Cycling: Hip beards, cool style, great commitment: The Guilty76 Racing Team from the Rhine-Main area doesn't want to be a team like any other - and it attracts a lot of attention. An approach to this slightly different cycling team.
"We're not a club," emphasizes Florian Jöckel vehemently, "we're more of a kind of gang." The founder and leader of the Guilty76 Racing Team sees "that many people are ambitious and enjoy cycling, but don't feel like it to classic club life.” Membership fees or ID cards, clubhouses or annual general meetings are foreign words for the Guilty76 racers. The athletes are more united by an attitude towards life.
"It's only Rock'n'Roll" is written on the pants, namesake Guilty76 is an agency for rock musicians and tour organization. Fashionable beards and black and yellow retro clothes dominate the appearance. The team looks like a kind of St. Pauli on wheels. It seems to be a short way from hip city dwellers on steel fixes to rock 'n' roll cyclists on carbon machines. But fashion and lifestyle as well as a certain looseness are only one aspect. What also defines the Guilty76 team is a deep, genuine love for cycling - not for glamorous VIP cycling with a business lounge, but for cobblestone cycling in the shadow of the winding towers of Roubaix.
Diverse commitment, clear admission requirements
Driven by the will to "keep the dying culture of cycling alive" (Jöckel), the Guilty76 racers are busy: The Guilty76 team pushed the Stoppomat on the Feldberg in the Taunus and organized an inauguration party and a mountain race there, is to one has become an integral part of the "Eschborn-Frankfurt" race, organizes the lake sprint at the Eurobike trade fair in Friedrichshafen and the "We love cycling" open-air event in Frankfurt. In addition, you help at the aid stations for the Frankfurt Ironman, go on a long bike trip to the Alps or Pyrenees once a year and cheer on Guilty76 gang members John Degenkolb and Simon Geschke at Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix or the Tour de France.
This diverse commitment has attracted a great deal of attention. The Facebook page by the Guilty76 Racing Team now has over 1.600 likes. Friendships and cooperations with other players in the cycling scene quickly developed: bruegelmann.de sponsors a complete set of jerseys for each member, Votec supplies wheels, and Lightweight sometimes comes with a set of test wheels.
But not everyone who wants to can take part. Similar to a motorcycle club, you need two guarantors who are committed to admission. While clubs are increasingly complaining about the loss of members and the lack of young people, the Guilty76 team allows itself the luxury of rejecting interested parties. "We want to do cool things with the right people and have fun," Jöckel explains the strict admission requirements, "and you can't write Rock'n'Roll on everyone's ass." The team now has over 150 members and is growing endlessly shouldn't. Many classic cycling clubs can keep up with such numbers, but not with the frequency and publicity of Guilty76 activities.
Mass sport should remain mass sport
At the home race "Eschborn-Frankfurt" you traditionally show a special presence. "The terror-related cancellation this year was a shock," recalls Jöckel. At short notice he organized a with the Guilty76 team, police and race organizers alternative training trip including free beer, in which around 1.000 everyone took part.
Despite all the love for the home race "Eschborn-Frankfurt", in Jöckel's eyes popular sport is developing in the wrong direction with formats such as the German Cycling Cup. “Some weirdos drive far above the performance limit of normal amateur athletes, get 500 to 600 euros a month from medium-sized companies and are considerably better equipped than any amateur team. This has nothing to do with sport for everyone. As a hobby racer, you are happy about the closed roads and the sporting competition with competitors. But they should please compete under the same conditions.” That no longer applies to the semi-professional top group of around 150 drivers for a long time. Jöckel's request: "Anyone who really wants to race should actually go into the club structure, buy a license and not stir up mass sport. That's rather pathetic."
So what is this Guilty76 team? It is somewhere between cycling romance and lifestyle, ambition and fun as well as the desire to actively shape cycling. It stands outside of classical structures, but respects them. Ultimately, the Rock'n'Roll cyclists are a symbol for the colorful variety of players who shape cycling today.
The next event – De Ronde van Bensheim
At the German Road Championships on June 28th in Bensheim, the Guilty76 Racing Team and the race organizers are offering 666 spontaneous participants the opportunity to complete a neutralized lap on the original race course 10 minutes after the start of the women's race - including the lead vehicle, support motorcycles and sweeper car. The 26-kilometer lap has 400 meters of altitude difference, and an average of 26 is driven. Afterwards there will be a huge party in the Guilty 76-Artist Pro Village in the start and finish area. The further course of the women's race as well as the men's race, which starts a little later, can also be followed here. Further information and registration details can be found here here.