Muckers Summer Camp 2025: Conquering the Black Forest, Come Rain or Shine!
There are so many things to say about this past weekend, but I have to start with a personal confession. What can I say? Neil and I didn’t ride. Yes, as the co-founders of the Muckers, we started all this, but this year the only viable option was to fly over, and taking our bikes was prohibitively expensive. So, we came to support and soak in the atmosphere, and we asked a good friend, Fazzo34, who has just rediscovered his love for cycling this year, to join us.
This post is my perspective from the ground, but for the real stories from the saddle, I’m calling on all the amazing Muckers who rode to add their experiences in the comments!
First and foremost, a massive thank you is in order. After three incredible Muckers Tours—two in Belgium hosted by the brilliant Andy_UP and one in the Netherlands led by the great Ard Van Straten—Daniel took on the mammoth task of organizing Germany 2025. And what a turnout! This time, 24 Muckers descended upon Kirchzarten, making it our biggest tour yet. Daniel truly had his work cut out for him, and he delivered spectacularly.
The Itinerary: A Weekend of Hills and Hospitality
While we (Andrew, Neil, and I) unfortunately missed the Friday dinner due to flight issues, we arrived at 2:00 PM on Saturday, just in time to catch the post-ride buzz. The weekend was packed with challenging rides and fantastic social gatherings.
Friday, June 6th
- 19:00: Welcome Dinner at Alte Post, Kirchzarten.
Saturday, June 7th
- 10:00: Tour Start from the Black Forest Bike Hotel.
- 18:35: Train from Kirchzarten to Freiburg.
- 19:00: Group Dinner at the famous Martin’s Bräu in Freiburg.
Sunday, June 8th
- 10:00: Tour Start from the Black Forest Bike Hotel.
- 18:00: Farewell Dinner at Fiesta, Kirchzarten.
A Call to the Riders: Tell Us About the Tarmac!
From the sidelines, all I can do is share the epic routes Daniel planned. We need the riders to bring them to life!
Saturday’s Beast: The Kandel Challenge
- Route: Muckers 1 Kandel East (Kirchzarten – St. Peter – St. Märgen – Hexenloch – Waldkirch – St. Peter – Kirchzarten)
- Distance: 99 km
- Total Climb: 1,910 hm
- Points of Interest: The legendary Kandel mountain and the beautiful Hexenloch canyon.
- Alternative Route: Muckers 1a (Shorter loop without the Kandel summit)
- Distance: 78 km
- Total Climb: 1,070 hm
On Saturday, we met up with the group for a fantastic meal in Freiburg. The stories started to flow, but the day wasn’t over. We all headed back for an after-party at the Bike Hostel that went on into the early hours!
Sunday’s Spin: Rain, Hills, and the Kaiserstuhl
The next day, the dedicated gang went out for their second ride of the weekend, tackling the elements once again—in the rain!
- Route: Muckers 2 around Freiburg and Glottertal (Kirchzarten – Merzhausen – Mengen – Merdingen – Bötzingen – Glottertal – Kirchzarten)
- Distance: 111 km
- Total Climb: 1,530 hm
- Points of Interest: The Kaiserstuhl wine region, the stunning Glottertal valley, and the famous Schwarzwaldklinik building.
- Alternative Route: Muckers 2a (A gentler spin around Freiburg)
- Distance: 66 km
- Total Climb: 530 hm
So, Muckers, please comment below! Who took on the mighty Kandel? How were the climbs and descents? We heard a rumour that Carlos (CR) was the undisputed King of the Mountain!
The Mucker Spirit
For us, the weekend was about the people. It was incredible to see all the familiar faces and to finally meet other Muckers in real life for the first time. The community spirit was stronger than ever.
A special hats off to Mike Hagen and Anna, who travelled all the way from Canada and fitted our tour into their European adventure! And to Carlos (CR), who gets the award for the most committed Mucker, driving an astonishing 19 hours from Spain to be there.
On Sunday evening, we all met up at the Bike Hostel and walked to our final dinner together. The camaraderie was brilliant, and of course, it was followed by one last after-party to properly close out the weekend.
I’m gutted I missed the riding this year, but being there to witness this amazing event was a privilege.
Looking Ahead: Ciao, Italia!
The torch has been passed! We are thrilled to announce that Manuel Lamber (Squalo_delle_Alpi) will be hosting the 2026 Mucker Italian Tour! Good luck, “Sharky,” we are all behind you.
Mark your calendars. I will be there, and this time, I will be riding.
Thank you again, Daniel, for an unforgettable weekend. And thank you to every Mucker who made the journey.
Until next year!
I’m very happy to come in our BF meeting, after a 2 years of virtual ride and more 1 that WhatsApp chat, finally I know many of Muckers components.
In IRL all of you respect that I thinked, but most important I fell good as I find a hold friends.
Talking about ride, the first day for me was very terrible regarding the weather, raining, windy and cold temperatures a mortal combo for me that usually don’t ride if I see a black cloud on the sky 🤣.
The most important it was to come back all safe to the Hostel, especially for me and my bike where in downhill don’t brake nothing and i often preyed for myself 😎.
The second day don’t start very well always for the weather, but after 2 stop the group restart, and finally the weather turn in right and the rest of the ride was perfect and also with magnificent landscape in a wine zone with beautiful up and down streets.
Two intensive ride day, but I always recharged my batteries in the evening in Andy’s special party with his special bottle 🤣. Thanks a lot to everyone, and I hope to give you a big welcome in my Region for the next Muckers meeting ‘26 in Italy. By 🦈🇮🇹
What a weekend! Again met some of the awesome people from our virtual world in real life. We had amazing evenings in Freiburg and Kirchzarten – great food, good vibes, and lots of laughs.
Saturday’s ride was one for the books: from Kirchzarten through Hexenloch, Glottertal, and up to Kandel. Never been for so long on such an insanely wet(!) ride before. Nearly froze on Kandel, but it was epic nonetheless and I don’t wanna miss this!!
Sunday started with two solid showers – we were soaked to the bone by mid-morning. But then the weather turned and the sun came out to reward us. We cruised through the vineyards, over Glottertal and St. Peter, and back to Kirchzarten. And yep – I smashed my personal downhill record on the Texaspass: 80 km/h! 🚀
So good to reconnect with familiar faces and make new friends along the way. Now it’s time to start the countdown: one year of excited anticipation for Trentino 2026!
Thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially Daniel, Kyle and Neil 🤩😘
Excuse me for forget something very important to say… many many compliments to Denny for all the organisation. I just tell you what I think about that, but I want to say another time …. Well done Muckers 👍
Their is a special chemistry that bonds Muckers together and this is evident in the online races we compete in. To extend this to real life meetings takes this friendship to another level.
I am probably ‘Unsociable Mucker’ and not so interested in the party side of events, but put me on my bike with riders I know so well on Rouvy and I could not be any happier. It is with great admiration that the Muckers present are willing to put their performance reputations on the line in such a challenging and public environment.
After previous meetings in Belgium with steep punchy cobbled climbs and The Nederlands with flat strong headwinds, this meeting was about elevation. The highlight would be The Kandel. Despite heavy rain I loved every minute of the 2 days riding, everybody performed as per our ‘Rouvy’ expectations and I personally enjoyed hammering along the flatter valley roads at 40kph with Svard, Andy_UP and Alessandro. Riding 6 inches behind someone’s back wheel at 40kph in heavy rain swallowing gallons of road water is surprisingly good fun 😂. As was descending The Kandel in heavy rain at 95kg on rim brakes on rough tarmac 😬.
Thank you Daniel for hosting this event, I know you had planned this for a long time. You are also an exceedingly strong rider, kudos, kudos, kudos. The whole group was very grateful to ride in your draft on day 2.
Where to start……
I suppose at the beginning when Denny44 (i will use ROUVY names in this reply) took on the challenge of arranging this years doo in the Black Forest! He was amazing and sorted everything out! Well done Mucker, you made your dad proud 😉
Next to the whatsapp chat group! lots of activity on there and for those that got there earlier, it allowed for a off the books quick ride on Friday! We were stuck at the airport at this time (more on that later) but it was great to see everyone chatting and organizing. Later that night the pictures started coming in (we were stuck in a minibus… more on that later) but the photos of Fridays meal kept our spirits up as we were recognizing faces we’d either seen before, or just seen in thumbnails here and there.
We, (Mucker1974, Kylofski and Fazzo34) had a nightmare getting there!. We set off from home at 2pm Friday hoping to be at our airb&b by 11:30 that night, but after Manchester plane cancelation, minibus ride, banging on hotel doors, Gatwick, plane delay, hirecar cancelation due to being late, bus wait for 2 hours, strange bus ride and then trying to work out the German train schedule on No sleep and frayed nerves, we ended up at our airb&b at 2pm Saturday! Little snack and power nap and it was time to meet up at train platform right outside our airb&b for the trip into town for out even meal.
Kylofski was too excited to wait and went down to find them whilst we waited on the platform. you could just hear a surge of noise coming up the road behind the trees, and i have to admit i was surprised to find i was extremely nervous! They came from behind the trees and it was just a blur of hugs and hand shakes and just People!! Finally meeting some for the very first time, trying so hard to remember “real” names and names of partners, we get onto the train and off for a wonderful evening, where we had even more “names” to learn as some met us directly at the Restaurant, but what a night!
Next day, Sunday the riders went for a wet ride, that turned sunny, and we went to Hospital.🤦♂️ I had awoke with something digging into my eye and all strange attempts at flushing it out didn’t work (what happened between me and kylofski in that airb&b bathroom stays in that airb&b bathroom!) so we decided to try and find a pharmacy in Freiburg. They are all close, its Sunday, so a trek to find an A+E it is and only then did it decide to throw it down!! we felt for the riders out there in this down-poor as we tried to find the entrance to the A+E that just looked deserted and under renovations from the outside. When it looked like i was gonna be there for a while, i sent the other 2 Bolton lads off to do whatever and I’d catch up later. I was sorted for around 4pm so met up with them, they’d had a nice day exploring Freiburg on foot, and we headed back to the airb&b to get ready for tonight’s gathering!
Great night again, food, company, laughs and great to see everyone who rode, were just full of great stories and memories of it. We didn’t ride this time, it had proved too expensive to get the bikes out there, but after what had happened to us so far, I’d have not even got on the bike for any of the rides anyway!! so lets see that as the silver lining, but we missed the riding and will do everything we can to have the bikes there for next year!
Sunday, we are going home, so we popped down to the bike/hotel hostel where the muckers had made there home for the last few day, said our goodbyes and we had a totally uneventful trip home! absolutely nothing to report at all lol
Was it all worth it! Of course, no question! You don’t realize how big a part of your life some people are till you are with them. We’ve been on this Muckers Journey since 2021 so have been in constant contact with some of these guys for quite some time now and when we get together, it is like we want to spend as much time as we can together! I suppose we never really know if we will all be there next time. And everyone knows the commitment each person has made to get and be there so its just admiration and respect felt between everyone and it does leave a hole when you come home! But you know the only way to fill that hole is be at the next one! Result!
I brought my bike to this big Muckers event and Daniel was so kind to set up an alternative shorter route for Sunday. So I really hoped to ride with ‘my’ guys ☺️. More than half of the Muckers even brought their wives with them and some of them with their bike for the Sunday ride. But the rain in the morning made all the females choose other activities, so the guys were off on their own again (I don’t think they minded that 😉).
On Saturday I planned a hike to 2 waterfalls and it was so nice that Anna (Mike), Linda (Ard), Marini (Carlos) and Maaike (Arno) joined me. Even Sara and her son Aaron (Andy) joined the first part. Not only did we also get soaked by the rain, which made the rocky hike a slippery adventure but we also lost our way a little because the internet coverage is not as I expected in Germany 😳. But we had a great time together and made it home safely.
Sunday I took Anna to a long hanging bridge over another waterfall and we hiked back. Then finally the sun came out and we drove to the last hill the Muckers would ride that day and I was just in time to see them drive up and give them a Dutch stroopwafel to energize them.
On Monday most of them went home, but it was sunny so I wanted to ride!! So glad that Tomas, Mike and Anna joined me for a ride around some nice lakes 🤩.
That’s the active part of the weekend. We also had 3 fantastic dinners and after parties that I can’t put into words. You had to have been there. What an amazing group to be part of!! Thank you all, but especially Daniel, for making this weekend such a special event and lovely memory 😘
I was very happy to be the host this year. I chose the Black Forest as the location because it would certainly attract a few more Muckers. But last year, I wouldn’t have thought it would be so big. I was totally surprised that so many Muckers would come. Especially Mike from Canada and Carlos from Spain. Amazing. But the large group also meant more pressure. Accommodation and dinner, in particular, had to be well organized. So I’m glad that everything worked out well.
On the day of arrival, I was really excited to finally meet the Muckers I hadn’t met before. It immediately felt very familiar, as if we were old friends. The only thing that really annoyed me was the weather. I wanted to show all the Muckers my home region, the beautiful Black Forest at sunshine and not while raining most of the time. When I saw my Italian friends shivering from the cold on the Kandel mountain, it hurt my heart. After riding for several hours in the rain, I thought we’d skip the Kandel and head straight to the hostel. But the fact that everyone still wanted to ride the Kandel (despite the cold temperatures) made me very proud. You are great muckers. 🙂
I had a blast and was very pleased that everyone had fun. I’m already looking forward to our next adventure in Italy in 2026. Sharky we are coming…
It all looks awesome!
I had a peek on the pictures, and ran through the writings: nice one! So as I see you checked out the “real good” weather in Germany where the indoor cycling makes sense 😀 😀 Sorry for that, but good, you also had a chance for a joy-ride too.
Italy’s weather (statistically) might be a bit better – also mentioning that the biggest rains I’ve ever witnessed during my rides also happened in the italian mountains.. 😀
So, next ride in Trento, around Lake Garda and so (the Dolomites are no so far from there…)?? Maybe, maybe I’ll join too, as that is really one of the most beautiful places on Earth. No matter, I I’ll get dropped at the first little ramp;) 😀 😀
Good luck Manuel, it is honourable that you accepted being the host 🙂
Well, once again the Muckers have made me do something that I haven’t done for years, go out cycling in the rain. I started riding Rouvy during the Covid, and some time later I joined the community, thanks guys for welcoming me and being able to enjoy the routes and races with you in this time. After getting to know each other virtually it was time to meet face to face to see each other, even if it rained 😂
For us it has been a fabulous weekend, it has not been a long trip at all and it was worth being there.
Thanks for the great organization of Denny44. You are all great guys 😀
See you next year swimming with the Alpine shark 😉
At first thanks to Kyle and Neil this comunity is your work, Thanks to Daniel, perfect organisation, and thanks to all of you. It was my first meeting and I enjoyed it maybe more than I had expected, in both riding and afterriding programme. On Friday i did short climb to south to Hofsgrund approximately 800 meters of elevation two parts marked as 14%. There were no rain, but very strong wind. Weekend rides were described above, yeah the 13 mates with indoortrainers and Rouvy outside in coldwind and rain 🤣. On Monday very nice short trip with Mike Anna and Silvia in very nice weather, it was perfect finish. Despite my poor English I enjoyed all social parts maybe more than rides. I’m looking forward to Italy.
There is no more to write than thank you again.
Although maybe is it, two or three times I hears about my country. So you all have one year to think about longer trip than to Black Forest, about the one to the heart of Europe in 27. After all I’m ready to be the next one with cobble after Sharky.