The gravel climb of Sant Miquel is one of the most popular ascents in the Girona area, spanning around five kilometres – depending on which trail you tackle it from – and rising high above the city to offer panoramic views of Catalonia’s luscious green mountains. In July last year, Millie Gibbons spent 24 hours repeatedly riding up and down Sant Miquel alongside her partner, who was doing the same thing, but running instead of cycling. Why?
“Well, it was a full moon, and sometimes these ideas just come to you, don’t they?” Gibbons grins.
This answer tells you the first thing you need to know about Millie Gibbons: ideas come to her in a way they don’t to other people. Spending 24 hours riding up a mountain is just one example of the ultra-endurance challenges the British cyclist has completed since she started cycling ten years ago. At the Traka last season, for example – one of the premier gravel races on the calendar – Gibbons combined all three distances back-to-back, covering 710km in just three days. There’s riding bikes, then there is Millie Gibbons’ version of riding bikes.
“Being outside all day, it's fun, isn't it? I like just looking at a map and thinking that I want to go there, so I’ll ride there,” she says. “Like with anything, your version of what is normal just slowly expands. I remember the first time I rode 100 kilometres thinking: this is really far. Now I’ll ride 500km through the night and that isn't even weird.”
Gibbons’ story on two wheels begins somewhere you might not expect: with a girls’ holiday to Portugal. Her friends were jetting off for sunshine and beaches and Gibbons, who was living in the French Alps at the time, was keen to join them – but not in a conventional way.
“I always saw bikes as a way of transport. Doing the North Coast 500 with my brother was the start, then I went bike-packing for three weeks by myself a few years later because the girls were going on a holiday to Portugal. I thought alright, see you there in a few weeks and I turned up on my bike,” she remembers.
In an era where cycling has become more and more focused on technology and numbers, Gibbons is a breath of fresh air. She focuses on the analog: riding to get from where she is to where she wants to go. Strava QOMs, FKTs (fastest known times) and power data are of little concern: “For some people it's good motivation, but I just love riding my bike.”
While spending hours alone in the wilderness isn’t something that Gibbons shies away from, she also notes the camaraderie and friendships that can be built from being in extreme situations with other people.
“I obviously like my own company having done lots of big things by myself and it’s cool that you're just in that alone and it is something you have chosen,” she reflects. “But something good about doing a race is like at the Alps Divide [a self-supported bike-packing adventure across a 1000km mixed-surface route with 35,000 elevation metres along the border of the French, Italian and Swiss Alps] I had a crazy experience when we were going along this hike-a-bike section at 2500m altitude. The wind was unbelievably strong and I could barely stay upright, but I looked up and there were five other riders in front of me. You had this feeling of being in it together, doing this crazy thing. If you were on your own, you might have turned around.”
The second thing you should know about Millie Gibbons is that she never turns around. With a degree in maths and a job in back-end software development, the British rider is a problem solver. It’s part of what draws her to ultra-endurance challenges like the Alps Divide – from the preparation to the ride itself and all that comes with it.
“My work environment can be applied to my cycling. For example, when I do these long rides my average speed might not be that fast but I’m really efficient when I stop and things like that. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is when packing your bike you get a system, you get to know the kit and bags, you know your sleep system. It’s like training as you race, racing as you train,” she says.
Gibbons admits that there’s not much glamour involved in ultra-distance cycling, but this is part of why it suits her, and what makes it endearing: “It's so funny when you do something like that, as the finish line is all you think about for days. Obviously you appreciate the surroundings, the climbs and descents are fun but you just keep going, keep pedalling. Then you get there and there’s maybe two people waiting for you in a random spot somewhere, that was really noticeable at the Alps Divide which was one of the hardest challenges I've ever done.”
It’s not performance that drives Gibbons, or the prospect of winning, but the freedom, adventure and discovery that cycling offers her. It’s why as she looks ahead to the future, her focus is on keeping things fun and fresh – holding on to the opportunities for exploration that drew her to bikes in the first place.
“At the moment, there's so many races coming up everywhere, but I enjoy picking my own adventures and really pushing myself. I like going on big rides, I’ll ride through the night even if it wasn’t a race,” Gibbons smiles. “I’m never going to be targeting races or results, I’m always just trying to have a good time, it’s about fun.”
This article was produced in collaboration with MAAP
