Sneak Peaks: New challenges in Orbit360

With Sneak Peaks, the Orbit360 space crew offers a bikepacking expedition through the Italian Dolomites, which, depending on the route, leads all the way to the Triglav Mountains in Slovenia.

Accreditation and the event briefing will take place on 4 September in Bolzano. Participants will set off on the Adventure route on 5 September, while the two shorter but no less challenging and adventurous routes will start on 6 September.

Sneak Peaks: The routes

Space Commander Raphael Albrecht and his crew have painstakingly scouted three routes. The metres in altitude promise adventure and will challenge your legs to the maximum. The route takes you over adventurous mountain passes and literally over hill and dale.

The metres in altitude give you an idea - it's going to be adventurous. Fast gravel paths alternate with tarmac back roads. Cars? You'll look in vain for them here. Rifugios were selected as checkpoints, which are only to be found in higher mountain regions. This puts the saying "If you love your bike, you push it" into practice. Hike-A-Bike is certainly not only necessary once to reach the "peaks". The space crew promises "It's worth it, we promise! Once at the top, riders can look forward to a warm welcome with the best Italian catering."

1. Entree: 500 kilometres, 19,000 metres in altitude
2. Classic: 750 kilometres, 29,000 metres in altitude
3. Adventure: 1100 kilometres, 39,000 metres in altitude

The speciality

As with all ultracycling events, there are a few rules, but in order to create a shared experience as well as a challenge, the rules at Sneak Peaks are not so strict. Of course, the riders are on their own here too. Help from third parties is not permitted. But unlike other events, it is expressly permitted to ride together and support each other mentally - in line with classic Audax principles. Love and mutual empowerment should make the experience special. The organisers have also dispensed with a time limit, as the metres in altitude are challenge enough.

More than bikepacking

The Leave-No-Trace ethic is particularly important to the crew. Leave-No-Trace is certainly familiar to every bikepacker. Nothing but tyre tracks should be left behind. No lost banana peel, no bar paper torn away by the wind, no toilet paper on the roadside.

Another rule of the Orbit360 crew for Sneak Peaks follows the hashtag #noflightride. The journey there and back should take place without an aeroplane. Instead, participants should use sustainable means of transport. The starting point was also chosen in this way, as a train will be travelling to Bolzano. The organisers themselves will offset CO2 emissions generated during the event through transport, catering and accommodation for participants.

Encouraging

If you look around at cycling events, you will see predominantly white men. The organiser is offering special tickets to encourage underrepresented groups in cycling to join the Orbit360 community. Tickets are available for FLINTA* people (Fwomen, Lesben, intersexuals, nicht-binary, trans and agender persons) that take the gender pay gap into account. And because there are people who are not in a financial position to buy a ticket, other participants can pay solidarity contributions. The funds generated in this way are used to finance solidarity tickets and make adventures possible for people for whom Sneak Peaks would not have been an option without the offer.

Spoiler:

Sandra Schuberth, author of this report, online editor and bikepacking expert, will be using some of her holiday days for this event in order to start - and hopefully finish - at this very event.

My favourite: Adventure, i.e. 1093 kilometres and ... far too many metres in altitude. I'm up for it and am already looking forward to it with anticipation and awe. - Sandra Schuberth