What triathletes can learn from Alistair Brownlee winning a 600km bikepacking race 

Alistair Brownlee won the Dales Divide bikepacking race last weekend across the extremely hilly and technical Yorkshire Dales. The double Olympic gold medallist covered 600km and 11,000m elevation in just 35 hours, including only an hour paused, on his BMC Kaius gravel bike. 

That’s an extraordinary ride only world-class athletes are capable of. But whatever level you are, I think you can reap dividends from taking on a more manageable bikepacking challenge. 

Even before Brownlee retired from triathlon, leaving his remarkable legacy, he took part in off-road cycling events. I interviewed him at the British Gravel Championships in 2023, a race he had clearly thoroughly enjoyed. Before that he had ridden Badlands, a Spanish gravel ultra, so the variety can’t have been doing him any harm. And in retirement, he’s doubled down on exploration by completing ski marathons and the Patagonman Xtreme Triathlon. 

Although I haven’t even attempted anything as extreme, I have ridden thousands of kilometres with bikepacking bags strapped to my road bike or gravel bike. Most trips have brought enjoyment, and improved skills and fitness. 

1. Fun volume

I like to think about bikepacking trips as mobile training camps. You can accumulate lots of volume without the drudgery of repeating your usual routes. Because you’re on the move, bikepacking can provide a greater sense of accomplishment than returning to your hotel or apartment every day. Once back on home roads, I tend to feel mentally rejuvenated for weeks to come, an undervalued but crucial aspect of training motivation. 

2. Find a fuelling strategy

Following a lot of trial and error, bikepacking has taught me how to fuel big days on the bike, especially consecutive ones. You have to eat so much on a cycling tour that you’ll eventually learn the quantities and types of foods you can handle and what helps you perform best.

This clicked for me when riding across Ireland and back last year. On my last day I had to time-trial into the wind for three hours. I felt strong enough to do so because I hadn’t sunk into a massive calorific deficit on the previous days. For this involved upping carbohydrate intake to 60g per hour on the bike and eating more carbs, more regularly off it.

3. Mechanical know-how

Even if you don’t have to fix a mechanical catastrophe in the middle of nowhere, going bikepacking obliges you to brush-up on essential road-side fixes. For example, in advance of my first voyage on tubeless gravel tyres, I had to learn how to fix a puncture with a tubeless plug. It’s not something I have to do very often, but it’s reassuring to know how. In the same vein, learning how to repair a broken chain for bikepacking recently saved me from the ‘call of shame’ to my wife when my chain broke miles from home. 

4. Handle yourself 

When you have all the gear you need for bikepacking on your steed, it handles very differently. It doesn’t feel as responsive to steering input, making line choice and anticipation more important. The same applies when you’re cornering and descending, causing you to prioritise early braking and correct trajectory. All this translates well to safe and fast descending on an unladen road bike. After recovering from a bikepacking adventure, I’ve generally felt I can pilot my day-to-day set-up better. 

The good news is that today is better than ever to find a bikepacking route, an organised challenge or off-road triathlon. If you’ve been inspired to try something different, read our guide to the best cycling challenges for adventurous triathletes or dive straight into the Restless Xtreme Gravel Triathlon.