The fascination of cycling: 40,000 kilometers per year for the feeling of freedom

Es ist Mitternacht, als sich Hannes Blank auf sein Rennrad setzt. Die Straßen im südhessischen Gundernhausen sind still und verlassen. Vor ihm liegen rund 600 Kilometer – eine Strecke, die er an einem einzigen Tag bewältigen will: von Gundernhausen nach Berlin. Für Blank ist eine solche Fernfahrt kein einmaliges Erlebnis, sondern fast schon Routine. Berlin, München, Salzburg, Paris, all das schafft er an einem Tag.

Nachts auf der Landstraße – „natürlich ist das gefährlich“, sagt Blank. „Aber ich habe mir abgewöhnt, mich über Autofahrer aufzuregen, die knapp überholen. Solange nichts passiert, zählt jeder Millimeter, der mich nicht vom Rad holt.“ Gefahr droht nicht nur von Autofahrern.

Auch von Tieren. „Im Dunkeln ist das manchmal heikel. Waschbären, Wildschweine, Füchse, Rehe sehe ich oft erst im letzten Moment. Aber es ist noch immer gut gegangen.“ Nach Berlin ist er schon öfter gefahren. Er kennt die Strecke. Während der ersten Stunden hört er Podcasts: Politik, Wirtschaft, Technik, Zeitgeschehen. Ein Bildungsbürger auf dem Rennrad. Die Landstraße sein Hörsaal.

Blank ist 41 Jahre alt. Als Kind will er Mountainbike fahren. Weil es im Verein aber nur Straßentraining gibt, spart er sich ein Rennrad zusammen. So fängt alles an. „Auf dem Rad war ich frei. Das war mein Ding. Ich konnte einfach losfahren – allein. Das hat mir immer am meisten Spaß gemacht. Vielleicht fahre ich deshalb auch heute noch so gern diese langen Strecken.“

At 16, he took part in his first race and came tenth – a first indication of his talent. After graduating from high school, he began his professional career in 2006 at the age of 23. For the German Continental Team Lamonta, he won the U-23 classification at the Tour of Bavaria and a stage of the Circuito Montañes in Spain.

A year later he moved to the Luxembourg Continental Team Differdange, for which he won the Tour of Korea and the Tartu Grand Prix in Estonia. In 2009, at the age of 26, he ended his professional career. Nothing came of the distant dream of taking part in the Tour de France. Ultimately, it was also about getting a taste of professional life for a few years and broadening your horizons.

At the age of 26, Blank is starting a new life. He found a new passion on the racing bike. He traveled a lot in the East. At races in the Baltics, in the Czech Republic, at the renowned Tour of Poland. He was particularly fond of Estonia. The spirit of optimism, the exemplary digitalization even back then, the people's closeness to nature and enthusiasm for sports, the culture. He liked all of this, and so he enrolled at the University of Cologne, later in Heidelberg and Gießen, to study law and Eastern European studies.

He doesn't want to have anything to do with cycling anymore. “It felt like love disappointed”; he says. “You sacrificed everything for this for years, and when you stop and you weren't exactly a star, you quickly realize that you were just a number. All the love you have invested will not come back in any way.”

Blank is selling all of his bikes. But anyone who has ever sat on a racing bike like him won't be able to get away from it. A bet gets him back in the saddle. A friend says that when he has 5,000 followers on Facebook, he will have to race again. Blank strikes. He quickly reached 5,000 and then found a sponsor who gave him a bike. Blank meets a few criteria during his studies and then also in Russia, in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, where he works as a management consultant from 2016 after receiving his master's degree.

In 2018 Blank returns to Germany. He has finished with Russia. His impression: militarization even in kindergarten, corruption at all levels, the beautiful appearance of the big cities, the poverty around them – he sees no future for himself and his wife there. He went to Volkswagen as a consultant for two years, worked in Wolfsburg and lived in Berlin.

Then the corona pandemic. Blank moves back to Hesse and has since worked for a construction company in Frankfurt as a data protection and compliance specialist. And he rides his bike. Corona is a good time for that. Free streets. Good weather. Since then he has driven more than 30,000 kilometers every year. He goes to work in Frankfurt. 45 kilometers there and back, plus a few detours, it adds up over time. At the weekend, excursions of 250 or 300 kilometers in length, plus long-distance trips like the one to Berlin.

Training with the professional cyclists John Degenkolb and Jonasrutsch and with the speed skater and speed skater Felix Rijhnen, also a fast man on two wheels. In the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, Blank covers 600 kilometers as a single starter. He goes to Luxembourg, to Roubaix. He won the 300-kilometer amateur version from Milan to Sanremo twice – and cycled the 1200 kilometers from the finish in Sanremo to Gundernhausen in five stages – wearing the Sanremo winner's jersey.

Many Italians speak to him. Did you come along? I have won! There's a lot to talk about over an espresso or a spritz. And the fact that the Fausto Coppi Museum in Castellania has already closed – no problem. You unlock it. Only for him, the tedesco, who won Milano-Sanremo.

Last summer, Blank went on vacation to Lake Maggiore with his racing bike in his luggage. A friend wrote to him saying that the Granfondo “Tre Valli Varesine”, a tour for amateurs, was taking place nearby in Varese. Wouldn't he like to go along? Blank wants and has three days to prepare. He trains intensively for two days, obtains the required medical certificate and registers at the last minute.

Blank competes in the 40-44 age group. In the field of 125 starters, he takes his cue from the world champion and finds a fast group. The route: 130 kilometers, 2500 meters in altitude. After 3:35:00 hours of driving, Blank reached the finish and came tenth in his age group.

When he hands in his starting number, he receives a participation medal as well as a qualification medal. He asks what it is for. He is told that he has qualified for the World Cup. The race in Varese is one of twenty worldwide where you can qualify for the Granfondo World Championships of the international cycling association UCI, which is taking place this year in Aalborg, Denmark. Blank thinks. A World Cup? You shouldn't miss it.

He has four weeks to prepare. He digs out old training plans from his professional days. The training becomes a journey through time. Blank is listening to the old music again – Foo Fighters – and is incorporating the tough climb near Michelstadt in the Odenwald into his program again. There he had already gotten into shape as a professional with intensive sprints. Now he trains in the morning before work, starting at sunrise. His goal: a place in the top ten at the World Cup. Blank's friend, Frankfurt's top professional John Degenkolb, provides him with the national team's jersey and outfit – mandatory for starters at the World Cup. Then we go to Aalborg.

As far as the material, the racing machines, Blank has been driving prototypes from the Koblenz wheel builder Canyon for two years. What Tour de France professionals get next year, Blank is already riding this one. He is a test driver for the top aero models. His job? “First and foremost, drive, as much as possible.” You can subject the frames and attachments to harsh conditions in the laboratory, but you find out the truth on the road. Finding her – Blank is the right man for that. Someone who drives around 100 kilometers per day on average every year, in all weathers, in heat, cold, rain, frost.

The World Cup in Aalborg starts according to plan for Blank. “The course was exactly my thing: narrow streets, steep climbs, and lots of wind.” He fights his way forward with two riders he knows from Varese. After 40 kilometers the field breaks apart. Blank stays in the top group of initially twenty riders, but eventually there are only five of them left: a Dane, two Frenchmen, a Swede – and him.

The podium, perhaps even victory, are within reach. But then it happens. Flats on the rear wheel. From the dream. While the competitors drive away, Blank changes the hose. Deeply disappointed, he rolls on. “I had perfect preparation and was in a great mood. And then what bad luck!” Looking forward to something new next year? Perhaps.

Back to the trip to Berlin. At around six in the morning, Blank makes his first stop at the bakery in Meiningen. We continue through the Thuringian Forest. “I love Oberhof and the area there,” says Blank. The forests, the air, the peace. Such a tour not only offers picturesque impressions, but also surprising encounters.

In Weißenfels, a small town 30 kilometers from Leipzig, the path takes him through an allotment colony. It blows there – surprise! – a Frankfurt Eintracht flag in the wind. Time for a break. “The chairman of the Eintracht fan club in Weißenfels and the region was sitting in his arbor,” says Blank. Plus a garden gnome in a Eintracht look and a miniature eagle. “Luckily there was also non-alcoholic beer,” says Blank. “Otherwise he would have filled me up.”

On to Leipzig. The wind blows from diagonally in front. 190 kilometers left to Berlin. To the destination, the Brandenburg Gate. A selfie there, then off to the hotel. Eat, sleep and take the train back home the next morning. The train has a problem again. No stop in Darmstadt, but through to Mannheim. No problem.

Blank gets out in Frankfurt, gets on his bike and rides home to Gundernhausen. 40 kilometers. A stone's throw. At the end of the year there is a personal record. For the first time, Blank breaks the 40,000 kilometer mark. At the end of a frosty week of 908 kilometers and a ride with John Degenkolb, the computer shows 40,144.3 kilometers. “For a moment I felt like Tadej Pogacar,” says Blank.