DK26: 1,500 Km, 6 stages, two broken spokes

In May my parents spent two weeks in a holiday house near Husby, at the Danish west coast. A bit later my friends rented a house in Fjerritslev, further north, over the Ascension Day weekend. Both places are reachable by bike. If you are willing to ride far enough.

I was willing.

DK26 is just my personal label for it. Denmark, 2026. Nothing official.

The route

Not one straight line, more a social tour with a lot of kilometers in between. From Osnabrück up to my parents’ place near Hamburg, then north through Schleswig-Holstein into Denmark to the holiday house. One week there. Then further north to my friends. And at the end: home in one go.

Stage 1: Osnabrück → Henstedt-Ulzburg (301 Km)

Not much sleep the night before, but I got out early anyway. The first 100 Km were really good, tailwind, a lot of fun.

Somewhere between Km 120 and 150 a spoke broke. Annoying, but the wheel was still rideable. At the same time the drivetrain started to squeak, and it got louder and louder. Two cyclists in Hamburg made a point of telling me how loud my bike is. Thanks, I know.

The steepest climb of the whole tour came right before Hamburg. After that I didn’t eat enough, and I paid for it. Hamburg itself was chaos: construction everywhere and detours through the harbour. A short stop at a gas station with an ice tea saved the day a little bit.

Even with all that, it was a good day. I arrived at my parents’ house in Henstedt-Ulzburg. They were already on their way to Denmark.

Stage 2: Henstedt-Ulzburg → Seedorf (67 Km)

Finally a proper night of sleep. In the morning I visited my grandparents and then went through two bike shops because of the spoke and the squeaking. The second one put in a new bladed spoke and cleaned the cassette. Rideable again.

The ride to Seedorf was short, and the Segeberger Forst was the most beautiful part of it. In Seedorf my girlfriend’s family hosted me. In the evening we had a barbecue.

The day I broke my own bike

The plan was to leave the next morning. Instead, I decided to do some work on the wheel myself.

Bad idea. The tire was super tight. The first tire lever broke right away, the second one a bit later. My other ones were in my parents’ bag, already in Denmark. While getting the tire back on I destroyed two tubes. So the bike that was totally fine before I touched it was now not rideable anymore.

That evening I was pretty frustrated. The schedule didn’t work out anymore, and the forecast for the next day was 20 to 30 Km/h headwind for the whole stage. I had no idea how 250 Km against that would be any fun.

The good part: my girlfriend’s family supported me a lot. And there was good food at a birthday party.

Stage 3: Seedorf → Højer (227 Km)

Up at 7, new tube in, and a short stop at a bike shop. Where I learned something I really should have known before: my Rose Backroad AL has a maximum system weight of 110 Kg. I never thought about that when I bought it. With me and the bikepacking bags on it, that number is… not a good number.

Then north. Through Rendsburg, including the pedestrian tunnel under the Kiel Canal, which is pretty cool. Through Nordfriesland. An XXL schnitzel on the way.

Headwind plus late start means you ride into the dark. At the end it was 6°C. I had reserved a shelter in Højer, right behind the Danish border, and arrived around 22:00. Long day, but done.

Stage 4: Højer → Husby (181 Km)

The hardest stage of the tour. Headwind, the whole day, no break from it.

From Km 20 on I was only in survival mode. The only question in my head: when am I finally there? From Hvide Sande on the clouds came in and it got cold. The last kilometers were head down and just push through.

In the evening I arrived at my parents’ holiday house. Bolognese for dinner. I think I never deserved a bolognese more.

One week in Denmark

I didn’t ride the bike for a week. But we still put in the kilometers, just walking.

For Christmas I gave my parents a ticket for the Mammutmarsch, so they were very motivated to walk as much as possible. The longest walk was roughly 18 Km through the plantation near Holstebro, along a river, through moor and forest. Other days: a lighthouse in Lemvig, fries in Torsminde, and the first time ever driving my parents’ camper. I also flew my FPV drone again, for the first time in ages.

And I had a lot of time to think about the bike. 110 Kg system weight, a broken spoke, and a tour that was only half done. That thought didn’t really leave my head for the rest of the week. Before the ride north I bought long thermal underwear and thicker socks, because the forecast for the next days was cold.

Stage 5: Husby → Fjerritslev (217 Km)

So much easier than the stages on the way up. Nicer landscape, and not headwind all the time. Some short rain showers, but it always dried up again. No mechanicals. It just worked.

I arrived at the scout house in Fjerritslev before my friends, they still had to work. In the evening we had a barbecue, of course.

The next days: pizza, the hot tub, the first sauna for a long time (I like sauna now, apparently), a day trip to the cliffs and an old bunker in Thisted where we stood for a long time waiting for the rain to stop, and a lot of card games.

Stage 6: The ride home (508 Km)

For a while now I want to push the longest distance I ever tracked as one single activity. So the ride home had to be one activity, 500+ Km, through the night. And that is also why I only took a short nap instead of really sleeping somewhere. If you sleep a whole night, it’s honestly two days of riding and should be two activities. A two hour nap in a shelter is just a long break.

Start around 10:00. After roughly two hours, the first flat tire. In total I had four flats that day. Ultra annoying.

But also: in a shelter I met a guy who was cycling to the Nordkapp. I knew who he was from Instagram before he even introduced himself. Pretty funny moment. Of course I followed him afterwards. We sat there for about an hour and talked.

In the night I stopped in another shelter, phoned until 2 in the morning and slept for roughly two hours. Then back on the bike.

The real highlight came near Bad Bramstedt. A thunderstorm, with less than three seconds between lightning and thunder. Complete end-of-the-world mood. Hail. I waited until the lightning calmed down a bit, and then rode the last two hours home in hail and rain.

And because it wasn’t enough yet: 60 to 70 Km before the finish, another spoke broke.

I arrived at my parents’ house in Henstedt-Ulzburg after 507.83 Km and 23 hours 53 minutes of moving time. With all the breaks, flat tires and the nap it was well over 24 hours in total.

And that’s where my live tracking died. Garmin LiveTrack shuts down after 24 hours, and it counts the total time, not the moving time. I didn’t know that. My family had been following the dot the whole day, and then it just stopped moving, while I was still riding. Then I cooked roughly 2 kg of Käsespätzle.

What I’d do differently

The bike. I rode a bike that was not made for my weight plus luggage, and I didn’t even know it. Two broken spokes are probably not a coincidence. I didn’t just think about it, I switched: there is a Stevens Camino Pro Di2 now, rated for 130 Kg. Probably worth its own post.

Maintenance. Don’t start fixing things the evening before a stage when the bike is actually rideable. And don’t pack your spare tire levers in someone else’s bag.

Food. On stage 1 I didn’t eat enough and felt it right away. On long days this still is the thing I get wrong the most.

The overnight ultra though, hail included, I want to do that again.

Tech note: For this tour I built my own live tracking, so my family could see more than just a dot on a map. More on that in a separate post.