Markus Valentin

Marei Moldenhauer

Francesco Vettore

Hannes Noller

Nils Opgenorth

Bastian Berneis

Sanne De Clerck

Maxi Unger

Sebastian Arnstedt

Martin Reinhardt

Dominik Münch

Frederik Burgsmüller

Reece Bezuidenhout

Gerrit Vortmeier

Tobias Canales

Florian Bohrer

Frauke Tresselt

Markus Bielen

Constantin Traub

Erik Snelling

Juan Antonio Garcia

Tatiana Myk

Michael Quadflieg

Simon Apfelbeck

Alexandru Dudcenco

Fabio Guarrasi

Christoph Panek

Ursula Gotterbarm

Katharina Gotterbarm

Lena Krips

Simon Ultes

Stephan Zimmermann

Sandra Trautmann

Anne Schulze

Robert Huebser

Veit Fiedler

Martin Fickert

Tobias Gabler

Michele Miani

Hannah Ghazi-Idrissi

Alexander Bauer

Rudi Vitek

Markus Recker

Stephan Wieser & Joschka Völkel

Mitchell Trethowan & Edwin Clarke  Wellsmore

Franziska Birkenmaier & Joshua Meiser

Florian Schumacher & Nina Wildfeuer

Lucas Prates & Alexandre Esselin Botelho

Miguel Castro Martinez & José Francisco Castro-Martinez

Media #2

Media #1

# 53 riders are going to Milan
Yesterday, 53 riders found their way to Munich where an adventure was waiting: Munich Milan Gravel. This event, organised by Sandra & Nick from [@we_are_cyclists](https://www.instagram.com/we_are_cyclists), leads on gravel roads, secondary roads, cycle paths and singletrails from Munich to Milan. Of course not the direct way. The track is about 800 km long with 13.500 meters to climb.

After some rainy weeks, the summer came back for us. At the registration and riders briefing yesterday evening, everyone seemed to be in good mood but excited, of course! We had cool drinks, thanks to Zeerbrewing and we ordered pizza for everyone who wanted to have one. We even got some gluten free food for riders with celiac disease.

# What to expect
Many riders will enjoy the whole route during daylight, as recommended. But some will race it. We already can see them literally flying. We, the orga team, already is afraid, that getting to Milan tomorrow afternoon could be too late to welcome the first riders. But the mountains are ahead and they will be slowed down.

## Racers
There are many strong racers: In the womens field, we have Marei Moldenhauer and Hannah Ghazi-Idrissi. For Marei, it is her first race after an long lasting injury. I also want to mention Maxi Unger, who I met at Maurice Brocco 400, her time management was great and she rode strong and reached the finish line as one of the first riders.
We are excited to see them and all the others as little dots moving forward on the map.

I must admit, that I am not that firm with the male racers. With Markus Valentin, Martin Fickert, Hannes Noller and more, I have mentioned some of them. At this very moment, Markus Valentin is leading the field - he was the first rider reaching the finish line of Montenegro Mountain Madness back in July.

## Adventurers
Riders are allowed to make new friends. We have riders in the field who are doing this for the very first time, like my friend Gerrit Vortmeier. His bike is heavy af even without luggage - at least this is what my arms were telling me.

# Exciting route option
There is one speciality in our adventure. After around 471 km, riders can make a choice.
- Chose a gravel climb
- Chose a tarmac option and get 4 hours of time penalty

This can spice up the leaderboard. And riders can decide, whether they feel rhough and loose gravel or whether they prefer the long tarmac climb. Both are challenging. Spoiler: Last year only a handfull of riders chose the gravel option.

And now: happy dotwatching!

![At the briefing, riders enjoyed pizza and non-alcohilic beer | Foto: Nils Laengner](//downloads.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/14dkfgjdFSZDguyyfEqVK0/39a45dd61b10f2b9f36412213c0777a4/MM-pre-Nils_Laengner-0194.jpg)
Foto: Nils Laengner


Riders are flying

# Melting parts
Unfortunately, we already have our first scratch in the scratch report. Alexander Bauer, who came back because of unfinished business, had to scratch again.
Last year, his knee hurt too much and he decided not to follow the route but take the direct way to Milan. This year, his bike makes problems. He told us about some melted seals, one in the break and one in the hub. His assumption: The wheel was at the rear of the Flixbus, close to the exhaust pipe. He checked for the tire because it was pretty hot but did not think about any other parts.

With sadness and broken hearted, he messaged us, that he has to scratch, again. And now there is only one option: come back next year.

# Meanwhile
The first riders are about to reach the first Checkpoint. #16 (Markus Valentin) followed by #32 (Francesco Vettore) and #39 (Veit Fiedler). Will they search for the stemp or will they race? At every checkpoint there is a stamp, but it is not mandatory to collect them because we can not guarantee that they are still there. Nick was scouting and placing the stemps 3 weeks ago.

BTW. Veit Fiedler started the Transcontinental Race and had to scratch after 1150 km (10 days ago). A few days ago, he hopped into Munich Milan Gravel because one spot was getting free.

Othere take it more easy and stop for a refreshment in a cold river in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

First scratch

As the light fading, so do the dots. More and more riders have found a place to spend the night, some found an accomodation, some a cozy place, some a campsite.

In our little whatsapp community, I started a poll asking
1. is it your first unsupported bikepacking challenge?
2. is it the second one?
3. did you ride several ones already?

Until now, 7 riders ticked 1, 6 riders 2 and 5 riders 3. I am curious how this will look like tomorrow.

Further forward on the track, riders are heading to the mountains as the track turns left in Scuol. The climb starts with tarmac but later there will be gravel and beautiful views. Maybe, the moon is already lighting the night as tonight is full moon

# stamp on checkpoint 1
Luckily, the stamp at checkpoint 1 is still there, we were banging and were super happy when we finally saw a photo of it. This one is made by Gerrit (Cap #19)
![First Checkpoint, second stamp](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4NgLI2bSoAz5U2JqueYaJS/ee04844e3ee93e5857ae8df9121848f4/2025-08-09_21.03.08.jpg)

# scratch report

Also, just before the night, we have to do some scratch reporting, unfortunately.

Cap #25, Hannah Ghazi-Idrissi had to scratch as well as
Cap #20, Rudi Vitek

and as mentioned before,
Cap #41 had to scratch due to mechanical proplems which could not be repaired in one day


Good first night, its full moon

First, let's go back to yesterday. We heard a lot about the heat. Many riders are not used to it. Tatiana, Cap #15 stopped 5 times to cool down. She used her towel to stay cool; dipped it in water and wrapping it around her neck. Hannes, Cap #7, currently on position 4 overall, was struggeling, too. Thats why he decided to use the night to continue and maybe nap during daytime.

There are many first timers in this event, some more answered our poll.

![Munich Milan Gravel - first or second ultra](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1OOGLYGxdm5Wz70NNxJkkb/308eb8343ec2e6edf293330a2becca3a/MMG_First_time.png)

# Where did riders stay?
![Sleeping Spot Munich Milan Gravel](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5EeLOaOtavmk37ET92PxR9/47f8446247e3a4a048dcc46e16ee57d7/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-09_at_20.52.56.jpeg)
![Munich Milan Gravel Sleeping spot 2](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5x8sibtSqFSb5nuoLyIdfi/553aa4e57662ce7276328b52a6089406/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-09_at_21.10.22.jpeg)
![Munich Milan Gravel sleeping spot 3](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/61ppR4xezmm0xTIK5dtxyH/bfcdef7f01e294a21090a6015413e0f1/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-09_at_22.27.18.jpeg)

Some booked a room, some stayed at a campsite, some found nice spots to stay: a bus stop, another shelter, a spot in the forest, ... And some pushed through the night. 
After day one, the climbs feel steeper, the cranks rotate slower.

# And now: back to the heat
As the sun rises, the temperatures do. Not only the riders, but also the media crew is suffering. And they are struggeling to catch all the riders. The front is just so fast. We wish everyone good legs, a lot of water, some spots to cool down, enough appetite to stay energized.

The front of the event has to make a decision soon. Will they opt for the tarmac or for the gravel climb?

# Scratch report
Cap #49 Michele had to scratch because his garmin died. Maybe too hot for the electronics?!

First night is over - back to the heat

Day two is getting to its end. Some are already in hotels, others probably have found a place to stay, some will search for a hotel room for a nice shower after all the heat.

# Licking wounds & hurting legs
Some riders suffer from achilles tendon pain, others crashed. We heard from one who will rest and continue in party pace as the achilles tendon hurts, another has knee pain and does the same. Rest and see what tomorrow will bring.

# Checkpoint 3
The front has reached checkpoint 3 and the very first rider (Markus Valy) will be at the ferry shortly. Marei also has reached the 3rd checkpoint. Until now, everyone chose the gravel climb over the tarmac one to avoid the 4h time penalty. Let's see who will be the first one to chose tarmac. 

# 24.5 % female riders
At the moment, we have 3 female riders in the top 10. Overall we have 24.5 % female riders in our participants list. Thats amazing. Hopefully even more next year!

# Scratch & Media
Unfortunately, Cap #42 had to scratch. Martin is one of our heroes of Munich Milan Gravel because he was so kind, giving us his car for the Media Crew #1 consisting of the one and only Nils Laengner and Jesko Werthern, organizer of [Taunus Bikepacking](https://taunus-bikepacking.com/).

Beforehand we made a plan for covering the event but of course everything is different, riders were expected to be fast but they are even faster than expected. Right from the start, the field was stretching longer and longer. We only have two media cars and a lot of mountains. We can not just follow the riders but have to take huge detours to catch them. The aim was to have photos of everyone but especially mid pack and further behind because we want everyone feel seen.
The truth is, it is pretty hard to catch everyone. But we give our best :)


Day 2 of Munich Milan Gravel

# Around 8 am ...
... the first finisher, Markus Valentin, reached the finish line. He got his finisher beer, which we got from Zeerbrewing. A non-alcoholic and gluten free beer made by a cyclist. What more could we wish for?

A few hours later, Marei finished. After missing the second last ferry by only 10 minutes, her motivation was low. She stopped for a coffe, for this, for that until she decided, she will push through the rest. What a great comeback after her knee injury earlier this year.
![Marei Moldenhauer finished second | Foto: Nick Rotter](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/Sma8NleWJG3rMz3csEQog/1bbef0ad33e376d73e13b6f93df40278/IMG_5737.JPG)

3rd finisher is Francesco Vettore who had pretty good legs after the ferry and pushed hard through the last section. In this very same section, the 4th finisher, Hannes Noller, suffered a lot - too damn hot.

Last but not least of the first 5 is Nils Opgenorth, who arrived 1 hour after Hannes. If you wonder, why he has less km than the others, it is because his tracker was turned off until about checkpoint 1.

# Gravel vs. tarmac
Until now, we can say, already more riders than last year decided for the gravel option. Last year it was about 6 riders, this year, until now, 11 riders chose gravel, 11 tarmac. So it's 50:50.

# Collecting more flat tires than stamps
Gerrit is collecting more flats than stamps. Before the event, he was dreaming about a new bike but then he decided to ride with the one he already has. A pretty heavy one with heavy wheels and not too much tire clearance. And his wheels are not tubelessready, so he started with tubes. After destroying 5 TPU tubes, he bought some butyl tubes and now, just before the tarmac climb, he bought some more tubes and patches. And now, as he has some food, his mood is getting better again.

# Teaming up
Yesterday morning, Tatiana found herself with 4 other participants of Munich Milan Gravel at a campsite. They decided to ride until Scuol and found a room for 5 people there - dinner and breakfast included. Today, they split again and everyone continues in their own pace.
![Family room for 5 riders | Foto: Ursula Gotterbarm](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/4T7iNYgkDaARXN34Cvo5Dz/f2b9da81aa2a3636abef9edf2d7ed432/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-10_at_19.33.15.jpeg)

# Scratches
Some riders had to take the DNF.
- Robert Huebser, Cap #24, to achilles tendon pain
- Tobias Gabler, Cap #13, knee hurts and is swollen
- Anne Schulze, Cap #40, eye problems, blurry sight


We already have 5 finishers in Milan

Day 4 of Munich Milan Gravel is going on. Riders are suffering a lot. The sun is nothing but burning. Everyone would be super happy about some cooling rain. But no, weather forecast says, the chances are pretty low.

At the tarmac climb, the sun is heating the road, temperatures are high while riders are climbing long.

The rewarding Checkpoint 3 offers a warm welcome, riders can nap or sleep but the way to the ferry takes longer than expected. One reason is a singletrail just before the ferry. Riders have to hike their bike a little and will lose some time. But the worst option to get to the ferry would have been the road next to Lake Como, which is super busy and dangerous.

Some riders missed the ferry they were trying to catch just by a few minutes or because of a long queue and were annoyed about this especially during lunch time because there are way too many people.


Hot hot heat

# Gravel vs. Tarmac
As the last riders have made their decision, we can now tell that 16 Munich Milan riders opted for the gravel pass and 30 for the tarmac one. Thats about 10 more gravel than last year. Even though the route is pretty hard and probably harder than expected, many chose for the gravel option. 
![Gravel vs. Tarmac](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3U3tY4WMqun1pt0Li2Vpju/fc717353a5fcf53dee3328bbc1d21693/chart.png)

We will add all the time penalties for the tarmac pass later today, so that the leaderboard will be correct by then. At least there will be one position change: Sanne de Clerck and Maxi Unger will change positions as Sanne took the gravel climb.

# 2 more scratches
Unfortunately, Katharina Gotterbarm, Cap #23 needs to search for an alternative Route to skip some climbing as her knees hurt too much. But she decided to walk to CP3 because she heard that it is super nice at Rifugio Sassi Castelli. We will set her to DNF later, so we can track her until Milan.

Fabio Guarrassi, Cap #38 is suffering from sitting discomfort since day one, scratched because he made a mistake. After Checkpoint 3, he missed the turn and went back down all the way he came up and decided not to climb this again. He found his way back to the route and will continue. He also will get his DNF at the finish. Awesome to see that he will continue riding the track despite his mistake and despite his saddle sores.

# The dots are getting closer to Milan
Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, the dots are coming closer to Milan. One more day of heat for the riders. Next one reaching the finish will be Tobias Canales, who will be finisher number 15. 
Meanwhile, one tracker ran out of battery, lets see, if pair with Cap #50 will read my message about this. Others just took the ferry and now have to climb up to CP5. Unfortunately, someone took the stamp there yesterday, so that riders can't collect it. But we offered that they will get a different one at the finish - with their finisher beer and finisher shirt. The flamme rouge is climbing the Passo San Marco during midday heat. A few hours ago they sent a picture of cooling down:
![Miguel & Pepe cooling down | Foto: Sandra Trautmann](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/53O2ykPBHYeIm6q9jIekdw/b9549a6e4a8002298ccd36fa898a4d9c/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-13_at_10.29.16.jpeg)


The dots are getting closer to Milan

Yesterday we could put many of the trackers back in the box. One by one they arrived in Milan. Happy about what they achieved, happy about their finisher beer and happy about their finisher shirt. It is super nice to see that it is not just us but other riders who are watching the dots and wait at the finish line for the next one to arrive.

# time penalties
We decided to give a time penalty to Fabio Guarrasi, Simon Ultes and Katharina Gotterbarm instead of DNF. 
1. As I mentioned before, Fabio missed an intersection on the way down from CP3. He decided not to go up again but continue riding and getting back to the track as soon as possible. For this missed segment we gave him a 5 h penalty.
2. Simon Ultes injured himself in a hotel room. He bought a bottle of water which was slippery and fell. He cut his finger trying to catch it. He even went to the emergency room and got some stitches. The doctor said, riding a bike would be okay but probably they did not know about the rough gravel sections coming. So he decided to skip the most rough part around CP5 and will take a shortcut. We decided for 8 hours penalty.
3. Katharina Gotterbarm took the same shortcut because her knees hurt too much. She got the same time penalty.

All 3 of them called or messaged us, they did not just take the shortcut and hoped to not get the DNF. They also did not ask for the penalty over the DNF.

# 6 riders are out there
We are waiting for 6 more riders to arrive in Milan. As they spent the night shortly before or after CP4, we catched a good sleep and are ready for the next night shift to give them a warm welcome and a cold beer.


Warm welcome & cool beer in Milan

# All dots have reached the Arco della Pace 
Yesterday at Lunchtime, all dots had reached the Arco della Pace. The Flamme Rouge was happy and thirsty. Sandra, the last solo rider arrived a few hours earlier - perfect to have her second breakfast with us.

The night before, she stopped to charge her Garmin, she got invited to a party and people told her not to ride through the forest in the night. They called a Hotel close by and she had no chance but riding there. The next morning she went on with 30 km to go. 

A bit earlier she had to stop to hide from a thunderstorm but luckily it was only a few minutes.

Meanwhile, the last pair on track, decided for a night in a hotel and made their reservation and had a last sleep and a last breakfast before heading towards Milan.

All three of them were surprised by the little group welcoming them at the finish.

# Every day was finisher party
![Finishers enjoying pizza | Foto: Sandra Schuberth](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/FcsU4IRfocdEEXmnXspYK/24b8cc562f101661f47e5b5ee4541148/PXL_20250815_193732660.jpg)
As soon as the first finishers had reach the finish line, it was time to open daily finisher pizza parties. We went for two different places, one quite close to the finish line, another one who offered truely gluten free pizza.

# Conclusion
We had about 25 % of female riders, will there be more in 2026? Some theories of why many women registered were
- easy to reach event
- beautiful event logo & t-shirt design
- almost 8 days of time until the finish closes
![Starters of Munich Milan Gravel 2025 ](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6FJoD5jfOFElef0m1w1IMz/b137df833cfe84a6bc5a3c51b3e8fae2/Starters.png)

![Finishers of Munich Milan Gravel in %](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/IfsEchP9sTxlF3DyMe39v/6bc311a7c8631243ee1445a2ccd4d219/Finishers_-.png)

More than 80 % of the participants finished the event. We saw many happy faces, listened to great stories, got many nice words about the route but we also heard voices complaining about some rough gravel segments like just before the ferry. That's OK, though, because only we know what the alternative routes would look like. Even worse... It is great to see that this year more people decided for the gravel pass. Maybe we will add more options like this for next years edition.
![Gravel vs. Tarmac](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/3U3tY4WMqun1pt0Li2Vpju/fc717353a5fcf53dee3328bbc1d21693/chart.png)

The weather was beautiful, except for the heat. There was one small thunderstorm at CP3 during the event, but everyone arrived safely at Rifugio Sassi Castelli.

# Thank you <3
Thanks to everyone at the start, thanks for everyone riding, thanks to everyone watching.

Special thanks to Nils Laengner for taking pictures, special thanks to Jesko Werthern for driving one media car, also special thanks to Chris Rotter for driving the other one and for photographing. Thanks to the helping hands in Munich and thanks to our partners Kask, Silca, bello cyclist, Zeer Brewing, Schwalbe, RabbitFuel.

It's a wrap

Sandra Schuberth

Munich Milan Gravel 2025 Tracking and Commentary: an unsupported gravel bikepacking challenge that crosses the Alps

Munich Milan Gravel 2025 

Munich Milan Gravel is a gravel bikepacking challenge that leads over fast gravel paths, narrow single trails and small asphalt roads from Munich to Milan. The route crosses the Alps from north to south.

Munich Milan Gravel 2025

DotWatcher.cc

Munich Milan Gravel 2025

Distance — Elevation

Terrain

Website

Covered By:

Leaderboard

SOLO

DUO

Events Feed