DotWatching: The Other Side of the Race

Cover image of Millie by

Recently, Millie Gibbons, DotWatcher’s new full-time Wed Developer, headed out to Kromvojoj. This is like Christmas, Easter and New Year rolled into one at DotWatcher HQ; DotWatching inception.

This kind of DotWatching is all-consuming. It wakes you up at 4am, keeps you up at night and makes you wonder if maybe you want to do this race next year… but we’ll start at the beginning.

Millie is not only a talented web developer, but she is also a five-star rider in her own right. Finishing first woman at Lost Dot’s 2023 Transpyrenees Race, 3rd woman at the tough Alps Divide and 5th woman at the stacked Traka 560. With these races under her belt, it is endearing how humble and enthusiastic Millie is about her ultra-distance racing. With a primary goal of always enjoying herself, the grimpeur (I’m sure she’ll agree with this denotation) relishes the climbs and doesn’t quite enjoy those long flats like I might.

With this in mind, lining up for the climbing mission that is Kromvojoj, Millie was primed for tackling the French and Aragonese Pyrenees, including the indomitable Col du Tourmalet. The DotWatcher team harboured secret hopes of Millie’s chance at a podium, with Fanny Bensussan joining the ranks; it was going to be a tough battle.

Discussions pre-race were had about sleeping strategy, which lights to take, whether or not a spare battery was required. Isn’t it a joy to be able to discuss these dilemmas with your equally fanatical coworkers? We listened to Millie talk through her plans whilst eagerly awaiting the moment of excitement - the first night breakdown.

Why the first night?

Ultra-distance racing can be a little tough to decipher. Wiith around 30,000m of climbing over 1445km, knowing the climbs and the sleep spots is key not only for a rider, but for a DotWatcher. A race like this was going to take time, not a flat blast through the park, but an intense battle in 34-degree heat. By the end of day 1, I’m often able to unravel people’s potential strategies. Knowing a rider’s background, I try to judge whether or not they’re pacing it to ride through the night or to put some distance between them and the pack to grab some sleep. But, Fanny and Millie kept pace - almost riding in step with one another for the first 3 days.

So, here we were, Amanda and I with one screen pulled up on DotWatcher.cc and another on, well, DotWatcher.cc. Messaging back and forth about Millie’s progress, checking on the ride, and seeing her stats. She wasn’t stopping! The dog walk suddenly became the ideal spot for a quick map refresh. Millie’s tracking issues became an intense game of graph interpretation that I hadn’t done since school. Was she stopping? Is there a town there? Will she have enough light?

All the while, poor Millie was receiving a torrent of messages, most likely obscuring her directions, as we prodded for updates, asked if she was still moving and made sure to just blast good vibes (we hope). Then it happened, my evening shop in Morrisons (a UK supermarket) and Millie’s text came through “Fanny has had to scratch and my tracker hasn’t been working”.

Any keen DotWatcher will understand the torrent of emotions that comes through at this point. I’ve seen Fanny’s racing over the years. Fanny, an extremely experienced ultra-rider with more podiums than days of the week, had had to finish her race early due to a catastrophic mechanical. A race that is defined by its climbs, it is almost unfathomable to lose the use of your rear mech. Fanny, who had put in a monumental effort, could no longer continue at race pace. The sadness that came could only be matched by a spark of excitement - Millie was now in contention for the women’s win and the overall podium.

Many argue that ultra-distance closes the gap between male and female physiological differences. We could delve even further into this, but for now, the Guardian summed it up in a nice digestible . Even though Millie was a shoo-in for the women’s podium there was a mere 4 hours between Millie and Henry Hall in 3rd. Within this was Oriol Borreda Cassà and Dani Vilà Ramirez. Side bar, with Dani’s gender neutral name, we had a slight panic as we ran to the leaderboard sorting to see whether or not they had flown under our radar.

So, the moment 100km was left we were all glued to the screens. I’d woken up on the 11th June and seen her, creeping towards the finish. No one in sight to contest the win, it wasn’t until later in the afternoon that the true certainty sank in. 80km to go, a four hour ride, I’ll have time to go out for an evening spin? 60km to go, I’ve pulled out my phone to check on the ride, three hours with a hill? 30km to go, she’ll be in and finished by the time I go to bed, best have some dinner and watch some netflix with the map on the side. 10 km to go, it’ll be done so soon, I’ll just watch the minutes tick down on the tracker. Bed time, she did it.

Millie came 6th overall and took the women’s podium. A fierce battle against sunburn and Fanny saw her pressing those pedals as hard as she could. She only stopped for an hour each night, yet the DotWatching felt like an eternity.

Millie’s thoughts:

“I loved it all - from the relentless climbs in the Pyrenees to the undulating Spanish roads under immense heat. The race had a great atmosphere, shared by the volunteers and riders. The organisation was top level and you could feel their passion to want each rider have their own adventure. A truly great race, Ill remember to bring more suncream next time.”