Christoph Fuhrbach rides 17,615 metres in altitude on the Kalmit-Stoppomat route in the Palatinate.
"No, I won't cycle it tomorrow," says Christoph Fuhrbach, having just cycled up and down his home route, his beloved "ingenious Kalmit", non-stop for 24 hours. He has done it 42.5 times - that's a total of 488 kilometres and 17,615 metres in altitude. This achievement is an unofficial German record. In 1996, the extreme cyclist Rainer Klaus cycled 15,458 metres in altitude on the Swabian Alb. The 39-year-old Christoph Fuhrbach from the Palatinate dedicated himself to his favourite mountain from 6 p.m. on Sunday to 6 p.m. on Monday: he initially completed the 5,750 m long ascent with 415 metres of altitude difference eleven times in 22 minutes each (only a few cyclists are faster on their one-off Stoppomat mountain sprint), then came the night and the "sag". A car, with his father or a friend at the wheel, drove ahead and lit up the road.
By 8 a.m., the low was over: "The last ten hours went really well - no crisis - no break". The goal for next year is the altitude metre world record, the Kalmit record ride was just a test for this. It was clear from the outset that the route was not suitable for the world record: too winding and, above all, too flat.
Fuhrbach is still looking for a suitable route with a gradient of ten per cent if possible and a straight course. Physically and mentally, he is strong enough to attack the world record set by the twins Gernot and Horst Turnowsky in 2007 with 20,049.9 metres of elevation gain.
Fuhrbach is a former mountain runner (he won the Kandel mountain run in 2002, for example) and has now completed 11,000 kilometres on his first own racing bike this year, including 316 times up the Kalmit. He is ranked first on four Stoppomat routes. His record performance is www.stoppomat.de because a card was stamped for each journey. Professionally, the "consultant for world church tasks" is involved in development policy.
He draws motivation for his extreme sport from this: "When I see how other people suffer from difficult life situations, it puts my little 24-hour ordeal into perspective."
Incidentally, Fuhrbach set his record in Birkenstock sandals - find out why in an exclusive interview in the October issue of TOUR.
