrived at another facility, and it was there that they notified me that I was going to spend at least 30 days in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not allowed a phone call, Sehili worried about how he would let his family know what had happened to him. Under their understanding, he was due to announce his arrival in Vladivostok, and the world record with it, at any moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two worst moments were finding out that the maximum penalty for my offence was two years in prison,\u201d he explains. \u201cI realised just quite how serious it was. And the other moment was when, at the end of 30 days, when I had expected my trial, I was told the investigation was not over, so my detention would be extended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given French president Emmanuel Macron\u2019s hardened foreign policy towards Russia, Sehili grew concerned that he might be being used as a \u201cpawn on a geopolitical chessboard\u201d.<\/p>\n

All the while, the ultracyclist was being kept in cells alongside other Russian prisoners, several detained for violent offences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was detained in four different cells,\u201d Sehili remembers. \u201cI started in a big cell with seven other inmates, and there I got access to another inmate\u2019s phone. But they must have had a wiretap on that guy, because they quickly switched me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were all sorts of criminals there. One was there for stabbing someone, another for statutory rape. There were several small-time drug-dealers, a thief, and someone in for corruption. There were two veterans from Ukraine \u2014 and one guy who was there for not having a permit for his gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a foreign guy, and not a criminal, you\u2019re at the bottom of the ladder. You\u2019re the last guy to be able to do anything in the cell. They were pretty much all quite short-tempered, so you had to be very careful about what you would do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they were not violent, and that was because this was a pre-trial detention facility \u2014 so if they were violent, that would show on their file, and they would receive a harsher sentence. People were maybe unpleasant and rude \u2014 there were also nice guys \u2014 but I was never in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He also began to be better treated by the guards, after his Vladivostok-based lawyer, hired by his family after they were informed of Sehili\u2019s imprisonment by the consulate, raised international awareness of his situation.<\/p>\n

Eventually, he received word from his lawyer. The investigation was complete. Because there were no aggravating factors to his transgression, if he pleaded guilty, the only likely punishment was a small fine.<\/p>\n

After an accelerated hearing process, it took just 30 minutes for him to found guilty \u2014 and released. He was exempted from paying the fine of 50,000 rubles (around \u20ac550) because he had spent so long in pre-trial detention.<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours, he was outside Russia. Within 48 hours, he was back in France, glad to be home, still frustrated at the way his record bid ended.<\/p>\n

Sehili does not, however, believe it would be possible to allow any leeway at border crossings when setting ultracycling records \u2014 for example, removing administrative hours from the total race time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be fairly complicated to monitor such a thing,\u201d he replies. \u201cAnd what I like about these endeavours is that it isn\u2019t just about being a really fit bike rider, it\u2019s not just about being able to ride 300km \u2014 but it\u2019s about being someone who is travel-savvy and smart enough to solve problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have anyone to blame but myself for making this decision, which was the backbone of my issues \u2014 but again, it was the only decision that I could make.\u201d<\/p>\n

In turn, he pushes against the notion that ultracycling events are growing riskier, as participants seek to shave hours off existing records, or even break new ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I think it\u2019s the other way around,\u201d Sehili answers. \u201cWhen I got into the sport, sleep deprivation was the big factor \u2014 we were trying to get the least sleep possible. But then, at some point, we realised that if you sleep a certain amount then you\u2019re going to be faster and catch the people that did not sleep. In the races that last longer than five days, the winners are those who stop. So it probably is getting safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, with all that in mind, is another attempt at the Trans-Eurasian record a possibility?<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlikely,\u201d Sehili replies. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say no \u2014 but it is very unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n