Dear BTG‐riders,
with less than four weeks to go, we have three subjects that we want to talk about today:
1. Last reminder for tracking registration.
2. Details about the pre‐start meeting on Saturday.
3. Local route closures.
1. Tracking registration is closing soon
As announced in newsletter #5 registration for tracking will close 15th June 12pm. If you want to be tracked during the race and did not register yet please do so asap
So far 70 riders are registered for tracking. When you registered for BTG 2019 130 of you said they wanted to be tracked. We will have a few spare devices available at the start, but definitely not 60 of them. So please register NOW!
2. Pre‐Start meeting
The pre‐race meeting will be held at the outdoor pool in Grenzach‐Wyhlen (POI “I010 Meeting”). As we have to pay a rental fee for the area we ask all participants of the pre‐start meeting for a €10 contribution.
Here are the details for Saturday, 06th July:
- We will meet at 4pm at the side entrance of the pool (at the rescue road).
- If you arrive earlier, there is a bar and restaurant at the pool.
- You can also take the opportunity to stock up on supplies at Hieber supermarket (POI “S087 Supermarket”).
- You can take your bike on the area.
- You can pitch a tent for the night or just bivy.
- You can use two fireplaces on the area for a bbq. No open fires outside these fireplaces.
- No electric power supply available.
- You may use the pools as long as the lifeguard is at place (until 8:30pm).
- We have to clear the place by 6am on Sunday.
We want to use the pre‐race‐meeting also to take care of some organizational issues:
- Hand over the rental trackers and number plates.
- Give a race briefing.
- Collect the missing payments.
On Sunday morning please follow the race route to the starting venue (POI “I001 Start”). Please be there at 7am latest. The hour before the start will be stress. We will:
- Hand over the rest of the tracking devices and number plates.
- Take some group photos.
- Give a short briefing for those who couldn’t join the evening before.
- Take care of last minute issues.
- Send you off.
3. Last minute route closures
In the last days we got notice of some local closures along the route due to forest work and a landslide. We ask you to take notice of signs that announce these closures and obey them. Especially forest workers usually block the road with a huge banner. You can’t miss it. For your own safety: Don’t enter these areas.
We can’t provide alternate routes for all possible closures because they can appear with short notice or no notice at all everywhere on the route. In these cases: Work your way around the closure and rejoin the route at the next possible point. In order to do so we strongly advice you to have a proper map on your GPS (we recommend OpenMTBMap).
There is one closure in the Schwäbische Alb reported to us by Manuel who is currently touring the route (followers of our Facebook group know what I am talking about). We are currently looking into it and might provide a workaround for this. Stay tuned!
But also note: Not every fallen tree is a cause to leave the route. E.g. Near Berlin on the “66 lakes route” the fallen trees have been there for years now and are part of the challenge. Use your common sense: If signs advice you to stay off, obey them. If you feel it is dangerous to follow the route, go around. Otherwise: Get across.
That’s it for the moment. One or two more newsletters might follow. Cheers,
Achim & Thomas