André Greipel knows exactly why he’s sharing these stories about bad weather, even though the sun is still shining over the small Baltic Sea resort of Rerik, roughly halfway between the Hanseatic cities of Rostock and Wismar. After all, the former professional cyclist knows not only the world of cycling inside out, but also his home region. And just as he’s recounting “the only day of my professional career when I was glad to weigh 85 kilos” – because a full-blown spring storm made the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem virtually unrideable – it suddenly grows dark on the German coast too. A strong westerly wind sweeps in, driving heavy rain clouds across the small festival site between Salzhaff and the Baltic Sea, where Greipel is hosting his Seaside Ride for three days. By the sea, the weather changes just as quickly as it does in the mountains.
Following last year’s debut, Greipel is organising his event for the second time in mid-June, aiming to combine sport with a feel-good atmosphere right by the beach. Panoramic sauna barrels with a view of the water invite you to work up a sweat, cycle yoga is on the programme, and food trucks offer high-quality specialities. There’s also plenty of live indie music. And, of course, sport. Whilst a few metres further on, kitesurfers let their kites pull them across the waves, in the mornings and evenings the runners are the first to display their Seaside race numbers on the streets of this village, which has a population of just under 2,500 but attracts many times that number of tourists in the summer, . But the focus is, after all, on cycling.
It’s all about the community
“For us, it’s all about the sense of community,” says Greipel. At the Seaside Festival, however, this includes not only the entire cycling community, but also their families. And, essentially, anyone who’s interested in what’s going on at the venue. There are no fences or ticket booths in the car park itself. Especially in the evenings, when the music is playing, other guests and local residents always mingle with the cyclists.
However, the cycling races will still be reserved for registered participants. Alongside a Bambini Tour through the village, there will be a choice of four routes on Saturday. Whilst last year’s Seaside Ride began as a gravel-only event, the feedback from that inaugural event has also generated demand for routes suitable for road bikes. The majority of riders, however, opt for wider, more treaded tyres. And that pleases Greipel too. The former world-class sprinter now prefers the gravel bike to the road bike whenever possible. This is not, however, down to gear ratios, frame geometries or riding positions, but rather to the experiences it offers.
Forecast storm leaves the starters unfazed
The most successful German road cyclist in history in terms of victories – who, with 158 wins, also ranks in the world’s top 10 – has transformed from a performance- and data-driven elite athlete into someone who simply enjoys the ride. “I’ve tested myself often enough over the past 15 years,” says Greipel, reflecting on his long and successful professional career, which began with Team Wiesenhof, reached its peak with T-Mobile, Columbia and Lotto, and gradually drew to a close with Arkéa and Israel in 2021. He now works with Uvex, is a brand ambassador for Rose, Ryzon and Schwalbe, and is also the sprint coach for the professional women’s team UAE ADQ. Alongside this, he explores nature away from the tarmac, completely free from pressure. And that is exactly what he wants to offer his guests on the Seaside Ride. “I want to introduce people to my home region, to show them just how beautiful Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is, especially when seen from the saddle.”
But there’s one thing above all else that characterises Germany’s north-easternmost federal state: wind. Winds of 40 km/h are forecast for the evening before the races, with gusts exceeding 60. When the meteorologist talks of strong or even stormy winds, a man from Rostock, who has just collected his race number, says: “If that’s all there is to it.” At least the locals aren’t worried about it; they’re used to such weather conditions from their training.
Seaside Ride 2026 heads to the island of Poel
And it seems, on Saturday morning, that everyone else doesn’t need to worry about the weather just yet either. As Greipel gives the starting signal, the sun is shining and the wind is fairly light. Some are wondering whether it’s even worth packing a rain jacket. Greipel, however, encourages them to do so once more. And then they’re off. Around 300 participants set off in small groups. They all have a destination, which they will reach by different routes. They’re heading for the island of Poel.
To the south-west of Rerik in Wismar Bay lies Germany’s seventh-largest island, which, at around 37 square kilometres, is about ten times the size of New York’s Central Park and could therefore accommodate around 5,000 football pitches. Fittingly, a Bundesliga referee is mayor of the island community’s 2,500 inhabitants. Poel is separated from the mainland only by a somewhat longer causeway and a bridge just a few metres long. There is just one road leading up to it. And unless a beached whale is making the headlines, life here – as in the rest of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – revolves primarily around agriculture and tourism.
Greipel puts the puzzle together
But the cyclists are hardly getting to see the island’s scenic side anymore. On the way there, the sky is clouding over and the wind is picking up considerably. At least the gravel riders aren’t feeling the headwind much at first; Greipel has mapped out the route up to the island to be rider-friendly, taking it through many small woodlands. “I know all the routes here; I just have to put the pieces of the jigsaw together,” says the 43-year-old of his old training routes. Whilst last year’s inaugural event resulted in a rather hilly route – which, at first glance, is atypical for the flat German coastal regions – “this time we’ll truly live up to the name ‘Seaside Ride’”.
At least in theory, the entire circuit around the island and the return journey to Rerik almost always offer sea views. In practice, it’s almost impossible to make out the water through the heavy, grey clouds, from which it starts pouring down in buckets around midday. Anyone who can still see anything through their rain-soaked glasses would be wise to keep their eyes on the route to avoid the biggest mud puddles.
A scorcher at the premiere
Still: “I could have done without the white socks,” says Sebastian Pape, looking down at himself. The 42-year-old from Lübben in the Spreewald, south of Berlin, takes it in his stride, however, as he treats himself to some rice pudding at a refreshment point along the route and watches as hard-working helpers give his bike a quick clean to remove the worst of the dirt, so that the mud in the brakes doesn’t become too much of a nuisance. For problems that are less cosmetic in nature, ‘Luftikusse’ have mingled with the participants – breakdown assistants who stand by the cyclists with advice, practical help and spare parts whenever a cobbled path has once again caused a puncture.
Pape completes the course without a hitch, just as he did the first time. “I took part last year too. Back then, it was a battle against the heat, with temperatures over 30 degrees,” recalls the Sales Director at an online marketing network. That’s why he’s brought his wife and child along too. “Actually, the plan was for them to spend their time on the beach whilst I was out on my bike,” he laughs. But with temperatures only half as warm, that wouldn’t have provided the fun factor they were hoping for. Nevertheless, initial feedback suggests: “They managed to enjoy themselves just as much doing other things.”
High celebrity factor with YouTubers, podcasters and (former) professionals
Back in Rerik – with a strong tailwind and without the swimming breaks that organisers and athletes had sometimes factored in – things went quite quickly – so Sebastian Pape will once again have to figure out how to get his bike clean. He hasn’t gained all that much experience of riding in the rain yet, as he’s still fairly new to cycling in general. “It only really started during the pandemic; I got into gravel riding via YouTube. Actually, mainly thanks to Richie and Tobi,” he says. The ‘actually’ stems mainly from the fact that Tobi, podcaster Tobias Knaup, is also a guest at Seaside and, on the evening before the ride, is chatting about this and that with Greipel, his former professional colleagues Marcus Burghardt and Eric Baumann, and presenter Sebastian Paddags, who is also well-known on the cycling entertainment scene.
Juri Hollmann also adds to the star power on the Baltic Sea coast. Greipel knows him well from the days when he still lived in Hürth near Cologne, forming a high-performing group with Nils Politt, Rick Zabel and the young Hollmann as their ‘training partners’. However, since his serious accident at the 2025 Giro d’Italia – which resulted in a fractured pelvis, a pulmonary embolism and emergency surgery – Hollmann’s professional career has been on hold. Since this spring, though, the 26-year-old has been trying to fight his way back onto the road on a gravel bike via the Canyon × DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing Team. “For the past two weeks, I’ve been able to ride at full intensity again,” explains the 26-year-old, who has joined the field of participants but is still partly in rehabilitation mode – more than a year after the accident. “It was great fun to ride here and be back on the bike with other people again.”
Tour de Tolerance
Whilst he’s getting his celebrity guests on their bikes, André Greipel is taking the quad bike today. He doesn’t have time to ride himself. He’s checking the key sections of the route, inspecting the refreshment points and cheering on the soaked cyclists at remote points along the course. It is not until Sunday, for the final item on the event’s programme, that he gets back on his bike himself. Because this is not about sport, but about making a political statement. “We can put up with rain and wind, but not exclusion or a course of action that runs counter to the constitution,” he explains after returning from his 15-minute lap through Rerik, which, in terms of the weather, once again encapsulates the entire weekend in fast-forward. “I wouldn’t have thought we’d manage to bring so many people together again.” A good 150 people are there. Local residents have joined in with their decorated bikes. Sebastian Pape is there again too, and announces afterwards: “I’ll be back. Perhaps next time the weather will be more like it was in the first year.”
That’s what Greipel is hoping for, too. “The athletes respected us for going ahead with everything as planned despite the conditions, from the first swim to the training rides. We respect them in return for sticking it out. Only a very, very few cut their laps short; even the odd hailstone didn’t change that. But the course is actually a real eye-catcher and far too beautiful to ride in the rain. That’s why we’ll probably give it another go next year.” Then, so the hope goes, in better weather.
Ultimately, though, the truth is this: it’s the extraordinary stories that stick in the memory, the special experiences that are passed on. And those are more likely to be made in all weathers. The Seaside Festival 2026 certainly delivered a few of them.