As the sun sinks on February 7, 2025, over Marrakesh, Morocco, its golden light washing over the ochre walls of the medina, hundreds of riders will gather at the start of the Atlas Mountain Race. A sea of bikepackers will be making last-minute adjustments to their bags, taking sips from their bidons and smiling nervously at one another. The low murmur of conversation will fill the air, mingling with something less tangible – a quiet tension, a sense of the unknown. Unknown, because, what lies ahead for every one of these riders is 1,305 kilometres of adventure, desert dust, jagged mountains, and endless solitude.
Gregor Towers will be among them, ready to tackle the race and its 23,000 metres of elevation, head on. This will be his first experience of riding the Atlas Mountain Race. But he’ll be surrounded by many who have taken on this demanding course before, as the 2025 edition of the race marks its fifth time hosting this incredible unsupported, one-stage race. For some, the reason to ride is for adventure, the chance to explore new landscapes, reconnect with themselves or chase personal records. For Towers, the goal is to win.
“It’s one of the biggest races in the discipline of cycling, so I have just dedicated the last three months to training alongside my work, and the goal is to win it,” he tells Rouleur a week before he is due to fly to Morocco from the Netherlands where he works as a content marketer for a start-up company. “Of course, it is ambitious, and there will be others there who have a better track record than me, but you never know. I have trained just as hard.”
Justinas Leveika won the 2024 men’s Atlas Mountain Race, completing the 1,305km in three days, 19 hours, and 16 minutes – his third attempt at winning the overall. In the women’s race, American rider, Cynthia Carson, was the first woman to finish with a time of four days, 19 hours, and three minutes. Towers understands that it is going to take a lot to be the first to finish, but this is where strategy comes into play.
“There’s a bit of a game plan in place,” he says, mentioning that he has been working with a coach for the past three months, focussing solely on this race across Morocco. “We know we have to go for around 96 hours to 100 hours to win it. That’s not a lot of time for stopping to sleep.”
“The race starts about six o’clock at night, which forces you through the first night,” he continues. “The second night, I will try to rely on power naps to get through it, so I should be able to push through two nights. Then the third night, I will definitely have to sleep at least two hours.” Power naps, he explains, can be anything from just stopping on your bike and putting your head in your hands to a half-hour nap on the side of the road. “A couple of them”, he says, and he should be near the top.
For those who aren’t familiar with this type of racing, these are the extremes that are needed to conquer one of cycling’s most demanding and remote races. The previous winner, Carson, spoke to Rouleur previously about how trying to win one of these ultra-distance bikepacking races resulted in her hallucinating. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted and those who enter the race will need to experience looking after themselves in remote places when they’re exhausted and near their limit.
This is not Tower’s first rodeo in the ultra-bikepacking scene. “Last year was my first full race season and I did the Race Around the Netherlands (1,950km), Trans Alba Race in Scotland (1,693km), and I did a race called the Goats in Portugal (730km). That was all in preparation for this sort of pushing into the top 10. And then, the goal of Atlas is to push into the top five, at least.”
But he says that you can never be ready for a race like the Atlas Mountain Race, you’ve just got to have faith that all your efforts in training will have you ready for the race both physically and mentally. While Towers will be aiming to complete the race in record-quick time, all participants have seven days to complete the 1,305km route and finish in the town of Essaouira, the wind city of Africa. That doesn’t mean however, that it will be any easier for those taking the race at a slower pace – the route is designed by the organisers to test individual limits over gravel, single track and ancient colonial pistes.
“My longest practice ride has been around 250km, 160 miles,” Towers says regarding his training for the race. “I wouldn’t really do more than nine hours as you just start to experience too much fatigue.” He also notes that he hasn’t practised throughout the night and will rely on adrenaline to push him through the dark periods of the race. “It’s short really,” he adds. “In reality, it is not like it is a three-week race, it’s only three to four days.”
The snow-capped Atlas Mountains will form the backbone of this race, with two checkpoints along the entirety of the route, where riders will be able to resupply, get some hot food and stock up on snacks before heading back into the remote wilderness.
The vast, lunar landscape is one of the ride’s appealing features and something Towers is looking forward to experiencing. “I think just going through the different elements of the race. You’ve got the desert up to a mountain pass at around 2,200 metres,” he says about what he is most excited about. “I think that the challenge of the different climates and the different terrain will be pretty unique. There’s not many races that will take you from a desert to a mountain peak.”
On the other hand, however, being in such a remote place means riders must be able to look after themselves. Towers is not nervous about this part of the race, adding: “I am not worried about what I can do. I’m worried, well not worried, but aware of what can put a stop to my race. A mechanical I cannot fix or illness from the food and water – the uncontrollable.”
This is part of the experience of participating in a race like the Atlas Mountain Race, however – a bucket-list event for ultra-endurance cyclists, known for its extreme challenge, stunning landscapes, and true adventure. There’s no use dwelling on what might happen before even leaving Marrakesh, especially for Towers, who needs to be fully focussed on the task at hand.
So, as the city hums with nervous anticipation, Towers will be reminding himself of the months of training he’s put in. Now, it is time to commit – 100 hours of effort, giving everything he has. “I am prepared to suffer,” he says.
You can follow all the riders taking part in this year's event via the Atlas Mountain Race website
