As harrowing an experience as a hot lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife is in a car, it’s undoubtedly more grueling on a bicycle. At more than 12 miles long with hundreds of feet of elevation change, you’d have to put a gun to my head to make me even try it. But every year, thousands of bicyclists congregate to do not just one lap, but nonstop laps as part of a 24-hour endurance race.
This 24-hour bike race at the ‘Ring is held annually as part of Germany’s “Rad am Ring,” a major European bike racing festival. (It’s like Gridlife for MAMILs.) The event features a variety of races and group rides along public roads and closed courses, encompassing a range of bike racing disciplines. The crown jewel, of course, is the 24-hour ‘Ring race, an event whose difficulty is best illustrated by the challenge of completing even a single lap.
The 24-hour race links the track’s Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife for a combined length of 16.2 miles. Along the way, riders find their way around 92 corners and traverse 1,837 feet of net elevation change. At times, the grade reaches as steep as 17 percent, or enough to make truckers and cyclists sweat alike. The flip side of that, though, is how gravity helps riders come back down at speeds that can exceed 60 mph—powered only by their Chevrolegs. That said, race speeds over a whole lap average out to more like 20 mph, with your typical lap taking around 50 minutes to complete.
If you’re thinking this race sounds undoable, that’d actually put you in with the majority of people who even enter the race. Rad am Ring allows teams of two, four, or even eight riders, and splits them up into pro and amateur classes. Some 5,500 people gather for the race every year, and from as far away as Japan according to the video above. If you’re eager to test the ruggedness of your Thighyotas, your Kneessans, you may wanna get training for next summer’s race soon. And maybe hide an e-bike battery in your frame while you’re at it—everybody loves a story of motorsport cheating.
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