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Procedures of the Race Across Germany

On September 10th, the 34 registered participants of the Race Across Germany start the 796 km long journey from Aachen, starting in front of the town hall, to Görlitz at 2-minute intervals from 8:00 a.m. The destination this year is not in the old town of Görlitz or even at the Neisse river, but at Berzdorfer See a little south of Görlitz.

external link to betterplace.org

The participants take part in the race in different categories. Thirteen participants start in the “supported” category, i. H. they are supported by a crew in an escort vehicle. One woman and nine men in the age group under 50 and three men in the class over 60 start in this category. Seventeen participants start in the non-supported category, alone without an escort vehicle. Thereof eleven men in the category up to 50 years and six in the category over 50 years in which I am starting. The remaining four participants are spread over two participating relays. In the relay there is always one driver in the race and someone else can rest for a long time. Accordingly, there is always a car with relays.

My start number is 17, and my individual start time is 08:02 o’clock.

Since the race will take place in September and not in June this year, there are two key differences to the start in summer. For one thing, the nights in September can be noticeably cold. Therefore, you may have to take a little more luggage with you in the form of gloves, a long-sleeved jersey or jacket and leg warmers. Specifically, this is decided the day before or at the start, as the weather forecasts have recently been very unreliable. On the other hand, it is dark much longer. For the June 4th appointment, sunset would have been around 9:30 p.m. and sunrise at 5:00 a.m. With twilight and residual light it is maybe only 4 hours in complete darkness. On September 10th, the sun sets at 7.45 p.m. and does not rise again until after 6.45 a.m. That is an estimated three and a half hours longer to drive through the dark, which can be a problem, especially in the morning when you get tired. Maybe Heavy Metal from the smartphone speaker will help …

The route is divided into three sections by the so-called time stations.

The first section is from Aachen to Bad Hersfeld at 340 km. This is the longest of the three sections.
The second section extends over 326 km to Wilsdruff, just before the Elbe.
The last section is then still the remaining 132 km long.

Thus a total of 780 km that has to be conquered. At the time stations, each participant must send a formal message to the organizer with the participant’s name, time, start number and name of the time station via SMS.

If you are interested in the detailed rules, you can find out more here (external link). https://www.raceacrossgermany.de/vorgang-reglement-fragen

What are the last weeks of preparation like?

By and large you have to put the equipment together, so I’ll post a blog article about it. Don’t forget anything. The bike has to work and a little bit of route knowledge is also not bad. This time I don’t drive under or over the railway line in Eisenach, but instead, as planned, turn left to Bad Langensalza beforehand.

The jerseys for this year have also been handed in to Sportsfreund and I hope to receive them at the beginning of September. More information with pictures then.

I hope to be able to cycle across Germany well and without accidents. Personally, I don’t care about time. Since only six starters will compete in Aachen in my class, the top 10 position is certain as long as I reach the finish. Even if I have successfully tackled such distances several times, you can still never say how it is going. Fortunately, you’re not a machine.

So keep your fingers crossed and please donate for the children!

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