Supergrevet München Mailand

30th August 2024

What is a Grevet? A mix of the words „Brevet“ and „Gravel“.
But different to a brevet is that this event is a race with ranking. „Super“ because of it’s length and elevation.

I was arriving in Munich by train at 23.08. I checked in to the hotel and realized that there’s a Beergarden I was in the past allready. So let’s go and have a „Schnitzel“ before briefing.

After having to beer (without alcohol) and eating I went to the briefing. Nothing special to say about it just caught up my tracker and had some good talking.
Start was at 7 am on Saturday. The organizer didn’t took it that exactly, so we started at 7:07.
First part was neutralized to get out of munich the safest way.

After the neutralized part I realized my sponser sportfood competition wasn’t mounted that good on the saddlebag. I dind’t want to stop and put in into my jersey where it should hang for the next 100 km or so…

We just had some good talking in a small bunch of 5 riders. Beautiful views and good paths and trails.

Sadly I had a crash because my garmin didn’t show me to go right on the gras-path. A rider in front of me was hitting the brakes and I just hit his backwheel. I had luck and nothing happend. Only my brakelever needed to be addjust what I did during riding.
Than the first climb was reached. Pretty steep so I took the lead because noone could follow.

Steep is the right suggestion for this race I should mention. Garmin pro climb was telling you in every climb: 2% of steepness remaining. Mostly it where 10, 15 or 20%….
Brutal heat and low cadeance were killing me softly…
Also I was feeling my stomach was getting worse and worse. Only the beautiful views kept my mind positiv.

I needed to stop for a big shit. I just was thinking: ok in 5 minutes the other riders ride arround the corner during i’m sitting here and making a big mountain on the switzerland gravel path.

What a view from the toilette, isn’t?! 😀

After I was running into some forests near a river, so it was cooling down a bit.

On a camping side I stopped to inhalate some B12 like my friend Sascha would say (having a Erdinger alkoholfrei). Also a Solero icecream and some salt tablettes and Sponser Sportfood electrolyts.
It was to early on a day to stop but maybe to late to go into the high mountain passes. But there was no other opportunity to conquere the race than pass them in the night.

It was a great riding uphill but it was getting colder and colder. 400 hm before the top I stopped to put on some editional clothes. Then i was climbing to the top with the first Refugio.

I never did an offroad race during the night, so very special doing this newbie action in the alps.
The street was getting worse and worse. You just see on the picture how brutal steep the downhills were.

There also were some hiking paths you just couldn’t ride. Next to the path it was going very deep down. I was a bit scared and just going slow in this parts. It was also not the right bike for this action.
After descending the second big 2000 elevation pass I was taking a 1hour 30 break, knowing I couldn‘t sleep, just to recover my hands. The big gap on place 2 is allowing me to take a break I was thinking.
After this break I keept pushing on again.
The downhills were getting better the more you came down. So „gravel“ again.

I was entering the valley of Tirano, Bormio, Sondrio. In the first village i stopped for some breakfast and turning my downjacket and the other stuff off.
The valley had some paths with asphalt and I was running fast to sondrio because it was going very small percentage downhill all the time. In Sondrio I was thinking: ok now you enter the „hard“ gravelclimb option… (You also could choose a road option with 4 times of time penalty).
But no, just do a useless bullshit-climb on the right sight of my riding direction (I needed to go left) before. The gpx wasn’t correct in some parts, need to go off the bike 10 times to check where to go, asked the people, ok you need to go the stairs down… what the fuck… 18% climb again, small bullshit trail. I just was pissed of. It wasn’t any special view for me, i dind’t take any photos, it just was a useless painbringer before a 2000 hm climb with steep parts up to 20% of hundred meters of elevation…

I tried to roll easy after for 10 km to the 2000 meters of elevation climb. I stopped, put some suncream on because it was burning again brutal at 10:30 am. Nice view of the river in the middle of the valley.

The steep climb (most oft he riders didn’t choose) started with arround 12 % average for the start of 900 meters of elevation. It was working good, but i was feeling more killed with every turn uphill. I was happy that the surface was asphalt in this first part.
After it was running in steeper and steeper gravel parts.
I took the decision to hike in the parts with percentage over 12%.
Ok I was still hiking faster than the hikers with my bike….

A lot of motorcrossbikes and 4×4 SUV’s passed me. On the uphill I should see why.
Big Parteeeeey for my birthday!!! (25.08.)

I was feeling the good vibes 😀

There were some steaks, but i chose some pasta.

After lunch I was pushing on. In the photo one of the better gravelpaths:

I needed to go another 200 meters of elevation up before i needed to go down over big rocks again.

After a looooooooooooong decent i was running into a valley again and stopped at a supermarket. There were to young guys who where interessted in what i’m doing. I had a 5 minutes talk during drinking a strawberry milk. The bought pizza I putted in the front of my jersey. Good food source for the next 3 hours!
Next uphill i need to stop 5 minutes again. The heat was totally killing me. Drinking some liters in the shadow of a tree helped me. I stopped at every posssibility to get water over my head.
And steep steeper steepest again…
You can rely on Garmin – 2% climb remaining… *sarcasm off* ääääh sorry there’s missing a zero.
20% climb remaining!!!!

I was in a hurry and just calculated the whole time how it’s running with the very at comer see in the evening…

Luckily there were some good running asphalted paths in between.

I had 2 hours for remaining 5 kms and then again a special hike a bike trail… even a wild dog was trying to get me off my bike… I know why I hate fucking dogs.
Finally i got the second last ferry in the evening. I don’t ofter check dotwachter but on the ferry I did. Bianca was laying on place 2 (what a outstanding performance for a woman!). She and the other riders nearby shouldn’t get the ferry.

On the other side of the lake I decided to sit down and to enjoy a pizza. Normally I wouldn’t do. but I had a gap of minimum 6 hours between me and the second rider.
Two hard climbs remaining. I decided to take theme before having a powernap. After the second climb there was no good sleeping spot so I was going a few kilometers further.

The morning was followed by some gravel paths again.

I was grumbling the whole time. Fucking rocks like in a dry riverbed. But it shouldn’t stay like a dry riverbed…

First i was lucky with just some wet paths. Sadly I was falling down on my arm on a hike a bike trail. First i thought it was broken but i had luck only the muscles was sprained. No fun… Storm was hitting me an hour later and tons of water from up and down followed… There was only one village i could stop for heaving some breakfast.

The last 120 km should take countless hours…
Sometimes you need an hour for an kilometer…



Finally I did it on the road back. The Storm was over. I was riding an asphalt path, then a tree was hitting the ground 20 meters behind me… No fun.
I was running into the flat parts to milano again, needed to do some rerouting because of a dog and closed routes, also a lobster was threaten me. Angry but funny little guy (sadly i dind’t took a photo). My powerbank was running out of energy and my garmin was going low energy. So i recharged it with my ravemen PR 1600.
The last 30 km without any special things.
I crossed the time station after 58 hours and 59 minutes.

After this I was running easy the last 5 km to the finish line for celebrating the victory.



This beer was well deserved.

Nearly 8 hours to the next participant. What a blast. 800 km /13700 meters of elelvation.

See you next time!
Greetings Joshua

Rad am Ring

22th July 2023

Sometimes you need another challenge. I didn’t do any relay race in my life, so why don’t try?

Martin asked me last year if I have some time to go for Rad am Ring. I did ThreePeaksBikeRace – so no. This year I asked him if he has some plans. He told me that there are some slots in Phillips Bike Team but he didn’t decide if he want to go for team of two or team of four.

There was a fast decision for team of four.

Martin Waldenberger, Florian Eichert, me.. We just needed a fourth man.
Martin is very good connected, so the fourth man should be Daan Marsmans.

Ok plans are made not to work…
Florian and Daan should be ill short time for the race…

But we were lucky to find two great riders – Oliver Vakilzadeh and Noah Balgenorth.

As I just thought before the race I should be the “slowest” rider…

From left to right: me, Martin W., Noah B., Oliver V.

Oliver was our rider for the first lap, Noah for the second, me for the third lap and Martin the last in the row.

The first laps were very fast. Like suggested I was the slowest with two 45min laps and one 44 min lap in the start. Martin was around 44 min.

The wind was very strong. Especially on “Döttinger Höhe” in was blowing direct into your face.
I was a bit unlucky to find groups to safe energy. Most of the riders were very slow and just a handful guys had the right pace to go with.

We were all pushing hard.

In the evening Noah got some problems with his knees. Not the good if one of your fastest teammates need to go a bit softer and even had to stop for some rounds in the night. We had a hard battle we team “No Merci”. 2,3,4 mins behind, 1,2,3 mins in front… on some laps we could leech a bit on each others wheel. But we fought hard.

We decided to switch the routine and did double laps, Noah was trying to recover.

For me the night was hard. I did a 48 min lap and had really luck at 70km/h when a hard bow hit me in the curve. My front wheel was hit this hard that my tire lost contact to the street. Luckily I was able to control it again.

The next lap (2nd in a row) I felt into a big whole due to the change of rhythm. I rode a 53 min lap (the only 50+time in the whole race of us).
I was happy to cross the relay zone and Martin was going for two rounds.
An hour of sleep was waiting for me.

In the morning Noah was able to sit back on the bike.
Our times on a lap were getting slower but also the times of the other teams.

I was changing the front wheel due to heavy wind. I had a look on the weather and decided to took some rain stuff on for the next lap.
Martin was telling me: 3 minutes ahead of “No Merci” – I don’t want to battle another lap – so get 5 min in front or let them go. 😀

I started my lap but had to take off the rain jacket during the ride. Too much power on my chain the needed to be cooled by the wind and rain.

The wind was pretty heavy and the street wet so I decided to slow down a bit. In the curve in which I was lucky in the night, there was laying a guy in the lane railing, not looking good. I was looking forward and kept pushing on at “Hohe Acht”. Last lap – give everything left.

At the start of “Döttinger Höhe” a guy of a faster team was passing me and told me to work together. I was doing my work and tried to stay behind him after. 360 Watts the last hill after over 6 hours of racing… hard shit.. I hold the wheel so I was able to keep a sub 50 min time even with slowed down racing in the curves on this lap before. On “Döttinger Höhe” I was hearing the commentator: “Race cancelled”…

Normally we had 1 hour more to race.
I was two mins before Team “No Merci” – that was satisfying.

261 W Normalized Power over 6:26h @164 average HR. I never had this power before over such a time. 204 km with 4400 hm.

We did the 5th place in aged category and 7th in total. Good result if you note that there where some Pro Cyclists in the front teams.

We were all tired and happy to take a shower.

Special thanks to Martin for organizing this great team!

Mittelgebirgeclassique #2

21th May 2023

Normally I’m not the type of rider who does participate multiple times in a row in an event. There’s too much to discover when you have some free time.
On the first look the route was looking the same: palatinate forest, black forest, vogeses.
Yeah same Mountain-rows but different roads I realized. So I took the decision to ride Mittelgebirgeclassique #2

Some things I had optimized to my setup.

On Saturday there was bikecheck and briefing, on Sunday 6:00 am it was racetime.
I think the guys did a bit better – no all outs at Kalmit but some went to fast uphill of cause. I did easy and had some snacks uphill. I was faster in the descents so I caught most of them after every descent. This “game” was going till we left the palatinate forest over vogeses du nord till start of black forest.
I did easy pedaling, knowing it would be a long race.
At Forbach I met the first time Glenn Bloemen again and we had some talk during shoping at the oilstation.

My eating tactic was drinking sponser sportfood competition (I didn’t want to drink to much coke and sugarstuff) mixed with Liquid Energy Gels and Powergums. For having some non-junk-food I bought at every stop some bakery things to eat in between or had a warm meal.

I didn’t want to stop a long time and seat back fast on my bike. Humidity was super high and it was getting hot. In a climb I needed to stop at a water source to get some water over my face and legs, refilling bottle and taking some salt and electrolytes.

Around afternoon it started with massive rain. I just was right before a bakery, so I took a seat and ate some good cake.

Some riders passed me, but I enjoyed the cake. Even refilling energy is an important thing due to an ultrarace. The cake was gone and the rain also, so I headed on. I was doing some climbs but running into the evening there was thunder up in the hills again so I decided to take another stop at a kebab. Some other riders took the same decision and the kebab was getting full of people. I met Christoph Fuhrbach again who had sadly some problems with his pedals.

Not sure if the rain and thunder stops I went on – what was the right decision some minutes later it stopped up in the mountains. I rode into the night some big climbs like Schauinsland ahead. My personal finish for the first “part” of the route was CP1 after 420 km. I head some good talk with some riders on the road but we separated at Schauinsland climb and the downhills in between.
Running out of water I stopped to a hotel around 0am just at the start of the descent of Schauinsland. Light was burning and I thought maybe the get the dishes on for the morning – so give it a try. I opened the door and ask if it’s open and if I could fill my bottles. Some very drunk guys answered: No, we have a bachelor party, sit down, have a beer with us… What the fuck – Sunday night and they are just that drunk and 1000m of elevation above sea level…
I answered that I don’t want a beer cause I’m in a race but if they had a coke I would take.
The filled my bottles with coke but consist I have something to eat. So I had an ice cream.
Glen and another guy saw my bike staying in front so the joined some minutes later.

In a climb Florian Klein joined me and we had some talking the next parts to CP1.
I ate the “Käsespätzle” or how I translated to a not German rider: “the special nuddles with cheese”.
Knowing I normally can’t sleep in the first night during an ultrarace I took a bed there. After 10 mins of sleep I was awake again – so sit back on your bike and keep pushing…

Through the night I made a lot of positions – from 20 to 8 I think. I stopped 2 times in the just opening bakeries and shops till vogeses.

It was a very beautiful morning.

Petit Ballon and Platzerwasel were laying ahead. In the Climb of Petit Ballon it started to rain – I was riding under the only cloud you could see in the sky… But it should get worse – after Platzerwasel some thunderstorm was coming up – nothing to stay under – heavy rain and hail.
Some kilometers later and soaking wet I could stop.

It seamed to get a bit better and I started riding again but that was no good idea. Next to a ferme auberge I stopped. I got something to eat and I was waiting for the end of the storm.
After finishing eat sun was shining again like nothing was before…
I went on with good legs. Climbs were steep up to Ballon D’Alsace and Co.

I wanted to reach CP2 before the night was starting.

At Planche des Belles Filles I made a decision that would fuck up my whole race. I dropped my “assrocket”-luggage in the climb in the high gras. I went up and down. Maybe 40 minutes in between. I got back – but no luggage anymore. I was standing there in short-short with no clothes anymore and it was going into the night. First I thought my mind is not clear anymore. I checked the parts multiple times climbing up and down.
A rider that passed me when I was going descent was coming downhill again. I stopped him and asked if he have seen my luggage. He was saying: Yeah I saw it laying in the high gras beside the street (you could only see it going uphill very slowly…) . There was no one on the street so I decided to hide it not too good so I could find it easy again…
I waited and ask 3 or 4 riders passing to have a look in the uphill… nothing.
There was space around 5 minutes to steal my luggage… I don’t know which french sucker needs stinky clothes…

I decide to go to CP2. I was starting to freeze but that was the only chance to survive up in the cold nowhere.
At CP2 Martin Waldenberger gave me a Softshelljacket, some arm and leg warmes, a bag and I got a rescue blanket out of the CrewCar of Mittelgebirgeclassique. I was very happy to get that chance in an unsupported race because there was no shop the next hundred kilometers…

I had some food and went on. Even my race tactic was very fucked in the out of nowhere. My whole food where gone and the bag on my shoulders wasn’t brilliant.

I wasn’t tired after CP2 but microsleep was catching me at Ventron. Up at 1000 above zero I had to stop. I was rolling myself into the rescue blanket and had some not good sleep. I had two times and hour of sleep, I was hungry and legs were getting back.
In a climb Glenn Bloemen and Thomas Ceyrowsky caught me. The were to fast for me but I was telling my brain: keep the gap close… So we were riding some hours and caught up Lukas Neubeck.
In a town we stopped for heaving breakfast. I had real problems with my feet cause my socks (no changing clothing anymore) were wet the whole time and I got “white” feet. After some hours there was no pushing possible anymore and I was going very slow. Even the problems with refilling energy because of need of change eating tactic was there..

At Saverne around kilometer 900 I got some Haribo, Ayran and bananas in a Turkish shop. Now it was going better again.
At Neuwiller-les-Saverne I got also some Bebanthen for my ass… for hundreds of kilometers no crème to get on…

The last kilometers through France were easy again. I just had the Die anonyme Giddarischde – Palzlied on my mind – coming home. In “Hääschde” (Hauenstein) I refilled my Energy a last time and just was blowing uphill again. Knowing I need to reach Kalmit before getting dark because my mind couldn’t handle a night with sleep next to zero again.

I was reaching Kalmit top in the dark. Jochen Glas was getting up with his car and screamed: Josh gebb Gaaas!
What a final… 😊

Time was stopped at hambach castle after 64 hrs 29 mins in position 12 like last year. Even I was nearly 12 hours faster the competition was much stronger. The gaps between the top-riders were very close.

That was a hard race for sure. Routing was just *thumbsup*.
Hope you enjoyed dotwatching.

Cheers and till next time
Joshua