It crashes and rattles as if someone had smashed their bike into a wall with all their might. Tenths of a second later, a lanky body follows his borrowed Kona onto the concrete floor of the old industrial building in Berlin Adlerhof. A dozen heads turn. But no one is startled. Rather amused, because people are used to crashes like this. The guy gets up, straightens his handlebars and limps back to the launch pad. "I'm not used to such a huge machine," he barks, shaking his head as he passes by. Next attempt: a perfect backflip over the wooden box. Without a helmet, without gloves. Short applause. A happy grin on his bloodless face. Not because of the backflip, which is standard for him as a BMXer. It's more because it's his first time on a mountain bike. "It's as soft as a sedan chair".
"There are a lot of them here," explains Carlo when he sees the question mark in my eyes. "They ride at a world-class level, but nobody knows them. They don't care, they just want to ride their bikes. They live somewhere in the Berlin underground, live from hand to mouth and don't give a damn about sponsors." The respect of your mates is the most important thing here.
