Not all challenges are measured in kilometers. Although Sami Sauri’s latest big one reached two thousand.

Sami defines herself as a multidisciplinary athlete, photographer, and enthusiast of combining both facets. We spoke with her a few days after the Silk Mountain Race—she still had a slight cough from all the dust breathed on the road, clear signs on her hands, and a more than palpable sense of personal satisfaction.

Last August, 260 people, including just 22 women, started riding in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan, knowing that what lay ahead was one of the most challenging ultradistance races in the world: 2,200 kilometers with almost 28,000 meters of elevation gain, unpredictable weather, and an average altitude of 2,600 meters above sea level.

No matter how much bikepacking you’ve done, no one can prepare you for something like this—it’s more of a survival race. A race against the finish line. “I realized that everything I normally plan for in other races wasn’t going to work there”, confessed Sami.

The Silk Mountain Race was the last in the list of recent cycling goals that began with Across Andes, continued with her annual visit to The Traka, tested her physical and mental abilities for the big event at Bright Midnight in Norway, and then faced the most important challenge of 2025 for her. A year that was carefully crafted with a clear purpose: to refocus with determination on how to enjoy her two passions under the premise of “Adventure more” and thus find her place in the sport.

At a time when it seems that a bunch of likes somehow dictate the future of a discipline, and that everything is tending to revolve around fast gravel, it’s easy to fall into comparisons and start feeling that if your perception and understanding of cycling is different from what is considered the norm, maybe you’re not doing it right.

“If I have to stop and take a picture of a flower, I do it, and I don’t care, it’s what I want in that moment […] I had a good time in my own way” – Sami Sauri

Crossing mountains, rivers, and limits

Sami has gaps in her memory and moments she will never forget. It was 10 days, 17 hours, and 22 minutes of mixed feelings. Stretches of 400 km away from civilization, hours without seeing anyone, 30 km bike hikes, sub-zero temperatures, more than 24 h without mobile connection, during which she still wrote messages “because she had to talk to something”… But between power naps, occasional tears and anxiety, there were also many moments of glory.

“Some nights when I was riding, I saw lots of shooting stars. I think one of the best was the first one, which I decided to do in one go. I crossed five rivers alone in Crocs, and realizing that I could do that was very rewarding—like, wow, I’ve made it this far” – Sami Sauri

Sami didn’t doubt the physical part as much as the mental. She worked with James Hayden as her mentor for a few months beforehand, because a challenge like this is always daunting. Her motivation was to experience and photograph the culture and beauty of those landscapes, with “if you go further, you’ll see more” as her mantra.
Over more reasonable distances, you can fool your body a little by convincing it that there isn’t much left to go, but this was a whole different ball game, and every day that passed required a mental shift. The only thing you could do is keep moving.

We wonder if anything has changed in her after the race. “I liked being able to do more than I thought I could, and I think that may have opened the door to a Sami who is more eager to do this kind of things”, mentioned the multidiscipline adventurer.

It is also hugely motivating for other women to see that something like this can be done; that, like Sami—without forgetting the toughness of it—we can feel proud of overcoming limits that are often self-imposed.

I guess that sometimes we don’t seek adventure solely for what we will find outside, but also for the inner discovery.