James Hayden has back-to-back wins in the Transcontinental Race, the most well-known unsupported ultracycling road race across Europe. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Hayden has been living in the Pyrenees along with his wife and son which has proven to be an apt ultracycling training ground.

But he wasn’t always in Spain. Now 32, Hayden began cycling aged 19 on a fixed gear bike across London, which then spiralled into track and then road racing. After realising that he wasn’t going anywhere in road racing, Hayden looked for a challenge in which he had the potential to grow.He first attempted the Transcontinental (TCR) in 2015 and put his body through the ringer.

‘I thought I could do it, I just didn’t know if I could be any good or if I would enjoy it,’ says Hayden.

‘I didn’t actually finish but I did really enjoy it. I was arrogant about my ability and I went out too hard and rode myself into the ground. I didn’t have much respect for the enormity of it and I ended up getting something called Shermer’s Neck and if it wasn’t that it would have been something else. I paid no respect to my body, and it just gave out eventually.’

Shermer’s Neck is a condition where the neck muscles fail from fatigue and can no longer support the head. It is a condition often seen as unique to ultracycling.

Quinda Verheul

Undeterred by both his DNF and his Shermer’s Neck, Hayden returned the following year to the TCR.

‘I decided immediately to come back the following year and started putting everything into that, I was hooked,’ explains Hayden. ‘I came fourth which was probably one of my defining performances in my mind because I was very sick during the race. I took a couple of days during the race to rest and recover and decided that no matter how long it took, or how much rest I needed, I would get to the finish line.

‘At that point I thought that if I was going to do the race a third time, and try and race it, I needed to have at least one finish. I needed to understand what it took physically and mentally to finish so I could come back and learn from that. The next year I won, and then the year after I won again. It was pretty cool.’

Moving off-road

James Hayden

After winning the TCR for a second time, Hayden’s cycling direction veered off-road and in 2018 he took on the Silk Road Mountain Race, a 1,700km journey through the sparsely populated mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

‘It took me a while to work out what my next chapter was after the TCR but it became about racing off road. I’d never ridden a mountain bike before and I wanted to learn how and master that skill.

‘With the Silk Road Mountain Race I still don’t feel that I have achieved what I want to personally as I haven’t given it 100%. I don’t like to leave things unfinished. If something’s unfinished, it just sits nagging at me.

‘When I give the race my best then I’ll know it’s time to close that chapter, and if I’m able to do my best I will probably win it. I’d like to win but it’s not the primary aim.’

It was at the Silk Road Mountain Race In 2018 where Hayden experienced one the sketchiest times of his cycling career.

‘Two guys tried to try to rob me in the middle of the night in a secluded area in the mountains,’ he says. ‘They were just drunk but we had good scuffle. Because we were on a mountain and the guys were on horseback, I knew that I could ride faster downhill than they could on horseback. So eventually I got my bike back from them and then went downhill really quickly in the dark, which was a bit exhilarating.

‘It took quite a lot of mental work for me to go back to feel comfortable riding but at the time I was in operational mode and just dealt with the situation in front of me. I call it mental fortitude.’

Safety  

Quinda Verheul

Riding in the middle of nowhere conjures up a plethora of questions around safety, not least escaping from drunk Kyrgyz men, but of note is that Hayden’s move to off-road was actually driven by this very aspect.

‘I think that safety was the elephant in the room in road racing,’ explains Hayden. ‘I used to race on road and I had no qualms about it back then but now I don’t really feel safe pushing myself beyond the limits on the road. My opinion has changed.

‘Plus with a road event, you are riding on a busy dual carriageway, there are cars going past and you stop at a petrol station every couple of hours to get some food. The pure athleticism of knocking out 700km a day is not really as motivating for me anymore.

‘I also think off road is much harder, as it is more demanding physically and mentally because of the place you are in, the conditions, the weather, and the terrain. It all wears you down.

‘It’s also incredibly beautiful being in the middle of nowhere in the mountains which is untouchable by road. Riding in places like the north of Scotland, Kyrgyzstan, the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, or just around here in the Pyrenees, it’s unbeatable.’

Mental resilience

Mental fortitude is important in any sport, especially endurance cycling, but it feels all the more crucial to Hayden.

‘I think learning to be able to control your mind is one of the greatest things you can do, but it’s not trainable in the way people think,’ he explains.

‘I don’t think you make yourself really strong by banging your head against a wall, I think that’s how you make yourself weak. If you train super-hard every day when it’s raining and everything, it will weigh you down eventually.

‘Sure, you should do those things at points in time to build your awareness and strength but it’s also important to be wary about it.

‘I see it that you have a box which contains your supply of mental strength and if you keep taking from that box all the time to do things, then it’s going to be empty.

‘I have a really good meditation practice now and I use that to understand myself. When I’m cycling I go into a meditative state where I feel completely at peace and time doesn’t exist.

‘Meditation has been one of the greatest ways I’ve built my mental strength. If you’re able to control how you think, then you have the key to everything, nothing can touch you because you can own it.’

Training

Lloyd Wright

One of the most common questions around ultracycling is should you do one in order to train for it, and Hayden has a straight answer for that.

‘No, that’ll kill you! Doing a ride over seven hours has negative returns, you become more tired and don’t get anything from it. There are reasons to do longer rides sometimes, but generally I would say no.  

‘I would do three-to-four-hour rides, a few interval sessions and some longer aerobic interval sessions. The key is to be really consistent with training – consistency is the king of everything.

‘I also do prehab and rehab exercises. As I’ve done this sport for enough years now my body is complaining so I have to spend a lot of time and money at the physio and the osteopath. Yoga is also very valuable.’

Hayden is also making use of the proper Pyrenean winters his home benefits from.

‘I’ve been doing a ski touring and ski mountaineering which has been super-cool. It’s quite new to me but ski mountaineering complements cycling so much and it’s making me so strong.

‘I also started trail running, which is dangerous because it’s easy to roll ankles, but my ankles are reasonably quite strong now. I do about two or three hours of trail running a week. I just like to be out exploring the mountains where I live which I can’t access by bicycle.’

Carbon footprint

Quinda Verheul

At end of 2022 Hayden released a detailed analysis of his carbon footprint on Instagram.

‘If you want to improve something you need to have a measure of it, even if it isn’t completely accurate,’ he says.

‘I could have done it and not said anything about it, but I am not ashamed of my carbon footprint. I have a better understanding and more of a personal conscience around it.’

‘I also think we need to create an environment of inclusivity and non-judgemental and educational where people can take ownership of their footprint,’ he adds.

‘It’s great that people like Marin [de Saint-Exupéry], and Lee Craigie are doing no fly trips, but I have a family so I don’t want to be away for that long. I am only doing two races this year and I am going to put 100% into both of them. I’m also not going to go places and do things just to create content.’

This year Hayden is riding the Silk Road Mountain Race and the Highland Trail 550, both races he has done before, and both races he is fully committed too.

Growth

James Hayden

Ultracycling is going from strength to strength, and Hayden is very much part of that growth.

‘It’s amazing and it’s great for me and for everyone else. It’s really cool to see so many new people coming into it, and the level gets better and better every year. I have to raise my game; everyone has to raise their game, or they will get dropped.

‘It’s really exciting and we’ve got some great new people like Marin coming in doing things a bit differently, with a slightly different vision on things and changing the dynamic. I think that’s really cool.

‘As for me, I’m going to keep evolving over the next few years and I see life becoming more about human-powered things with bikes, rather than the bike being the end goal. The bike is part of the overall thing.’

James Hayden ultracycling palmarès

2022 Silk Road Mountain Race: 2nd 2021 Further: 2nd, Silk Road Mountain Race: DNS, Highland Trail 550: 3rd2020 Further: 1st, Atlas Mountain Race: 2nd2019 Silk Road Mountain Race: 4th, Highland Trial 550: Finish, Italy divide: Joint 1st2018 Transcontinental Race: 1st2017 Transcontinental Race: 1st2016 Transcontinental Race: 4th2015 Transcontinental Race: DNF

Tags: GravelMental health