Sleeping a lot (and well!) and physically recovering – that’s definitely NOT what you do on a Women’s Weekender. Despite Instagram’s romantic and idyllic tent photos, the reality is much more intense. Anticipating the exhaustion, I even slept in for 20 minutes on the morning of the trip to Freiburg to brace myself for the weekend. While sleep might be scarce, laughter is plentiful (Instagram gets that right!). The beaming faces in the photo gallery are the best proof of happy campers. We talked and shared, suffered and swore together on the extremely steep climbs, and celebrated when the last of us arrived at camp. We laughed after massive thunderstorms, jokingly claiming, “I was in civilization the whole time, and it only rained a little.” And when 40 women spontaneously sang “Happy Birthday” to a 4-year-old with her dad, the birthday girl shared her cake with everyone.

We cooked for each other (“No, I’m NOT serving you the overcooked pasta!”) and brewed coffee (a message in the WhatsApp chat: “A pop-up coffee shop has just opened here, and in the next 10 minutes, there will be coffee for everyone who makes it here in time!”). We learned new things together (“Oh, that’s how this magnetic thingy on the IRIS Bibs works, that’s really great!”) and formed lifelong friendships, quickly feeling like we’d known each other forever, even though it had only been 24 hours.
Well, maybe it was more than 24 hours in this case, as we had been diligently organizing places to sleep in Freiburg, carpooling opportunities, and more in the joint WhatsApp group weeks before. By the time we met for breakfast at JobRad on Friday morning, I couldn’t remember all of the names and instead tried to remember faces (and bikes!).

In bright sunshine, high humidity, and high spirits, we set off on the first stage. After some well-deserved coffee and cake, we tackled the steepest part of the entire weekend, rewarded by one of the most beautiful viewpoints (we ride for cake and views, right?!). Fortunately, the wonderful gravel forest highways of the Black Forest were reasonably dry despite recent rains, so the first day didn’t turn into a mud fight. The second day also started dry (and we started very early after raiding the small bakery in the next village). We rode up and down picturesque little roads through an area I had never been before. We reached our destination at Schluchsee relatively early, with most of us arriving in good time before the heavy rain, which stayed with us until the early hours of the third day. Despite the weather, the atmosphere remained good and relaxed, helped by the fact that many of us had found dry places to sleep at the campsite. We said goodbye on Sunday morning before the last shortened stage (due to weather), meeting up again during the morning and finally saying our second goodbyes at the Biosk in Freiburg, parting with full hearts and big smiles on our faces.

This weekend, from the perspective of a participant and not an organizer, I once again realized how special and empowering this community, which I am part of and in which I invest in, is. It is something very special and strengthens us. Even if we go to bed dead tired and need a week off to recover (especially those of us over 35!). We have built something in the cycling world that we can be proud of and we must take care of it. This community is something to cherish and ensure remains inclusive, as every woman should have the chance to experience weekends like this and this kind of togetherness.

All photos by the amazing Vanessa Blankenagel

Want to ride the Black Forest route yourself? Check out the full route on komoot: