GS Trophy 2018: The qualifier

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GS Trophy 2018: The qualifier
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GS Trophy 2018: The qualifier

Report qualifying BMW GS Trophy 2018
Self-experiment by the editor

The qualifier for the BMW Motorrad GS Trophy will take place over two days as to who will be able to travel to the main event in Mongolia in 2018 as “Team Germany”. Participation is a delicate undertaking, as the self-experiment by PS editor Tobias Munchinger shows.

Tobias Munchinger

08/17/2017

It was… unbelievable, ”says our regular photographer Markus Jahn when he returned from Thailand last year from the international GS Trophy. The “clipper” leans in the door frame of my office and lets the events pass in review. The country, the people and, of course, the driving itself made a big impression on the photo professional and amateur trial driver. His stories come together in my head to create an adventure novel of the finest kind. A scavenger hunt on a motorcycle for ten days over hill and dale in a distant land – that is exactly the stuff that creates tension by the fireplace on dark winter evenings! When the clipper then dumps a whole sack of impressive images in front of my feet, I’m completely pissed off. I have to be with this number!

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Self-experiment by the editor

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Some time later: the Black Forest community of Niedereschach. I find myself back on a BMW R 1200 GS Rally. Whoever wants to be part of the Trophy experiment has to earn the starting place first. As part of the travel event of the travel specialist and accessories giant Touratech, the qualifying round for the 2018 GS Trophy will be held around the small town. After two days, it should be clear which riders as Team Germany will travel to Mongolia for the main event next year. For this, numerous stations in the vicinity have to be approached, where various demanding tasks await the participants. Anyone who does not find all the points or approaches them awkwardly, dawdles on the way or fails the exams has no chance of collecting enough points.

Liane Drews from BMW motorcycle Germany introduces me to Larissa and Mike: “You are now forming a team!” Larissa is a professional enduro driver and competes in races such as the Erzberg Rodeo or the Red Bull Romaniacs. Mike writes for the “Overland-Magazin”, a trade journal for off-road stories of all kinds. Then Liane hands us documents and maps so that we can plan a route. Here at the latest it becomes clear that only those who are thoroughly prepared and take the matter seriously have a chance of a successful qualifying. Up to this point, out of sheer enthusiasm, I simply suppressed the fact that I can’t really ride Enduro at all. And I don’t read road books anyway!

“Just pull it through, the boxer will drag you through there with his torque!” Markus yells over. The clipper stands with the camera at the ready on the edge of the gravel pit, where we complete the first active driving exercise. In fact, the GS with the coarse TKC 80 tires strolls through the mud hole as if it were nothing more than a puddle. Done! But on the first steep slope we lose Mike. The hill throws him and his GS sideways, and he lands unhappily with his calf on a piece of wood. I foot his motorcycle back to the entrance, Mike dragging himself in pain. There were only two left!

Larissa and I continue on our own to the olfactory schnapps tasting at the Black Forest house: It is important to recognize the variety by its smell. No problem for me! Then we come to the next test in the saddle with a “high” level of difficulty. The GS and I try out the obstacle course together and don’t do it badly. I can’t believe how the massive moped can climb! Now comes the 100-meter long deep sand passage: I get through one of three laps with a lot of momentum, the other two stints I lie down. Problem for me, no problem for Larissa: “I realized that you couldn’t ride Enduro,” she laughs with her Austrian accent. On the other hand, I’m faster again in the obstacle course on the motocross track. My strategy of going around the course barefoot instead of in heavy enduro boots works perfectly. The fact that we didn’t collect nearly enough points at the end of the two days to even think about the final is not too tragic. We have always collected enough material for exciting storytelling lessons by the fireplace!

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