Race Around Austria 2025 – Falko Kunze

Ever since I delved into the world of long-distance racing, the Race around Austria always lingered in my mind. It's the toughest ultracycling race in Europe and serves as a dress rehearsal for the Race across America. In fact, most RAA finishers also complete the RAAM. But that's not the point here. The fact is, this race is one of my dreams. This year, I had originally planned to participate in the 2-person team category for the extreme distance of over 2200km. Unfortunately, this didn't work out for my teammate. Since my season planning was geared towards this event, it was clear that there had to be a Plan B from the start. The extreme distance alone... never... I'm not that crazy. But I felt confident tackling the shorter 1500km route. The advantage was that my team is now experienced in ultracycling.

Day 1 – “THE WARM-UP”:

It's finally here. Wednesday, August 13, 2025, 3:02 PM. I'm called to the stage. The moderator begins the interview. My nervousness was clearly visible. I could barely answer even simple questions. Then it was finally time. We started. Slowly, I rolled down the ramp, and we rode down the main street to applause. From then on, I went deep into the aero position and picked up speed. The Challenge participants also started with us on Wednesday. So it was a constant overtaking and being overtaken. This was quite pleasant, as there was always something going on. Many fan groups on the roadside also pushed you more than desired. Temperature-wise, it was already quite hot. Over 30 degrees were on the thermometer. So we sped quickly through Upper Austria towards Lower Austria. Night fell, and slowly the temperatures became more pleasant. During the night, the first crew change and my first short sleep break were scheduled.

Day 2 – “ON THE WAY TO THE SUPERNOVA”:

After the sleep break, Christian, Sandy, and Maurice took over my support. It took me a while to get my body and mind back on track. But as twilight slowly set in, I was almost fully recovered. The temperature steadily increased. By late morning, the thermometer already showed 30 degrees. Meanwhile, we were riding on parts of the Race around Lower Austria route. Shortly before Weitra, Xandi Meixner waited and rode with me for a few minutes. A more than successful surprise. Shortly thereafter, I switched to the time trial bike and continued towards the eastern border with a fresh tailwind. The temperatures were becoming more and more challenging. Finally, we had 36 degrees, which was not really pleasant anymore. It became increasingly difficult to maintain performance in these temperatures. I had to take short breaks more and more often to cool down my body.

At lunchtime, the obligatory crew change was due again. I was most looking forward to this. Why? On that day, August 14th, Jenny and I had our wedding anniversary. So it was a special day in a special race. Although the circumstances on that day were anything but great. The midday heat had hit me hard, so Crew 1's main task that day was to get my body back to a good level. Until the early evening hours, I dragged myself along more than it was a race. With the setting sun, I was granted a short sleep break. This then worked a small miracle. Finally, my performance values went up again, and I could put more pressure on the pedals.

Day 3 – “The furnace is still on”

2:00 AM, crew change and an hour of sleep. We were now in the third day of the race. This Saturday's plan included crossing the Lesachtal and entering the Grossglockner region. The Lesachtal offers beauty and hours of agony. For over 40km, it was constantly steep uphill and then immediately downhill again. Initially protected by trees providing shade, later in the blazing midday sun. The team had their hands full constantly supporting me. The climb from Kötschach-Mauthen towards Lesachtal is known to wear down Race around Austria participants. Nevertheless, we eventually reached the top and could start the downhill. I gave it my all, knowing that a short power nap awaited me in Tassenbach. After the short break, I immediately continued towards Lienz on the time trial bike. In the sky, you could sense that the next few hours would be anything but pleasant. Dark clouds were ominously gathering, and distant thunder could already be heard. I made myself as small as possible to reach Lienz quickly. Once there, a huge thunderstorm immediately began. We changed bikes, and for the first time in the race, I put on rain gear. Now we turned onto the Grossglockner Road, and I began the ascent in truly unpleasant conditions. First, there was a shorter mountain with just under 600 meters of elevation gain on the plan. Then we went into a short descent before starting the final long, steep climb to the Hochtor via Heiligenblut. The Hochtor was one of the most important points that day and absolutely race-deciding. Here there was another time station with a specified cut-off time. In other words, if you exceed it, the race is immediately over. So we skipped the planned break in Heiligenblut and gave it our all. Maurice and Pierre alternately ran beside me, constantly pushing me forward. Shortly before the time limit expired, we reached the Hochtor, and the GPS tracker updated and showed the time station. From now on, it was all downhill to Bruck for the next crew change and my last short sleep break.

Day 4 – “The final hours”

Shortly before my sleep break, there was a huge surprise. My older son, Ryan, had secretly traveled from Germany with his girlfriend Selina to accompany me in the pace car for the last kilometers. With such an enormous boost of motivation, all pain vanished. We set off in the pouring rain at the end of the night towards Sankt Georgen. Lying on the time trial bike, I unleashed all my energy reserves. The kilometers flew by, and even the Hochkönig and Dientner Sattel couldn't faze me anymore. The next surprise awaited us about 15km before the end of the race. Rainer Steinberger, who had successfully defended his world champion title, waited with parts of his crew and really fired me up again. So they accompanied us in a convoy to Sankt Georgen where we were escorted towards the stage by two motorcycles.

Finally, the display showed 3 days, 20 hours, and 24 minutes of riding time. My goal of finishing within the time limit and gaining further experience was thus completely fulfilled. Our tactic was certainly very conservative, but robust and effective.

So, at this point, our RAA - Race around Austria adventure comes to an end... but every end is also the beginning of something new...