It’s 21:55 now and we’re closing in finishing the first week of this year’s Bikepacking Trans Germany. So far five riders made it to Cape Arkona, Thomas Go-Ride Taut, Clem Shovel and Bernie crossed the finish line today. So it’s offical now: Clem is the first rider ever to finish the Bikepacking Trans Germany on a singlespeed bike. Thomas Go-Ride Taut went in on third place, Bernie is in the fifth position. Olaf Haensch seems to be the next to make it to Cape Arkona riding at km 1487.81 with Markéta Peggy Marvanová and Adam roughly 70 km behind him. Holger Loosen, Jann and AndGra complete the top 10 currently riding at km 1379.58, km 1284.03 and km 1261.57.
Achim Walther, one of the two chairman, dropped out of the race today having reached his goal he had set for himself, the Fichtelberg. He sent me a voicemail again tonight telling me that he’s sitting next to a campfire with a good friend that helped him to hide a box of beer in the woods. For the next edition he told me that he needs to inform the participants at bit earlier, he just didn’t expect this year’s riders to be as fast as they turned out to be. 😉 Talking about fast: Achim informed me that the riders got some help from a strong tailwind today, especially in the Franconian region. Some riders were flying up the hills with speeds up to 25 km/h!
What else do we have today? Well, our good fried Falk “Bean Grinder” Diefenbach started his ITT ride today and has informed us that he rode about 200 km on his first day. He found a nice shelter right next to a football field.
Also, sources close to the #btg18 board have sent in some photos of the refiling of what is called “mandatory gear” and getting rid of the leftovers to not carry some unnecessary weight around. Ride light, but obey the rules!
That’s it for today. Congratulations to today’s finishers and to all the others still out there: Happy riding, stay safe, sleep well!
Fabian
