Guillaume Lemaître, VELOR ambassador, looks back at his Seven Serpents Ultra: a 1000 km race across Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, marked by a strategic mistake that changed everything, and gear put to the test in conditions of constant humidity.

Ultra-distance races are no longer just physical challenges. They have become performance laboratories where effort management, strategy, and gear choice matter as much as the legs. Over formats that exceed 1000 km, every detail can shift a result, including the ones you can't control.

That's exactly what happened to Guillaume Lemaître at the Seven Serpents Ultra.

A race in two halves, and a third dimension: the ferries

"Seven Serpents is 1000 km and 19,000 m of elevation gain across trails in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy," Guillaume sums up. "What defines this race is that the first half is geared more toward gravel, and the second half leans into mountain bike territory. Bike choice mattered a lot."

The second defining feature of the route is a piece of logistics few ultras require: five ferries between Croatian islands. "That adds a really strategic dimension if you want a good result," he explains.

From top 10 to 30th place after a 4.5-hour wait

For only his second official race, Guillaume was aiming for a top 10, an ambitious target he pursued with methodical discipline. "My race management was perfect. I stayed close to the top 5-10 without burning out, knowing the ferries would be crucial after around 700 km of racing."

Proof the strategy was working: right before the ferries, he moved up from 25th to 10th place. Effort, nutrition, sleep, logistics, everything under control. He even arrived at the ferry alongside the rider sitting in 5th.

Then the mistake happened. "I didn't double-check the ferry schedule, and when I came back after resupplying, boarding was already closed." Four and a half hours of waiting later, Guillaume set off again around 30th place.

"It was a really hard mistake to swallow, but I picked myself back up." He pushed through the night until he reached the finish line the following evening. Final result: 17th place, on just 3h15 of sleep across the 3 days and 15 hours his race lasted. "I'm happy with the performance despite the mistake, because I had to adapt and give up on sleep entirely. You learn. It's a mistake I won't make again."

Gear as a system of trust, not an accessory

Over this kind of distance, equipment stops being a logistical detail. It becomes, in Guillaume's words, a matter of total trust. "For this race I brought the full VELOR kit, which I trust completely. That's a really important point when preparing for an ultra."

His approach to temperature management relied on listening to his body rather than fixed rules: "With my different layers, I just listened to my body. If I was cold, I'd put on my windbreaker. If I was hot under the Croatian sun, I'd open everything up."

The real test, he says, was friction. "The combo of the VELOR cargo bib and Vaseline let me finish without any irritation at all, despite the salt that was visible on every piece of gear."

🎽 Guillaume's kit on the Seven Serpents

• Jersey Sea — worn unzipped for most of the race to manage constant sweating that never let up. Made from 83% recycled materials, including 15% sourced from ocean plastic waste.
• Cargo Bib Short — a fit that didn't shift after more than 30 cumulative hours in the saddle, despite the constant humidity. High-density chamois and integrated cargo pockets for self-sufficiency on course.
• Windproof Gilet Sea — pulled on whenever the temperature dropped, especially as night fell. 78% recycled materials, breathable mesh back.
• Vaseline — paired with the textile for zero irritation over more than 1000 km.

A race that never dries

What sets the Seven Serpents apart from other ultras Guillaume has raced isn't the cold, but constant humidity. "Compared to other experiences, I was soaked the whole time here. I never dried out, I was sweating so much. It's the first time I've faced that: in other races like the Atlas Mountain Race, for example, the main challenge was the cold and temperature swings. Here, I struggled to dry out, whether on the bib shorts or the jersey."

His only solution: ride with the jersey unzipped. "Wide open, as we say. It was just discomfort, but the quality of the bib, which never lost its shape over time, spared me from anything more serious."

As night fell, humidity in the bib shorts posed a different challenge. "The bib shorts stayed damp too, but it was less of an issue than the jersey, because by then I was starting to feel cold."

Real discomfort, but no irritation

On a race of this scale, claiming total comfort would be dishonest, and Guillaume doesn't. "I started feeling discomfort on the top layer of skin about 10 hours before the finish. It was mostly tingling, and it felt like it came from friction."

What matters is that this signal stayed just a signal, nothing more. "After that, I had no irritation, just some discomfort." Over 1000 km, in salt and constant humidity, finishing without irritation is the result that counts.

On the fit holding up, Guillaume is unequivocal: "What's really frustrating is when everything gives out, when it stops holding around the thighs, or the whole cut deforms after dozens of hours in the saddle. Here, it barely moved. I think that's a real sign of quality."

Zero waste left behind, even 700 km into a race

A technical detail few brands consider at ultra scale: nutrition waste management. Over hundreds of kilometers, it's as real an environmental problem as performance itself. "Normally I stuff my bar, gel, and snack wrappers wherever, in my hydration pack, my cargo pockets, my jersey pockets, my bags. After a while it turns into a huge mix of snacks I still need to eat and trash, and I risk dropping plastic out in nature."

The integrated pocket on the VELOR jersey changed that dynamic. "No question to ask myself. On top of saving me time not having to dig around for my trash, everything stayed clean and I wasn't risking polluting the beautiful nature we were riding through." A design detail that looks minor on paper, but repeated over 1000 km through Slovenian, Croatian and Italian nature, makes a real difference.

What durability should actually mean

This is where Guillaume's account directly meets VELOR's reason for being: gear that lasts is gear you don't replace. On the ultra terrain, wear is never far off, but Guillaume draws a clear line between normal wear and a manufacturing flaw. "In this case, I do think it was abnormal wear. At least I hope so. When I get a new pair of bib shorts, I hope it won't fray after just a few rides. Ideally never. I'd rather the wear come from hours in the saddle, from the chamois no longer being as effective, which is what should push me to move on for long rides or races."

He stays realistic about what to expect from gear after an off-road ultra. "Realistically, I know that after an off-road ultra, most of our gear is pretty far gone. But it would be great to find products durable enough to wear across several events."

Guillaume pushes that same demand further than race-day textile alone. To get to the start of the Seven Serpents, he chose bike and train over car or plane, a journey that extends his gear's use well beyond the 1000 km of the race itself. A consistency that reflects thinking about impact at every level, from the materials to the way he travels.

That's exactly the equation VELOR is trying to solve: building with recycled materials from the design stage, as is already the case across all of Guillaume's kit, and pushing that logic even further with RELOV, the circular range made from end-of-life recycled jerseys.

The one piece of advice he'd give

Asked what he takes away for his next race, Guillaume comes back to the essentials: trust in your gear, built before the start. "Just one piece of advice: study the conditions expected during the race and know your gear well enough to bring only what's essential. You need to find the gear you trust enough to stay calm throughout your adventure."

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