MONACO DI BAVIERA CLASSIC
edition 2024
Recap Video - MONACO DI BAVIERA CLASSIC 24
Recapitulation edition 2024
The inaugural MdBC unfolded like an epic saga, as each rider faced the fierce weather and the awe-inspiring yet arduous route. At the vanguard, Fynn Graf delivered a spectacular performance, narrowly outpacing Joshua Hampp by a mere two hours, etching their duel into the annals of legend.
We could say that the challenge started actually a few days before the real start. The exceptional snow precipitations in the alps during the spring made that the usual season opening of the major passes, typically around 1st of June, needed to remain closed all first three weeks of June. Both Passo Stelvio and Passo Gavia opened to traffic just the day before the start! To add even more epic, the weather forecast was not great: heavy rain precipitations were expected as well as some snow on the top of the major climbs.
This forecast together with the hard preparation needed for such a demanding challenge made that almost half of the inscribed riders decided to cancel their participation for the challenge due to injury, disease or feeling not ready. Therefore, from 57 inscribed riders, just 29 heroes took the start.
The ride started just before sunrise, at 05.00, from Munich (Germany), with a temperature of 15 grads and no rain. The first day was a perfect day to ride, the calm after the storm, and all riders were able to enjoy the beauty of the route through Bavaria and Austria. However, it was key to try to conquer Passo Stelvio the first day, because snow precipitations were expected for the second day. But to do that, riders would need to ride more than 300km with +5000m of elevation.
The difficulty of the route made big differences already from the start. More than 10 riders achieved to cross Stelvio pass before the night, although the weather was pretty hard in the evening, with some rain and some hail. Joshua Hampp, Fynn Graf and Max Riese were leading the challenge since the beginning. Fynn Graf, who not only crossed Passo Stelvio but Passo Mortirolo, was just impressive! The only woman heroe, Kathrin Loer, rode strong and made 267km the first day.
Day 2 at Monaco di Baviera Classic and the challenge showed himself as half beauty - half brutality. Like if the route were not tough enough, the hard weather came with heavy rains and snow over the 2.000m above see level. We could see Ehud Gera with serious amount of ice in the handlebar after starting to conquer Passo Stelvio just one hour before sundown. Ferruccio Labita did conquer the King at 8h, but with the road covered of snow. However we saw the road cleaned already around 12h.
Meanwhile the group of leading riders was reduced to just two, after Max Riese decided to scratch due to multiple issues including the break down of his navigator because of the amount of rain. He said to have learned that a backup navigator is advisable for next time. Joshua Hampp was leading but Fynn Graf was nearby and Joshua had 4 hours penalty after skipping Passo Gavia. The female representative Kathrin Loer continued strong and steady. She conquered Passo Stelvio before the cleaning of the road, and scalated to the 17th position.
During the third day, as most of the riders were leaving the alps behind, weather became more stable. We saw many riders climbing the epic passes in the Dolomites. Also we encountered with cap71 Kathrin Loer climbing Mortirolo strong and with great attitude. Meanwhile, the leaders Fynn Graf and Joshua Hampp conquered the last parcour, Edelweissspitze, and were heading to Munich already! Just impressive!
Only day 4 of the challenge and Fynn Graf, the youngest participant, came home with an impressive time of 3 days 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete the challenge. Some data: 1248 km, almost 25600m and 96% of moving average! Here we are talking about a triple Everesting with just 2 hours of stop. Also Joshua Hampp ended the route a few hours later with an official time of 3 days, 4 hours and 36 minutes, once applied the 4 hours time penalty after taking the chance to not to climb Passo Gavia due to possible snow and ice on the road.
We followed a few riders heading to the last parcour, Edelweissspitze, specially Ray Dulieu and Volker Drastik. Both of them conquered Monte Zoncolan during the third day. Also, we encountered cap30 Ehud Gera starting the Parcour 13. He wanted to be as closer as possible to 200 km; not an easy goal when you are in the Dolomites!
After the remarkable performance of the two first riders, at day 5 in Monaco di Baviera Classic we were able to see more riders arriving to the finish. Ray Dulieu, who made a very consistent ride during the whole challenge, needed a total time of 110 hours and 44 minutes to be the third, and proved that age is just a number. Less than 2 hours after him came Volker Drastik, great performance as well, with 112 hours and 35 minutes. Also Andreas Roelfs and Joris Bosch came to home almost together at night. The day was hard, with rain again for most of the remaining riders. We encountered Andreas Roelfs heading to Edelweißspitze with great attitude despite the unannounced rain. It was very nice to see the riders smile under those hard circumstances, chapeau! Michal Hampl also arrived home, but he missed both CP5 Rifugio Auronzo and parcour Passo della Forcella, therefore he needed to be disqualified. We saw Felix Huber and Ferruccio Labita completing the last parcour Edelweißspitze. Behind them, Erik Lommel and Anders Koponen still needed to cross the Größglockner Alpenstraße, but it seemed they have enough time to get to the finish before the time closure on Sunday at 13h.
Indeed, during the day 6 in Monaco di Baviera Classic we had two more riders completing the challenge. Cap40 Sebastian Amon and Cap23 Bastian Völkl made until 8 the amount of riders who already finished. Joris Bosch, Fynn Graf and Andreas Roelfs also came to receive them.
On Day 7 all remaining riders came to home. They were Cap35 Felix Huber, Cap44 Erik Lommel, Cap25 Ferruccio Labita and Cap36 Anders Koponen. Felix did not stop during the night to come to the finish very early in the morning. Erik Lommel needed to stop in the middle of the route for a full recovery day in a hotel because he was not feeling well. He recovered pretty well and did a strong finish. Ferruccio Labita rode very consistent during the whole route and came to the finish with big smile. Finally Anders Koponen was the last one of the finishers. He had bad feelings the first day but he held on and recovered to continue strong during the whole route. While other riders were scratching, he continued solid until the finish, where he came destroyed but happy for the achievement.
Congratulations to all 12 heroes and kudos to the 17 DNF who tried to conquer such an unique, epic and gorgeous challenge.
Route and Results of the inaugural 2024 edition
The inaugural edition of Monaco di Baviera Classic was something else! Feel free to check all details about route and results of all participants:
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