Euro Tandem Tour stops off in Jena

After 95 kilometers in temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, the athletes of the Euro-Tandem-Tour reached Jena this afternoon. The city's sports officer, Vanessa Baum, welcomed the group with drinks in front of the administration building at Am Anger 15.

The Euro Tandem Tour will take place this year from September 1 to 8, 2024. People with blindness or visual impairments will pedal on the 22 tandems together with volunteer pilots. Together, they will cover a total of 840 kilometers and 3,600 meters in altitude over eight stages. The start is in Fulda, the finish in Dipperz.

The tour has been organized since 1998. The organizers see the tandems as an ideal model for sporting participation. The aim of the campaign is to promote inclusive sport, to get people talking locally about inclusion and accessibility and to make their own sporting dreams come true. "I believe and hope that with the Tandem Tour you will be able to draw attention to the topic of inclusion. The trust you need to have with each other and acting as equals - that's what's needed in our society," said Sports Commissioner Baum in her welcoming address.

The tour is financially supported by "Aktion Mensch". The sporting role model and patron is Verena Bentele. She is a former biathlete and cross-country skier. As a blind athlete, she was a four-time world champion and twelve-time Paralympic champion. She has been President of Germany's largest social association VdK since 2018.

The group of 22 tandems, five individual bikes and three support vehicles (luggage, supplies, broom wagon) is traveling at an average speed of 22 kilometers per hour and is accompanied by the police. The sixth stage today took them from Leipzig via Naumburg to Jena.

They continue tomorrow morning at 9 am. After a farewell from the Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche, the group will set off from the Hotel Schwarzer Bär in the direction of Weimar. The destination of the 99-kilometer route is Luisenthal. From here, the final stage via Oberhof to Dipperz begins on Sunday.