Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / Marei Moldenhauer Riding Through The Bright Midnight

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Marei Moldenhauer Riding Through The Bright Midnight · Zone2Speak Podcast

0:00
In German, it's Marai, but it's difficult to say. So you can say Marai or Marai, whatever you like.
0:05
It's so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too, yeah. Yeah, happy to be here.
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Thanks for the invitation.
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Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Zone to Speak podcast. We're your hosts, Debbie and Juliana.
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Welcome back to another exciting episode of
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zone to speak today we'll dive deep into the world of endurance sports and the
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extraordinary mariah modenhauer who pushes the limits of human potential she
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truly embodies the spirit of ultra cycling and adventure she's not just a cyclist
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she is a force of nature on two wheels.
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She has raised the transcontinental race and bright midnight ultra and has proven
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her resilience, determination, and passion for ultra cycling distance.
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But her journey doesn't stop at the finish line. She's also an advocate for
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exploring the world through the saddle, inspiring countless others to take on
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challenges they never thought possible.
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In this episode, we'll be chatting with Marai about her incredible experience
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on and off the bike. Welcome to the podcast.
1:19
Yeah, thanks. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for the invitation.
1:21
You have tackled big races, you know, the famous transcontinental race that
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you have to do your own route and cross Europe.
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I know you won Bright Midnight.
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Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you.
1:35
So was DCR your first one? Tell us a little bit about other races you have been part of.
1:40
Yeah, so I would say my first ultra experience was a smaller event. It wasn't a race.
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It was an event called Steppenwolf. It's from Berlin to Usedom and back.
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It's about 500 kilometers on gravel.
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So that was my first experience with kind of like a small ultra.
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And then from then on, it was 22, I think.
2:02
Yeah. And then I did some Brevays on gravel in this year also.
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And then, yeah, I had the time.
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And then I did the TCR in 23.
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So that was like my first real race. But I did the Taunus backpacking before,
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which is not an official race, but kind of also a race, which is about like...
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It gives you experience.
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Yeah, exactly. It helped me a lot. I couldn't have done the TCR without that, I think.
2:31
Yeah. Is that a major factor? Really trying to pay your dues,
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bikepacking and learning more about your limits.
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So you really have to see what you're made of, what you can handle on the bike, correct?
2:44
Yeah, exactly. And also you need to test your equipment.
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And you can't really think about how am I going to sleep outside?
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You have to test it. So you have to sleep outside at least once.
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I slept outside only once before my first ultra.
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And then I said, okay, I'm going to try this. yeah but
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it's it's a totally different feeling sleeping outside in
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the nature than just like in a tent just your
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mattress and this clear sky which is amazing now
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but then i was afraid of it and then i took so much time for like small tasks
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at the beginning also still in the tcr but this is something you really need
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to test yeah i think bikepacking helps a lot and small events like i did or
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brevets where you ride through the night also i did there what is that like can you tell us?
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Because there are a lot of listeners that really aren't in the ultra community.
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I'm not an ultra cyclist and I love hearing about all these different strategies
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and kind of what goes into being able to ride through the night,
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how you can push your body through these different limits, but especially how
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is it for the first night?
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Yeah, in the first night I sat outside, it was also Steppenwolf,
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my second time Steppenwolf.
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So there are checkpoints where you can sleep like in an area which is like a
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camp spot where other people sleep as well so it doesn't feel so odd I still
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it feels a bit weird to sleep outside but yeah it's different and then I said
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okay I want to try just sleeping outside in the forest so I did that and.
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I did pick a good spot. It was like in the forest space where there was also,
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it was like a small bus stop, but there was no, I think there was also a bus or so.
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Yeah, small bus stop. And then there was just the floor and some sand on the ground.
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And there was also a trash can right next to the bus stop, which I didn't think of.
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But yeah, in the night, there are actually all the animals coming, emptying the trash can.
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So I had all the noises around. I think in the morning I was awake listening
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to some mice creaking around me.
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So I didn't sleep that much. No, I didn't sleep.
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I slept around three hours out of six or seven that I did this.
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You said you went through first all-nighter riding your bike.
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Do you prefer riding at night? I know a lot of ultra cyclists love the solitude
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and the quiet time at night.
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Do you enjoy it and how do you handle it with the lack of sleep?
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Yeah, it depends. And if I'm not too tired, I can really enjoy riding through
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the night because it's somehow totally different than just riding in daytime.
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And sometimes it can be really beautiful as well. You see all the stars and
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the moon and the sounds are really different and you get so much more,
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you're so much more aware about all the sounds and stuff around you.
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Which can be also bad when you haven't had
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a lot of sleep because then you start hallucinating a
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bit and then it can get quite a little bit
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weird because you see all these people and animals around
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you that aren't really there but I still enjoy it
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I would say but at one point in the night I always get really really tired that's
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connected to the darkness actually when the sun is up again it's totally fine
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or it's more fine I'm still tired but that's fine sometimes it also gets dangerous
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so that's always the point where I lay down because I don't want it to be dangerous but But yeah,
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it can be difficult at night.
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Yeah, I agree. It's good to know your limits and respect your limits.
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I love the silence at night, but I'm terrified of the dark.
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And I haven't been that tired that I have hallucinations. But when you are in
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total darkness and you have just your bike light, the shadows start playing a number on you.
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So I cannot imagine when you're sleep-deprived seeing all those shadows.
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Definitely I would think animals or aliens are
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coming to get me yeah yeah I've
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never had that but hallucinations I have to say
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only you see as you said you see the shadows and
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you kind of can imagine that there's something in there but
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for me it gets worse when you're sleep deprived but I never really believe that
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there's something there I know there's a shadow it could be a human but I don't
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know so it's not like I really imagine people there it hasn't been that bad
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for me yet so that brings me to Bright Midnight which is.
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The midnight sun. How was it to ride with daylight all the time?
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You don't even know what time it is, right? What is that like?
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It was amazing for me. I loved it. It was really like the first night.
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I didn't really think that I could ride through the first night.
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I thought maybe I have to sleep because it starts at the daytime.
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And also I was sick two weeks before, so I didn't really know how much I can push.
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And I said I had no real strategy to like, Like I will ride through the night
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or I will sleep X and X hours of time.
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I don't know. I just went with the flow.
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I really enjoyed riding through the night because it was almost like I was at
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the plateau when it was around midnight.
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And then it was almost like you could see the sun going down on one side and
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on the other side, you could see the sun going up.
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It was not really like that, but you have a feeling like it was still there.
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Yeah, it gets a bit darker, like two hours where it's a bit in the evening.
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But you can still see I didn't really have to use my light the first night and
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the second night a bit more because it was cloudy.
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But yeah, it was amazing. I loved it. Wow, that would be amazing if all of the
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events could be like that at night.
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Yeah. A lot more competitive, though. Why doesn't anybody be riding through the night?
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But it does help so much, especially from a woman's standpoint of if we are
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feeling a little less safe in certain areas.
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But I'm sure it goes through a man's mind as well.
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In general, the nighttime, it can be a little bit tedious that way because you
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can't quite see everything in the same span as you can normally.
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In the daytime, I'm assuming. I mean, that's what's going through my mind of
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strategizing riding through the night.
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I don't know so much that it would bother me riding through the night.
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I like the nighttime too.
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It's just, I think it would be the visual aspect of it. Yeah,
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sure. It definitely is more dangerous.
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You can have very good lights, but you can only see so far. And also in the
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night, the animals are more active.
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So there have been some accidents, and I think you have to be really aware if
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you ride through the night and maybe descend a bit slower so you can still stop.
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There's like, yeah, sometimes it happens and you can't really stop,
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but that can also happen in the daytime.
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Yeah, but sure, it is a bit more dangerous.
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So I was following Bright Midnight and I know there was you,
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there was Violette and I think you were leading, but then something happened to you.
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I don't know what it was, but then you took the lead again.
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Tell us a little bit about what was happening and how
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you took the lead and won the race yeah
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actually i didn't really look so much
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on the tracker the first day because i always
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try to just go my pace and then i mean you can't really push the first day you
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shouldn't really push the first day too much so just going my pace helps usually
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most and then i think i overtook violetta at one point i think in In the evening or so, in the afternoon.
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I was quite surprised to see her that early because I thought she,
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because she is really strong. I saw that before.
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But I think she struggled a bit as well with the food. And I don't remember.
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And then in the end with her knee. But yeah, but then from then on,
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actually didn't see her again.
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And then I just tried to race the other guys because they were around me.
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Yeah, it was actually the first time I really raced against the others,
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because usually I try to just go my pace and don't look too much on the tracker
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to not overpace and stuff.
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And this time I tried to be a bit more competitive and to actually race the
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other guys a bit, which also worked a bit.
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But in the end I had to yeah because in the
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end I also had knee pain in the last day so I was a
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bit slower so that's why I had to slow down
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and lost my my third place but that's fine with me totally you did amazing congratulations
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for the first time I decided I'm not gonna look at the tracker either because
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if I'm way ahead of the other women I know I would get lazy right I'll be like
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oh I have time I'll take more time then I won't put so much effort but then if I'm behind,
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I guess I would put more effort not to be last or to try to get ahead.
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And I decided I'm not going to look at the tracker. I'm going to do my pace,
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my race, my pace. I kept, that was my mantra.
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And I actually did really well and I felt really good, but I dropped out.
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Because the night there was very long.
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The sunset was close to 6 p.m. So from almost from six to six was peach black.
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So on the third night, I decided I wasn't having fun riding at night.
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I was just too nervous. So I decided not to finish.
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I'm still super happy because not looking at the track, I think it works best for me.
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It's not always the experience of every race. Like you said,
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it just happened to be pitch black there.
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You have really long nights. But what I hear the most is obviously,
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I think that's the best option for anybody is when we're comparing to others
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or we start just focusing on someone else.
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And that's where we forget about our own strength.
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So if we do focus mainly on ourselves, and if you just kind of casually look
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at that and say, I'm doing well, but then go back to you and say, I know I can do this.
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And just keep believing in yourself, you're probably going to do better than
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you thought you could. It was amazing on Bright Midnight.
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It was fun to follow you and learn about you.
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And when you were done with the race, I know being emerged, when you were doing
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ultra cycling, all you think about is pedal, eat, sleep, maybe, and, you know, hydrate.
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And then when you come home, a lot of people have the blues.
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Like the withdraw from that.
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Have you experienced that? And if so, how do you deal with coming back home?
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I experienced that actually, I think after every race I did,
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because always at home there's something waiting for me and after the TCR it
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was my thesis that I had to write again on, work on it again.
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It's so different from just like living day to day and just the freedom you
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feel during such an ultra is unbelievable.
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It's like you feel so you can do whatever you like. I mean, you still have to
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follow the route and finish.
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But then the rest, you're just for yourself.
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You just do whatever you like. And yeah, I really enjoy that.
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And when you come back, there's like the day to day life. It's completely different from that.
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And this time it was my job which was also demanding
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then you haven't just just finished an ultra and you
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come with all the feelings and like actually at the finish line
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the atmosphere was great there were so many nice people and
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we like cooked so much together and it's like yeah it
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was really amazing also the time after the race and then you come home and it's
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like just like every other work day so yeah so it can be difficult you need
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time to absorb it all because it's a major event in your life yeah it's just
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the rest of the world keeps spinning so.
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It's you can't slow everything down to that pace no yeah also during a race
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you have too much time so much time to like deal with your mind and with yourself
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you can think about everything and you can be really aware of every moment and
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that's not so possible in everyday life which is out of But totally fine as well.
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It belongs to an ultra at the time coming back also.
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I try to take as much from the ultra to my everyday life, which is about a lot
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of reflection and awareness.
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There's a lot that you can learn from an ultra that you can take into your everyday life, actually.
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I'm hearing that from a lot of the athletes that we have interviewed.
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That's one of the things that they say a lot is there's so much that goes through
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their mind and they do some of the best thinking during these events.
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Yeah, also some like life lessons. For example, for me, as you asked me about
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night riding, for me, actually, it is sometimes more difficult to ride through the night.
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But for example, like climbing a bit better in the night, I think it's easier.
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When you climbed a big mountain in the night as opposed to climbing it in the
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daytime, which for me might be because you don't see the end of the mountain.
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You just suffer in the moment.
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And actually you recognize, oh, I'm not suffering that much when I'm just in this moment.
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But when at the daytime you're looking at the end of the mountain,
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you could see, oh, I have to still do so many kilometers.
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And then you suffer because you have to suffer in the future.
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In the night, that doesn't happen so much. I kind of agree, I think,
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because your mind plays into it so much because the sight aspect of it,
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that along with the effort, it changes things.
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So it takes something right out of that equation right there.
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It's kind of nice. Honestly, it is, right?
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I always enjoyed running at night for that reason. Yeah, I think the visual
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and also usually the temperatures are usually lower, so you don't warm up as
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much on the climb. It's really nice.
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Yeah, I think that's something you can take to your everyday life because you
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suffer a lot because you know you have to suffer in the future.
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Yeah. Not because you're suffering actually at the moment. You're suffering
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because you know you have to still do this and that and then after that you have to do this.
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But when you are aware of the moment, you actually recognize,
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okay, right now everything is fine. I just do every task after one another and then it's fine.
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A hundred percent. Yeah. I can see why you're doing so well.
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You have such a grasp on it.
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Yeah. Focus on what you can control and on today. Tomorrow will come. Tomorrow. Yeah.
17:01
So tell us more about your background too. I'm a doctor, actually.
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I work in the University Hospital in Freiburg.
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I just started my... So Dr. Moldenhauer.
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Actually, I still have to finish my doctor, but... You're doing your PhD,
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like you said, your thesis. Yeah. How much longer do you have to go?
17:21
Actually, I hope it's going to be finished this year. Wonderful.
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It's nearly all written. It's just the last part.
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How does that play into your racing and the training? Tell us more about that.
17:35
Yeah, when I was still a student, it was a lot easier.
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I had a lot to do, a lot to study, but you have the time.
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You can do it whenever you want. So you can go train and then you can study
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and then you can go train again.
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But yeah, it is okay. I started working in June.
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So it's hard to fulfill the training hours with the working schedule.
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But it is possible some weeks less than others. So far, I think I've done okay.
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I only train with the training plan and with the trainer since February.
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So before I always just went for bike rides. And now, so since February,
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March, I started working for real training for structure.
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Yeah. Which helps me a lot because with that, I'm using the training time I have.
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I'm at least using it well. More effectively. More effectively.
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So that helps a lot. And also I think the training itself helps me also to get
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my mind off of work when I I come home and I can still go outside,
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enjoy the sunset and then go to bed.
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I feel a lot different than just working, eating and sleeping.
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It helps me as well yeah you need
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that time to decompress from that and completely get
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away from your everyday job we all
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need that time so much and the bike does that for so much of us so as a physician
19:04
how do you view ultra cycling on the body yeah i i do ent so you know the throat
19:11
what can i say about that i think in general extreme sports my not as healthy doing.
19:19
Normal amount of sports but maybe still
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a bit more healthy than just eating
19:27
unhealthily and not doing sports at
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all so yeah but but it's clear that sleep deprivation and the stress for the
19:35
body is not good i'd say but i'm not doing this to be healthy for my body maybe
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for the mind it's healthy you can balance you have to weigh weigh it a bit measure
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it exactly there's a balance there,
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maybe not too long term or you do a certain amount of events and then give your
19:56
yourself enough of a break to kind of equalize again before you push it through
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again at ringer yeah but then also my job in the future i'm going to do night
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shifts as well so So I think it doesn't really matter for me.
20:10
So that's going to be cake, right? You're going to be like, I got this.
20:15
Dana, you said that the nurse schedule really prepped him for ultra race because
20:21
it's long shifts, night shifts.
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So he was ready to take on ultra cycling.
20:27
Yeah, I can believe that. Yeah, I'm actually, for the moment,
20:30
I don't do night shifts yet.
20:32
This will start later. But I can imagine that it really helps if you're used
20:36
to not sleeping so regularly.
20:39
That's something you learn as well, I think. Sleep deprivation does such a number
20:43
on the mind, the body, everything.
20:45
It is like strategic training, learning how to deal with less and less sleep.
20:50
So I can see we're just practicing maybe...
20:53
Trying different things there, seeing what works best for you as an athlete
20:58
overall, and what you can push through.
21:00
Do you set a plan, more or less, and then just kind of go loosely with it?
21:06
Or is it all kind of, let me just see how I feel each day?
21:09
I mean, sometimes I look, I still plan a bit, meaning that I look at the routes
21:14
and see, okay, where are the sections?
21:18
Like somewhere, sometimes there's sections where you shouldn't really go through
21:21
at night or I mean in the races I did now it wasn't like that but I think there
21:27
are races where you really have to be aware a bit about the sections that you're going to do and,
21:33
like at least I look always look at the resupply and I always look like at the
21:38
opening hours because I'm always afraid of starving so I will always have a
21:42
look at that it's basic need yeah Yeah, yeah.
21:45
And then I always, I mean, I try to have at least a loose plan, but it depends.
21:53
And it depends really, it's not the same for every race.
21:56
It really depends my feeling before the race, how I trained,
22:00
how the days before the race were.
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Like I said, this time I was sick so close before the race and I loosely planned
22:08
to sleep a bit more and race a bit less.
22:10
But then I didn't do that. So, yeah. Yeah.
22:14
But it paid off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it did. You never know how things are going
22:19
to go in that sense either.
22:21
No. Yeah, I think ultras are a lot about improvising. From what I hear and from
22:25
my own experience, there's a very little amount of people that actually have
22:29
a plan and execute it perfectly.
22:31
There's always this stuff that comes up. I know I don't plan anything anymore.
22:36
More like you said i just look at the route try to see if there is a long stretch without resupply,
22:41
or a very technical piece that
22:44
i maybe want to do with daylight in the past i
22:47
know i was like oh i need to sleep here sleep here sleep here and
22:50
then you you never get there or you get there and
22:53
you're still fresh you want to keep going so so many
22:57
ups and downs right yeah that's okay it
22:59
can be really frustrating if you have like a really set
23:02
plan when it doesn't work out so yeah that's
23:06
also a reason i wouldn't have too many plans less expectation
23:09
there yeah more willingness to move
23:13
with things and one of the big elephants in the room is weather because you
23:18
can you cannot predict that at all and sometimes you just get lucky and sometimes
23:24
it's off you said it was It was amazing having it feel like it was daytime for
23:29
all of the riding for Bright Midnight. How was the weather?
23:32
For me, it was actually fine. The first day, there was some rain.
23:36
I actually confused the days a bit because I slept so little that I can't really...
23:40
And I don't really know which day was which, but I think the first day it was
23:44
where it rained quite a lot, but it was still quite warm.
23:48
So I don't really mind rain if it's warm.
23:51
I mind rain a lot when I'm freezing, but in this, it was totally fine with me.
23:57
And everything was wet because you had so many river crossings.
24:01
So you always had to go through them.
24:03
And the first one, I still took off my shoes and then there were 20 more.
24:07
And I was like, okay, I'll just ride through it or go through it.
24:11
And then, yeah, I mean, and then it was still warm in the night.
24:17
It was also really nice. I loved it.
24:19
And then it was on and off raining the days after, I think, but it was not too much.
24:24
I always managed to be quite dry and I had my rain jacket and it was totally, for me, it was fine.
24:31
It wasn't too hot also, which is something I struggle with. I handled well,
24:36
the mechanics of everything went well. Yeah.
24:38
Yeah, actually, I had no problems there. Just in the end a bit with my shifting,
24:43
but it was fine then as well.
24:46
I wanted to ask about that too. What do you do as far as preparations for any
24:51
kind of issues that can come up with the bike?
24:53
I know Justina shared that he
24:56
worked at a bike shop locally too and has learned a lot about mechanics.
25:00
Obviously, it helps you along the way.
25:02
What have you tried to immerse yourself in? Yeah, I actually try to do everything on my bike myself.
25:09
So when something breaks, I try to repair it myself first, which helps you a
25:14
lot understanding how it works.
25:16
And then I learn along the way, all the mechanical stuff.
25:19
Yeah, but that's also why I can't, I'm not that good at fixing flats,
25:23
because I don't really have them often. You see that so much.
25:27
It's like, I know how to change it, but then you're like, I barely ever get any knock on wood.
25:32
If you have a really bad mechanical, have you had this happen that you've had
25:35
to kind of abandon a race? Have you had good luck so far?
25:40
Fortunately i had good luck so far so
25:43
i had some some bad mechanicals during
25:46
the tcr but it was still in switzerland so it was
25:49
quite lucky i could just exchange it at the bike shop and it was totally fine
25:53
luckily not yet and hopefully never you went from i mean not short races but
25:59
you did a few races and then went to the one of the biggest ultra cyclings which is what tcr yeah Yeah,
26:07
it's like you're crossing across Europe, you know, it's over 4,000 kilometers.
26:11
And I think the biggest challenge there for me would be you also have to create your own route.
26:17
Yeah yeah for me it was also i think the biggest challenge
26:20
because i also really really don't like route
26:24
planning i enjoy riding at this route and it's
26:27
it's fine i can do that but it's not something i really enjoy no i i decided
26:32
to do it because i like the tcr is like the european ultra race so i decided
26:40
to do it just because i had the time i think if if it has would have been for For the preparation,
26:46
I would have liked to have a bit more preparation, fitness, and experience.
26:51
Because really, it was just my second race. The town was backpacking before, and then I did the TCR.
26:58
Wow. The others were just events and no real races. Yeah, it was an adventure from the beginning.
27:05
But I thought maybe I will not have the time to do that again,
27:08
because it takes so much time, the preparation,
27:10
as well as the race itself, and coming like
27:13
going to it and back from the race as well so I
27:16
took it like I didn't really I mean I raced
27:19
it kind of like I tried to ride as fast as I could but I didn't really race
27:24
it in a sense that I looked at the others and tried to actually be in the front
27:29
because I didn't know if I would be able to finish it and that was my first
27:33
goal to be able to ride from Belgium to Greece and yeah,
27:38
be in Greece and I've ridden 4,000 kilometers.
27:43
That's amazing, right? How did that feel when you crossed that last kind of
27:48
checkpoint of I've done this?
27:50
It's kind of surreal because it's just over then. You just finish. You finish.
27:55
Come to the finish line and then there's not that much there.
27:58
Some people sitting there and talking and you're like, okay, now I'm finished.
28:03
And that's not like you don't get like a reprise.
28:06
You just sit down and it's like, okay, I'm here. And then you're really tired also.
28:11
Oh, you feel that the most yourself, but there's not like a cheering crowd there. Yeah.
28:18
For me, it took some time to realize that I actually did that.
28:21
And I think I really realized it
28:23
when I was home again, because I had like between it was so much going on.
28:27
And I also decided to ride back from Greece, like not the whole way.
28:31
I took a ferry in between, but I rode back, which was really nice because then
28:34
I landed like slowly coming back to real life. It was easier for me that way.
28:39
Yeah, but it's like finishing such a race is surreal.
28:42
Yeah, can't really describe that feeling. During the races, we also have some
28:49
challenges, some low moments, and each rider has their own method to get through those hard moments.
28:55
I don't know if you have anything, like some people have mantras that they will
28:58
say something to keep them going.
29:00
Have you reached ever one of those low points that you're like,
29:05
I don't know if I should stop or keep going?
29:07
And if so, do you have any of of those coping mechanisms?
29:11
During the bright midnight, actually, I was quite in a good mood during nearly all the race.
29:18
So I didn't really have these moments. I had some low moments just in the end
29:23
where my knee was hurting, but it was so close to the finish line that I could easily push through.
29:29
I was like, okay, I'm going to be finished in a few hours. So it was still difficult, but fine.
29:34
And usually I listen to music, which helps me a lot.
29:38
During the TCR, I didn't really think about quitting then, but I had a few moments
29:43
that were quite hard, mostly at night also, because everything feels so,
29:47
I can't really describe,
29:49
it doesn't feel, at night, everything seems a bit more mean and a bit more dangerous
29:54
than it is in real, for real.
29:57
It was that one moment where I just had the straight road for like 50, 70 kilometers.
30:04
And there were no left and right. It was just straight for like 50 kilometers.
30:10
The cars were overtaking really, really fast. And I just hated it.
30:14
It was also after the TCR, I swore to myself, which I didn't do.
30:18
But I said, I'm not going to do any road races again.
30:22
I mean, the TCR is all road, but it was still a lot of time, a lot of traffic.
30:27
So I hated that a lot. And I didn't really find a place to sleep because there
30:30
were no real villages and cities. It was just nothing.
30:34
No camping spots. And before the TCI, I was still not so used to sleeping outside.
30:39
So I tried to find some camping spaces to sleep always.
30:43
And I didn't find anything. thing and then there were these dogs
30:46
barking at me and I just yeah I felt
30:49
really alone and unsafe also a bit but
30:52
then I also met people and mostly
30:55
speaking to people helps me a lot if I see some
30:58
because even then they were in the like in
31:01
front of a bar and it didn't mean really look like they
31:04
were like friendly people and I
31:07
just went there and they were the friendliest people they were
31:10
like oh yeah we don't know here's no hotel but
31:13
like we can call some friends and you can like go there
31:16
and then you can sleep at this place and I was like because in the TCR you're
31:20
not allowed to do that you can't take help from outside so I was like no no
31:26
no it's I just look for a hotel or like a place to sleep outside but it still
31:30
helped me feeling better because these These people were around me that tried to help me,
31:36
and I didn't feel that alone in that moment.
31:39
Then also when I'm not feeling well, I try to smile at every person that I meet.
31:45
And mostly people are smiling and waving their hands, and it's amazing.
31:52
It's amazing how all you need is a little bit of welcoming and humanization
31:56
to make you kind of come back, right?
31:58
And just feel like, okay, I'm better now.
32:01
I can do this again. it really is all it takes I slept at the worst place I
32:07
slept on the cemetery I think and it was like these stones on the ground which
32:12
were really sharp and my mattress broke,
32:15
but still I felt so good because I met these nice people so you remember an
32:20
experience like that but you remember the faces too and then you can look back
32:26
at it and kind of laugh about it a little bit yeah.
32:30
So in TCR, you have to create your own route. Do you see other riders?
32:35
Because people are taking different routes. One thing that I love about motorcycling
32:39
is that there's usually you pass
32:41
someone or someone passes you throughout the day. Not a lot, but a few.
32:46
How is it at TCR? It depends, I think. For me, I met quite a few people during the race.
32:53
Just one section that I wrote quite different from everyone else,
32:58
which was difficult because Because you don't see anybody and you feel so alone then.
33:02
Yeah, it depends. Because my year when I did it, 23, the route was quite clear,
33:09
I'd say. So there were not so many options.
33:12
And so in most sections, you would see at least a person a day or so.
33:17
Depends also where you race, I think. In the front, there's naturally a little bit less people.
33:23
And in the back, sometimes people are quite riding together.
33:28
Like not really together but they see each other so
33:31
often it really depends but i enjoy that's also
33:34
a reason why i enjoy races like the bright midnight with a
33:37
set mood and a bit more because it's nice if you can see like
33:39
some people from time to time and especially if you're having a hard time just
33:44
chatting for like 10 minutes sometimes really helps and you remember why you're
33:48
doing this uh that you're doing this which you can't forget yeah also the point
33:53
i would like like to stress a bit more because it's really important that we talk about security.
33:59
A lot of women, I think, don't participate in these races because they think
34:02
it is too unsafe, which it can be unsafe.
34:06
Like, I mean, there are situations that you get yourself into that you...
34:11
Being like normally like being outside in
34:14
the night but i would say mostly if
34:17
you look at the statistics the unsafest place for
34:20
a woman is home because most homicides and
34:24
like sexual assaults happen within the family or within the close circle of
34:30
people around you so i i feel like sleeping somewhere alone in the nature in
34:37
the forest because people don't expect me there and And like,
34:41
they don't wait for me there.
34:43
Post women are really, as I said, mostly unsafe in their, their own families.
34:49
And yeah, sometimes even their partner, I don't, I don't want to say like,
34:54
we don't have to talk about that and we don't have to think about that.
34:57
It's just, just to remind ourselves that it's, it shouldn't be,
35:01
hinder us too much of doing things just because we are afraid that something might happen.
35:07
Because it's also a pity that there's so many little women participating in these events.
35:12
And while I'm still, sometimes I'm afraid, maybe also because I'm a woman outside.
35:17
But then I try to think about what are the odds now?
35:20
Mostly, mostly it's the case that the situation is mostly safe.
35:24
Yeah, that's unfortunately not for every situation the case.
35:28
We shouldn't be discouraged as women to race. And I will continue to race.
35:32
We shouldn't be discouraged from doing things we love, not just cycling,
35:36
but doing anything because of fear.
35:38
There's just as many men who are afraid of things as women.
35:43
It's more prominent with women sometimes, unfortunately.
35:46
And then the rates of attack on women over men, unfortunately, is higher.
35:51
So even if it is isolated and happens less than think it will,
35:55
especially for these events, it still is something that has to be approached.
36:00
I mean, remember, all that stuff can be very political. So it's tough to speak on it sometimes.
36:06
We all have our strong opinions. And as women as well, we love cycling.
36:10
Nothing's going to stop us. What you have done is inspiring to me.
36:14
And I think everything is how it's supposed to be. And we learn from it and grow from it.
36:19
So we've really enjoyed getting to hear your side. What's next?
36:24
Yeah, I want to hear what do you have planned? I would have loved to do another
36:28
race this year, but unfortunately with work, it doesn't play out.
36:31
So my next trip is going to be a bikepacking trip.
36:34
I'm going to ride the Gran Guancha Road, which is in the Canaries.
36:38
Oh, beautiful. Beautiful.
36:39
And I think I'm going to enjoy that because I always tell myself next time I'm
36:44
just doing a backpacking trip, like slow, enjoy every coffee.
36:49
And then I plan my next race and it's all, yeah, because I love racing as well.
36:54
You have to go back to those roots too of where it all started. Yeah.
36:58
The journey part of it, that's where you're trying to go as well.
37:02
Yeah, I like both. Do you know what island you want to go to?
37:06
Two, I'm asking for pure selfish purposes because I want to plan my birthday there.
37:12
I already told my husband I want to go there and just ride my bike, go to the beach, relax.
37:17
Where do you think you're going? I'm doing the Grand Guantanamo route,
37:20
which is also race, but they have the route online so you can just follow it also.
37:25
And it's all the island decks. And in between, you take some ferries.
37:29
So it starts on Lanzarote.
37:32
And I think I'm going to leave out the last...
37:35
I know, but I will see. Depends. I'm just going with the flow.
37:39
Oh, that's really cool. I wanted to ask you, because we just kind of went straight
37:43
for the gate and asked about Bright Midnight and your experience.
37:47
But I want to know, how did you get into cycling?
37:49
No, actually, I started cycling for sports in the beginning of 2020.
37:56
My brother gifted me an old steel bike. and he was just he was just giving it
38:02
to me for like going around the city but i used it for like some trips at the
38:09
beginning it was just like 30 kilometers flat around my hometown,
38:14
which was heidelberg at that time then i quite like that and 21 in the summer
38:21
of 21 i bought a a new race bike, a better one.
38:26
I'd say, yeah, in the end of 21, I bought my gravel bike.
38:32
So it went a little bit crazy from then.
38:36
And you found that you loved that kind of adventure on your own?
38:40
Yeah, I can't really say what I enjoyed first or what really hooked me so much.
38:47
I think it was, I started with just visiting friends. So I was going like from
38:52
my hometown to some friends which were in Cologne.
38:56
Like at first it was just a hundred kilometers without because I didn't have
39:01
the bike bags at the beginning as well.
39:03
So I would just travel to friends and then sleep there and go back or like do
39:08
trips like that. And I really like that. Yeah.
39:12
Yeah, I think I was, it was in 22 that I did the Steppenwolf and then I like
39:17
thought, okay, I might be quite, quite good at this actually also.
39:22
Then I started spiking a bit more.
39:26
What an incredible journey with a few years.
39:30
You did one Brevet, then you took on TCR and then you went to win Bright Midnight. Incredible.
39:36
Thanks. I don't see myself as that. Very humble.
39:40
I think that always makes for a great champion you
39:43
don't know quite all you're capable of but you're
39:46
capable of so much i feel really privileged to
39:49
talk to you you're very easy going very easy to connect
39:52
with yeah it was nice it's just nice talking to you super
39:55
nice to get to know you a little bit better thank you for
39:58
your time and i hope we can have you again here once
40:01
you are done with your residency and
40:05
start doing some other races or to talk about
40:07
your adventures i will start racing again next year
40:10
i'm very optimistic because then i can plan plan my
40:13
vacation better it was the problem that this year was hard
40:16
to plan but next year is i already plan racing
40:19
well again it's been a pleasure it's so easy to talk to you and i hope we get
40:26
to hear more about your adventures really keen to hear about the island hopping
40:31
in the canaries yeah thanks so much for Thank you for having me.
40:35
It was really nice talking to you. Thank you.
40:51
Music.