Hi everyone!
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend RadRace Last Wo/Man standing this year, but Ludek took the SSS Press pass and decided to tell his whole adventure for what reads as an unforgettable Berlin weekend. Enjoy the read!
- Paul
First steps
When I got introduced to fixed-gear cycling, a friend described Rad Race Last Wo/Man Standing as the pinnacle of the sport. After seeing a few videos online, 17-year-old me immediately put it on his bucket list.
A couple of years, a few crashes, and one reality check later, I knew I wasn't cut out to be a racer. Then my friend Jakub messaged me that tickets were on sale for the price of a decent night out, and I bought one instantly.
What remained was finding a story to tell. I wanted to capture the event beyond the racing itself: the tension, the emotions, and the atmosphere before and after the action.
Soon a group from the Lowlands fixed-gear community started organizing transport and accommodation in Berlin. Among them were Lauri, Daan and Jakub, riders I already knew for being frighteningly fast. Later Jakub broke his collarbone and ended up photographing alongside me, but in any case, the trip was set.
The Drive
The ride went smoothly enough for me to just make two stops, and at 21.00 we arrived in a parking lot 3 kilometers from the Air BnB that we and 7 other people would sleep in. We assembled the bikes using the car's light as well as head torches to guide us through the process and begun the last stretch of the journey.
By some miracle we avoided encountering any police patrols, which would have probably meant an instant ticket, and finally arrived at the apartment greeted by familiar faces from the Eindhoven squad that arrived two hours earlier. Passing through the door I dabbed up someone and received an open beer in that same hand instantaneously, marking a job well done as a driver and setting the friendly tone that followed for the rest of this trop. Despite the improvised travel plans, the apartment turned out perfect: enough room for ten people, a pile of bikes and just enough sleep before the weekend began.
First Impressions
The morning started with both me and Jakub taking it slow. Picking up his friend from Poland, who was also racing, and going back to the car to pick up my lock. On the road, Berlin immediately surprised me. For a city sold as a symbol of progress, much of it felt rough around the edges and strangely frozen in time.
After a short ride and a couple of photos we went back to explore more of the centre with the only set destinations as the Leica store (as if we could ever afford anything that was there) and the Rad Race shop, to pick up starting package for everyone and check out the goodie bags.
As we arrived in the Rad Race shop, the bike rack started filling up with some amazing builds. As fellow bike nerds and photographers, we locked with the owners in conversation about every part and every custom paintjob.
Before we noticed, we had maybe an hour to cycle back, change, eat something, and show up for the group ride, which was definitely cutting it short.
Track stand competition and the ride
So we got on the bikes, riding at a decent pace back to the appartment. We kept following a police patrol, and the tension grew as we noticed them purposefully slowing down on stop lights to check if we’d pass them.
I suggested trying to follow a parallel street, which instantly backfired, leading through parking lots and windy, closed roads, slowing us down even further. We came home too late to be able to eat, grabbed warm clothes, and blasted out of the door to head to the meeting point of the group ride.
We thought there was no way the group ride would be leaving precisely on time, as, to quote Jakub, "We are all messengers, right? Come on!" So despite putting up a good pace, we didn't yet resort to weaving through traffic and kept it chill.
Coming in nine minutes late, we caught another group who were also late, and ultimately… An empty street where everyone should have been.
As soon as we found out what happened, we called Lauri, who had gone there earlier, and got him to live-stream his location. We started blasting through the car-filled streets of Berlin, chasing the main group, and hoping to catch everyone.
Within two streets we lost 4 people, as the pace and the manoeuvres we did were nowhere near safe or paced for someone with common sense. The remaining of us flowed through the standstill traffic and red lights, only picking up pace as we went. By the time we got out of the main traffic and onto more straight roads, there were only 5 of us left, and we were going consistently way above 35 km/h.
Through the main streets we started pushing against the wind up to the column of victory, and I simply could not keep up with the guys anymore. Not at this pace and not with my engineering student’s stamina. the wind
I dropped out, put on the live location of Lauri myself, and cycled after him, cutting through a park. I then noticed the last participants passing nearby and picked up the pace to catch them. Finally, after even more weaving, I got to their level, wound up the camera and began shooting while trying to catch my breath.
Hundreds of riders came, and the ride felt more like a parade than anything else. People stopped in their tracks on the sidewalks, observed, and waved at us, while almost every crossroads was blocked by the faster riders so everyone could pass through.
It felt like, in that moment, the city observed the most packed fixed-gear bike line-up in its history. The ride felt short, but as we finally got to the Rad Race shop, people relaxed, talked and spread, so I began capturing the insane bikes people brought to enjoy and show off.
Nerding out over such beautiful machines felt incredible. That day was full of firsts for me, and I finally got to see many of my dream bikes up close. As the hours passed, the energy only grew, and people started organizing their own track stand competitions, foot-down battles, and even trick track sessions along the side street.
As the crowd poured into the building, the atmosphere shifted again in anticipation of the 400 euro on the line for the track stand contest. The participants stood one by one in the pink taped off box with every move observed by the crowd and cameras. To some clearly the attention and tension felt like ballast, other felt born to stand in that spotlight.
People sipped beer, talked, and unwound after a long day. The atmosphere carried a mix of quiet excitement for what tomorrow would bring and the easy calm of a workday finally behind them.
The German community felt mature yet approachable. Beneath the incredible bikes and stoic demeanours were people eager to share stories about local races, messenger life, and the constant dance of avoiding police attention. It left me wanting to return someday and properly capture the scene.
As the night went, I felt the exhaustion of the day begin to weigh on me and my colleagues, we made the decision to roll home early end sleep ourselves off before tomorrow big day.
And so, we blasted home through the sleepless Berlin, enjoying the cold night air and lower traffic…
✍️: @_ludography
📸: @_ludography
🎞: Kodak Portra 400/800 / Kodak Ultramax 400
📷: Nikkormat FT2/Canon EOS 30/Nikonos 3
📍: Berlin