And they are off ...

Lucas Becker

Chrsitian Holweck

Constantin Backmann

Sebastian Sarx

Tobias Fuchs

Lukas Neubeck

Glenn Bloemen

Thomas Ceyrowsky

Leonard von Hammerstein

Laurens van Gucht

Dominik Bokstaller

Joshua Gohl

Stefan Maertens

Florian Klein

Simon Geiser

Christoph Fuhrbach

Peter Adam

Luis Luz

Benedikt Heyl

Jens Zickermann

Fanny Bensussan

Jair Hoogland

Pierre  Vincent Benvenuto

Jonas Fischer

Christine Kammerer

Conrad Liwa

Stijn DeVeylder

Samuel Thompson

Marvin Schwarz

Konstantin Weise

Henning Sydow

Stefan Moritz

Micha Mayer

Bastian Wegner

Nicolas Malet

Rainmar Hönecke

Dominik Schreiber

Patrick Doupe

Jost Schumski

Alexander Vorrath

Michael Felber

Hubert Stratmann

Julian Neuweiler

Benjamin Schneider

Markus Merkle

Erik Schiller

Vincent Thibaut

Mirko Hackl

Carsten Honemann

Marek Garus

Andreas Roelfs

Mirko Schmidt

Tom Hudders

Denise Vorberg

Daniel Giek

Valentin Raab

Necdet Dolmis

Michael Grobe

Frieder Backu

William Soler

Sebastian Restrepo

Karsten Morisse

Frank Bühler

Matthias Polidar

Auri Teinilä

Jessica Kowalski

Tim Heiber

Roger Hegglin

Lars Toma

Frederick Aubry

Roland Toisul

Robin Hogger

Markus Scheidt

Gerhard Kohl

Christian Siegert

Sarah Dunker

Friedhelm Feige

Anne De Smet

Wessel Kremer

Ronny Martin

Yannik Pankrath

Hanna Lutz

Sebastian Allig

Christian Müller

Thomas Krippentz

Loes Holtmaat

Niklas Streek

Mathias Jäger

Benedikt Scholl

Anatole Naimi

Stephan Kirsch

Udo Waldenmaier

Johannes von  Freydorf

Katharina Pier

Niklas Muxel

Robert Müller

Pavel Krajcik

Joris Bosch

Zeno Bonduelle

Laura Delnevo

Elie-Nael Laurencery

Etienne Hamon

Philipp Meyer

Bastian Meyer

Hannes Marlok

Manja Seemann

Hans-Joachim Klein

Aynur Vater

Steffen Marlok

Media-Car

Video-Crew

Dominik Nordau

Philipp Ketterer

Hans-Hinrich Wilckens

Sören Grimmer

Welcome to the riders preview of the upcoming 2nd edition of Mittelgebirgeclassique, starting tomorrow morning at 6 am...

Lets have a look into some riders of this strong roster.
Just a short overview at some fast names - there will be some more fast riders as well!
No pressure ;-)

Fanny Bensussan
One of the most experienced riders in the field. Finished last year’s edition as 2nd women. She is definetly a dot to watch. 

Christine Kammerer
Last year 3rd women, finished also TCR last year. She ticked some more races and adventures as well. Let’s see how her preperations went, she knows how to ride her bike to the finish line!

Hanna Lutz
Competet also in the TCR last year, couldn‘t get to the finish line due some knee problems. However, she rode more then 30.000km last year. 

Jessica Kowalski
Finished last years ThreePeaksBikeRace as a pair. Now she will go for her first solo race. There won’t be too many places for drafting in this race. 

Lucas Becker
Winner of the first edition of Mittelgebirgeclassique will try to defend his win.
His Setup looks superlight, not like a big sleepingsystem.

Anatole Naimi
This lad from Liege finished in 2022 Transiberica 2nd and 2Volcano Sprint in 5th position.
He definetly knows how to climb! This year he was organisator of the first Edition of
,The Unknown Race‘ and finished it 4th. 

Sebastian Sarx
Too much top results to capture. 
In 2023 he finished ,Atlas Mountain Race‘ 7th, won ,The Unknown Race‘  and is still hungry for more races. I‘ve seen his name in different other rosters for 2023. Sebastian is on fire!

Robert Mueller
Lets see if Robert will bring his own bike ;-) In 2022 he won Transpyrenees by Lost Dot on a hired bike. Luckily this race is without a ferry - at the 2VolcanoSprint he had a return trip to italy.

Niklas Muxel
Lives in the Schwarzwald, so he knows a lot of the climbs. His setup looks as light as possible. He finished the B-Hard Ultra Race in 2022 3rd and the Northcape4000 2019 4th. 

Dominik Bokstaller
Mr Dead-ends-and-cake himself. The suiss rider knows that the half of the route is downhill.
He won in 2022 SUCH.

Thomas Ceyrowsky
Thomas had already a top 10 result in the first edition of MC. The guy from Düsseldorf is again a rider, you should follow!

Jair Hoogland
The dutch rider finished a lot of races, TCR, Race around the Netherlands, Race through Poland, The Unknown Race. He has a lot of experience and will show us how the dutch can climb.

Christoph Fuhrbach
Organisator of Mittelgebirgeclassique, top results in a lot of races. One of the most impressive riders. Lets see how he will handle his own race.


Riders Previews of MittelgebirgeClassique 2023

And they are off … this morning saw the start of the second edition of the MittelgebirgeClassique. 

![Start MC2_Start line](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5da1CKwB7gvyp1YzMTaOyu/c687c5c3b4660b1fc5319b19cabc0b01/3CB0E19F-2A7B-4552-935D-0B53EE6795AA-9843-0000017945E2609B.jpg)

Beautiful weather, a tailwind for the first kilometers, we couldn’t ask for more!

![Start MC2_Start line II](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7oL7uQPpAsbTkXqlCpMpxo/7898112e9b40a7ebf0d6c0792d35b1bc/DF548FF1-F7DF-44CE-9F7E-DF0DC8C42A19-9843-0000017CE8EC5CE6.jpg)

Christoph Fuhrbach, Cap 8, lead the field up his lokal climb, the Kalmit. 
![MC2_Kalmit_Christoph Fuhrbach](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4QXHYxSzvuTEawnBx0CisE/dbe8ad721e57d4c00cc17a4df3ac7465/1838EFC5-C556-4ECE-BDA9-913D4E9FFB56-9843-0000017CFDCA68AD.jpg)

Last year's winner Lukas Becker, Cap 1, was also off to a pretty fast start. Anatole Naimi, Cap 131, had to struggle with a double flat tire and no spare inner tube left within the first 100 kilometers … MC2 is off to an exciting start!!!

6 a.m.
The boars are ready to leave the road for the first riders who claimed the Kalmit.

![MC2 23_Boars on the road](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1F73hXbODq1qrXmhgs7UoM/ea407182df392a03a6aa751ed91b51cc/FDA83277-E975-47BF-8EAD-C4133AE4A93D-9843-0000017CF8CBFB48.jpg)

Christoph Fuhrbach & Lucas Becker were the first who climbed the first mountain. 

![MC2 23_Lucas Becker](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/m3z5RENVEg3Eubq92JsEv/7128ae369177736fde6d06ff7c144267/dsc_0618.JPG)

In the first section to Scheibelseckle (180km) we had a small leading group of 3 riders. Robert Müller was the first rider after 6h 29mins. Close behind him Niklas Muxel & Lucas Becker. 

Hanna Lutz was the first female rider who claimed the Scheibelseckle, nearly 30mins later Christine Kammerer(8h 24min). 

![MC 23_Hanna Lutz ](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1azVK5ZG8XzXt7XfXRKyi8/f405e1d0cb4f4e17fc3938799049c81b/image-20230521-212342.jpeg)

The gas station after 155km seemed to be one of the best resupply points, hopefully there are some cola and snickers left for the other riders still to come ;)

![MC 23_Gas station rush](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7iuPsokDtWNfjUHJCwj5Cn/66831f4acc2bb0b33075342a4ee262a1/AA3C2374-9829-40E0-BC82-6301CDB58F69-13275-000001E0ACDFCD3D.jpg)

Anatole Naimi, after having to start with a borrowed bike, got a double puncture after 108km and is now without a spare tube. Let's hope that he bring some patches. Later he struggled with the heat. He tries to push a bit more in the evening.

![MC 23_Day 1 Anatole](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2keJgaHUbQBe3RrMR7oB35/611b748ae40c0363392c0ca78dd44752/47C5C6DF-043A-427E-99D4-9CF6D66E2B70-13275-000001DC4D55568C.jpg)

Christoph Fuhrbach struggled with some problems with his pedal, but he was able to find a new one, when 3 friendly cyclists offered a spare pedal.

Stefan Barth also struggled with the heat. He didn‘t want to risk too much and will stay in a hotel, to get a better recovery.

At 8pm and Robert Müller was leading with more than 20km. However, he has encountered some problems with his derailleur and couldn't shift any longer.
Lucas Becker 2nd with a 10km gap to the chasing group of 5 riders.
Hanna Lutz is still leading the women's field next to Christine Kammerer, with around 18km.

Top 5 solo men
1. Robert Müller
2. Lucas Becker 
3. Sebastian Sarx
4. Tobias Fuchs
5. Christian Holweck

Top 5 solo women
1. Hanna Lutz
2. Christine Kammerer
3. Katharina Pier
4. Fanny Bensussan
5. Denise Vorberg

For me its time to sleep and get back in the early morning.
We wish all riders a safe night, take care!
For those who will take a sleep this night:
Have a good rest!

Scratch report
From 109 solo riders, we already have 6 riders who had to scratch.
Florian Vogel, Björn Hohmeier, Ela Kroell, Baris Polat-Göttmann, Philippe Ernst

Nicolas Lindert had to scratch due stomache problems.

Recap day 1

What a race!
I tried to sleep, maybe I slept a bit more than Sebastian Sarx, who is now in the lead. He already rode 494km within 24hours!

Lucas Becker was the first who get some Käsespätzle at Checkpoint 1. Sebastian Sarx who came second, ate his soup as fast as possible, refilled his bottles and was directly back on the road. Followmychallenge said he stopped just for 53min within 24hours.
How did he do that?

![MCG 2_Sebastian and Tobias arriving at CHP1](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7uzp9O0AnYFKK4UZ2w6hLr/b3b5f81c961f9e8c5ecbf8b78e63e999/IMG_1871.jpg)Sebastian Sarx, Cap 133, and Tobias Fuchs, Cap 71, arriving at checkpoint 1

The night seems very busy at the checkpoint, a lot of people stay there for a warm bed.

Now its Fanny Bensussan who is leading the womens field, just 7km in front of Christine Kammerer.
Hanna Lutz had a nap in Hofsgrund at km 360, she refilled her body with some energy and will keep going to the first cp!

![MCG2_Fanny Portrait](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3TIeLZRX1OWfa6VdPlW9Yk/c36ee777113b5ef26777185c31720663/135.JPG)Fanny

It looks a bit like a complete different race. There are so many scratches in the late evening and in the night. Unfortunately, Robert Müller had to abandon the Race as he couldn't get his rear derailleur to work again. 

Also, the misfortune of Anatolie Naimi continued: After having to start with a borrowed bike und double flatting at km 108 he suffered a broken rear wheel in the evening and thus had to scratch. But being Anatole, he took it all with great spirit! Chapeau!

Niklas Muxel who was all the time in second/third position struggled with soaking wet lights, so he had to stop for safety reasons. He decided at night, that this is not how he want to spend his holidays..

I‘m waiting for some more updates from the riders!

currently top5

Solo Men
1. Sebastian Sarx
2. Lukas Neubeck
3. Lucas Becker
4. Tobias Fuchs
5. Leonard von Hammerstein

Solo women
1. Fanny Bensussan
2. Christine Kammerer
3. Hanna Lutz
4. Denise Vorberg
5. Jessica Kowalski

Scratch report:
Currently we have 12 official registered scratches of solo riders and also the first pair to abandon the race: Bastian Meyer and Hans-Heinrich Wilckens.

Get some rest, and have a nice breakfast!

See you later with some fresh updates!

MCG 2023 - Recap night 1

Can somebody tell the riders, that the finisher party is on thursday?
If they don‘t stop - they can get some breakfast at the finish line!

What happened this day?

Lets start with the Pairs!
To ride as a pair can be very hard! Sometimes you need different brakes, different resupply, you have to find the flow and of course you have to be very good friends indeed!

Between the first and the third team are just 50km, everything is possible.
Yesterdays leader team Marlocks are now in 3rd position and they are chasing Team Meyer. 
The first pair are the belgium/french connection of Elie-Nael Laurencery and Etienne Hamon. 

The female race is equally exciting!
Fanny Bensussan is still leading the female race, Hanna Lutz and Christine Kammerer are just 10km behind her. And it would seem that they are in a good company... 

![MC2_Christine Kammerer_Cap51](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4AOuf4cM5OcdyfWYhMJsdh/e86c685e80006bb7be0fdfbd53ec6d4c/MC2_Christine_Kammerer_Cap33.jpg)Christine

Denise Vorberg is currently at km 510, which means she is just 50km behind the 2nd and the 3rd position! Keep on fighting Denise!
I heard that Denise had a luxury bivy next to a self service shop with some fresh drinks - fingers crossed she will find a bivy spot like this again!

![MC2_Denise Vorberg_Cap21](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5jqByS3ua2r68trUtTgasw/e70fb428725ed97226f743328e041f96/MC2_Denise_Vorberg_Cap21.jpg)Denise

Jessica Kowalski suffered in the heat like many other riders, so she stopped and tried to avoid the heat with stopping every 100m of elevation. She started early this morning at 3.30am to collect some kilometers in cooler temperatures.

I‘m not sure if Sebastian Sarx and Lucas Becker had a small chat, when Sebastian was descending the planche des Belles Filles, Lucas was ascending. This time they changed the positions again at CPT2.

![MC2_Lucas + Sebastian CPT2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/kcXW7FJYb8Xcme9RCqqXR/0068148d335fbcf8091c8fd65160ac71/MC2_Lucas___Sebastian_CPT2.JPG) Lucas + Sebastian at CPT2

Sebastian was leading the whole day, up to CPT2. Currently Sebastian Sarx stopping time is still below 2hours. Will he need some rest? The chasing group is coming fast, but it looks not like they rested too much last night. 

Lukas Neubeck held the second position for quite some time, until he couldn‘t match the pace of Lucas Becker any longer.
Christian Holweck and Tobias Fuchs are now battling for the 3rd position.

Top 5 solo Men
1. Lucas Becker
2. Sebastian Sarx
3. Constantin Backmann
4. Christian Holweck
5. Tobias Fuchs

Top 5 solo women
1. Fanny Bensussan
2. Hanna Lutz
3. Christine Kammerer
4. Denise Vorberg
5. Jessica Kowalski

Scratch report
First, please allow me some rather personal thoughts:
We don‘t need heroes, who risk too much. But:
Never scratch at night.
If you think you want to scratch, take a nap, call your best friends, eat some potato fries and wait for the upcoming daylight :-) At day time, everything is so much better. Do not risk too much!

Stefan Barth suffered from yesterdays heat. He is okay, but couldn‘t get some power to the pedal.
He did everything right, took a nap and tried it on the day after. Well done mate!

Phillip Ketterer and Dominik Nordau are also ok with a did not finish, they couldn‘t find the flow. They are still friends and they already enjoyed a beer together.

Laura Delnevo, Zeno Bonduelle, Joris Bosch, Udo Waldenmeier & Matthias Jäger scratched also this day. Have a good recovery and chapeau to making this tough call! 


Recap Day 2

It was a busy night for the people at Checkpoint 2. A big bunch of riders arrived during the night and got some warm food.
![Night 2 at CP2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3znrEiZ0chMoN1VdlYd94r/6c141d8007f580007290cf4f600d6e13/CB2DF0C8-A534-4EFE-98F1-A087A38D62C7-28983-000003BBE90CA264.jpg)

Lets have a look at what happened.

There are not too much changes in the women's race. Its just a bit stretched. Fanny is now leading just 31km before Christine.

![MC2_Fanny on Road](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4k6zbcIfAggGCKrAB2E32p/8b8e0648567a936d333c3061a199f680/Fanny_Cap135_day2.jpg)

Top5 Solo women
1. Fanny Bensussan
2. Hanna Lutz
3. Christine Kammerer
4. Denise Vorberg
5. Jessica Kowalski

And the men?
Lucas Becker is still leading after stopping for nearly 2 hours in Grandfontaine. Sebastian Sarx stopping time is still below 3 hours within 48 hours. Looks like he has been in a bit of a struggle with not too much energy left, but has now regained 2nd position after falling back to 4th. Take care my friend!

![MC2_Sebastian Sarx Road day 2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3UbuizJvyRInyox2kUqodo/db9eac44ad91e72595f8a6602be6b026/MC2_Sebastian_Sarx_Road_day_2.jpg)Sebastian on the road

Constantin Backmann is now chasing Christian Holweck, who in turn is now 2nd. These guys are not too far away from Sebastian.
Tobias Fuchs is 40 km behind Sebastian

Top5 Solo Men
1. Lucas Becker
2. Sebastian Sarx 
3. Christian Holweck
4. Constantin Backmann
5. Tobias Fuchs

I didn‘t get not that much information from the riders, so if I get some more news, I will share these with you!

Recap Night 2: On the hunt


![MC2_Hanna](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4lfUA7TlT6bfjH8hmix0UE/20f6a90e2459184910abb8f8df764428/Hanna_Cap51_CP1.jpg)

We learned this morning, that Hanna Lutz had to abandon the race yesterday evening. She has shown an amazing race, chasing Fanny Bensussan who still leads the women's field.

MC2-Update: Hanna Lutz, 2nd women, had to abandon the Race

This year's winner is last year's winner!!! Lucas Becker finished the second edition of MittelgebirgeClassique in a little less than 56 hours. an amazing performance by one of the nicest guys out there! And there are so many... :-D Congratulations @Lucas and a heartfelt chapeau!!

![MC2 - Winner Lucas Becker arriving](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7QK0LhD8yp75BTICErye8/d2c400de7ce62fc1e76a075cffe162b5/IMG_1976.JPG)

MC2 - We have our winner

After racing each other for literally thousands of kilometers, Christian Holweck, Sebastian Sarx and Constantin Backmann all finished together after 58 hrs and 37 mins. A very special ending for quite a special MittelgebirgeClassique!

![MC2_Finish of the 2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1ot4Typat7tvqXR9kneON8/5ea38cd87163ccf4beb70fc60d8c7fd7/Finish_of_the_2.JPG)

MC2 - Second podium spot taken ... and the second ... and the second

Neustadt slowly fills up with happy faces of cyclists.

![MC2_Glen at the finish](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2pXnb8x78v5Nmwdf4eyZGd/4ec4d87f3342b699908c0af02045ef42/8AB5A0B3-C218-491C-9698-32F39CE3EB04-4183-000000768F3B8B5E.jpg)

What happened today?
Hopefully everyone has already read that Lucas Becker finished first.

![MC2 - Winner Lucas Becker arriving](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/7QK0LhD8yp75BTICErye8/d2c400de7ce62fc1e76a075cffe162b5/IMG_1976.JPG)

But the fact that we were able to celebrate a 2nd place 3 times after Lucas had finished is also a rare occurrence.
Christian Holweck, Constantin Backmann and Sebastian Sarx all reached the finish line at the same time. To be able to enjoy the reception at the last climb, what could be better?
Fair sportsmanship!

![MC2 Three times second](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/S9Tp8t7g7FIRaFfBvU7WK/b2c4e116c131ccf9d253bb84f05b5d81/3_times_2.JPG)

6th finisher is Lukas Neubeck, he did it within 62h 10min.

7th finisher: Glenn Bloemen , this morning I saw a picture of waffles. A Belgian with waffles - his perfect drive!

Thomas Ceyrowsky, the man from Düsseldorf has a Top10 subscription, last year Top10, this year again.

Leonard von Hammerstein was able to check into the finish 10min later, securing 9th place.

And to make the Top10 full, we invited Laurens van Gucht. The Belgian crossed the finish line after 63h 2min.

Currently we are still waiting for some more riders who are not united in the position fights ;-)

In the women's race, Fanny Bensussan is still in the lead with almost 90km to go. It doesn't look like she wants to sleep again. We expect her tonight! Christine Kammerer is currently at kilometre 890 and is 140km ahead of Denise Vorberg.
If Denise stops again, her chances of a 5-star bivy are very high. The last 2 nights she could only report good things.

Hang in there!

![MC2_Christine Cap 33 Rider and bike](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3SRjBu6R0hyY3Z3ljK8FLE/31932cb3932b146cc0bed0897ded8c45/IMG_2038.JPG)                                                  Christine

The pairs have not changed positions.
Laurencery & Hamon still have almost 100km to go!

1st Laurencery / Hamon
2nd Meyer
3rd Marlock

Scratchreport

I have received little feedback from riders.
Currently we have 27 riders who had to give up.

To all riders who are still on the road today: Take care of yourselves, have a good night and enjoy every kilometer!
You don't have to work tomorrow, you can ride your bike!


Day 3 recap: What once was 1 stays 1 - and then some 2s

Georg Sponholz

MittelgebirgeClassic 2023 Tracking and Commentary: Back for its second edition, this event crosses between Germany and France and takes riders over 40 mountain passes in the middle mountains (Mittelgebirge) ranges of the Palatinate Forest, Black Forest and Vosges.

MittelgebirgeClassic 2023 Tracking

Back for its second edition, this event crosses between Germany and France which takes riders over 40 mountain passes in the middle mountains (Mittelgebirge) ranges of the Palatinate Forest, Black Forest and Vosges.

Mittelgebirge Classique 2023

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Mittelgebirge Classique 2023

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This Year's Male Winner

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