[Photography provided by Tailfin, EClark, and Nils Laengner]

Less than a fortnight ago, off-road ultra racing and cult legend Justinas Leveika was introduced to the greater cycling world through the launch of a docu-film entitled “The King of Chaos,” a fitting title for one of cycling’s great characters, and one amazing ultra racer.

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Despite the 36 year old Lithuanian only taking up ultra racing in 2021, whilst holding down an extremely demanding full time job as a nurse in Norway, Justinas has somehow managed to slot in the time to train for and to win such iconic ultra races as Tour Divide, Arizona Trail Race, The Accursed Race, Atlas Mountain Race, Ride Around Rwanda, and Dales Divide, to name just a few – a feat that marks him as one of the greatest ultra racers of the moment.

We caught up with him as he lined up to start this year’s mostly road-based Trans Continental Race to hear more about his story.

ORCC; Is this your first Trans Continental Race (TCR)?

Justinas Leveika: Yes, it is. I’m not a fan of these “free-route” (riders plot their own route between obligatory sectors and checkpoints) races, and I have mixed feelings about this. 

ORCC: How are you feeling going into the race, and what made you decide to ride?

JL: It’s about getting out of my comfort zone, and I like challenges. I somehow managed to miscalculate, and all of my preparation was last minute; this King of Chaos, it’s a curse, and that’s getting more so (like that). 

2024 — Justinas — AZTR Finish-1.jpg, by Liam Mercer

The race that I organise, the Bright Midnight, I somehow thought that I’d have three weeks between that race and TCR, but I only had two weeks, and that involved making the route, preparing the bike, and everything else. It’s been a chaotic approach.

ORCC: Are you riding the Silk Road Mountain Race straight after this?

JL: Nah, if I’d had more time to solve the logistical problems (maybe). Because I’m going to finish the TCR on a road bike, and for Silk Road, you need a mountain bike, I would have needed to somehow send a bike to myself in Kyrgyzstan, or at least to Romania, where the TCR finishes, so I could change bikes. I just didn’t have time to get my head around it.

ORCC: What drew you into competitive cycling?

JL: It was a challenge. After a couple of years of living in big towns in Norway, I decided to move to a small town. Norway was always intended to be a five-year project for me. I wanted to go and master the nursing skills and learn their healthcare system, and then come back and pay back in Lithuania. I found out that nurses choose wherever they want to work there, because they’re needed everywhere, so I went to a little town called Tynset. Little did I know it, but there was a UCI mountain bike team there, and that gave me motivation to be a part of the team.

EClark_240617_DSC_9486.jpg, by Liam Mercer

I saw the guys competing at a high level, and I wanted to do the same. It took some time, but I made it; that was MTB cross-country.

ORCC: How did you get into ultra after riding cross-country?

JL: During the Covid time, the team I was riding with decided to stop, because there was a lot of uncertainty. I’d just started finding this passion for cycling and wanted to continue – and that’s what I did.

During lockdown, we were working very different shifts, and I would get times off, like six to seven days in a row, because of social distancing and everything else. That was perfect for bike packing. I had everything I needed, I was on my own, had my bedroom (tent), my kitchen, all on my bike, and I could just ride around Norway free from tourists, that was just perfect.

ORCC: What was your first ultra race, and what did you learn from it?

JL: That was the Trans Pyrenees, you traverse the range from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. There were lots of learnings, I got drowned in them; I went in with high expectations, or rather thinking I already knew a bit about bike packing, and it turned out I didn’t know anything. I was left with lots of pains here and there, made lots of bad choices, and gained experience – that was in 2021.

ORCC: Were the big US bike packing races on your radar back then?

JL: No, it was just about looking for a challenge. I wanted to try something long, and there was the TCR in Europe, or the Tour Divide in America. As I like off-road and fixed route races more, that was how I ended up going to the US first.

ORCC: On the outside, you always seem to be smiling and happy when racing. Is that really what goes on inside, or are there some really bad times out there?

EClark_240618_DSC_9655.jpg, by Liam Mercer

JL: These are my holidays, this is the time I work for and to get, so if it would give me misery, why would I do this? That would be bulls&&%, it wouldn’t work for me. I enjoy this too much. I love to ride my bike; it’s so freeing. In everyday life, there are so many things you have to consider, worry about, and manage. When you’re on the bike, you just need to eat, sleep, drink, and then ride your bike – that’s very simple.

ORCC: There aren’t many full-time paid ultra racers around. Is this something you think could become a full-time prospect?

JL: Only if I would want to, yes. But I don’t want that. I prefer to keep things separate – I don’t want to become one who has to say what he’s told to say. I have my opinion, and I want to keep that, and I like the things that are good, rather than being paid to use other things. I just want to do what I like, and I found out that this sponsorship thing is very difficult, or rather annoying for me; I hate sending emails asking and begging for this or that – there is no free money, they always ask you to do something for the money or support.

AMR24-Day4-Nils_Laengner-3390.jpg, by Liam Mercer

I’d rather be underpaid in this sponsorship thing and have it like this. I’m thankful that Tailfin, Albion, Trek, and Hunt are with me, even though they know my standpoint. Probably, I could do way more for them, and they would pay me more, but that’s not my priority. My priority is to ride my bike and have fun.

ORCC: You were working as a care home manager for some time, a tough job to handle in so many ways, how do you manage to detach your work and cycling life?

JL: Things have changed a little bit since that movie launch (King of Chaos); I’ve now downgraded myself a little bit, to become a nurse again, in pursuit of this – doing more cycling and more racing. 

It was a really heavy life, not sustainable. Both ends of the candle were burning fast, and I was approaching levels of exhaustion, to put it simply. I lived that lifestyle for over three years, and so now I’m just a nurse, not managing any longer, as that was a 24/7 job.

ORCC: Are there more races for you this year?

JL: Yeah, probably. I like to discover places and do things on a bike. Bike packing is good, but when you go racing with other people, even though I like to be alone, knowing that there are people in front and behind going through the same, it gives a different perspective. Then, when you get to the finish line and hang out and share experiences, that’s the part I love (about racing over bike packing).

• Watch the King of Chaos

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