The SBT crew knows all about the Tour de France, the Vuelta
a Espana, the Giro di Italia and even the Tour de Suisse and for crying out
loud the Tour of Flanders and many, many more.
All of these races will make up the 2013 World Tour in a schedule just
released by the UCI. The SBT Crew
asks, why no Deutschland-Tour? And that
would be a great event title, “Deutschland-Tour” but we would also be happy
with “Reise Deutschland,” “Ausfig Deutschland” and even “Besichtigung
Deutschland” or any variation of the these suggestions.
The
UCI Tour loves France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and of course Belgium. The Tour also visits China and Canada (twice
each). The Tour begins this season in
Australia of all places with the Santos Tour Down Under (more on that in a
future post). Yet, the Tour visits
Germany just one day for the Vattenfall Cyclassics. Now we give the Germans credit, it is the
only World Tour event in the country and it is only one day but it is the biggest
cycling weekend in Europe and it hosts the largest biking trade fair in the
world with 80 booths and exhibits dedicated to cycling. Nearly one million people take part in the
event with over 800,000 spectators, 22,000 amateur riders and of course 18 of the
top pro cycling teams from all over the globe.
Yet, the SBT crew thinks Germany deserves more. We have been doing some thinking…
The SBT crew plodded through a number of scenarios and route
plans and we have come up with a Tour.
When travelers think of Germany what comes to mind: The Autobahn. Let’s ride the Autobahn and we have the
slogan all prepared: “Bike the ‘bahn!”
The Bike the ‘bahn will begin in Nurburg with a lap of the Nurburgring,
(the Nordschleife circuit) a 20.8 km lap of the famous track taking in all 154
turns. That is Stage 1, Stage 2 is Nurburg
to Frankfurt (173 km) on the A3 Autobahn.
Stage 3 is Frankfurt to Karlsruhe (147 km) on the A5. Stage 4 is Stuttgart to Munich (234 km) on
the A8. Stage 5 will be the final day
and will be on the A95 from Munich through Garmisch-Partenkirchen with the
finish in view of Germany’s highest elevation, the Zugspitze.
The crew is anticipating peoples reaction; “Close the
autobahn? Nein!” Well, if one of America’s super highway cities—Los
Angeles—can close the 405 freeway without an issue then certainly Germany can close one of the country’s
many autobahns for a few hours. Germany
has the roads and the infrastructure.
The country also has the corporate spending power. Maybe you have heard
of BMW (based in Munich, stage 4 and 5), Mercedes Benz (Stuttgart, stage 4) and
Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt, stage 2 and 3).
We feel these behemoths could pay for a few jerseys and provide one or
two team cars.
The Bike the ‘bahn event would be the ultimate sprint
competition yet would have some climbs and would be a fun super-highway
adventure. This event with a southern focus and mainly west to east route would
not conflict with the Vattenfall Cyclassics held in Hamburg.
So—“Bike the ‘bahn!”—you heard it here first from the crew at Sticky
Bottle Team in the USA.
Visit our website, www.stickybottleteam.net
and send us your comments.
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