A year and a half off the bike. No plan. Eight months to find out if I can still start over — before the Titan Desert Morocco, ~600km across six desert stages.
This project doesn't start with someone in shape. It starts on a couch, more than a year removed from cycling, further from fit than I'd like to admit. What I'm documenting is not six days in the desert — it's the eight months before that, the ones nobody films: the mornings I don't want to get up, the first ride that goes badly, a full Belgian winter of training in the cold and dark, the doubt about whether this was a mistake.
If I make it to the start line in April, the transformation already happened — whatever the race itself decides.
One of the toughest mountain bike stage races in the world: six days, roughly 600km through the Moroccan desert, with more than 6,000 meters of accumulated elevation gain across dunes, rocky trails and semi-desert terrain. Riders are largely self-sufficient, carrying their own repair kit and navigation, racing through extreme daytime heat and cold desert nights, under strict daily time cutoffs. It draws elite and amateur cyclists from all over the world — finishing it at all is already considered an achievement.
Each chapter opens once the one before it is actually finished. No preview, no spoilers — I'm living this in the same order you're watching it.
This isn't a request for a logo on a jersey. It's an invitation to stand behind something real: proof that the limit is mostly mental, and that anyone, at any age, can take on a goal that feels too big. This stays small on purpose — one main partner, a handful of others — so each name means something.
I'm Gonzalo Ayala, based in Belgium. By trade I'm a field hockey coach and sports director — most of my life has been spent on a hockey pitch, not a bike. No background in endurance cycling. No team behind me. Until recently, no training routine at all.
That's the whole point. This isn't proof that a trained athlete can finish a hard race. It's an honest attempt to find out whether an ordinary person, starting from nowhere, can actually become someone capable of trying.
Interested in partnering? Leave your details and I'll get back to you directly, or write straight to Gonzalooayala@hotmail.com.