Cyclists brave the bullish heat: the rally to Markdorf inspires everyone!

Cyclists brave the bullish heat: the rally to Markdorf inspires everyone!

On June 30, 2025, cycling enthusiasts met at Wittenhofen's town hall square to take part in the popular rally to Markdorf. Despite the oppressive heat, the participants, led by Wolfgang Rößler, braved the 26-kilometer route. This successful event was organized by the Bodenseekreis and Markdorfer Stadtmarketing and was very popular.

After the route, the cyclists were able to fortify themselves with a cool beer, juice, water and a delicious Maultaschen bowl. The oldest participant was a proud 80 years old, and the majority of cyclists used e-bikes, which made the challenge much easier in the high temperatures. Many of them already had experience with extended e-bike tours of 50 to 60 kilometers, as Vera Wagner from Uhldingen reports.

Diverse routes and motifs

The rally included a total of three different routes: the route from Wittenhofen to Markdorf, one from Tettnang via Brochenzell and a tour to the Gero Trail on Gehrenberg. Mayor Georg Riedmann welcomed the participants and hoped that the event would provide additional motivation for the ongoing “City Cycling” campaign, which takes place from June 28th to July 18th. With this initiative, citizens can collect bicycle kilometers for a good cause. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of both cycling and climate protection and to reach as many people as possible under the motto “Cycling is fun!” to motivate.

However, as the official Stadtradeln website stadtradeln.de explains, cycling kilometers from Pedelec rides are not recorded separately. Pedelec riders often cycle together with other cyclists, which makes it difficult to record the distances covered. Nevertheless, the introduction of a new evaluation category called “trips” is announced, in which every trip counts the same, regardless of the distance.

The path to climate-friendly driving

Another important aspect of the event was the commitment to promoting an active cycling culture. The “Radkultur” initiative not only offers repair and maintenance services, but also places emphasis on healthy and climate-friendly driving. Gerd Hübner said that he had just had the brakes on his e-bike adjusted in order to be safer on the road.

The international climate alliance campaign “City Cycling” was launched on May 1st in Frankfurt am Main and runs until the end of September. This year, over 1.1 million people from 2,886 municipalities took part in the campaign and covered a total of almost 220 million kilometers, which impressively underlines the success of this campaign. In the future, the collected data will be analyzed by the online portal Bike Monitor, which will provide many municipalities with further insights into cycling behavior.

Collaboration and commitment to sustainable mobility could make a decisive contribution to promoting cycling and improving the quality of life in the region. So we can only hope that the coming years will bring many beautiful tours and shared experiences to the cycling community in our region.

For further information about the climate protection campaign and its developments, please visit the organizers' websites: Südkurier and Climate Alliance.