Many road cyclists' eyes light up and their calves twitch at the mention of Stoppomat. Stoppomat is currently the most popular topic of conversation among racing cyclists, especially in the Rhine-Neckar region. What is it?
On some mountain roads - Kalmit, Königsstuhl, Hirschorn - there are TOUR stop machines: At the start of the climb, you can pick a card, fill it in with your name, address, age etc., then it is stamped like a bus ticket - and off you go. Now the time is running and you try to cycle up the mountain as quickly as possible. At the top there is another stop machine. You stamp your ticket and your time is recorded. The card is dropped into a letterbox at the station. Later, volunteers (thank you!) enter the values in an internet table: On www.stoppomat.de you can then find out your place in the ranking list. Some have already clocked off, others are still training in secret so that they can set a fast time at the end of the season.
Three Stoppomat fans have now set a record that is quite something: they spent a whole day cycling up and down the Kalmit route. Christoph Fuhrbach, Christian Englert and Klaus Freyburger each covered 270 to 320 kilometres and 10,000 to 13,000 metres in altitude. The first ride started at 4.22 am and the last one finished at 9.45 pm.
Christoph Fuhrbach came up with the idea for the record-breaking ride. He is a successful mountain runner and has already completed an eleven-month round-the-world bike ride as well as ultra-long bike rides - often for a good cause. "How does it feel to sit on a bike for a whole day and cover metres in altitude? What kind of achievement is the 24-hour world record?" Christoph didn't want to think about this in theory, he wanted to try it out.
Five days before the planned Stoppomat day, 37-year-old Fuhrbach from Neustadt approached his 44-year-old friend Christian Englert from Mutterstadt. He didn't say "What do you think of the idea...?", but presented him with a fait accompli: "You, I'm cycling up the Kalmit for 18 hours next Wednesday - will you join me?" After some hesitation, Englert, a former top-class German triathlete and Race-Across-America team winner in 2004, agreed. Then 45-year-old Klaus Freyburger (Schwetzingen) was also enthusiastic. The bike marathon freak (Ötztaler under 8 hours) shovelled Wednesday free of appointments and appeared at the start at dawn.
From shortly before half past four in the morning, the three of them raced up the Kalmit (5.8 kilometres one way and 415 metres in altitude) at a brisk pace - faster than some people on a one-off best time ride... Freyburger's power meter showed constant values: The 260 watts only decreased minimally over the course of the day. Everyone went through a crisis, but still rode themselves into a frenzy.
The special thing about Christoph Fuhrbach's performance is his outfit - on his feet: he doesn't like cycling shoes because he has problems with his heel, so he rides in Birkenstock sandals. This means he outpaces almost all ambitious racing cyclists on the mountain, who are then on the verge of throwing their racing bike into the forest or giving it to the spectators...
Dad Dankmar Fuhrbach joined them later and catered for the three cyclists. He had "emptied" the nearby supermarket because the boys were thirsty for Coke and hungry for all sorts of things. A typical cycle marathon buffet was then available at the valley station.
Freyburger actually only wanted to do 15 laps, but only finished after 24 laps and 270 kilometres: "Now I've completed the 10,000 metres in altitude." For comparison: the infamous Ötztal Cycle Marathon has 5,000 metres of altitude, the Tour de France a total of 30,000. Fuhrbach, who came up with the idea, reached the Kalmit-Stoppomat 27 times and Christian Englert finally completed the 30 laps, almost 13,000 metres of altitude. Englert got faster and faster over the course of the evening - his last ascent was the fastest. Afterwards, he didn't miss the opportunity to cycle the last stretch to the summit - and enjoy the view in the dark.
The 24-hour world record is just over 20,000 metres, set in 2007 by the Austrian twins Gernot and Horst Turnowsky. After the TOUR-Stoppomat record day, the three men from the Palatinate region realised that this was magnificent: "They must be some kind of daredevils to achieve something like that!" says Freyburger in admiration of the sporting feat. What's more, the Kalmit is too flat and the descent too winding to set altitude records for time. Nevertheless, all three cyclists have shown what can be achieved with the Stoppomat idea. The three extreme cyclists will never forget a day like this, on which they cycled the altitude metres of around ten Alpine passes on their doorstep.
(Text and pictures: Birgit Schillinger)
