Bikepacking Trans Germany 2020: The first Wrap-up – Rügenpresse Reloaded!

The first (week-)end of this year’s BTG was a quite eventful one: Some started early, some started late, one man has already made it to the Cape and some have enjoyed the track so much that they decided to ride the same part back and forth…but one thing after another.

First of all, we want to congratulate our first finisher of 2020, Michael K., to one hell of a ride to the finish line in just under seven days (6d:23h:58m)! He spent the last night close to Stralsund under a motorway bridge where he managed to get two hours of sleep, caught the first ferry and continued his journey to Cape Arkona.

Congratulations, Michael! We hope that you could celebrate a bit and that you treated yourself with a big piece of cake, a bratwurst, a beer or whatever you felt like after this great performance!

As some of you might have experienced, Achim, Thomas and I spent the weekend at the Hoher Randen to welcome some of the participants, mainly to overwatch the willingness to obey to the rules – “flask” was the keyword in particular.

Well, without going further into the details, here are the numbers from about 24 hours of traffic control: Based on the fact that Achim brought 24 beer cans (of which Thomas, him and me had about a dozen) and we took two of the cans back home, ten riders got busted by the “officers”.

But there were not only offenses against the flask rule: One ghost rider (Endre) fell into the trap…maybe the sway of his seat pack which reminded us a bit of an elephant with some erectile dysfunction given its looks spun him around? Olaf F. escaped the control… INTERPOL has been informed and now there are two options: a) He makes it to the Cape very fast or b) he gets arrested by some secret agents…

Then, we had some trail magic as well, provided by our BTG Angel Norbert: Boris G. pinched the hose of his rear brake and needed a bike shop to fix the problem. Norbert got informed and he did his magic – calling bikeshops and asking if they were willing to help Boris out. The result: Yes, they were and despite being closed on Monday, Boris got the help he needed to tackle the upcoming descents of the Swabian Alp safely.

Speaking of safety: We’ve heard of a warning going around in the WhatsApp group – Ramon Berndt (Nickname: The Dark Seer)– warned the other participants to be careful when approaching CP 1 at night: “The trail is rough, rooty and if you loose your balance, you gonna fall down a cliff into certain death…”

As you can see, the Bikepacking Trans Germany is not your casual walk in the park – it’s a proper mountainbike route!

To finish this first report: There are about 50 riders on the track with five of them being faster on the first section than our first finisher, Michael K., which means that they are on pace for a sub-seven-days-finish!

Last but not least we want to thank Siggi, Mounsieur Philippe and the rest of the beekeepers at the Hohen Randen. They are supporting the BTG in a great manner and became friend with the board as well as with the riders. Thank you for caring about the riders and being a part of the Bikepacking Trans Germany!

About the Rügenpresse: As you all know, this year is far from being business as usual which means that the Rügenpresse won’t be able to cover every single day of the 2020 BTG. But still: If you have a story worth sharing, please let us know – great journalism finds its ways!

Categories: NewsNews 2020