Winning at the 4,000 km VIA Race on the OBED RVR
Connie Etter and Brent Olson took on the epic 4,000km VIA ultra race this summer, competing in the pairs division aboard their OBED RVR endurance bikes. After 15 days and 9 hours of nearly non-stop riding, they crossed the finish line as winners. Not only that, they were the only pair to make it to the end!
“Every day we started in the dark, before the sun rose, and finished in the dark, well after the sun set. For 15 days, we rode through the heat, smoke, rain, cold, and wind. We rode back and forth across the Apennines, the Alps, and the Central Massif in France, over rough farm roads, bike paths, busy urban streets, and forest gravel roads,” Olsen said. “The numbers might outline 15 days, 9 hours, 2,517 miles, 125,000 feet of climbing, and 6 countries, but we'll remember every dark before dawn, the bright heat of day, and the dark of every night, all on our black and white OBEDs.”
It’s a good thing they had some comfy and fast bikes! Today, we learn a bit about the VIA race's stunning and unique challenge, and Etter and Olsen provide a few reflections on their epic adventure.
What is VIA Race?
For ultracycling addicts, VIA might be the perfect event. It is an epic, unsupported ultra race across Europe that is “organised by ultracyclists, for ultracyclists.” How epic are we talking? Last year, the first edition of VIA, called “Chapter I,” followed the path taken by Carthaginian general Hannibal in the Second Punic War against Rome—a 4,000 km route from Southern Iberia in Spain to Southern Italy. That's longer than the entire Tour de France route!
Chapter II began where Chapter I ended, and followed another epic 4,000 km journey originally taken by Germanicus, one of the last of the Caesars, to retrieve the lost Roman Eagles from Germania. The third and final chapter in 2026 will likely follow yet another 4,000 km historical journey.
This year’s VIA Chapter II started in Giovinazzo, Italy, in the southern part of the country, and ended in Amerongen, Netherlands. The course is around 4,000 km (2,485 mi) long, with nearly 40,000 m (130,000 ft) of climbing, but it can vary. While it follows Germanicus’ route, the race is self-routed. There are key locations—the beginning, end, mandatory “Gates,” and “Refuges”—that riders have to pass through, but they are otherwise free to create their own route between each key location, adding to the adventure and challenge. Etter and Olson, for example, designed their route to use more bike paths and low-traffic roads, which added an extra 50 km to their race!
“The conditions were tough this year, with heat, cold, rain, and lots of elevation and days of headwind,” said VIA race founder Ian To. This year, Chapter II had 100 starters, and only 51 finished. Of the four teams in the pairs division, Etter and Olson were the only finishers. 49 DNFs may sound pretty brutal, but that is often the nature of ultra racing. If it weren’t hard, it wouldn’t be worth doing! In the end, VIA will crown the most consistent rider in each category, and in their words, they will represent “the greatest ultracyclists of our generation.”
Connie Etter and Brent Olsen’s VIA Win
Riding as a team, we didn’t magically experience those moments of drowsiness or bonking or demotivation at the exact same time, so we had to be patient with each other’s downs.
Connie Etter and Brent Olsen are based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and both teach at Westminster University. Outside of academia, they are accomplished ultracyclists who have ridden and competed in events around the world. Completing VIA Chapter II and winning the pairs division has become one of their greatest accomplishments.
Ultra racing is never easy, but it might be even harder when racing as a team. With two riders, you double the chances for mechanicals, injury, illness, or exhaustion to derail your race. Coordinating pacing, eating, and resting gets harder. You have to support each other through tough moments, which come often in races this long. The fact that no other duo in the pairs division finished just goes to show how tough it is to drag two sleep-deprived bodies across an entire continent.
Over their 15-day journey, Etter and Olsen rode their OBED RVRs for an average of 156 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing per day. They typically slept alongside the road using a sleeping bag and a lightweight sleeping pad. They only slept around 3 hours per night, from midnight to 3 AM. Some nights, they slept as little as an hour and a half. Their strategy was to reduce stops as much as possible. Staying fueled required eating A LOT of Haribo gummy bears.
The experience was transformative. Here are their reflections after their epic finish...
Connie Etter:
“@via_race mornings with @helixgames [Brent Olsen] featuring cowbells and birdsongs. We chased these sounds instead of traffic whenever we could throughout 15 days, 9 hours, 2,517 miles, and 124,827 feet of climbing from Italy to the Netherlands. As self-proclaimed ‘team bike path,’ we never saw a gravel road, cycleway, small road, or farm path we’d say no to!
“We rode consistently, but I can’t say I always lived up to our motto of “positive calm.” There were some dark, dark hours of miserable wet and cold, incredible drowsiness, and too-high levels of self-doubt and fear that I wouldn’t be able to finish. Riding as a team, we didn’t magically experience those moments of drowsiness or bonking or demotivation at the exact same time, so we had to be patient with each other’s downs. We celebrated small victories, acknowledged the beauty around us, and found as much humor and joy as possible every day. I *think* I smiled and laughed more than I cried!
“An area for improvement: we never successfully threw and caught a Haribo from the person riding in front to the person riding in back. We’ll be working on that! We finished first in the pairs division, with new and old friends to hug. Couldn’t be more grateful for this experience and what it’s given me in terms of understanding what I’m capable of, reminding me what I value about living this life, and reinforcing the significance of deep connection to oneself, all the beings we move with, and landscapes we move through. Even though at one point I proclaimed that I was never going to ride a bike again (it was a lie), I love bikes!”
Brent Olsen:
“One goal for @via_race was to race sustainably: to do things we could keep doing. Early on, this meant getting good sleep (I thought this meant 4 hours, but apparently Connie set the timer for 3 hours) and eating a real meal every day. Eventually, those 3 hours became 2, then 1.5. A couple sandwiches and a double espresso were a meal. But we mostly met those goals we set ahead of time.
“Surprisingly, though, traffic avoidance also fit this strategy. We tend to build routes full of bike paths and small roads, but this never felt strategic. Rather, it made the race a little safer, a little more enjoyable. After a day of cities and heavy traffic in Southern Italy, it became clear we NEEDED the quieter roads. Maybe it’s a quirk of pairs racing, but the stress of navigating cities, traffic, and countless close passes exhausted us. By the end of the day, we were both ANGRY. Angry at the world, at the drivers, and at each other. Avoiding them might mean a few more miles, but those busy direct routes weren’t sustainable for us as a pair. We leaned into our “Team Small Road” tendencies. We took the scenic meanders, loved the bike paths, and reveled in rural routes. Because of those fun-cuts, we didn’t hate each other at the end of the day.
“This race played out on 2 separate terrains for me. 1: days full of goals, targets, and consistency. A constant stream of calculations and strategies. 2: a rediscovery of the bike as a source of steady movement; spontaneity shared with the person I share everything with. This shared movement, steady and consistent, in the midst of chaos, captivated me during the race and continues to do so.
“We finished first in the pairs division, but that’s less important. Bikes are the best. Sharing them matters. @cmeridesbikes [Connie Etter] is unbeatable. There isn’t always room or need for words, or even crafted thoughts or visible emotions. Sometimes the shared movement is enough. No backward progress. Forward. Steady. Consistent. Shared.”
Etter and Olsen’s words capture much of what we love about endurance cycling. When you ride a bike this far and for this long, you have to overcome incredibly low lows, but that often allows you to discover the most amazing highs. Ultracycling is all about discovery. Through exploration, you forever change your relationship with riding, with the world, and most importantly, with yourself.
We were incredibly inspired by Etter and Olsen’s amazing accomplishment, and incredibly honored that they chose to ride VIA Chapter II aboard the OBED RVR. With its combination of all-day comfort and race-bike efficiency, this is the type of ambitious endurance riding we designed the RVR to do. It’s perfect for any rider who wants to go farther, faster.