Bernd in luck
A lightweight race bike for the Salzkammergut Trophy - that was the wish of our reader Bernd Fischer. He would never have dared to dream that he would see the birth of his own Stoll bike...
211 kilometres and 7119 metres in altitude: The Salzkammergut Trophy is a monster of a marathon, even without constant rain. Of the 633 people who had registered to tackle the notorious A-distance, only 526 finally took to the course on the cold and wet Saturday morning - including Bernd Fischer. It turned out to be the most hellish ordeal the Heidelberg native had ever experienced. The rain: Nasty. The cold: almost unbearable. The waiting times: Unmerciful. Nevertheless, Bernd bravely endured one kilometre after another. His old, far too heavy all-mountain bike with 26-inch wheels didn't exactly make it easy for him. His legs were dead as a doornail before he had even completed half the distance. Bernd gave up. Like many others. The finisher rate this time: under 50 per cent. Of the women who started, only one reached the finish line.
As soon as he got home, Bernd was already back in A-distance fever. One thing was clear: he urgently needed a racy marathon bike. But it was also clear that for him, a father of two and professional nurse, such a purchase would be difficult to afford. So he applied for our reader campaign "Make a wish!". "Dear BIKE team, please support me at the next Salzkammergut Trophy. Would you have an awesome race bike for me?"
Let him bake his dream frame, we thought - and organised a blind date at the Stoll manufactory.
The full report can be found in BIKE 10/2019 - publication date 3 September.
Do you also have a wish that we can fulfil? Then write to us at leseraktion@bike-magazin.de
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