Marcel’s story
Riding since four. Racing since six.
Nobody in my family rode bikes. I was the first one to get on one, and I never really got off. I spent whole afternoons practising wheelies, until our neighbour, who coached at the local bike club, pulled me into the club and said I should try a race.
A few years later my sister started too. My parents never had anything to do with bikes. They still drove us to every single race.
Day one, more or less. The haircut was not my decision.
A yellow Diamondback, a yellow rain jacket and parents who didn’t ride but came along anyway.
The racing years
Numbers on the handlebar
I raced my first race at six and didn’t stop for years. Cross-country, downhill, trials, cyclocross, whatever had a start line. My sister Nadine took it further than me and raced professionally. I took it far enough to learn the important things: how to read a trail, how to fall properly, and that the rider who looks relaxed usually is the fast one.
Later came enduro, gravel and long alpine days. The bikes got better. The fashion, thankfully, too.
Junior European Championships in Les Orres, France.
Junior European Championships, early 2000s.
Nadine and me. She kept inspiring me, and in the end she’s the reason I started racing again.
What stuck
More than results
Honestly, I don’t remember most of the results. What stuck was the rest: the people, the long drives, the meals after a hard day, and being outside all day on a bike. Through a few harder years, that was the one thing that always worked.
That’s what I want to pass on. Not a training plan. Just a few good days on a bike, with people you’d happily have dinner with.
Today
Sintra and a shack
These days I split my time between the Allgäu and Sintra. I guide in the Alps with Ride Alpine Trails, and in Sintra I host small groups on trails I know by heart.
Bike Shack is mostly me, plus a few good friends who step in when the group gets bigger. And my partner Sophie, who thinks a grown man making a living on bikes is a perfectly normal plan.
Still riding. Better bike, same grin.
Ride with me
Come to Sintra
Six nights, a small group, good trails and long dinners. Or just a day on the bike.