The female one two

Top five finishers in

The race for the podium 

True character

Photo finish?

Closing the gap

The chase is on

Community support 

Snow day

Check out the [latest feature](https://dotwatcher.cc/feature/five-minutes-with-james-hayden-and-sofiane-sehili) with James Hayden and Sofiane Sehili to find out more about their race and what's next for them both.

Five Minutes With: James & Sofiane

Now that the dust has settled, perhaps you'd like to read a couple of accounts from riders who took part in the Italy Divide.

[Anja Marwitz](https://www.wildwildwheels.de/blog) 🇩🇪

[Aniek Rooderkerken](https://www.travelwriter.nl/italy-divide-unsupported-bikepacken-door-italie/) 🇳🇱

[James Hayden](http://jamesmarkhayden.uk/italy-divide/italy-divide-report/) 🇬🇧

If you know of anyone else who has written up their account of the Italy Divide 2019 or perhaps you've done your own, [email us](mailto:grace@dotwatcher.cc) and we can update this list.

Race wrap up

Late last night, Italian Valentina Rocca finished the 2019 Italy Divide as the first female with a time of 5 days, 10 hours and 55 minutes. Here’s her moment of arrival captured by the organisers:

<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fitaly.divide%2Fvideos%2F545410689315649%2F&show_text=0&width=267" width="267" height="476" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

Valentina was followed seven hours later by Briton Philippa Battye, coming in as second female with a time of 5 days, 17 hours and 37 minutes. Chapeau to both.

And in a moving statement echoing James’s comments, Sofiane had this to say of their joint finish: 

<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsofiane.shl%2Fposts%2F10157168922614805&width=500" width="500" height="680" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>

Riders are now finishing thick and fast, with 20 competitors over the line – including long-time leader Jay Petervary, who still managed a top 10 placement despite his potentially race-ending mechanical trouble. 

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BwzylD1FW-B/" data-instgrm-version="12" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BwzylD1FW-B/" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BwzylD1FW-B/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Don&#39;t fret the blue dot going 100km/h. I got a ride and am fine. Out of nowhere the ship almost sank. After exhausting other options I almost gave up and then out of nowhere a bag full of random hardware was brought to me. The situation does change the direction I was going but it will not prevent me from doing what I think is one of THE most important things - finishing! I will walk away with lessons learned, even an evaluation of my own thoughts and attitude, as it floored me with emotions, disappointment and sadness when a really fun strategic game that I thought I had some good control over was all of a sudden over. I wonder how many cafes and pizzas I can eat before I finish!? At this point I think its going to be a lot as I go into tour mode starting back up in the AM. #italydivide19 #RideForward</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jay_petervary/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Jay Petervary</a> (@jay_petervary) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-04-28T18:26:24+00:00">Apr 28, 2019 at 11:26am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

All top five spots are now filled – with Levente Bagoly and Thomas Taut taking positions 3 and 4 just an hour apart. Italian Lorenzo Gamberini came in four hours later, completing the top five. Here’s his arrival filmed by the organisers:

<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fitaly.divide%2Fvideos%2F402899600551936%2F&show_text=0&width=267" width="267" height="476" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

In the women’s category, Valentina Rocca is around 80km away from the finish line. She’s followed by second female rider Philippa Battye at a distance of 60km, who’s been loading up on quality ride fuel with her fellow competitors:

![Screenshot 2019-04-30 at 17.01.36](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/495hMAmnV5lOGe3DuQ4uP0/a625ab1d5c09a16a7b427de8ffcb8df7/Screenshot_2019-04-30_at_17.01.36.png)

The distances seem big compared to the closeness of the men’s category yesterday, but there’s still some big climbs to come through treacherous riding conditions. Keep watching the dots… 

![Screenshot 2019-04-30 at 08.22.40](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/YxoiU6Oop0o99jITewn4G/480384796e6e162426ca014ab7fab35c/Screenshot_2019-04-30_at_08.22.40.png)

Until late last night, the race for third place was also relatively close. Romanian Levente Bagoly and German Thomas Taut were within 30km of each other for at least the last 24 hours, but a surge in speed looks to have clinched it for Levente – who is now just 4km from the finish line. 

![Screenshot 2019-04-30 at 08.17.56](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6sLPUqcJ7W5dxw3S7kCSLD/f9cfe3fe2623b0eb535f7c09d4e67a42/Screenshot_2019-04-30_at_08.17.56.png)

James Hayden took a break from celebrations to offer an insight into yesterday’s honourable finish, posting this update to [LFGSS](https://www.lfgss.com/):

![Screenshot 2019-04-30 at 08.27.57](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4kwHPnlR6PCoUPboA7qOCm/5488f51b4927f610746c75129f0b6318/Screenshot_2019-04-30_at_08.27.57.png)

We have a bouncing dot. 

![Apr-29-2019 20-50-35](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/b0g0CuHgA8F8tN6pCSeHc/496cae05dbcdb86fa777d848016af77d/Apr-29-2019_20-50-35.gif)

4 days, 7 hours, 42 minutes, 3 seconds. Congratulations Sofiane Sehili and James Hayden, joint first finishers of the Italy Divide 2019. 

![Screenshot 2019-04-29 at 20.49.08](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5ShNtP2Llig3uf8SBfPVlS/152079ea905a1820d5d91a4cf2b2d67e/Screenshot_2019-04-29_at_20.49.08.png)

Having caught Sofiane, it appears that the pair have decided to finish the race together. A fitting end to a gruelling few days of racing that featured wrong turns, winter conditions, and some nail-biting position shuffling. Chapeau, James and Sofiane. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We finish together. Respect. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/italydivide?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#italydivide</a> <a href="https://t.co/2Wb8GJsRvi">pic.twitter.com/2Wb8GJsRvi</a></p>&mdash; James Hayden (@JamesMarkHayden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesMarkHayden/status/1122933460451110919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">29 April 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Who would have thought that racing across a country could end with a sprint for the line, battling for mere metres instead of miles:

![Screenshot 2019-04-29 at 19.28.45](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/bJ4pwU0AgvUvJF4kidxxa/ef6f15c06b0d81313bffe784db7a7e78/Screenshot_2019-04-29_at_19.28.45.png)

There's less than 20km to go, and James's tracker hasn't updated for almost an hour. It could be a lot closer than we think...

![Screenshot 2019-04-29 at 19.37.12](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/UtEBIj12C9gHgQgbRQLzR/4f0fccf61cb3af80e06aec70e5dc0de6/Screenshot_2019-04-29_at_19.37.12.png)


Sofiane and James are now both tackling the final major ascent, and are separated by just 2km. Only 47km to go...

![Screenshot 2019-04-29 at 17.22.04](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7wSyZyE4M7UJugFV2dJ5zl/a935d27d7ce3e14c3df5dfe4dcc32177/Screenshot_2019-04-29_at_17.22.04.png)




Wonder whose tracks these are? James Hayden posts an image of hike-a-bike prints in the snow as he trails Sofiane by just 8km, with less than 100km till the finish line. It's as tense as it gets...

![Screenshot 2019-04-29 at 14.32.45](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6iylX7r5oLzfcmtdwor06/7ba9d68e27bc478b6701d1b6732e6795/Screenshot_2019-04-29_at_14.32.45.png)

1150 unsupported kilometres between Naples and Torbole with a mix of fast rolling gravel roads and technical mountain bike trails.

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