Steven Le Hyaric, the ultra cyclist who lives (from) his dreams

YB – Hello Steven, I would first like to understand where the flame that gives you this momentum comes from…

SLH – I'm driven by something bigger than myself. I always tell the same story. About my childhood, certainly, my upbringing. I'm Breton, I was raised in the 93rd arrondissement in working-class neighborhoods. In a world where they tell you, "We're going to try to get by," before knowing how you're going to succeed. I have this rage to win, to succeed. A tough dad, who's pretty successful in life. A committed guy who has values, who has heart, and above all, the energy to do things. In the end, I believe my strength comes from this exemplary nature, this thing of never giving up. Everything prepares me for the challenges I set myself. No one is ever where they are by chance. I try to do what I love today with the weapons I have: My kindness. My courage. I sincerely think these are my most important talents.

You know, I also told my mother between the ages of 5 and 8, that I didn't want to become intelligent because when you're intelligent, you know, and when you know you're sad! I can tell you that she looked at me strangely. And I hadn't read the books that I've read since... But I always needed to confront myself with what I was, with my own reality. With my strengths, my weaknesses.

YB – There were also key milestones that shaped you, or corrected your trajectory. And the search for meaning has always been a compass for your journey.

SLH – Yes, I only had one dream in my life. One real dream that mattered: to be a professional cyclist. When I stop that… Imagine! They say that when you're a top athlete, you mourn the loss of a sporting career between 5 and 7 years. I've only just finished this mourning phase. I went through hell. You stop everything, you no longer exist. Cycling was hard. You train 6 to 7 hours a day, and you lose all the time. How many races do you win in your life, actually? My manager arrived at the end of the race and said: "Guys, I don't think you ever question yourselves"; whereas I didn't stop during the race!! Did he question himself while smoking a cigarette with his arm out the window? But I still have friends in the pro peloton. They don't question themselves. They keep going without question. It's only when you start to understand things that you finally become aware of them. Like someone who realizes that eating a certain food is bad, well, they stop eating it. Something you don't see doesn't exist. That was my first real shock.

Then I understood that when you're a high-level athlete, artist, singer, actor, comedian, you like to make people laugh but you need love. You have an enormous need for love, for affection. You need to exist ten times more than others... and so you dare. My talent has been daring. My energy comes from all that. I also realized that we live in a world with limited resources, in a world that is perhaps a finite world. So suddenly, I want to experience a lot of things. I want to live to the fullest. I want to pass on to people. To experience everything. And experiencing everything doesn't mean buying everything! We confuse having with being. I'm not interested in buying, in owning things. I don't have a house, I don't care. I stay at friends' houses. I don't even necessarily have many friends because I'm very sensitive. I get way too attached to the people I love, so I get disappointed quickly, and so I protect myself from that. There was a guy who asked me this question once in a conference: "Have you thought about saving?" So one, I have no money, or even less than nothing. And two, I save happiness, I save moments, I save memories, but the rest I don't know how to do.

YB – You give off a crazy energy.

SLH – I don't know if I have crazy energy. My vital energy is limited. On the other hand, I use all my vital energy in one direction. Right now, I'm putting myself in danger again. In the gym, I'm going back to my physiological preparation basics. I'm doing yoga, squats. I'm questioning things that were supposedly acquired. You have to question yourself every day. So I'm preparing myself. And I'm not saying it's always easy.

I went for a ride, another 5 and a half hours the day before yesterday. I promise you, after 10 minutes I wanted to turn around. I didn't want to. It didn't make sense. The only sense I had was to go and drink the little coffee I had after 50 km. That's all. But that's why I did it. I drank that coffee, I set off again and miraculously it started to open up! It's always the same thing, you have to have the courage to go and see what's behind the mountain. You see, knowing how to accept these little sufferings, these little pains, these little headaches, to say in fact it's cool... In the end I experienced something .

When you start to realize that we all have a responsibility on earth, a mission and that ABOVE ALL you are capable of doing it, obviously when you have the character that I have, it gives you confidence, power. It makes you want to achieve your goals. It's a virtuous circle.

YB – That's also what I experienced in my professional life. I started because I had lost my sense of direction. When you go to work just to avoid paying rent for your apartment when you retire, you tell yourself there's something else to do! And ultimately, I find much more strength in this situation than in the one I was in before!

SLH – Because it's you! It's a focus on you. You come back to yourself. Who are you? What do you like? What makes you move forward? It's a constant projection. From a very young age, you're put in a tunnel: a tunnel of nursery school, kindergarten, primary school, middle school, high school, prep school, school, and then you have a job. But at what point did you express your true personality? Everyone wants to do the same thing. We all want to do nothing and earn a lot of money. But in fact, to succeed at something, you have to work yourself to death. And when it doesn't make sense... it's difficult. So you have to find the meaning that will motivate you every day . If I didn't put meaning into my life, I would almost be dead. But people have never been taught to have meaning.

With everything I see, what I hear, what I feel, I see how societies are changing. I tell myself that I don't have the right to pretend to live a life that isn't mine. So I go for it. My thing is doing things, living moments. It's just capitalizing on memories. I saw my manager again 3 days ago and he said to me: "I have the impression that you're going in all directions." It's true. Everyone has the impression that I'm going in all directions. But in fact, I know exactly where I want to go. I would have loved to have an adventurous dad. I would have dreamed of someone telling me stories. I want to tell them because I have the impression that people love listening to them. People want to discover, to dream. And I find that really reassuring.

YB – So the notion of sharing is really important to you?

SLH – Yes, it's essential. When I cross the Himalayas, it's to meet people... Before, during, after the race. Because I want to share everything. I wish I had cameras instead of eyes. Obviously, I'm able to transcribe things extremely well. Sometimes even bigger than they are. I experience things so powerful that I always want to share them. I see so many unhappy people, so many people on their sofas, sad. It's not possible. I have a friend who's in a wheelchair. Tetraplegic. He's in Antarctica right now. In Antarctica! He's the first person to drive on the Antarctic. Seriously! When you see that, you have no right to complain. Besides, I realized that it was just a waste of time. You have to accept reality as it is, who you are. And work from that. Besides, if I come back to sharing, that will be the real difficulty with my next challenge: if I don't meet anyone, it's possible that I'll be in great difficulty. Because it wouldn't make any sense. It would just be exacerbated Stakhanovism, egocentrism... You know - it's lame to say that - but when I did the Iron Man I had the impression that that was it. Because I wasn't able to bring the event to life, to share it with people. It was like cycling. Except that I was all alone.

YB – Sylvain Tesson says that the tragedy of man is having a choice. When you're on an adventure, you miss your comfort zone, and when you're on your couch, you miss the wind on your calves... How do you make your choices?

SLH – The basis of everything is to make a choice and follow through with it . But the nature of man is to want what he doesn't have. Tesson says it very well. On the other hand, I'm also certain that there are things written, or that there's always something behind the mountain . You see, I met you in Chamonix. I had just spotted the Evergreen 258 trail route, I experienced something great, and I wanted to be there. You make choices and I met you there. Things fall into place like that in life. We're interconnected. And I could have done this route faster and I wouldn't have run into you. Everything is like that in life. When I go to the Himalayas. There are people who tell me you could have done it faster, in a shorter time. Everyone sees what they want in life in relation to these filters. I tell myself that I could have done better. Meet more people. Be easier. Not hurt my back. You can always. But I did it! You talk about doer. A doer is someone who charges ahead. You can say he messed up... No no. It's just that in other companies (in the US for example) if you haven't crashed 3 times they don't put any money into your company. I've crashed 1000 times. When I go to train for a 300 km ride in the winter I get hit. Except I crash and no one sees it.

YB – But it turns into an experience! When you fail, you grow.

SLH – Of course. Everything is an experience. Everything is worth taking. You have to go for it. However, if you feel like you're not on the right path, then you have to either turn right or turn back. I wouldn't have done the Himalayas any other way. Don't go to Dakar either. If I did it like that, it's because I don't know how to do it any other way. But before the Himalayas, I was burned out, and before Dakar, I broke my shoulder blade 3 weeks before leaving! People told me you'd never make it... Adventure is a mixture of extensive preparation that reassures you and crazy energy to say, now I'm going for it!! In fact, an adventurer is above all an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur is above all an adventurer.

YB – Of course. And you operate by capillary action. The energy you give, some people monopolize to live your project vicariously. Because they wouldn't have the courage to do it. Because they have different ties than you.

SLH – Some say, 666, but what a provocation! Obviously it's a provocation. But don't we live in a world that is destined to disappear as it is anyway? 666 is hope. I'm a big dreamer, a great idealist. And this project could also become 777 if I cross an ocean, right? Obviously I have to be in this world to be able to change it... if I didn't see any prospects, I wouldn't do anything. I could have stayed in Nepal. I could have been like a lot of guys who never come back... because they don't want to see the world as it is. The world is what exists. In the silent meditations I did in Nepal, they teach you that. You have to accept things as they are. When you're an entrepreneur, you don't feel like it every day. There are times when you crack. "You have to lie to yourself so much to believe you're going to make it that at some point you do!" and then everyone believes you! But in fact, you've been lying to yourself all along! When I set up the 666 project, I have no polar experience! If I tell you what I'm thinking about, you'll hallucinate: I want a recumbent bike, a cargo bike where there will be more pressure on the snow, a wind turbine on the back of my pulka because I'm going to be pulling a sled behind me. Bike components that can withstand -50°. But what's the point? Not much. But I do it. Being an entrepreneur is the same thing. It's a struggle. Plus, as soon as you want to introduce eco-responsibility, it's a headache!

YB – I agree, I experience it every day! You have several additional complications. You're fighting to build an extremely ambitious adventure. You're then going to experience it, with a highly engaging physical dimension. And you double your bet with a testimony to give people the desire to change! These are completely different challenges. Wanting to change people's habits is a challenge almost bigger than your physical commitment!

SLH – What happens very often with me is that I put so much meaning into my adventures (and I put so much pressure on myself with that) that the meaning goes beyond the journey . And people forget that the Paris to Dakar in 15 days, even for me, is not easy. It is not easy to do 300 km per day, to ride at 45°, to walk with a bike and a bag on your back at 4500 m or 5500 m altitude. It is not very human but at the same time I did it. And these are unique moments. It is not a race to be the pioneer, no. It is just a childhood dream come true! I was up there, I was riding on it. I did it!! That is what is crazy. You see I was talking about my dream of doing the Tour de France. In the end you see, I think I prefer to do that! Because it is me. It's not thousands of guys who have done this thing. This is pure, what! Wow. In my adventures, there are 50 messages. It can be spirituality, it can be travel, realization, appeasement, climate change, the reality on the ground. Everything! In fact, adventure is a life in fast motion. I'm always asking myself questions. There are days when I have established certainties, great self-confidence... and they are broken the next day! If you note down, by making dashes like that, all the key points that you experienced in a day, it's super rich! Everything is like that. Everything everything everything. And that's what I like. It's adding life to life! with common sense.

And there are people who come along who try to make me understand that I won't succeed, and I still have doubts because it's argued... In fact, only you know. Others have a point of view. But only you know. And no one else believes in you as strongly.

YB – That also echoes what I'm experiencing. This need to form a strong conviction about the direction you want to follow because it's your project, your certainty. And the need to always listen to other people's comments because they make sense.

By the way, how do you approach the notion of risk? I saw you descending crazy slopes in Nepal, super narrow, super steep, super long... You're crossing limits here that you didn't suspect... Is that part of the flame that drives you?

SLH – Yes, I love it!! I experience my limits every day. It's to know this limit that I embark on these adventures. I love this feeling! Mind you, I'm 33 years old, so I've been cycling for 28 years. 22 years in competition. When I say I've had descents like that, I mean I've had them. And when you're 5 or 6, 8, 10 years old and you're with guys who are 8, 15, 18 years old in your cycling club because you're too strong, you do 40 km instead of 20 km, you do descents that are not at all made for a kid your age, you crash, you start again, you crash... and there you go! That's how I learned. It's repetition that creates experience. I'm not reckless. I'm ambitious. I know I can do it. Everything has led me here. Sometimes I freaked out, it's true. I screamed because I had extraordinary sensations. That's what it's like. Feeling sensations! When was the last time you felt them? In Nepal we went down for 7 hours!

YB – Exactly, haven't you been able to do descents like that here?

SLH – That's why I travel! To experience things I can't experience here. In reality, it's exactly the same thing. It's longer, that's all. It's like a sailor practicing his scales in the Gulf of Morbihan. When there's no wind. But learning the technique is the main thing. It's going back to basics. When I coach someone, it's key for me to go back to basics. Perrine -Fages- who came to ride with me from Lhasa to Kathmandu in the Himalayas, who dreamed of understanding my love for this country. I told her: Focus on your practice. There's no point complaining about the stones. There's no point worrying about everything. There's no point fighting with yourself, with others, with the goats who are innocently watching you. Don't fight with anything. Leave it. Focus on your breathing, on your pedaling, on your ventilation. You cover yourself, you uncover yourself.

YB – How do you experience your adventure in the end, if you concentrate on your practice during the effort?

SLH – You live it, it's obvious... because it's this discipline that will help you complete it! During the Great Himalaya Trail, I had a Sherpa who wanted to act like a beach bum. I constantly told him to focus on his practice: there were 1.20 m steps that he was descending with his bike equipped with 110 mm forks. He broke both his hubs, once his chain, both his brake pads and in the end he had to go back to Kathmandu for 4 days to repair his bike! He does what he wants. But I was always on the road... You mustn't let yourself get carried away! Because the punishment is immediate. Every time I started to get carried away in my life, there was a crash! Mike Horn says it "I really prefer moments of intense suffering to moments of happiness, because I know that after a moment of intense suffering there is a moment of happiness." » It's hard to think that! But having been able to manage the adventure over time sometimes outweighs the immediate pleasure! And being focused at the right moment often saves you too! Ultimately I think you have to experience things with a little perspective. If I experience things as I really am, with the intensity I have inside, with my chronic hypersensitivity... I die! I fall in love with all the Nepalese women I meet on the road. I want to stay with the cows or with a donkey because I want to do everything. You see, if I listen to myself in the Himalayas, I stop cycling and climb the mountain, and I do that 150 times. Because I am like that. But at the same time, I had chosen this path! So I went back there, each time. That's consistency.

YB – And what does physical performance bring you? For example, I do sport to maintain my freedom. By telling myself that tomorrow, if I want to climb a mountain, I'm still capable of doing it. Does it follow the same logic for you?

SLH – you know, I have a hard time looking at myself in a mirror when I have a big belly, because I don't feel good...and yet, I've never wanted to chase the perfect body. For me, what matters is not being beautiful, it's being strong. Because I know that at some point I'll need it for my adventures. I always put myself in condition to leave. That's the spice of life. Being able to leave at a moment's notice. Life is like that. It's about being ready every day. It's about having the capacity, at any moment, to undergo mental and physical difficulties, which can completely turn you upside down. And if you have that, you already have this mental and physical structure to cope...and that's good. Because working out to look good is cool. It's very 2020. It's even very 2010. But I've seen guys who looked like nothing who were war machines. An example! The only one who crossed the Simpson desert is Louis Philippe Loncke. Louis Philippe is a Belgian with a big belly. That didn't stop him from being European Aventurer of the Year 2016!! That doesn't mean anything.

YB – And who are your inspirations?

SLH – Wow. It's a mix between Mike Horn, Sylvain Tesson, Mathieu Ricard, the Dalai Lama, the philosophers of the Enlightenment, and at the same time, some really kind guys. It's about getting back to simple things. Great explorers, great aviators throughout history. Things that are beyond me.

YB – Do you need these anchors?

SLH – Yes and no. Actually, it's there. I just tell myself, as people sometimes say about me, if he did it, it's possible . And in life, you obviously have to have hooks. BUT FOCUSING ON OTHERS WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW YOURSELF, IT'S USELESS! I also focus on what I've already done. I gain confidence thanks to my own experience. Sometimes announcing it is more anxiety than anything else. Because when you're in it, when you're injured, when you have two tendinitis in your knees after 3 days to go to Dakar, you start to think it's tough. There are people who told me, we have to rethink the project. It would be good to tell ourselves that we don't really care, that we're going to do it in 60 days. Well, no, I've stopped there because I'm not yet impotent. Maybe one day it will come. Maybe one day I'll say I'm doing a transatlantic crossing, I'm taking 20 kids with me and we're doing a transatlantic crossing and they're the ones pulling the boat. And we're doing something totally shared. We don't care about the speed. But today I still need to erase this ego. Thinking of yourself as an adventurer is still a totally egocentric thing. It's telling yourself that I'm a bit unique. It's then indeed a connection with the people I admire. Like Tesson, like everyone else. Because the explorer sets off on his own! And who's going to go and check what really happened? I try to show everything. People can come, I'm open to that. But those who have spent time with me know that. I still push quite a bit. Because I need to. But it's always rich, it's strong, it's intense. Yes, I still experience extraordinary things!!

YB – Do you know that at some point you will stop?

SLH – Yes, yes. I said it. You see, right now I'm preparing the 666 project. I'm looking for funding to produce the 6 episodes. But at some point I'll just want to leave! I just want to have fun! Now it's not fun. I could see it as a game, but I don't have fun every day. Because I have the daily frustration of having to beg and prove to the whole world that I'm great. And ultimately that I'm better than everyone else. It's always saying: look at me, how strong I am, how good I am... I gave up on that 4 years ago, precisely because I wasn't enjoying it. And I'm coming back to it! In fact, when you have a big project, you have to go back to the world that you've kind of rejected. This capitalist world, to get funding... It's not that I reject it, it's that I can't do it! I don't know how to talk about money, I barely know how to negotiate. I know I have media value. I try to sell myself, to sell my projects. But it's heavy! You see, November December was very hard, after we saw each other. I always have lows at the holidays because you move on to another year, there's this family thing, time passing and you haven't exploited it, and I realize obviously that I decided to be alone. So it's harder. But I also see this kind of constraint: you have to have the Christmas tree, you have to have the turkey, the baubles... And then the inconsistencies: mind you, no climate change but we have 50 Amazon Prime packages under the tree... It's this thing that revolts me and that I have to deal with...

YB – I'm convinced it's a question of timing. There's a gap between what you imagined and how long it's going to take. But you'll make it! You mentioned the Alpsman in one of your films. But you see that in an event like that, you experience ups and downs. But you start again. It's the same here. It's the example of your life. Your experience proves that to you. If you're not doing well in December, you'll start again in February.

SLH – The questioning sometimes goes further. Am I in the right place? Am I too big for France? Is the project too ambitious for a country that thinks small? It's not at all mean. Here there are big entrepreneurs, but they're not necessarily the ones who are going to put money into Steven Le Hyaric. And yet climate change is a real emergency. It's happening every day. I said this again on social media recently because I received a criticism related to Canada Goose, which helps me a little. Those who criticized me had Porsches, Nikes, and Netflix in their profile pictures. And they criticized me for being helped by Canada Goose, which still makes real fur? What's dirtier? Canada Goose, which still uses fur, which I obviously don't wear? It's a world of communication. Little foxes, coyotes, you shouldn't touch them. Polar bears, neither. But on the other hand, if it's a shark, it's not a big deal, because it's nasty. We live in a world of PR. It saddens me, because we don't all have the perspective. People never look in the mirror to understand how their habits position them in relation to the environment! I never buy anything, I don't eat meat, I only travel by bike, and there are guys who have attacked me for that! It really upset me.

YB – Yes, but Steven, you can't get everyone on board! That's the difficulty with your projects. You were talking about perspective and experience earlier. You have to accept, from the moment you become a public figure, that you can't get everyone on board. The important thing is that you feel consistent with your values.

SLH – Sure. But it was just an educational thing. You see what happened when Australia burned down. People are sad because millions of cute little animals disappeared… But what's the most important thing to remember? It's not the consequence but the cause! It's that Australia has the most disgusting fossil record in the world and they continue to consolidate their coal industry!! My goal is just to put references in people's heads and tell them "take a step back, take a step back, look at things differently, and try to see how you can change things at your level."

YB – You're right. It's education. But it's complex! I experience this contradiction of ecology in textiles. You have a huge educational job to do, in fact! If everyone had the same level of knowledge and there were absolute truths, it would be easier.

SLH – There are always people who like you or who don't like you. But that wasn't it. It was, "I don't want to know your arguments. You can tell me whatever I want, proven or not, I don't care. And I'll never want to know." The number of these detractors is microscopic compared to the encouragement I receive. But there are people who don't want to know. Because otherwise we all want to die; it's too much of an effort. That hurts me. Because they plateau at the intellectual level I had at 15 and cut themselves off from any prospect of change. But, guys, we have things to do! And we can do them together. We slap hands and take action. Maybe we can teach each other things, pass things on to each other. But having such paralyzing value judgments... I'm already fighting against myself over that, you see!

YB – You are an adventurous entrepreneur and teacher!

SLH – But I've approached just about every manufacturer today. If Patagonia tells me tomorrow we'll give you €150,000, including €50,000 in clothes, well, let's go for it, that's great. But they don't even answer me. They don't say it's hard, it's not the right time, we don't know how to set it up... but that's what you're doing. They receive thousands. But it might still be interesting to see how you reach people? It's a lot of energy, and my energy, whatever people say, is still limited.

YB – But you have a project that is super ambitious, Steven!

SLH – I know. I was once told that I needed to lower my emotional level. A psychologist told me that. But she didn't realize that that's what was keeping me alive, even surviving!

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