New Record on the Northern Route of 1000 Miles Adventure 🥇

I finally managed to win the toughest MTB race in Central Europe — 1000 Miles Adventure. And not only that! On the original northern route, I set a new record of 6 days, 17 hours, and 28 minutes. I wouldn’t have believed it even in my wildest dreams — well, okay, maybe in a really wild one. Still, I came to the start line thinking that breaking the seven-day limit by even a single minute would be a huge success.

⛰️ The toughest race in Central Europe?

Is it really the toughest race in Central Europe, or just a marketing slogan? I asked myself a similar question when I took part last year in the “toughest MTB race in the world” — Silk Road Mountain Race — and even there, the answer isn’t straightforward.

What I can definitely confirm is this: in terms of technical terrain difficulty, no other race I’ve ridden anywhere in the world has surpassed it so far. You’re constantly going up and down. You switch from singletracks to overgrown trails and blast down steep descents full of ruts and rocks. Some sections are so rooty that you can barely stay in the saddle. It’s exactly this combination of highly technical terrain and extreme distance that makes it such a huge challenge for the body. Other races are difficult because of raw conditions — remoteness, wild weather — but Miles will test your bike-handling like nothing else.

🚀 “On the limit for as long as possible” strategy

Right from the start, I decided to set a high pace and leave nothing to chance. In the past, I’d raced very conservatively, relying mainly on efficiency and calorie saving to help me in the final stages. This time, however, I chose a different strategy: push the limit for as long as possible.

At the front, Jakub Hrabý, Adam Biel, and I broke away, but on day one we were still stopped by a night restriction — in certain areas of Slovakia, night movement wasn’t allowed because of bears. So the next day, the race basically restarted at 6 a.m., and Lukáš Badura and Ondra Kacar joined the lead group.

⚔️ Duel with Ondra

Shortly after morning came, I started losing time and dropped far behind the group. But during the day, I picked off one rider after another until I caught the leader, Ondra. Together we managed to make it through a critically important night-restricted section to the village of Železné. That split up the leading group, and the battle for victory turned into a duel. I started thinking about the record — we were only 25 minutes behind it. It was only then that I actually checked what the current record was.

The next day, I disappeared on the first climb and didn’t see Ondra all day — but I had no idea he stayed about 15 minutes behind me the whole time. He managed to catch me just past the first checkpoint. Hard-boiled eggs, sausage soup, and an unusually high water level of the Váh played a role in that.

In the Vizovice and Hostýn Hills, another blow hit the group behind us, creating a gap that became impossible to close. While Ondra and I got through in only light drizzle, Lukáš, Jakub, and Adam were hit by hours of heavy rain. After an hour and a half of sleep (each of us sleeping somewhere else), we pushed on toward the Jeseníky Mountains. Sometimes we rode together, sometimes separately — we didn’t give each other a single minute of rest. Whenever I tried to attack on climbs, Ondra reeled me back in within moments. We declared a truce only on the climb to Dlouhé Stráně and reached the second checkpoint together.

🏔️ The decisive breakaway in the Krkonoše Mountains

The next day we got up around 2:30 a.m., and Ondra left about 5 minutes earlier. He was trying to drop me. But I wasn’t going to give up easily. I occasionally asked people how big his lead was, and he managed to build nearly a 30-minute gap. But in Poland and around Broumov, his advantage disappeared, and by Teplice nad Metují we were riding together again. At the end of the day, we slept in the same shelter before the Krkonoše Mountains — and that may very well have decided the entire race.

The next day I felt it was my turn, so I tried to break away. I didn’t know Ondra had had a bad night and, because of grass allergies, hadn’t slept much. I coughed through the night too, but it wasn’t that bad. In the Krkonoše and Jizera Mountains, I managed to build a solid three-hour lead. It sometimes shrank, but overall I managed to hold it all the way to the finish. I reached the third checkpoint so early that they hadn’t even prepared the generator for charging yet.

🦉 Final non-stop night

Knowing I was in first place and still had a 4-hour lead over the record kept me going. I slept for three hours one last time in Horní Podluží and was determined to ride the final 300 kilometers to the finish non-stop. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance, because I was afraid Ondra might attempt the impossible to catch me.

The nerves climbed when, with 170 kilometers to go, I crashed, bent my derailleur hanger, and bruised my ribs.

That final non-stop night was definitely the hardest thing I went through in the race. I wasn’t smiling anymore. I was running out of strength, fatigue gripped me like iron bands, and my eyelids felt as if they were made of cement. In hindsight, I could probably have slept for an hour and still improved my time slightly — but after the battle, everyone is a general.

Overnight, I actually had three rivals: Ondra behind me, the former northern record held by Dan Polman, and the current Dan himself, who was riding the southern route, and we had a very similar planned finish time.

🏁 At the finish: How did I actually do it?

I reached the finish in 6 days, 17 hours, and 28 minutes, improving Dan Polman’s record by 2.5 hours. Compared to Milan Hanyk’s original 2019 record, it was even 6 hours faster. This race keeps moving forward, and I’m sure new challengers are already eyeing my record. And that’s exactly how it should be.

If you ask me how I did it — I honestly don’t know. But this year, everything clicked: weather and form. My mind worked great, and I stayed focused on the race almost the entire time. At points, so much so that I couldn’t think about anything else. I was fully immersed in my thoughts, planning every next move, every stop, and every resupply.

For me, this incredible ride began 11 years ago when I entered the race for the first time. Back then, I had no idea what I was getting into, I barely rode a bike, and I was just happy to reach the 500-mile mark. Now I’ve gained a sea of experience and made it to the absolute top level of Czech bikepacking.

📊 Results

Northern route results:

• Michal Ozogán – 6 days, 17 hours, and 28 minutes
• Ondřej Kacar – 6 days, 21 hours, and 28 minutes
• Adam Biel, Jakub Hrabý – 7 days, 13 hours, and 22 minutes

Southern route results:

• Daniel Polman – 6 days, 16 hours
• Tomáš Novotný – 7 days, 6 hours, and 44 minutes
• Václav Jurák – 7 days, 12 hours, and 8 minutes

Photos by Vít Huspenina and Eva Šlosarová.