A walk, then cake and an embarrassing group photo? Not at all. When one of the fastest families in Germany plans a family event, it likes to look a little different. The idea came to Patrick Thoma sometime in the winter of 2022. The passionate paraglider pilot and brother of enduro racer Ines Thoma wanted to crack the Everesting Challenge. 8848 vertical metres up, on foot, in one day. And down through the air. A real challenge with a maximum of 16 hours of sunlight.
In the end, they started as a family. Enduro racer Ines with the E-MTB, ex-racer Max Schumann with the gravel bike, Patrick Thoma with running poles and paraglider. In this interview, enduro racer Ines talks about family, perseverance and the difficulty of combining the three sports.
"You can achieve much more than you first think" - Interview with Ines Thoma
EMTB: Everesting is already a real challenge for individuals. You attempted it as a family. Were you primarily interested in the sporting challenge?
Ines Thoma: Definitely at the beginning. We are always looking for challenges like this, preferably together as a family. When planning this project, we kept thinking about our cousin Mario. He was our great role model, was passionate about all kinds of mountain sports and raced in the Downhill World Cup, but unfortunately passed away far too early. We wanted to remember him with this project and donate to a cause that would have appealed to him.
How much money was raised in the end?
Sponsors such as Bosch, Maxxis and Komoot donated a fixed amount per metre of altitude. We collected almost 2500 euros, which will go to the Mountainbike Allgäu e. V. and thus directly support the MTB sport in the Allgäu.
Tell us a bit about your fellow campaigners.
It was a real family project. My brother Patrick walked up on foot and paraglided down. A total of eight climbs, each with a good 1100 metres of altitude. My friend Max kept tackling this steep gravel ramp on his gravel bike. Both were almost exactly the same speed with a total time of around 16 hours from four in the morning until eight in the evening. A really impressive achievement. My cousin Vincenz was also involved as photographer. So we decided to tackle the challenge with three very different disciplines.
How did Max and Patrick get into gravel and paragliding?
My brother's discipline was clear and Max had decided in favour of a gravel bike despite many friends shaking their heads. It sounded a bit crazy at first, but thanks to the MTB gear ratio, suspension fork and wide 45-millimetre tyres, the whole thing worked out surprisingly well. I knew that I never wanted to cover 8848 metres in altitude on an enduro bike in the middle of the racing season, so the E-MTB was the perfect choice for me.
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Which route have you chosen?
Actually, we all wanted to start together, even if that didn't work out in the end due to difficulties with the weather. But that's why we decided in favour of the Grubigstein in Lermoos in the Tyrolean Zugspitz Arena. My laps were a bit of a compromise in that I would have liked to have ridden the entire uphill on trails. But we wanted to plan the project to be completely legal and inspire people to ride it, and unfortunately there are few opportunities in our region. I therefore rode most of the way up on gravel paths, which I garnished with a few small but technical sections. On the other hand, the descents with the highlight "Blindseetrail" are an absolute dream and are a lot of fun, even if you repeat them. I varied between two laps and had enough variety for the whole day.
You've been racing in the EWS for years, now you're racing in the E-Enduro World Cup. Were the 8848 metres in altitude a challenge for you?
In sporting terms, it wasn't a borderline experience for me. That's true. I'm used to long days of enduro races with lots of depth metres. But 8848 metres in altitude and depth and 12 hours all alone in the saddle go far beyond the normal training workload. In the last two years in particular, I rarely had a whole day to train and I used the Challenge perfectly to prepare for the last two World Cup races. And it was actually a lot more strenuous than I thought. Beforehand, we hadn't taken my discipline so seriously because of the motorised support, but I had chosen such a technical course that there was enough time pressure to really have to step on the gas
What were the difficulties for Max and Patrick?
The length of the route alone is a challenge. As Patrick can only fly in daylight, he had a very tight schedule to make it in time. A climb of 1100 metres per lap, about 75 minutes. Then unpack the glider, take off, pack up and 15 minutes for refreshments. The whole thing eight times and for 16 hours. It was very similar for Max, except that he would have had a bit of air at the end thanks to his forehead plaster. Both are fit but work full-time and weren't sure whether they would be able to complete the challenge.
What do you take away from the campaign?
You can achieve a lot more than you first think. Max and Patrick really struggled. But after Max had already cycled 500 kilometres in one go last year, he knew that with the right attitude and a constant rhythm, he could really go far. And I had no doubts about Patrick anyway. My brother is absolutely tenacious and somehow always manages everything he sets out to do. It's definitely a good topic of conversation at the next family celebration.
Adrian Kaether
Editor
