22:00 as I start typing the roundup of the fifth day of the third edition of the Bikepacking Trans Germany… a day that will go down in the history books of this self supported race. Actually, it’s a pretty tough task to find words for what has been said quite often today already.
I guess we all agree that this day had its highlight between 8:30 and 10 o’clock in the morning. Christian Beyer and Ben Steurbaut arrived at Cape Arkona and finished the race together, shaving off more than a whole day from the previous record setting ride. They are the only two who arrived at the finish line, but Andrew and Clem Shovel will get to Cape Arkona soon riding at km 1584.1 and km 1533.7. I talked to Thomas Borst and asked him if it was true that Clem Shovel is riding the #btg18 singlespeed. He confirmed that and after doing some research with Achim Walther they found out that Clem will be the first person to finish the BTG on a singlespeed bike. And he will do it in an impressive manner. So this edition of the BTG is special in various ways! Andrew and him are the only riders in the 1500s, Bernie is at km 1475.39 followed by Thomas Go-Ride Taut at km 1390.66 and Olaf Haensch at km 1291.6. As you can see from the numbers the field of participants had been stretched a bit, the distances between the riders have gotten bigger.
13 riders made it through checkpoint #3 so far, 11 passed checkpoint #4. One more – yet definitely not the last time – congratulations to the both winners. Going over the finish line together was an absolute classy act of great sportsmanship!
Keep going ladies & gentlemen, stay safe and sleep well!
Happy riding, Fabian