1.Meet Sami Sauri

Today I'm gonna chat with Sami Sari. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to another Roadman Cycling Podcast. It's Wednesday, the Tour de France is over, that means we get to go back and do interviews, which is my favorite part of the Roadman podcast. Today is such an amazing, special interview. I'm going to interview Sami Sirey and Sami is a brand ambassador for Sunto, but she's also just one of the coolest humans that I've ever seen. Check out Sami's Instagram, it's linked down below. She's just so cool and she is famous for these epic adventure rides and they're normally surrounded with a bunch of friends and you might remember when you flick over to her Instagram you'll recognize her face from some of these dare abouts videos. These are the ones that have got almost a cult style following where, and it was the rise of Lachlan Morton really where Lachlan Morton and his brother course set out on these epic adventures initially across Australia and then for subsequent ones, they brought in Sami and she rode across the US via Route 66 with them and then the Translaborador Highway in Canada. Fascinating stories, she's an adventurer, she's a storyteller, she's a filmographer, she's a cyclist of all sorts and she's an inspiration for everyone to get out on on their bike, be a little bit more adventurous. And she epitomizes one of my favorite quotes, the Helen Keller one, which is life is a daring adventure or nothing at all. So welcome to the podcast, Sami Sari. Thank you, nice to be here today. Did I get the pronunciation on your name, correct? Yeah, very correct. Yeah, I don't, I don't have work on that. That sort of professionalism doesn't happen by accident. Yeah, sorry. I'm super pleased to be in this podcast today and I'll talk to you. I just have a quick question. Go for it. Why is it called Roadman and not Roadman? Roadman. It's a start-off, it's a tough podcast. Roadman is, it's a gender neutral term I'm using. I'm trying to make it a gender neutral term and it's like a term you can use to somebody as like a marker respect. So I'm going to stuff you've done some of your crazy adventures, you've get to the end of me and say, okay, now you're a roadman. So that's kind of the idea where so it's because it's in its sort of infancy as well, what we will do is probably branch and have roadman division and then road woman division at some point. But for now we're using it as gender neutral because we have a nice mix like behind the podcast is our coaching company. And I'd say they were 50, 50 male, female in the coaching company as well. So we do try and keep that gender mix. And we heard our first full-time staff as well who is a woman as well. So we're super happy with that. That's interesting. OK, that was my main question. I was just thinking about it the other day. I was like, before I forget and we go on the road and I'm talking about adventure. And this is. Sabi, your Instagram page is just, it's so cool. If anyone doesn't follow you on Instagram, I'll link it up in the description and stuff below. But it's just such a cool Instagram page. It just makes me want to ride my bike and explore and make movies and tell stories and go surf. And it just looks like everyone's life looks amazing on Instagram, but your life looks extra amazing on Instagram. Thank you, thank you. I mean, it was not planned, I promise. It's just it comes longer, you know, naturally. So, yeah, I don't know what to say to that. It seems like researching the podcast, and I followed you for a little bit. I'll get into it a little bit when I kind of came across you. But it seems like you've had a very changeable relationship with the bike from, you know, try and racing, filmmaking, and now would it be fair to say the bike is nearly like a tool for adventure for you. Yeah, totally like that. I mean, I started, let's call it street fixing or like street cruising, you know, like a fixed gear bike, 11 years ago, mini-hundred-bar no brakes go crazy up and down Barcelona. Real hipster. Yeah, real like, my bike was yellow and then started to be pink and blue and all these things like with head three, like pink wheels on the front and, Sorry. And then after that, I, yeah, I just did some bike, like messenger, this thing called I-Cats, which it was like a fun race, let's say, but it started to get serious and then I tried as well like some crates and it actually went well so I got my first sponsor and it was just like a buckle.

2.From Red Hook Crits to Route 66

Like you'd naturally got integrated into this new world for me. Yeah, I loved it. I raised it red-hirking. I can't remember 2000 something for the first time, which I nearly died. Red hook's so crazy. The first time I did it was New York straight into the biggest one. And I remember doing three laps on qualifications and I went out and I was coughing and I was completely right. And I was like, why am I like this? I don't understand. because I've never trained before. I never did an alpha before. But yeah, from there, I used the bike as exactly as to move around and to travel. Obviously, I would as well be this professional cyclist. I also even went to Berlin, which was a bit more strict for me and it's what I needed on that time and signed up for a American Crit Team called LA sweat and then just like you know after that I got the opportunity to go and see and explore Route 66 with the there about guys and and I was like this is opportunity one from never so I have to go and do it and from there I saw the bike as an executive as a tool of adventure and a tool even for work and for exploring basically in another way. So everything sort of switch it. I wanted to compete because I kind of like it and gravel is fun and you know decay and all these things are really cool but I don't know I like I like to just exploring the bike takes me to everywhere. I've had so many at most of the guests on the podcast are world tour guys or world tour girls and when I started out cycling I suppose that's what I gravitated towards starting to think okay well I have to try and you know as we take hat up go from cat forward to three to two to one okay now I'm one now I've got to go a least amateur somewhere and then I've got to get a pro contract and because in my head I love cycling so much and the only way to make cycling like my whole life was I taught at the time was to get a world tour contract and that's the only way you can get paid from cycling. But as I'm not sure if this is a developing area or my awareness of it is developing, but since kind of abandoning that dream of going world tour many years ago, then I said out and said, well, what else can I do to make cycling such a huge part of my life, but not necessarily be a world tour rider? And there's just so many other avenues to do this in. And you seem to have carved this out super well that you don't have any of the bads shit from World Tour like having to travel and race and all that stuff, but you still got to write your bike train. That's the worst part. It's brutal. Try to smell fun. Yeah, I actually wanted to sign up for a little race road race, which I don't even have a road bike right now, just to challenge myself again and to sort of get into an event that I didn't do any this year. And I'm training and I'm like, why did I put myself into hell again? I was like training, you know, like a tiny train. Like, okay, one hour and a half, two days, three days, four. And that's it. So you have a picture on your Instagram, I was flicking back at some research for the podcast that might be the coolest picture in cycling history. You tone a surfboard on your bike. Well, this film is coming along. Velocio is involved, which I was really happy to get them. Awesome. So amazing. Yeah, I mean, especially for women's cycling, I think they're one of the best features for our men in the market. And so I wanted to work with them since a long time. So I thought it was really cool to bring them on a project that is not just about cycling, because they also reach out to all this amazing woman around the world that, you know, this sort of like capable for everything. So basically, yeah, this is a film that's coming along. I just wanted to tease a little bit of the people, but yeah, I'll just give a little presume. It's an island on the middle of that Atlantic. It's one of the steepest island. I've not seen a road cyclist on the whole entire trip because it just goes all up or down. And like, I think there was one day that I got like, I did like 23 Ks and 1,400 meters of climbing. So I didn't really even see a downhill. It was just out. And yeah, it's, it's just, I just wanted to combine basically two sports. And I love surfing, I've surf since a long while. And when I got back to it, I thought that the best manner and the easiest way to do it is just combining the two of them.

3.Filming the Outskirts Movie

So do you have to make the trailer or was it like pre-bought? No, long ago with Chris McLean, which is a really cool photographer, he invited me to his shooting in a story as here in the North of Spain. And he brought these two trailers and basically I was like, Oh, this is super cool. You know, I've made myself a board from some friends, another one, not the one I was having the other day. And I just put it up and we just served three days in the North of Spain. And from there, I took the name and I bought it myself straight away. I did like a last minute buy and last minute trip as well. And it was amazing. It's super cool, this trailer. And when's the video coming out? I think it will be, let's say, mid-summer August. We're sort of working towards it. Is it a painful editing process at the moment? Well, I have four films to edit. And my computer just cracked today. I'm happy that it's working right now, but it's not working with anything else. So today is like the hell of a typical day that nothing really works. But yeah, it is, but it's fun to see yourself actually on the other side. It's kind of cool. So the first time I came across you was, I think the outskirts movie you wrote across route 66. I think there's a beginning scene, and I'm not sure if it's, if it's go smart, or someone else narrates it, but they're basically talking about, this is a film about exploration, about adventure on the most iconic road in the world, the people along the way. That must have been a crazy trip. What is it? Like 4,000 kilometers, three time zones, like eight states. How did you get involved with that? And what was that like? I think, I mean, it's funny because I think I've done 12 or 13 states some total. And in that, from that beginning of the trip till the time I came back here, because we also wrote right. and then after that I was in a training camp and all this. So it was quite an intense trip. It's not, well it's really hard because it's not like my favorite one. It was a hell of a trip as well because of personal situation stuff. But I mean I got to see America from side to side. So I was really lucky and I think the opportunity that on the time Gus gave me was really cool, you know, like because after that we went to Translaborator Highway as well. So obviously, it seems like you're getting thrown in at a pretty hardcore level. Like in the one Translaborian Highway, that one was Translaborian or Highway. Yeah, that one was crazy. Like in here with Lachlan Martin who's obviously a world tour writer now. No, the director of the highway was Dan Craven, which was for... Oh yes. Yeah, Dan Craven and... Now I can't say his name. The other guy who is also from Jelly Belly, Jacob Raffy. Yes. And Gasmortoon. So I'm literally just... But we didn't spoke about this before with Gus. It's like, yeah, you come, you know, like we need a female and I tried to search another female because I was producing that at the same time and I was also doing some stills like and helping photography and stuff so but I didn't thought oh I'm just getting myself into three exprosyclays that just want to go fast and enjoy an adventure on a 680 kilometers gravel road you know and not like a smooth gravel road kind of like a super a rocky drama row. But you know, I went and did it because, you know, I, as I say, I don't close myself into opportunities if it's hell, it's hell and that happens afterwards right. And, and he was not a good decision. That's for sure. Because it resulted, if I remember, it's if while since I've seen the documentary, but there was a little bit of tension between you and the main character, Gus Morck. Yeah, he was my ex like my ex couple. Do you say like this? Like my ex? Oh, is your ex boyfriend? Yeah. Okay, so you were ex at the time or you were together at the time? We were together at the time. Like same, Route 66 and then Translivator, we were together actually. Yeah, like it seems like there was a lot of tension around your fitness level versus theirs, but it was like an unrealistic expectation that you were going to be at the same level as ex-professional writers? Yeah plus it was a bit of machism in there because I was the only woman into six men so it was pretty hard to handle at the end of the trip. I felt like very sort of let's say... it was the only time in my life I actually felt that I was a woman there you know and I was like just working for there, all of them, because I was also producing which is the hardest part of the film, let's say. So it was like all this mix of pieces.

4.Surviving Long Bikepacking Trips

So I had a little bit of ups and downs with all of them. So we actually got to watch the relationship fall apart live on camera. And he didn't really put all of it, but there was a lot of the hell at the time's filming. I wish you would have done it because you know, if you're with a couple you can have and you do a big trip like that, like I'm saying like a month trip, it's not like a litter, you need to really communicate properly and you need to really understand each other very well if you do not, do not even try it because it's gonna go like hell. But in retrospect, it was still a good experience, especially Route 66 one. I know maybe it's a straight road, like I've driven parts of Route 66. And at times it's a very busy road, and maybe that didn't make for the best cycling at times. Yeah, I mean, the last 500k is pretty much needed to jump all the time in the highway because there was no road anymore. So it's a role, completely on the climb, but it doesn't exist. That was that like 60s, 70s, Route 66, beautiful, like little rows and motels. It's just like, it's just a highway now. So we had to jump, I remember there was a day we did like 280 Ks at 31 average because it was just literally highway, straight forward. And that was earplugs or music and just follow a wheel, you know, there's nothing you could do. So a lot of your content and storytelling, I would describe it as almost aspirational for definitely a lot of my audience that listen to the podcast. They're stuck in work. They're living in Ireland, UK, across America. They just want to break free and they want to get out on their bikes and they want to have these big adventures. But it's something that's so far out of their comfort zone that it's just not easy for them. So I suppose, is there, do you think a best starting point or advice you would give someone like that if they want to plan this big epic, how do they get started? Well, I always say in most of my films and stuff, no matter what you were or who you are, what bike do you have? I see people doing adventures with a bike that costs nothing, it doesn't matter what it costs. It matters that if the bike is right, you're comfortable with it and you just get out and do it. I never recommend to start with a Route 66. To have special horror. After I came, I was coming from like, fixed gear racing, like super short and track. And I throw myself into Route 66. And I remember doing even a photo of like the first 200Ks in my life on that trip. But I just say like, start tiny, like do little trips. manage your gear however it's more comfortable for you, you know, try everything. I've tried million bikes, I've tried million gears and it's just a matter of like what is the best for you in your comfort zone. Don't go out and do three peaks because maybe that's not what you want, you know. You can do flat roads if you can or if you are in a flat place or the other way around and you know start with your comfort zone and don't go way too out there and then progress bit by bit. And obviously you've got a chance to ride in some pretty crazy places. What's the kind of the bucket list took top one top two places that you think people have to get out and experience? Hmm, good question. I mean, Spain is pretty cool. I think each country has its own literal corners. I've been traveling all over and I've discovered Spain recently, thanks to the situation that we had the last two years. And to be honest, I've been really happy riding around here. There's amazing specialty gravel roads on all over the Spanish country and the Canary Islands as well. I am seeking to go to the eastern side, like Albania, Montenegro and all this. I was just there on a motor rally, documenting the motor rally. And I've just seen amazing roads, in gravel roads, excuse me. And I'm going to Slovenia on August. If I should choose one place, I think I still stay with Arizona or Colorado. Like America has an amazing land to discover. Right folks, you gotta get out there and check them. A lot of your content, and we spoke about it as well, that you don't need to have this bike. You don't need to waste and save up until you have the new Canyon Grail. like income or monetary shouldn't be a barrier for you getting out and exploring. And a lot of yours videos and films, I see this kind of reoccurring team that really doesn't matter what bike, or what age, or what fitness level you are, or even one of your initiatives now, I see that you have a link in your Instagram, is the W Camps for your really pushing like the inclusion of women in sport.

5.Launching a Gravel Camp in Girona

So do you wanna talk to us a little bit more about that? Yeah, so the double-lit camps came because I've seen them, I've traveled a lot as well to the US, and I've seen a lot of the stuff that they're doing there, like amazing as well, like a woman camps and non-acoustic camps and everything. And I didn't saw any here, and I wanted to participate to some myself, and I couldn't find. So I thought to put out some gravel camp here, here starting here in Jirona. And this is something that is not ready 100% yet, but I think it will come in 2022. I've been super busy and other stuff, and unfortunately I got down one of my main sponsors in the beginning of, oh well, I stopped with one of my main sponsors, which I thought they will sort of help me to do the WCAM, so that was why I stopped progressing on it. But basically, yeah, it's going to be a woman camp or for everybody who wants to come. And what I just want to show is that you can do a gravel adventure or a road adventure, no matter what you have or how you are, what you wear. You can, everybody can do it. So I want to show that it's not that difficult. And I want to show how to use a camping stove and create an amazing meal in the middle of nowhere, and as well like hammock or tent or whatever you want. But isn't that so cool about this whole adventure or bikepacking or gravel movements? Like if you want to turn up to a road ride, and you're living in one of the nicest places in the world to a road cycle to your own. But if you want to turn up to a road ride, it's almost like there's so many barriers to entry, and you have all these sartorial barriers where your socks need to be a certain length, your socks need to be a certain color, the same as your helmet. your shoes need to look a certain way, you need to look a certain way, you need to have this certain etiquette. And if you don't have all these certain points, you're just immediately excluded from the group. But with this sort of stuff, like, you could literally turn up wearing a tree piece suit on the biggest piece of ship bike, which you're rucksack on your back and everybody's going to welcome you in. Yeah, that's exactly it. That's exactly it. I mean, and especially here in Drona, you It was funny because a friend just the other day is like, oh, I don't know if to join this, this right to Roca Corva. And I was like, why? Roca Corva is like one of the main kinds. I hate that one. I've never done it before. And I live here and I'm from Spain, Barcelona, but I've never, yeah, what have I been? I'll do it, it's shit. We have Jay Vine on the podcast quite a bit. We've been doing this like Neo Pro section with Jay Vine from Alpason Fenix and he has the Strava record on Rockacob and was like, oh my God, that just sounds so painful. I've done it by car a few times. That's nice. Congratulations. But I've never done it by bike. And yeah, she was like, oh, I don't know if to go with these friends and all that. And I was like, why? And she's like, oh, because maybe they're way too fast for me. And I was like, if you don't know, and you don't go and experience it, you don't know. And if they're fast for you, they will wait for you. And the other way around, maybe you're the fast one, and you will wait for them. But I am somebody who never thought that before. Like when I was living in Berlin, for example, they were super strict. And you say, the socks wide, the leg warmers can be, blah, blah, blah. And all these things, and I follow that, because on the time I was a newbie and I did it. But I remember I was just showing up in this like crazy sprint rides and I was dying but you know, and I end up alone many times but I just did it. It was a, you know, it was like, I never thought about like, oh, it will stay alone. What happens? Like it doesn't happen anything. You can just like, you know, flag the route and go back home. I also feel like 99% of people in this community are nice people and they realized that they were also once a beginner and somebody had to wait for them. And it's like pay it back now a little bit. And in surfing or skateboarding, you see a lot this because you're in one spot, you know, like somebody's in the spot of surfing and you see him struggling and catching bad ways of never arriving to the wave or, I don't know, like eating a lot. And you're like, I was there one day, you know, like, and you can, I relate that a lot.

6.Why Gravel Beats Road Snobbery

And now I finally can catch so like a wave and just sort of serve. So just like, yeah, I don't know. I see myself in cycling the same, you know? I remember, I still remember the day I was like, cuffing and like completely red and nearly crying because I didn't understood what was happening with my body for an apper. And now I'm just like enjoying cycling, like no matter what they'd be full or nobody follows. especially don't get it. We've like every country we've this like hierarchical system within racing where you've category four or three to one. But there's such a snobbery as somebody moves up a category from cat forward to cat tree. They almost like they're so self congratulatory about going up a category and they just like cast dispersions back down to the category below like off threads like look at them they're so shit. And but it should be like reaching a hand down to help people up, we've just got that part so wrong and the adventure, gravel culture, seems they've got that part so right? Yeah, I yeah, that's sort of true. I think that the good part is like the gravel is not that competitive. It's about it feels that it's about more exploration and just like opening your eyes and everything to a new place, you know? which I guess that's why I think gravel is sort of like, it's what I've most loved so far. And it seems to sit perfect with your kind of position as this storyteller in Ireland. We have a word like chanakie and that's the Irish native language. It just means storyteller. So you'd be a chanakie over here. But it's gravel seems perfect for this storytelling. Have you always been cast in that storyteller? Mulder is this something new? No, I'm actually, I always loved it. But especially I think like gravel takes it to these places that you maybe don't reach with the road or with car or with anything else. And I don't know, yeah, I think, I don't know if it's just because of that or I don't know, but now I'm not even going to this Albanian rally and it was gravel. Obviously, so it was perfect. Oh, amazing. It sounds like you need to hire an editor out here. It's quite a backlog of stuff to edit. I do need to hire an editor, but I don't know if it's more difficult to communicate to that editor or to do it myself. Yeah, no, that's the problem. Before we wrap up, is there any big projects or plans you have for the rest of the year outside of looking yourself in the bedroom and editing? Right now, well, I'm actually going to more scene next to Geneva. And this is for filming a little ambassador adventure for commute. So I'm really excited to work for them as a videographer now. Nice. I'm going to manager. And then after that, I am going to Slovenia with three friends that we creating a little more creative adventure, where we will tell the story in four different ways, I will film another world photograph, then somebody will paint another one would be the writer. I would really hope that after all this COVID situation, everybody's like, see, we can do an exposition about this because we want to sort of grade emerge between artists. So this one is really exciting. And from then on, I have a bigger project at the end of the year happens because I had to cancel it. That's why I went to Madeira. But yeah, it's a multi-sport adventure as well. Brilliant, brilliant. For anyone tune in the end that wants to keep following your journey and listen about these adventures, where's the best places to keep up with you? I pretty much use just Instagram, I don't go into very further from there. And YouTube now, and then, well, yeah, that's my main things and any questions or anything, don't hesitate to also ask me. Definitely worth a follow on Instagram, it's pure for. Thank you. Sami, thanks for Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you to you for inviting me, Anthony. Thank you. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's a master's beginner advanced, there's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you through at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's roadmansoycling.com slash 14 day.