Journal

My club since I was a kid — and the afternoon I finally got to photograph them, at a friendly just across the border.

Long before the World Cups and the team cars, there was the fight — combat sports, my first love, and where my photography really began.

My first-ever World Championships — a UCI content puzzle, my first national-team assignment for the German federation, and a rainbow week I finished on a dislocated knee.

The star arrives and the doors close — Van der Poel back on a mountain bike, a media circus, a downhill crowd of 200,000, and a finish area that scared me.

The race every cycling fan dreams of — three days to produce nine days of content for Shimano, a nearly 200% jump in reach, and my first race on a new camera.

The most complicated race of the season — a whole production in hand luggage, gondola deadlines, and a rescue in the rain at Pal Arinsal.

My first World Cup run entirely solo — under Mont Blanc, a bike I nearly lost, and the best track the series has.

Two days home, then straight back out — a broken drivetrain, the most brutal heat of the season, and a win worth celebrating.

A World Cup close to home and my first taste of downhill — four seasons in a day, an improvised bin-bag camera rig, and a hard lesson about weatherproofing.

My first-ever Mountain Bike World Cup — accreditation, a two-hour detour, watching friends from Albstadt race, and a stack of bike checks with Shimano.

The craziest race I've ever covered — three days inside the Shimano Neutral Service unit at Paris-Roubaix, from the pavé recon with Servais Knaven to 20 km behind Pogačar and Van Aert to the velodrome.

My first-ever World Tour road race as a content creator — nerves, rain, bike checks, a locked-down Ghent and a winning finish, on debut for Shimano.