DE&c preview

The Checkpoints

Axel Brenner is the first to reach all checkpoints

Jana Kesenheimer - 5th overall and first female

The rest of the leaders

The Goat Gallery.

The Brevet Card

Loïc Marin-Lamellet

Axel Brenner

Simon Geiser

Marc Egger & Remo Wild

Jana Kesenheimer

Simone Eder

Xavier Massart

Michael Kobel

Christof Jeker

Chris Thomas

Ellen Martin

Martin Mayer

Melina Borgmann

Robert Natau

Eva Parascandolo

Isabel Riffel

Monika Eicher & Rémy Girardin

Sebastian Weiche

Samuel Meili

Evelyn Weiss

Andreas Krucker

Ursina Bentele

Auri Teinilä

Tanja Frischknecht

Marie von Stetten & Anjuli Vogler

Michael Schubert

Nelia Puhze

Michael Walser

Florian Bentele & André Nuber

Meike Hindenberg & Pauline Neuber

Karin Weyermann

Simone Ernst & Denise Morf

Sabina Müller & René Bossard

Tobias Callister

Christian Siegert & Lucas Schwaiblmair

Jess Fawcett

Mark Bakema

Franziska Schöni

Simon Negelein

Markus Marquart

Eric Weber

Martin Gasser & Patrick Gasser

Anastasia Stiel & Dimitrij Itten

Giuliana Loher & Robert Strom

Sara Bukies

Wiebke Lühmann

Sandra Schuberth

Carola Locher

Andrés Rosario

Andrea Mundt

Mathias Berger

Alicia Köster

Christine Pietsch & Friederike Rieder

Sibylle Mumenthaler & Nicole Scheidegger

David Lopez Valero & Yves Wyckmans

Alice Paula & Matthias Wellershoff

Lena Schwinn

Anna Lena Niemeyer & Laura Marten

Anne Julia Röhl

Julien Bourgeois

Eliane Zimmermann & Rebecca Roggo

Gaëlle Liengme

Hetty Key

Manuel Bonk

Renee Bartsch

Julia Grundmann

Eugenia Belloni

Paula Lückemeyer Banolas & Fabian Burri

Fabian Bonderer

LePicot

Photo Jonas / Andrea

Photo Tobias / Andrea

Race Director – Dominik

Photo Mathilde

Crew

Komoot

# it’s all about the mix

A diverse and mixed peloton is just more fun. From the very beginning we are doing a 50 / 50 gender split. Adding some mixed pairs, men are outnumbered by women at the startline of DEAD ENDS & cake 2022 (48 women / 42 men). This is a good thing and maybe even a worldwide first time to have more women in the peloton of a long distance bikepacking event!?!

But a good mix in the peloton is not only between genders. It’s about rookies and seasoned veterans, first-timers and experienced riders. More than half of the riders have never ever ridden so far in one ride or climbed as high as they will this weekend! But they can rely on tipps and the experience of many others who have finished ultra distance races all over the world.

Our riders are from 16 different nations and from ages 21 to 61!

And then there is a mix of different approaches: try to collect all cakes as fast as possible OR take the scenic route and ride in party-pace? There will be finisher times under 24 hours and others will enjoy a full three days of cycling. Nothing wrong with both approaches.

# dots to watch – the fast and furious

As we don’t know who will go fullgas and who will take some more time to enjoy the views, it’s hard to predict the favourites of this year’s DEAD ENDS & cake. There are some riders that are among the best when it comes to self-supported ultracycling and then there are a lot of riders we don’t know (yet) what they can and will deliver.

Last year's winner Adrien Liechti is currently riding in the front group of the Tour Divide and won’t be here to defend his throne. But there are some very fast people hungry for cake. Chris Thomas,TCR-Veteran (5th place at TCR No7), has some unfinished business at Safiental, where he paid his toll for the high speed and “creative“ route planning at Dägelsberg in last year's edition. Jana Kesenheimer made herself a name with a stellar ride at the Three Peaks Bike Race 2021 (first woman, 5th overall).

Axel Brenner finished 2nd at one of the most challenging races in the calendar – Silk Road Mountain race – a gruelling 1900 kilometres through Kyrgyzstan. Sandra Schuberth has quite some legs and is on fire at the moment! First women and 9th overall at Seven Serpents! Last years 3rd place was the first bikepacking-race for Simon Geiser. With a 5th place at the Race around Rwanda and winning the pairs category at Pedalma “Madrid-Barcelona“ two weeks ago, he showed that he is one to watch for upcoming races!

At last year's SUCH, Loïc Marin-Lamellet did beat DE&c Organiser Dominik and took victory in his first ever Ultrarace. After a strong TPBR Simone Eder has put a lot of effort and time into managing a family, a job and an efficient training plan. As in any bikepacking-event, there are so many more strong riders always good for a surprise.

# dots to watch – the adventurous

Other riders are more known for detailed route planning and long hike-a-bike shortcuts. Hetty Key is going for a route that has no intention to be fast – but packed with views and narrow tracks far away from traffic. Others have been spotted testing out hike-a-bike systems to carry their loaded bikes over mountain passes (Robert Natau, Samuel Meili). Checkpoints Safiental and Nurdagn are so close on the map (5,7 km) – but so far if you take the road that connects both points (70 km). Our Vertical Coffee Pair Denise and Simone are known for their adventurous route-scouting (strongly influenced by Emma Pooley ) and both are very strong climbers.

Not particularly known for great organisation but one of the best in adapting to situations is ultra-veteran Fabian Burri who has been racing all over the world. Michael Kobel spent the weeks prior to the start riding / hiking the European-Divide Trail and won’t be impressed by some hike-a-bike and difficult terrain. Our local bike-messengers are better known for a lot of laughs, chatters and singing along the route than fast times and perfect planning. Experienced bikepackers and route planners Sara and Andreas did ride as a duo last year and it looks like they are serious about racing each other this year! No hike-a-bike plans for both of them – full gas? “The women all ride“ Kollektiv from Germany has three riders in the line up (Johanna, Sandra and Wiebke)!

There are so many more known and unknown fast and experienced riders – who is your favourite?

![DEaC T- Adrien Leichti](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/PZLQO9e4sEaIPUb7Rr31w/2c3072744a487e8ac608b68b332d3355/DEaC_T-_Adrien_Leichti.jpg)

*Adrien Liechti – Winner of DEAD ENDS & cake 2021*

DE&C Live Ticker can be found [here](https://www.deadendsandcake.ch/scliveticker_tick/).

In 2022 there will again be five checkpoints, which will be approached in any order. Each checkpoint is at the end of a cul-de-sac, somewhere in the beautiful mountains of eastern Switzerland.

# Checkpoint Safiental

The checkpoint in the Safiental is at the Turrahus mountain inn. The Turrahus offers fresh cuisine and beautiful rooms in the over 300-year-old inn. There are many ancient wooden houses to discover along the way. When you arrive, an absolute highlight awaits you shortly before Versam: "Ruinaulta" - the Rhine Gorge. It is one of the most spectacular roads in Switzerland with an impressive view.

If you still want to stock up on supplies, we recommend the self-service shop in the village of Versam. Fresh, homemade products provide a lot of energy and are incredibly tasty. Then you continue almost traffic-free into the Safiental, where the mountain landscape becomes more impressive meter by meter. Keep going to the Turrahus. Their juicy apple pie is already legendary and well deserved!

# Checkpoint Berghaus Palfries

![Palfries](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/013A3xSchA3W5adRU5kcTT/8e20fb3ea808f273a5823ae5f6458a1c/Palfries.jpg)

The Berghaus Palfries is located at the foot of the Alvier summit. The almost continuously paved road from the Rhine Valley side meanders past more than 600-year-old Walser settlements and ends at the Berghaus. The moment when you drive over the crest and see the imposing Alvier with the Churfirsten in the background for the first time motivates you to go on for many more kilometers. The view of the Rhine Valley, Lake Walen and the Churfirsten is simply magnificent. Then another piece of cake, what more could you ask for?

With slightly wider tires there are also alternative routes. These will be rewarded with an incredible view!

# Checkpoint Calfeisental

![Sankt Martin Calfei](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1EH4oliCMzIEZfFPLaDhAM/63e5d9560ac7ba40bf1f636036e8cce1/Sankt_Martin_Calfei.jpg)

At the back of the Calfeisental lies Sankt Martin. An almost forgotten village consisting of a chapel, a water mill and some 700-year-old wooden houses. Time seems to be standing still here. Thanks to a lot of passion and craftsmanship, the wooden houses have been well preserved to this day.

Remember: The little road from the Gigerwald reservoir is so narrow that traffic is routed alternately every half hour as follows:
- full hour to 20 after > direction of Sankt Martin,
- half hour to 10 before > direction of the dam wall,
- from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. > free ride.

The checkpoint is in the Walser village of Sankt Martin with the alpine restaurant of the same name and is located directly below the Tectonic Arena Sardona, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tiny village around the little church from 1312 has an eventful history. The alpine economy offers the finest regional cuisine and if you want to treat yourself to an extended break, you will even find a wellness area with sauna and hot tub.

# Checkpoint Alp Nurdagn

![Alp Nurdagn](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1MH5Y986E8lDYj2ngWFQK8/6b6bf6eb228a77700c704f42787c206e/Alp_Nurdagn.jpg)

The way up to Alp Nurdagn takes you to over 2340 above sea level. Cheered on by the whistles of the marmots, you climb a lonely little road up the mountain and you have a magnificent view of the mountains of the Beverin Nature Park. The moor landscape around Alp Anarosa is one of the highest alpine pastures in Switzerland. The last stretch from the Tguma car park is no longer asphalted but can also be used with a racing bike. The newly restored alpine hut offers local delicacies and, if required, places to sleep.

When planning your route, remember that Alp Nurdagn is located in an alpine mountain range. At the end of June there is still a lot of snow and many hiking trails are not yet passable!


Up to 120 km in the books. No clear image yet on which will be the fastest route (remember, the riders can choose the order in which they approach the checkpoints) but some are really pushing the pace!

__Simon Geiser__ was first at Checkpoint Palfries followed by __Simone Eder__. Of the group heading for Dägelsberg first __Loic Marin-Lamellet__ and __Axel Brenner__ are on fire! Fullgas and already passed us at the end of Walensee! Followed with a gap by __Marc Egger__ / Remo Wild, __Chris Thomas__ and __Jana Kesenheimer__!

Michael Walser and Andreas Krucker are the only ones heading for Calfeisental first. And some opted to go directly toward Graubünden.

With great route-designing power, comes great frustration!

![DE&C routes 2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5sO4n55B5smUxTR8bA311t/a1adbc3a1df97ef59c708bd06f57a86e/DE_C_routes_2.png)

![DE&C routes](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/70gZ0uuqzTn8GrxADr0H7C/80de9a8ee7ca783c858807325ddbac1d/DE_C_routes.png)

Day 1 update

Hey dotwatchers, it’s your girl Johanna here, once participant and adventurer who got an arrow to the knee (if any of you get the reference, please let me know). Anyway, I’m volunteering this year instead, manning checkpoint Safiental, as I’m not fit enough after knee surgery to take on this cake challenge. I’m also tasked with writing daily updates. (Which is the reason why I currently feel quite odd, sitting in a mountain hut with a laptop – who does that?)
At checkpoint Safiental it’s been dead ends, soup, and thwarted plans (or adaptability on the fly from our riders) so far.
Loïc Marin-Lamellet was the first back here to collect his third stamp and cake. He almost didn’t want the latter but was convinced to have half a piece which he quickly judged to be the best he has had (so far) – well, apple pie is hard to beat after all. And as quickly as he arrived, he was gone again.
What had arrived about 15min before him decided to remain until about 9pm. Indeed, it had started “schiffe” (raining heavily) and did so with mad fervour for hours. Not only that, the temperatures dropped to about 7 degrees Celsius.
Since then, every rider (except one, Jana Kesenheimer) took either an extended break or decided to stay the night at the Berggasthaus Turrahus. Our checkpoint had effectively transformed into “Sackgassen & Suppe” (dead ends & soup) on this first day of racing, as apple pie eaten outside in the cold won’t warm your hands enough.
Some riders already had to abandon their idea of doing the hike-a-bike over to Alp Nurdagn, instead riding the long way around and riding back out (like a true dead end). And, believe me, it is a long way – this valley is over 20km long.
It is now 10pm and relatively to how many starters there are, we’ve still only seen about two handful. Simon Geiser has finally managed to warm up after getting him some extra blankets and down jacket; he’s finishing his Älplermagronen and then he’s back on his way. He’s got one checkpoint left and could be back in Sankt Gallen for the break of dawn. 
After the rain stopped, the clouds quickly parted and we were rewarded by beautiful sunset scenery. As the forecast stands now, tomorrow should be an absolutely gorgeous day. Who knows, maybe some riders will attempt the monstruous hike-a-bike in the sun? Stay tuned!


Safiental Update Day 1

First Rider to reach all Checkpoints – Axel Brenner!

Loic Marin-Lamellet is close to getting his cake number five at Palfries – which is closer to the finishline in St.Gallen. Simon Geiser is pushing hard despite an early crash.

Other riders with already four cakes collected are Jana Kesenheimer, Remo Wild, Xavier Massart and Simone Eder! All still riding and pushing through the night! Let’s see who's first to be back at St.Gallen!

Finally rain has stopped in most parts of the race. Heavy rain and very cold temperaturs at high altitude (Checkpoint Alp Nurdang is at 2300 m!) made the first day very hard. But from now on the weather should be good and a lot of sun on day two and three!

What an incredible ride – 22h 40m to collect all 5 cakes and back to St.Gallen. Chapeau!

__Axel Brenner__ finished in 24H 15M, only 105 minutes behind Loic!

After Tösstal, these riders tackled the remaining four checkpoints in a different order so it was hard to call who was ahead for a long time, it was only really until a few hours before they finished we could tell Loic was closer to the finish than Axel.

![Axel Brenner finish DE&c 2022](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6KxEOU1Dtf9tj7gjIKFk9T/4fd04ce30176515a7ce4260076c4cede/Axel_Brenner_finish.jpg)

When a picture says it all – tired but very happy!

The third rider home is __Simon Geiser__ in a time of 26H 01M. Each of the three finishers took a different route and while Axel and Loïc ticked of the CPs in a slightly different order, they did leave Saint Gallen in a souther westerly direction and completed their rides in an anti-clockwise direction. Whereas, Simon left Saint Gallen to head to Palfries first south east of the start.

Following the dots on a free-route event is always a highlight for us, we look forward to seeing the routes of the other finishers and what they have to say about different route choices. With such poor weather it may be that some escaped the storms if they left a different direction from Saint Gallen. Exciting stuff!

Loïc Marin-Lamellet is first back to Saint Gallen in 22H 40M

A quick status report from Saturday morning: the first night is over up here in Safiental. Quite a lot of riders came up in the darkness (at least it's been dry). I've met the two that managed to avoid all rain (the first had a wedding to attend yesterday, delaying his departure until the evening; the second returned to his home in St. Gallen after the 6am Grand Depart to wait out the rain). If I'm honest, I think those two are definitely among the chirpiest participants so far... They also have the monstruous hike-a-bike on their mind over to Alp Nurdagn. 
Speaking of, there are talks that a bunch more riders have their eyes set on this, albeit super slow, shortcut (it does save you about 1000 vertical meters, after all). I'm just about to head out on that trail myself, to hopefully meet some of them and gather some of their stories from the long slog on foot. I'll update you all later. In the meantime, enjoy the sun!

A long night ends at CP Safiental

Hey dotwatchers, back to report from the hike-a-bike recon mission I embarked on this morning. First off, after looking at the map, it turns out the trail goes up a slope aptly named Hell’s ditch.
Using “monstruous” to describe it in previous updates was pretty spot on, too. Even by Swiss standards, it’s brutally steep for a trail. Carved into the grassy mountain side, it’s got a fair amount of exposure. Falling is by no means recommended; carrying a bike, even less so.
Needless to say, the riders who took on the challenge deserve the biggest props. Getting up those 900 vertical meters (even if the last 250 are in flatter terrain without exposure), while already having so much distance and vert on bike in their legs, is a massive achievement! If you’ve gone up that way, you better be proud of yourself, because you certainly deserve it.
When I was up there, I met eight riders. One of them, Alicia, is the only person who hiked from CP Alp Nurdagn over to CP Safiental (everyone else did it the other way around). By the time she was descending the steepest, grassy sections, the ground was still sopping wet from yesterday’s downpour, making for a slippery descent which certainly wasn’t easy to deal with.
Interestingly, some of the parties had gone on their own recon missions up that trail the week before the race. This begs the question: you knew how steep it is – why did you decide to do it again?! But, all the power to them and their preparedness.
But, hey – the difficulty of the hike aside (and the fact that it shaves off 1000 vertical meters and could potentially save you some time, it being the most direct route), the scenery was drop dead gorgeous up there. It felt utterly calm, untouched and wild at the same time. I would definitely recommend you all go for a hike up there yourself someday. But maybe leave the bikes at home.


Hike-a-bike up Höllengraben (literally “Hell’s ditch”)

![DE&C 2022 Hike 1](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1saWxkleGdXZswwM5aOt2l/8de7c937fb97e545d21f28dd7ea5d60a/1425C773-2CA7-40EC-B2B8-DB87FA594409.jpeg)

![DE&C 2022 Hike 3](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2rrKiFGcJsa1ZMNQYr4xHI/7aff5593bdf7b04fd0f52567aab6fce1/83380FFB-1004-4FB0-B20F-E3B85EC59ADE.jpeg)

![DE&C 2022 Hike 2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3RQiSLU2jKOzFb6N46zGnM/556e3bdc1de1ebc37f9b7117a85b5af8/9BBA5E2A-41BB-4CA4-833C-61A59EE51B5F.jpeg)

Some hike-a-bike impressions

Hey dotwatchers! Another day draws to a close and it looks like our crew up here will be able to get a decent and full night’s sleep. Most dots we’re keeping an eye on (from the riders still needing to collect our stamp and apple pie) are currently standing still in Thusis and we’re likely to seem them sometime tomorrow morning. As I’ve been up non-stop since 3 in the morning, I certainly don’t mind an actual night’s sleep. Still, Race HQ will wake us up if anyone’s approaching in the dead of this second night.
A surprising amount of people came over Glaspass today, even though that route, while looking much shorter on the map to link Turrahus and Thusis, is honestly not much quicker than just riding the long way around (less distance but more climbing, you know the deal).
It looks like there’s no riders left attempting the direct path (and long, long walk) between CP Nurdagn and CP Safiental. There’s also no riders sleeping in the Berggasthaus Turrahus tonight. It’s much quieter up here than yesterday, that’s for sure.
As it stands now, we’re still waiting on 5 dots to come and get their apple pie. I’ll keep you all posted as to when the last slice will meet its destiny.


Safiental Update Day 2

Johanna Wild

A free-route adventure with five checkpoints, each at the end of a dead end path, to explore the most beautiful, remote places of eastern Switzerland.

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