München – Mailand – eine Gravel Bikepacking Tour mit Wiebke Lühmann | We Are Cyclists

Hallo zusammen,

Sandra hat im August Geburtstag. Und was gibt es schöneres, als das neue Lebensjahr mit einer Bikepacking-Tour mit Freundinnen und Freunden zu starten. Also wurden eine Hand voll Menschen eingeladen und ein paar davon hatten Zeit und Lust auf die geplanten Graveltour von München nach Mailand. Und so starteten Geburtstagskind Sandra Schuberth mit Nick Rotter, Wiebke Lühmann und Janneke Holzner die wilde Fahrt.

Und ganz nebenbei wurde teilweise die Route für den Supergrevet München – Mailand gescoutet – ein Ultracycling Event, das erstmals am 24.8.2024 starten wird und sich an die Langdistanzradfahrt Mailand – München anlehnt. Mehr dazu gibt es hier: https://supergrevet.grevet.de/

Viel Spaß beim Video wünschen we are cyclists
Sandra & Nick

#gravelbike #bikepacking #gravelride #münchenmailand

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Die gefahrene Strecke bei Komoot, für den Supergrevet wird vieles noch angepasst: https://www.komoot.de/collection/2335772/-birthday-bikepacking-2023-gravel-bikepacking-von-muenchen-nach-mailand

Es folgt eine Auflistung von dem Equipment, was wir dabei hatten (obacht, keine Garantie für Vollständigkeit). Bei den mit * gekennzeichneten Links handelt es sich um Affiliate-Links. Das bedeutet, wir bekommen einen kleinen Teil der Einnahmen, wenn ihr die Artikel über diesen Link kaufst – für euch ändert sich der Preis nicht. Danke für euren Support.

AUSRÜSTUNG SANDRA
Rad: Veloheld IconX
Reifen: G-One Overland https://amzn.to/47YRNlv *
Bikepacking-Taschen: Lenkertasche und Arschrakete von Specialized x Fjällräven – Testtaschen für TOUR Magazin https://www.tour-magazin.de/kaufberatung/zubehoer/bikepacking-equipment/das-abenteuer-wartet-fjaellraeven-x-specialized-bikepacking-taschen-im-test/
Evoc Oberrohrtasche https://tidd.ly/48RNQjX *
Rahmentasche von Gramm Tourpacking
Trinkblase: Apidura mit Evoc-Trinkschlauch

Bibshorts: Everve Ezero & Universal Colours Chroma
Jersey & Baselayer: Veloine, Attacus
Socken: Fingerscrossed https://amzn.to/47S7QSi *
Schuhe: Specialized Recon ADV
Helm: Sweet Protection Falconer Aero https://amzn.to/42dORjX *
Brille: 100% Hypercraft

AUSRÜSTUNG NICK:
Rad: Cannondale Topstone
Reifen: G-One Overland https://amzn.to/47YRNlv *
Bikepacking-Taschen: Ortlieb Arschrakete 17 Liter https://tidd.ly/3SBnGwj * und Ortlieb Rahmentasche https://tidd.ly/3sJMAfv * und Lenkertasche https://tidd.ly/3Ok5owW *
Flasche: Fidlock Twist 590ml https://tidd.ly/3zzhBGI *
Licht: Supernova Airstream https://amzn.to/3vW1p3l * , Sigma Blaze Rücklicht https://tidd.ly/3DQe4pZ *

Bibshorts: Velocio, Universal Colours
Regenjacke: Canyon
Helm: Poc Omne Air https://tidd.ly/3sOpXGx *
Brille: Oakley Sutro Lite https://tidd.ly/3sLZFoj *

ELEKTRONIK
Unsere Kameras: GoPro Hero 11 https://tidd.ly/3HC3owf *, Google Pixel 5, iPhone 12, https://tidd.ly/3OlbYTV *
Musik: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/y87tp5 *
USB-C Ladegerät https://amzn.to/3uc200g *

ÜBERNACHTEN
Ventour-Zelte: https://www.ventour.eu/
Isomatten: Thermarest Neoair X Lite https://amzn.to/3u2L5xh *
Schlafsack: Yeti Fever Zero, Cumulus Quilt 250, Cumulus Inlet

SONSTIGES:
Sonnencreme: New Layer https://amzn.to/3u1yJ8F *
Zahnbürste
AeroPress: https://amzn.to/3Ogw5mk *
Kocher: Primus Feed Zone https://amzn.to/3tZSkGg *

_________________________________________

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/we_are_cyclists/

My birthday is at the beginning of August. This year I thought I ask a few people if they would like to cycle with me from Munich to Milan. Wiebke was there straight away and of course Nick was too. Janneke only had two days but at least she started with us for my birthday.

Wiebke is on her mountain bike and Janneke and Nick on gravel bikes. It’s not raining at all, strange. So far it’s rolling great. We are having a good time and only a few raindrops have fallen on us so far. It’s dark where we’re going now. We’re going there too!

Why actually go from Munich to Milan? Those who also follow us on Instagram may have seen that Nick also scouts routes for Grevet in Bavaria. In 2024 there will be a Supergevet from Munich to Milan. It’s based on an old classic that went from Milan to Munich – over the Brenner Pass.

But Brenner today is a bit boring because everything there is actually asphalt and cycle paths. So something more spectacular should be done and the destination should not be Munich but Milan, because Italy feels more like a vacation, right? So Nick spent hours if not days putting together a route for our first attempt.

We started on the morning of August 5th. Because this was supposed to be a really nice summer vacation, we all put on our rain gear first. Beforehand we really thought about whether we should start two days later or something. It just rained

And there was no improvement in sight for the next few days. So we said, come on, let’s go now, we’ll book a hotel for the first night, then at least we’ll have the opportunity to dry our stuff at night. Done and off we went.

Strictly speaking, we started in Wolfratshausen, right on our doorstep. We didn’t go to Munich first. From here we also drove a little more road than the track from Munich to Milan is supposed to be later. We wanted to move a little faster because of the weather.

Later we had really fun single trails, but some of it was pretty flooded. Water everywhere! Wiebke: Look, I’ve learned something new now. Sandra: Perfect! We already did more than 60 km and are almost in Garmisch, so we’ll look for a café and a break and then we’ll go up up up.

In Garmisch we placed ourselves in the waffle house. Now there are awesome waffles here in Garmisch. Then we continued towards the Fern Pass, the highest point of the first day. So far I had only ridden the route the other way round and so I was respectful of the climb because

I remembered that it was relatively loose gravel. But then everything actually went pretty well. Sure, it was steep at times but incredibly nice. And the atmosphere with the rain was unique. And because this was supposed to be a really nice summer vacation, we first put on all of our rain gear:

Rain pants, overshoes, jacket, exactly. And 2.5 km later it stopped raining again and now it’s almost sunny. Oh, so there was just a sign here that said “Caution Danger!” There is danger, a raging river. Nick: Actually you can see the Zugspitze here. Sandra: There is the Zugspitze, definitely.

We are currently riding past Ehrwald and beforehand we had a few adventures with one or two water crossings – sometimes it was up to our thighs. Sandra in the wild. Luckily it was relatively warm. It’s really raining. But it’s just so beautiful! So, are you glad you brought the jacket with the hood?

It’s okay, now that I have it with me I’ll put the hood on. But until now it would definitely have worked without it. But it’s practical. We got off and pushed. So… you never know how smooth it is. Wiebke: Nick does it, Nick does it. Sandra: Yes, definitely [music]

You were already close to the edge. We arrived at our hotel at dusk and were able to put the bikes in a room where they could dry. We were able to dry our clothes in the boiler room, which was great. The shoes also dried overnight.

At breakfast the next morning the sun was shining, but just as we were about to set off, the rain started. Let’s go day 2. With rain! It would have been nice to have a little sun on your summer vacation. There was a train! Now that was unexpected.

Quite unexpectedly there was a train on this path. For some sections of the route we considered whether it was good for such an event or whether it was too extreme. Sometimes it was very rooty, sometimes we left something out, sometimes we couldn’t ride it because it was closed because trees had fallen.

So we have to go scouting again. If you want to know exactly where our track was in summer of 2023, the collection can be found in the video description. We then had lunch together, there were Käsespätzle. After lunch it was said that

We would all continue our journey a little differently. Janneke went back home, Wiebke wanted to follow the Inntal cycle path and Nick and I wanted to scout the route for Munich and Milan. That didn’t quite work out. Wiebke followed her path, Nick and I followed our path – to the next junction.

There was a sign saying “No entry due to broken tree” and I have no idea what. We didn’t try it out, but instead followed Wiebke and hoped for a bit that we could catch up with her.

But it was actually almost clear that we couldn’t do it. But then we met again, had pizza and booked something to stay overnight. Uuuuh, absolutely beautiful! We are now in Switzerland and Switzerland welcomes us with rain. Something completely new. All the rain was quite exhausting and we were really thinking about

Whether it made sense to continue riding the next day or whether we should maybe take a break and wait because it should be really nice again the day after that. And where is the sauna now? We arrived! We rented three beds at this campsite today. Three person sleeping container Yes!

Coffee and pizza are ready soon. We have just started at the campsite and are now riding to Scuol or whatever it is called, not far from the campsite and have changed our plans a bit, so we will stay there for two nights. Isn’t that nice? A bit of reality.

I think our destination is up there, that was really tiring today, phew. Nick: I’m hungry again. Exactly, we’re hungry again. During lunch in front of the supermarket we made plans for the next day and then it was time to hang out and relax.

Good morning, we are here in Scuol in a youth hostel. We’ll stay here for two days and two nights and today we’ll take a little ride around here and take a rest day. The first two days of our tour were pretty wet, we had a lot of rain and then we decided

To skip the third rainy day and only ride up to here. The sun is shining! I think it’s going to be really awesome tomorrow, I’m really keen to ride into the mountains. A wild Sandro! We rode a nice lap on our break day in beautiful weather. We stopped and had coffee outdoors.

We met cows and just enjoyed the day. The next day the weather was supposed to get even better, but then we woke up and what happened? Rain. We took a break for one day so that we wouldn’t have any rain when we continue and today surprised us with rain!

What do you say to that? Nick: Great. Wiebke: Oh God, not again. And here the road now winds its way up the mountain. Well, we’re lucky that there doesn’t seem to be that much snow up there. The winter closure is open. Phew! In the meantime, we had already booked a rifugio

For the next night, because the weather wasn’t great again, where we could also have a vegetarian dinner. To get there, we first had to go uphill through beautiful landscapes in the rain. Look at those spikes down there. 6° summer vacation It’s not raining anymore. N/a? Oh oh, it’s breaking out.

Now we are at 2251 m and we go down there and then up again. We just had a short, steep technical descent but it was nice and we all got down safely. At times we got off and pushed. Nick rode everything.

It’s just so good that we always take so much time and have no pressure at all to make any progress. Except now a bit, because we still have 20 km to go to today’s destination and it’s already 5:20 p.m. It has to cross now. Italy! Okay, really nice.

We then arrived at a dam and knew we can finish in a short time, hopefully there would be a shower and hopefully there would be good food. I don’t even know if you can see the stark color on video. We were warmly welcomed, it was really nice, we got good food, enough… I

Don’t know, it was three courses or something and we took a shower and went to bed gone. The order was the other way around (shower, eat, sleep). The breakfast wasn’t quite as lavish, but luckily we got a little more bread.

Today the weather was nice, now the summer vacation was starting, so to speak, and the longest stage was about to begin. Today’s destination – Lake Como. Too bad closed. We are now at a castle and are about to leave… today is a relaxing day,

130 km so relatively long but only 800 meters up or 900 and around 2800 down and we’re going through this tunnel then over there and not down here That’s our way. Our challenge today is, can we do 130 km and jump into Lake Como. We’re having a coffee break now.

After our coffee break, things went pretty rough downhill. Now it’s a little better, at least not as steep. There are a lot of stones here right now, which is not so easy with a camera in my hand. This is what it looks like – probably doesn’t look so bad. Hello!

Now came the boring part. It wasn’t boring for me, Nick prefers mountains, riding up and down. I also like to ride flat and Nick was in a bad mood. It was strenuous for Wiebke because with a mountain bike

It was harder to keep up on the flat, so to speak, but it also worked. And we maybe took the next meal break a little late, so the energy was down. So overall the mood wasn’t that good today. Probably happens on every tour.

I had a lot of fun on a piece of meadow and I knew that the others weren’t in a good mood at the moment and then I felt bad because I just wanted to heat up there. There was a headwind and grass where it was difficult to ride somehow…

I was in my mode and was up for it. It’s flat here, but sand, grass and wind slow you down. and then I told myself, “Sandra, you can have fun even if the others aren’t in a good mood.” I had low points at other times.

And then we were all happy to arrive at Lake Como. We have reached the lake! Summer vacation We were really looking forward to pizza. On that very evening, the evening of the Xth Augustus, I don’t remember which one,

There are always fireworks at Lake Como and that was exactly the evening we got there. Breakfast on Lake Como. So now our paths have separated again. Nick tried out another pass or tried out a section of the route that might be part of the Munich-Milan route.

Wiebke and I tried out the road by the lake, where there are supposed to be a lot of cars, to see whether it’s possible to ride there or whether it’s just extremely dangerous to take that way. We are now testing the path by the lake – i.e. the road.

So far we haven’t been run over, which is good. Then we took a ferry across the lake and we went to the next campsite. So it was a short day for Wiebke and me.

Not for Nick, who had, I don’t know, pushed his bike up countless meters in altitude, because it was just super steep and Wiebke and I were glad we weren’t there. Yes and then, then it was actually time to say goodbye.

Wiebke didn’t want to come with us on the last stretch to Milan, but instead wanted to spend a little more time on Lake Como, which in retrospect turned out to be the very best decision. We got used to the new situation, had breakfast together,

Perhaps a little too long, and then Nick and I set off for the ferry, back across the lake. After the ferry there is a beautiful staircase waiting. Then we went up to the Madonna del Ghisallo or whatever that is called or pronounced.

A popular destination among cyclists – perhaps more so among male cyclists, because it’s mainly male up there. But there is a chapel, there are a lot of professional jerseys, a lot of stuff on display, there is a cycling museum where there are postcards from male cyclists.

I asked why there isn’t anything for women and they said yes, we’re on it, maybe there’ll be something next year… So they’re aware that women also cycle. Just ask every time you’re there. And now it started, now came the part that was actually the most difficult to plan in advance,

Because in the mountains there aren’t that many paths but then of course in the flatter area there are an incredible number of paths that you can choose from … Steep downhill to steep uphill and now cobblestones, not quite as steep. Nick and I have never been to Milan before, so he

Tried to find a nice route using komoot and Trailview and everything else. In some cases we couldn’t ride it because a few weeks before there had apparently been a bad storm and a lot of trees had simply fallen down. That’s it with the mountains, now downhill and then it’ll be flat.

It’s often like that, you think “ah yes, now it’s getting smoother, now it’s getting easier, now we’ll make quick progress” and then exactly the opposite is the case and that’s how it was this time too.

The heat made it difficult and it was getting harder to find water, so we definitely weren’t drinking enough. It’s 3:38 p.m. and we still have 93 km to go. I’m constantly… I’m constantly worried that we won’t be able to do it, partly because I don’t have any bright light with me.

And at some point we had to face the truth: it won’t work today, I won’t make it to Milan today. I only have one mini light with me that doesn’t shine over my bag. So I can’t arrive in the dark.

We’ve now looked at things realistically, realistically the sun will set at some point and with all the bumping around here it didn’t look like we could make it to Milan in time and now we’ve split up, Nick is scouting the route and I’m riding 53 km gravel to Milan

Check into the hotel… well… I imagined it differently and I think Nick did too, but it is what it is. At the beginning I thought “oh, yes, really nice, really nice, but a short time later the first trees were in the way

And at some point it was just like: oh no, I have to go back into the forest! Everything here is full of trees and behind every corner I expect that there will be such insurmountable obstacles again. That’s tiring.

You had to somehow heave the bike over fallen trees and then you thought to yourself, why did I start climbing over the trees here? Now it’s probably just as difficult to go back again like continuing to move forward.

And at some point I thought, I have to take the next best route to the road. I think that’s Milano! I’m almost at the hotel and Nick is having stress pushing and hiking a bike because so many trees have fallen over. He is now riding the last 50 km on the road.

And he arrived in Milan just as it was getting dark. There were also one or two scratches. The aim of the tour was for us to have a good time together, experience something, have fun, take breaks, and not ride as many kilometers as we usually do.

And I think that worked out quite well. Even if you plan fewer kilometers than on usual tours, it was just as exhausting, you’re still out there all day and we kept thinking, well today, today we might reach our destination a little earlier. No, we didn’t make it.

If you see this cool T-shirt here, you can buy it from us, we designed it ourselves: one line, two bicycle lines and we are cyclists. You can have it too, take a look: we-are-cyclists.de/shop