It has been a mad few months for Sofiane Sehili: a world record attempt for the fastest crossing of Eurasia by bike, an illegal border crossing, 51 days in a Russian jail, and now back home in France. Wow! Let’s take a look at the Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti bike he was riding for his mammoth ride.
Okay, okay, let’s back up a bit. Who is Sofiane Sehili?
Sofiane is a French ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist. He has toured over 200,000km (160,000 miles) since 2010 in more than 50 countries. He’s placed highly in various endurance events, and won the Silk Road Mountain Race three times, the Atlas Mountain Race, and the Tour Divide.
Sofiane has been in the news most recently for being arrested while attempting to break the record for crossing Eurasia by bike. The record stood at just over 64 days. Sofiane was riding from Cabo da Roca, Portugal, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. It’s about 14,300km (8,900 miles), give or take.
Sofiane was arrested after illegally crossing the Russian border from China through a forest rather than taking the train he was booked on.
Sofiane told Reuters, “I was on a mission to break a world record and if I had decided to wait another 24 hours to be on that train then breaking the record would have been impossible.”
Had he made the 20km train journey, his two-month-long attempt would likely have been voided.
2025 Sofiane Sehili on bike head on (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
“I kind of gave up on that dream of breaking the world record somewhere in that forest after crossing the barbed wire,” he said. “There was no path. I was walking in streams, climbing over fallen tree trunks and walking through high razor-sharp grass, and my legs were full of cuts.”
We first reported on Sofiane’s arrest back in early September. He was eventually released on 23 October.
How does he feel about crossing the border now?
“This was a big mistake and, of course, I regret doing it,” says Sofiane. “But it’s hard to give up so close to the goal after two months of not only riding my bike, but also solving problems. I spent two months finding solutions to numerous complications, being obsessed with forward movement. It’s almost impossible to switch from this state of mind to just giving up in a couple of hours. And this is all the time I had to make a decision.”
2025 Sofiane Sehili with bike (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
Hindsight, huh? In contrast, Sofiane had 51 days to dwell on the results of his decision. That’s how long he was detained before eventually being freed to head home to southwest France.
Our man Ryan Mallon has had the chance to catch up with Sofiane about the whole experience, and you can find out all about it when the podcast is released in a few days. In the meantime, we thought we’d like to find out about his bike. Yes, spec details might seem trivial after such an ordeal, but this is a Bike at Bedtime. It’s what we do here.
2025 Sofiane Sehili Bombtrack (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
Sofiane was riding a Bombtrack Hook EXT Ti, Bombtrack being a German brand.
“Even though I knew I was going to spend most of my time on tarmac, I opted for a gravel bike as I like their versatility, and they’re also a bit more comfortable than road bikes, especially when they’re made of titanium, a material that is known for filtering microvibrations,” says Sofiane.
“When you spend anywhere from 12 to 16 hours every day on the saddle, comfort is obviously key. I also knew that in some countries, the paved roads would be in bad shape, or not paved at all for several kilometres, so a gravel bike with relatively wide tyres made sense.”
2025 Sofiane Sehili Bombtrack Hunt wheels Rene Herse Barlow Pass tyres (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
Speaking of the tyres, Sofiane was using Rene Herse’s Barlow Pass in a 38mm.
“I run them tubeless,” says Sofiane. “I’m a big fan of tubeless and have been for close to 10 years now. For such a long journey, you don’t want to struggle with numerous flats, and tubeless offers you peace of mind.
“I was carrying a spare tyre and I also had a plan to fit my bike with new tyres about halfway to Vladivostok, but the parcel I sent from home never made it to Kazakhstan, so I ended up riding the whole thing with just three tyres.”
> Check out our review of the Rene Herse Barlow Pass TC tyre. We liked it.
2025 Sofiane Sehili on bike from ahead (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
Sofiane’s bike was fitted with Pro Missile Evo carbon aero bars.
“They’re super comfy, and I literally spent hours using them when I was riding in the endless steppes of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,” says Sofiane. “They were also super useful for the headwinds in Mongolia and China.”
That’s a sentence you’ve never read on road.cc before.
Sofiane’s wheels are from British brand Hunt. In this case, they’re Hunt’s 40 Limitless Gravel Adventure wheels.
“I wanted wheels that were fast, and with their height and width, they certainly are,” says Sofiane. They’re 40/41mm deep with a 36/35mm external width.
“I also wanted wheels that were bombproof without being heavy. A carbon gravel wheelset is the way to achieve that. I’m very happy with these. After 18,000km [11,200 miles], they’re still true and rolling smoothly.”
I’m going to take a wild punt and say that most of us have never ridden from Cabo da Roca to Vladivostok and don’t really have much idea of what would be a suitable drivetrain setup. Sofiane went for a Shimano GRX Di2 groupset – in other words, electronic and gravel-specific – with 48/31-tooth chainrings and an 11-36T cassette.
“I think it offers a wide enough range,” says Sofiane. “I’m aware that most people would find the easiest gear not easy enough, but my pedalling style is definitely more oriented towards powering through steep stuff than spinning.
“Many people questioned my choice of electronic shifting for huge distances in countries where there’s no real bike shop, but Shimano Di2 is so reliable I never doubted it. Amazingly, I was able to ride all the way from Lisbon to the China/Russia border with the same chain and cassette.”
Of course, as well as moving himself and the bike, Sofiane had to carry equipment for two months on the road – but it turns out that wasn’t very much at all.
“I have a very minimalist approach when it comes to packing,” says Sofiane. “I don’t know exactly how much I was carrying, but I doubt that it was much more than 5kg.
“I wanted to document the journey the best I could, so I was carrying two cameras and a drone. But in terms of clothes, I went with the bare minimum. And I was carrying no camping gear at all. I stayed in hotels every night, except for two where I just lay down on the floor for a few hours. These were not pleasant nights.”
> Check out the Mason Definition that Josh Ibbett rode to Transcontinental Race victory in 2015
Yep, we get that. As mentioned up top, Sofiane was released towards the end of October. He’s now at home in France… and so is his bike.
2025 Sofiane Sehili alongside Bombtrack (credit: Sofiane Sehili)
“I did come home with my bike. I don’t think the border guards were very interested in keeping it. They probably have no idea how much it costs. They kept it in a military facility very close to the border during the 51 days I spent in prison. I got my helmet and my glasses back as well. Plus all the electronics that the police had confiscated: my cameras, my drone, my phone and my Coros DURA [solar GPS bike computer].”
> Read our review of the Coros Dura Solar GPS Bike Computer
And has he been back on the bike since getting home? We could imagine he might be dying to get back in the saddle after weeks off it. On the other hand, we could also understand if he didn’t want anything to do with cycling for a while.
“I went for a 50km ride last Tuesday as we had gorgeous weather here in the southwest of France,” says Sofiane. “I thought I would be completely out of shape, but actually things went rather okay. A month or two of training and I’ll be fit again.”
Love it!
Like we said earlier, Ryan has been speaking to Sofiane Sehili for the road.cc podcast. Look out for it in the coming days.