He has carefully placed his stockinged feet on the sharp-edged pedals, his hands on the handlebars looking for the ideal position. He has been standing like this for minutes, his shoulder leaning against the living room wall, the left pedal in the starting position at the front, introverted, as if waiting for the start command. Seven floors below, where 23rd Street intersects 2nd Avenue, the viscous endless stream of taxis and bizarrely long limousines honks its way through the concrete canyon. From up here, the traffic looks like a steel centipede. The noise penetrates through every crack in the window, drowning out the television news. But Jürgen Beneke (35) hears nothing. Not in this moment that he has longed for so long. A moment that has filled his thoughts again and again over the last few years and has now become a reality. Beneke straightens his upper body, inhales the moment. He is sitting on a sponsor's bike for the first time in nine years. It arrived in the post yesterday, painted gold and with thick, heavy tyres. In August, he wants to race it into the jersey of the German Downhill Champion. "That's my dream," says Beneke.
The dream sounds crazy. Almost a decade has passed since the end of the career of Germany's biggest downhill star. Now he wants to carry on. Just like that. From zero to one hundred. He, who won the Downhill World Cup in the nineties and threw in the towel in 1999, frustrated by the conditions. He hardly has any time for training because he has to make ends meet with various construction site jobs.
About the person: Jürgen Benecke
When Jürgen Beneke battles for the downhill crown in Tabarz on 17 August, many memories of the "golden years" of bike sport will come flooding back. Beneke dominated the downhill scene for a long time and even won the overall World Cup in his first professional year in 1993. While competitor Marcus Klausmann has been winning one German championship title after another since the mid-nineties, Beneke has only won one championship jersey since he moved to the USA after marrying downhill rider Stacy Lee Miller in 1996. However, he won this very title twelve years ago in Tabarz, his last race in Germany. And so the circle closes. Beneke against Klausmann. Although Beneke is now called a "downhill pensioner" in the press, his chances of winning the title are more than good. At the World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne, which Beneke took part in last year for fun, he finished in the top 20 without training.
You can find the portrait of Jürgen Beneke from BIKE 4/2008 in the free PDF download.
