3rd BMW Motorrad GS Challenge Germany 2010.Adventure and competition in the Black Forest.

Munich. During the last weekend, 140 ambitioned BMW Enduro riders from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and also from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and even from Hungary, Russia and Turkey took part at the 3rd BMW Motorrad GS Challenge Germany within the scope of the Touratech Travel-Event in Niedereschach. The eldest participant was a rider at the age of 60, the youngest was 23 years old.

After the big successes in the past two years the GS Challenge Germany was held in the Black Forest for the second time. Also this time the adventure rally wasn’t about speed or risk, but about riding skills, navigation, team spirit and physical fitness. Drafted as a challenging test of skillfulness, hobby riders without sporty experience trained and old-hands could equally prove their all terrain talent.

On Friday and Saturday the Enduro riders had to tackle the intended routes including 32 checkpoints and 17 special tests. One more time, the organizer worked out attractive routes with seven road books and an overall length of about 700 kilometres. The routes covered the most beautiful roads of northern and southern Black Forest and made high demands concerning competitors’ navigation and riding skills. Besides nine Enduro and Trial tests, which got even more demanding due to continuous rain on Saturday, there were tasks to manage within the bounds of motorcycle technique, fun and action. For example, the Challenge participants had to carpenter a wooden raft to ferry some motorcycle parts and themselves over the pond at “Landhaus Lauble”.

Within the scope of the 3rd BMW GS Challenge Germany also the three German participants of the BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy 2010, taking place form 13th to 24th of November in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique, were selected. This unforgettable event will see the best amateur riders from Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA. For eight days they’ll experience motorcycle adventures and team spirit on spectacular terrain in the country currently hosting the FIFA Soccer World Championship.

Winner of the 109 evaluated riders of this year’s BMW Motorrad GS Challenge is 

Werner Modelmann (Lutz by birth) from Unterschleissheim now looking forward to compete on the African continent. He’ll be accompanied by Dirk Remmel (Altomuenster) who finished second and Thomas Donnecker (Bad Soden-Salmuenster) on third. 

The Trophy participants from Austria and Switzerland were selected in a separate „Alpencup score“. The final elimination between the best GS riders from both countries took place on Saturday evening following the final of the German participants.  This saw the top 20 of the two days proving their riding skills on a F 800 GS coping as faultless as possible with a tricky trial course in the final on the Touratech work area. The top three, Bernhard Schmidtmayr (A), Christop Muri (CH) and Johannes de Ciutiis (CH), form the „Alpenteam“ for South Africa in November.

The Road book score, held for the first time, was won by Alexander Métayer from Stuttgart who also won the two-cylinder-category. For the first time as well, the BMW Motorrad GS Challenge included a women’s score. Winner Frauke Hacker (Appenweier) and runner-up Imme Wobst (Unterwellenborn) impressively proved women aren’t worse motorcyclists. More winners in two categories were Markus Mueller (single cylinder category) and Hubert Suchanek (flat-twin category).

The participants of this year’s BMW Motorrad GS Challenge Germany could welcome one prominent combatant: British actor and motorcycle adventurer Charley Boorman started as a guest rider on Saturday (without scoring points) on a BMW HP2 from Touratech and was jury member for the concluding final. Motorcycles are Charley Boorman’s big passion which he shares with his long-standing friend and companion, superstar Ewan McGregor, well-known for movies like “Trainspotting”, “Star Wars” or “Moulin Rouge”. In 2004, for Boorman and McGregor a common dream came true: In 115 days they rode on a BMW R 1150 GS from London across Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, the USA and Canada to New York covering a distance of 30.395 kilometres. Therefrom the TV serial “Long Way Round” was produced and televised in numerous countries and was published on DVD, too.

Celebrating the BMW GS’ 30th anniversary this year, the BMW Enduros competing in the 3rd BMW Motorrad GS Challenge reflected the whole bandwidth of BMW GS’ tale of success. It reaches from the R 80 G/S, which established not only a new market segment with its introduction, but a new joy of living as well, to the R 1200 GS, Germany’s best selling motorcycle. 

The BMW GS fans already should put down the date 26th to 29th of May, 2011 in their calendar. Then the 4th BMW Motorrad GS Challenge will take place in the scope of the Touratech Travel Event in Niedereschach.

Impressions of this year’s BMW Motorrad GS Challenge can be watched on the Touratech Web-TV under www.touratech-video.de.