It's the middle of the night, dark and fresh. Fortunately, at least it's dry, but otherwise there's not much else that's positive. Yvonne Margraf is sitting in the saddle for the second night in a row in August 2025. She has actually slept once in the last 48 hours, for around 20 minutes. She can't remember when that was. But it doesn't matter, she pedals on stoically, eating metre after metre of the 1500-kilometre route of the Race Around Austria ultra bike race off the road. From behind, the support vehicle bathes the asphalt in front of her in light and makes her pink leggings glow. A few metres ahead, one of her team is waiting with a little food and warm words. Yvonne recognises him, life comes into her eyes and then - yes, then a smile appears on her face.
1000 kilometres in the legs - 500 to go
In the midst of the drudgery, she still looks amazingly fresh, full of cheerfulness and with unshakeable confidence. The radiance seems unreal. How on earth is that possible? The 45-year-old Hessian is working hard, presumably every muscle hurts, but certainly her back, which is plagued by facet arthrosis. She is travelling at just under 21 kilometres. She has around 1000 kilometres in her legs and a good 500 to go - including over the Grossglockner at more than 2500 metres above sea level. How can you still be beaming as if you've just found the happiness of a lifetime? "Well, I can really torture myself," says the ultra athlete, naturally with a broad smile. Okay, you can't be a hot shower in ultra cycling either. But wouldn't it be normal to see the strain? So bared teeth, deep-set eyes that look as if they have been looking straight into the entrance to hell? At least with Yvonne Margraf you see nothing of the sort. The petite Hessian, just 164 centimetres tall, simply beams. And almost always. It's something like her trademark.
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In another world
Yvonne Margraf may be one of the best ultra-cyclists in the world, but she can't make a living from it. The woman with the plait under her helmet has been working at the Sana Clinic in Offenbach since 1997. First as a trainee, then as a nurse, and finally as deputy ward manager in neurosurgery. It's not a particularly cheerful ward; there are people lying there who were still living life to the full just days before and find themselves in a completely different world after a stroke or brain haemorrhage. Or patients who were told a few days ago that their troublesome headaches were caused by a brain tumour, which in the best case can still be treated or operated on. But sometimes not even that. In such an environment, the athlete's positive charisma is worth its weight in gold. Some of the patients often gain new courage when they experience the energy the woman can mobilise when she is not standing at their bedside in a nurse's uniform. Conversely, Yvonne Margraf also draws mental strength from her contacts in hospital when she senses the energy and determination with which some people fight their seemingly hopeless fate, however difficult it may be.
She learnt to stand up to something at an early age. Margraf herself speaks of a difficult childhood, characterised by a father who did not have a high opinion of his daughter and who, in her view, hindered rather than encouraged the development of his only child. That's why she was more at home with the neighbours as a child. There were other kids there, more life, more warmth. Yvonne develops a "now is the right time" mentality - and this leads her into sport. She rides a motorbike, learns to scuba dive and plays rugby. The credo seems clear: the harder, the more exciting. And, of course, she doesn't want to foam-brake it. As I said, she can torture herself. Her short rugby career ended with a quadruple ankle fracture and a broken shoulder. Then came cycling, as rehab, so to speak. "From rugby, we had a partnership with a gym for athletic training, and that's how I got into spinning," she explains.
From the smart trainer to the road
But just "spinning along" was not her thing. Yvonne became an instructor for the indoor spectacle. And because she earns money with the courses alongside her work at the hospital, her tax advisor thought she needed something like business expenses. That's how she got her first racing bike, a Haibike with an aluminium frame and carbon fork. The bike is far too big, but she enjoys riding it on the road. So much so that, inspired by an article in "Fit for Fun", she booked a week's racing bike holiday with Philipps Bike Team in Santa Ponça on Mallorca in autumn 2013. "I just wanted to find out whether I enjoyed sporty cycling outdoors," she says twelve years later. Despite being 33 years old, she had little experience of road cycling. When she did get on her bike, it was a normal everyday bike to go shopping or to the clinic. On Mallorca, she quickly realised that she obviously had talent. After the very first day, she switches from the leisurely connoisseurs to the group led by Race Across America finisher Beat Gfeller.
From now on: long distance
"Roller Long Distance" is exactly hers, and after the week she asks Beat Gfeller if she would like to join the team again next spring as a guide. Yvonne wants to. She cancels two weeks of diving in the Maldives and ends up back in Santa Ponça in March 2014, encouraged and supported by her boss at the clinic. Meanwhile, Roger Nachbur, an ambitious and successful ultra-racer even back then, was also working for Philipp's bike team. The Swiss quickly recognises Yvonne's talent, he senses that there is someone in the saddle who, like him, is almost impossible to break down, has ambition and, above all, really wants to compete and ride long distances. "I may not be the fastest, but I can ride my pace for a damn long time," she says about herself today. In 2015, she asked Roger Nachbur if she would like to ride the Tortour in Switzerland (1000 kilometres, 13,000 metres of altitude) with him as a team of two? "And then he said - you know, the goal is to win," remembers Yvonne, who had no experience with ultra races and therefore hesitated briefly, but then agreed.
At that time, she was already racing short races in the German Cycling Cup, but only trained by feel and especially liked to race full throttle downhill, "because I really enjoy it", as she says. Yvonne's debut on the long distance ended with the two of them winning the Tortour. The following year, an even bigger coup at Rad am Ring. Yvonne and Roger won the 24 hours on the Nordschleife as a team of two - in the overall standings. It was Yvonne's birthday that day and the competition was stunned that a mixed team was also ahead in the men's race - with a whopping 20-minute lead after 28 laps. "We actually just wanted to see how it went," she recalls. Unlike in the Tortour, the ambition to win only developed slowly during the race. "Roger always rode such fast laps that I just had to fight to keep us in front."
Tragic turning point
It was clear at the time that this duo would have a great sporting future in the ultra field. In mixed, but also each on their own. However, this future ended tragically on 15 August 2020. Roger Nachbur started the Tortour in a team of four and collided head-on with an oncoming motorbike in his lane on the descent from the Oberalp Pass. Yvonne is in his support team and is the first to arrive at the scene of the accident with two doctors. Together they try to resuscitate Roger. No chance. Roger is dead, a shock from which she does not recover for a long time. "I sought help from a psychologist at the time," she says, and suddenly a shadow falls over her otherwise radiant eyes.
Even five years later, this incision still seems painfully present. Shortly after the accident, she was "far from thinking about racing," she says today. Above all, she couldn't imagine ever riding full throttle downhill with pleasure again for a long time. But things turned out differently. Swiss rider Beni Schnyder convinced her to ride the Tortour with him in a mixed team in 2021. The two won, and Yvonne was back on stage. Since this race, she has been nicknamed the "flying hamster". "I couldn't eat anything after eight hours and they just put bars in the side of my mouth and hoped they would dissolve." But that takes time and so she flew over the course with hamster cheeks, so to speak. After her return, she found more and more favour with the solo.
However, her debut at the Tortour 2022 ends with her withdrawal due to knee problems before the descent on the Susten. Yvonne soon realised that if she wanted to continue solo at an even higher level, everything had to become more professional. And that's exactly what she did. Instead of stubbornly completing huge volumes, she now trains on programmes from her coach Torsten Weber, who is also an expert in performance diagnostics with his company PMP Coaching. She has also upgraded her bike and now has radio contact with her team during races. Despite her successes, Yvonne Margraf finds it difficult to find sponsors. "I'm not good at it," she says. Which is probably also due to her modesty. In 2022, she had to abandon her first solo Tortour and therefore turned down financial sponsorship from her employer Philipps Bike Team for the 2023 Tortour. "I wanted to deliver first," she says, "if I win, we can talk about a bonus, I don't want anything before then." You guessed it, in 2023 the flying hamster will win the women's individual Tortour for the first time and without any fat cheeks.
No opponent too difficult
In 2025, at the age of 45, she reached the peak for the time being. Solo victory in the 24-hour race at Rad am Ring, victory over the 1500-kilometre distance at the Race Around Austria. Although Yvonne is the only woman at the start and has to "just get through", so to speak, it is in situations like this that she develops her special ambition. "I didn't want to be the last man standing," she says. And she succeeds. There are only eight of them at the start, Yvonne reaches the finish line in third place. Three men were behind her, the others didn't finish or didn't even start. One of her opponents had already motivated her before the first kilometre. A young man with very expensive equipment, his dad as a sponsor, a great appearance and seemingly unshakeable self-confidence. "I really wanted to beat him," she remembers. And she succeeded. The flying hamster can still turn the wheel even when others have been running on fumes for a long time.
And now the RAAM?
In October 2025, she also won her first World Ultra Cycling Association (WUCA) world championship title at the 24-hour individual time trial in Borrego Springs, California. In 24 hours, she managed 464 miles, or almost 750 kilometres, at an average speed of over 31 km/h, alone through the desert. She also beat the Swiss rider Isa Pulver, winner of the Race Across America 2023. Three major ultra races in one year, three victories. A total of more than 19,000 kilometres in the saddle. And all this at the age of 45 and with two jobs working shifts in a hospital and as Sports Director at Philipps Bike Team on Mallorca. It doesn't seem possible to go any further. Or is it? This year, Yvonne Margraf wants to ride the very long edge of the Race Around Austria, 2,200 kilometres. She will certainly have female competition, as victory in 2026 is synonymous with the WUCA World Championship title. Then only the RAAM would be missing? Yvonne Margraf tilts her head thoughtfully, talks about the high costs of around 50,000 euros and whether it is worth it to her. But then she smiles and says: "I'll let it come to me." You could easily take that as a beaming "yes".
