The 28-year-old from Aargau wins the 4000 km long Transcontinental, the toughest bikepacking race in Europe. To achieve his success, he gives his life structure – even though this goes against his nature.
After more than a week in the saddle, Robin Gemperle sits down in a restaurant somewhere in Turkey. He orders a soup and enjoys the hot meal. “I finally ate properly and didn’t eat like an animal,” says Gemperle. The man from Aargau lives off this moment for hours because it felt so human.
Eight days before this meal break, Gemperle sets off for the Transcontinental ultra-bike race in Roubaix, in the north of France. He rides across Europe, only getting off his bike to sleep or buy food and drinks. He eats during the ride. But just before the finish, his mind needs a break – in the form of a quiet lunch in Turkey.
The Transcontinental from Western to Eastern Europe has been running since 2013. There are no stages or set breaks, the participants plan the route themselves. An accompanying crew is not allowed, the riders are on their own. They transport the luggage, take care of the food, and have to pass checkpoints on the way across Europe. The start and finish locations are different every year. This year, Gemperle needs nine days for the 4,000 kilometers from Roubaix to Istanbul.
At the beginning he planned the route “at all costs”
The Transcontinental is considered the toughest bikepacking race in Europe, and whoever wins it is considered something of a celebrity in the scene. Such competitions, in which the participants are on their own, have spread rapidly in recent years, triggered by the rise of gravel bikes.
Last July, Gemperle competed in the Transcontinental for the third time – and won. He even left the Austrian Christoph Strasser, a legend of ultra cycling, behind him. Strasser is a multiple winner of the Race Across America (RAAM) and the Transcontinental.
The two different types of riders already duelled for victory last year. Here is the road rider Strasser, who prefers to ride on asphalt and takes detours, and there is Gemperle, who plans the shortest route “at all costs” and even integrates single trails.
Despite the success, Gemperle will not defend his title next year. He says he gets bored quickly. After the victory, the Transcontinental lost its appeal for him. He wants to continue competing in extreme bikepacking competitions. He has a list at home with ten races on it, all over 1000 kilometers long and on different surfaces – he definitely wants to win them.
He rides his fixie to Copenhagen or Paris
In order to make his dream come true, Gemperle has been a professional cyclist since completing his architecture studies at ETH in May. Still. Ten years ago, he could have made a living from the sport. At the time, Gemperle was a talented mountain biker with a contract with Team Scott; Olympic champion Nino Schurter was his teammate.
But the teenager Gemperle also wants to go out, get to know the world and, above all, study. At the same time, he feels like he is always one step too late when it comes to sport. He misses the uncompromising focus on top-level sport.
Instead of becoming a professional, Gemperle begins studying at ETH. He works as a DJ in the Zurich clubs “Gonzo” and “Zukunft”. His love of cycling remains. With his fixie, a fixed-gear bike, he rides from Switzerland to Paris, Barcelona or Copenhagen. On these tours he feels that he is not reaching his physical limits. In 2022 he takes part in the Transcontinental for the first time, appearing on the scene out of nowhere. Gemperle discovers competitive sport for the second time in his life.
A dog bite and a flesh wound on the buttocks
As a mountain biker, Gemperle found the structure of professional sport to be a limitation. Today, he sees it as an opportunity. “I’m excited to find out how far I can work against myself. Being structured is not my strength.” But ultra races cannot be mastered without structure: sleeping efficiently, navigating, minimizing distractions, optimizing the bike. “These are all things that go against my nature.”
This became apparent during the first Transcontinental, and Gemperle paid the price for his mistakes. He normally travels with as little luggage as possible. So he only took a pair of cycling shorts with him to the Transcontinental. The problem: the salt crystals from his sweat felt like sandpaper after a few days, and Gemperle suffered a deep wound on his buttocks.
After the first flat tire, he doesn’t buy a second spare tube, which almost causes him to give up after several breakdowns in the last few days. On top of that, his navigation device stops working, and in Bulgaria he is bitten by a dog, which means he has to go to the hospital for a rabies shot.
Despite these adversities, he finished eighth in his debut, surprising his competitors. His opponents were fascinated by Gemperle. With his wild curls and piercings, he stood out in the field of cyclists. Gemperle has also been described as the rock star of bike packing. He doesn’t cultivate this image with all his might, but he knows that he is currently not only one of the best, but also one of the most interesting riders – interesting for sponsors, for example.
He has to put some of his unconventional side aside for the sake of sport, such as DJing. He also limits his involvement with the “Klub Fritto Misto”, which he set up together with his brother and friends. The company runs pop-up restaurants with a creative approach on the outskirts of Aarau. “I always have to negotiate with myself how much enjoyment there is still room for in his current life,” says Gemperle.
He sticks strictly to the sleep strategy
Today, as a professional, Gemperle tries to use his carefree nature to his advantage in the race, but also to tweak details in the manner of a top athlete. Before the third Transcontinental, he is perfecting his preparation. Among other things, this means that he only submits an average master’s thesis at ETH. For the big race, he refines his sleeping strategy. He rides through the first night, then sleeps for 4.5 hours, which is unusually long for a non-stop race.
This is followed by three to four nights of three hours’ sleep, all in a hotel if possible. For the rest of the race, 90 minutes per night is enough. Noise doesn’t bother Gemperle, but the place to sleep has to be comfortable. In the final phase of the Transcontinental, he lies down in the ditch. But he sticks strictly to the sleep breaks, as he wants to avoid losing control. Unlike in the Race Across America, he doesn’t have a support crew to monitor him and make decisions for him.
This Race Across America, almost 5,000 kilometers long, actually appeals to him now. Gemperle can imagine that he will take part in it towards the end of his career, “even though it is almost a different sport, so structured that there is hardly any room for the individual.” For now, he is planning his career for four to five years. Then, he believes, he will almost certainly get bored again.