Detours: Bikepacking, Ultra-Cycling and Adventures by Bike

Nutrition is one of the most underestimated parts of bikepacking and ultra-distance racing. We can dial our kit, obsess over our gear, train for months — but if we're not fuelling well, none of it matters. This week, Dietician Uri Carlson is back on Detours, and this time we had a very specific agenda: Highland Trail 550 is on the horizon, and this year I'll be lining up for my first time, and I wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned. 

We get into carb loading — when to start and how to think about it for a multi-day race that lasts a week — resupply strategy, hydration ranges, gut health and the microbiome, what to do when you're too nauseous to eat but still have a long way to go, and why under-fuelling is a bigger threat to your gut than any high-carb gel. A lot of the specifics are Highland Trail flavoured, but the fuelling principles apply to any ultra-endurance adventure you've got on the horizon.

You can also find the blog post version of this episode on Substack

Follow Uri on Instagram @uri_carlson_nutrition

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Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion
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What do you do when things don't go your way? When you're caught in the eye of a storm and unsure whether to continue. When the race you trained all winter for falls apart on day one.

Justyna Jarczok has been cycling for only two years, and in that short time she's found some answers. She's resilient, positive, and ambitious – and she just won the women's race at Dale's Divide.

We talk about decision making in extreme weather, reframing races that don't go to plan, the community that rallied when her bike was stolen, and why ultra feels like the place she belongs.

Follow Justyna's adventure on Instagram @justine_bike

Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb
Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling
Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling
Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion
If you love this show please consider pledging your support to sustain producing this show: https://buymeacoffee.com/detourspodcast

A lil life update on our recent trip to Spain, bikepacking around Girona, one month living overseas and the final few weeks of prep before Highland Trail 550. 

Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb
Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling
Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling
Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion
If you love this show please consider pledging your support to sustain producing this show: https://buymeacoffee.com/detourspodcast

Gala Giannini is an ER doctor, ultra racer, and now event organizer based in northern Italy. She's raced Italy Divide, Gran Guanche, Silk Road, Atlas, and Badlands.

At her first ultra, there were maybe four women on the start line. At Atlas this year, the change was undeniable.

In this episode of Detours, we talk about the growing movement of more women on start lines, how winning a gravel bike by drawing a 180-kilometer reindeer on Strava led to her first ultra two months later, the parallels between night shifts in the ER and racing through the night, and the event she's building in the Italian Alps – named after a mythological goat with uneven legs.

Learn more about the Dahu Trail

Follow Gala's adventures: @gala.giannini

Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb
Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling
Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling
Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion
If you love this show please consider pledging your support to sustain producing this show: https://buymeacoffee.com/detourspodcast

What if the thing waiting on the other side of "failure" is more valuable than the goal itself?

Vedangi Kulkarni is an ultra-endurance cyclist, adventurer, and two-time round-the-world rider. She first circumnavigated the globe at 19 – starting in Australia in 2018 and finishing on Christmas Eve, turning 20 somewhere along the way. Then in 2024, she set out again, starting and finishing in India, chasing the record for the fastest woman to cycle around the world. She didn't get the record. But what she found along the way might have been more valuable.

Now based in Inverness, Scotland, Vedangi runs The Adventure Shed, helping others plan solo expeditions, and is launching the Looking Beyond Barriers Adventure Fund to support the next generation of women adventurers.

In this episode of Detours we talk about the privilege of a single yes, what it took to keep going when her goal slipped out of reach, redefining success around impact over performance, and so much more.

Follow Vedangi's adventures: @thisisvedangi

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Follow Mel on Instagram: @melwwebb
Follow Detours on Instagram: @detourscycling
Follow Albion on Instagram: @albion.cycling
Use code DETOURS15 to get 15% off your next order from Albion
If you love this show please consider pledging your support to sustain producing this show: https://buymeacoffee.com/detourspodcast