A Dream Ultra Debut: Piotr Havik Wins Badlands in Just Over 36 Hours

Thirty-six hours and fifteen minutes.

More than 800 kilometres across some of the most unforgiving terrain in southern Spain. Over 13,000 metres of climbing. Heat, dust, darkness, mountains and desert, all in one continuous push from Granada and back.

That is what it took Piotr Havik to win Badlands 2026. And this was his first ultra.

Piotr arrived in Granada with very different credentials. A proven gravel racer, runner-up in the 2025 Gravel Earth Series, he knew how to race hard and how to race fast. What he did not know was what would happen once 200 kilometres became 400, then 600, and there was still a long way to go.

His approach was simple: start racing.

From the opening kilometres out of Granada, Piotr stayed at the front of the race.

There was no conservative first day, no long waiting game. He rode with the leading group through the opening mountains and into Andalucía's increasingly empty interior.

By Gor, around 235 kilometres into the route, the race had begun to stretch apart.

Piotr went on alone.

It was an extraordinarily early moment to find yourself at the front of an 800-kilometre race. Hundreds of kilometres still separated him from Granada. Ahead were the Sierra de Baza, the Sierra de los Filabres, the Tabernas Desert, the Mediterranean coast and, after all of that, another long series of climbs back towards the finish.

But Piotr kept moving. The villages became fewer. The roads became emptier. Day turned into night.

Then came the desert.

Badlands is not difficult because of one climb or one decisive section. Its difficulty comes from accumulation.

Another climb. Another hour. Another stretch of road without services.

The route moves through landscapes that seem to continuously change character: high mountains give way to the dry, exposed terrain around Tabernas before the Mediterranean finally appears near Almería.

At around 550 kilometres, Piotr reached the sea. For most races, that distance would already be absurd. At Badlands, there were still hundreds of kilometres to ride.

And the hardest part was not necessarily where he expected it. “I cannot name a part that was easy, but I think the toughest thing in the end was when it was only getting hotter and hotter. There were so many supermarkets and restaurants closed, so every time you thought, ‘Oh, I can have a stop now,’ and then there was nothing.”

During the final part of the race, something as ordinary as finding food became another problem to solve. “So I think basically the last 150 kilometres I did it on water and some resources I had left from Almería. It was really tough.” Still, he kept pushing. No dramatic collapse. No opportunity for the race behind to come back to him. Just forward.

Perhaps the most revealing part of Piotr's first ultra was not physical at all. It was how he thought about distance.

“Mentally, I think for such a long distance, it's important that you chop it. Because if you only have one plan, or you are only focusing on the finish, it's going to take too long. So you need to chop it into pieces.” At the beginning, there was no obsession with winning.

“The first plan was being around the top five.” Then the race evolved.

Piotr watched the experienced ultra-distance riders around him. When did they stop? How did they manage the race? What could he learn from them? “And then I switched it a little bit more based on the specialists around here — what they were doing, when they were stopping — trying to learn from them.”

Until eventually there was nobody left to follow.

“At one point, you are on your own.” From there, the enormous distance between Piotr and Granada became a succession of much smaller objectives. One section. One climb. One resupply. Then the next.

Badlands is an ultra-distance race, and winning it requires everything that entails: managing food, water, equipment, fatigue, navigation and your own mind over a day and a half of almost uninterrupted racing.

But Piotr brought something different to it.

Speed. Rather than approaching Badlands as an ultra specialist, he brought the instincts of a gravel racer. The same athlete, the same aggressive approach to racing and, underneath the bags, lights and aero extensions required for the challenge, the same Colnago G4-X he races throughout the gravel season.

He did not try to transform himself into an ultra-distance rider. He found a way to make his own way of racing work over 800 kilometres.

And in doing so, he turned Badlands into something that at times resembled an impossibly long one-day race.

Thirty-six hours and fifteen minutes after leaving Granada, Piotr rode back into the city in the evening. Covered in dust. Exhausted. And smiling.

“I can tell you I'm far from good now, but I'm so happy to be back home. This was something else. I will need a couple of weeks to digest this. It was brutal.”

His first ultra was over. And it ended with a victory and a new benchmark for Badlands.

What a ride, Piotr.

Frame: Colnago G4X size 54 PIGR colorway

Handlebars: Colnago CC.01 wide 120mm 40-46 with custom aerobar extension attachment

Groupset: SRAM Red XPLR

Chainring: Garbaruk custom aero chainring

Cassette: Garbaruk 1x13 GEN2.0 cassette for XPLR 10-52T

Derailleur Cage: Garbaruk for SRAM XPLR 13-speed

Wheels: Oquo RP50LTD CS 50mm

Tires: Continent Dubnital 50mm front and rear

Saddle: Posedla 3D printed custom

Bags: Apidura

Photos: Nils Laengner x Badlands