Who taught you to ride your first bike and what kind of memories do you have of cycling as a child?

I was lucky because my parents were/are active cyclists and raced at a high level when I was a child. They basically taught me how to ride a bike and provided me with a really good (7-gears) mountain bike when I was like 5 or 6.

My first memory was the Mountainbike World Cup Race in Berlin in the early 90’s, where my mum took part and I could as a child pre-ride the course (at least the easier parts).

When was it you first realised you had a real talent for the sport and what were some of your earliest successes in cycling?

I actually had kind of two careers in cycling: first when I was a teenager, I was at a very high level in mountainbiking – but stopped riding and racing when I was 16, I had different interests and didn’t want to train so hard any more.

My second career started when I was 23, when I rode my bike daily to the university (80k/50miles roundtrip). I did some Gran Fondos until a friend, who was already racing for many years, brought me to roadbike racing.

I actually won my first roadbike race and decided for the following season to take license and train constant and specific. From year to year I consistently got better, from a cat C (lowest category in Germany) to an A (highest category) in just a few months. I also could get some good results in bigger races.

When was is that you realised your path in the sport would be as a road cyclist and when did you turn professional?

I turned my life into professional cycling pretty late. I came back to the sport at 23 years old and it took me some years to get used to all the changes and the cultures of road cycling. But I went up categories and started to race internationally. Finally good results came in and I thought, why not, let’s try it.

What do you see as your biggest triumphs in the sport to date?

My biggest triumph in cycling is definitely that I have never crashed so hard, that I have broke anything or got any serious damage. Second thing is, I have never been involved in any kind of cheating.

Result-wise I would say, that I achieved podiums and top 10 results all over the world (North and South America, Africa and of course in Europe).

Where in the world has cycling taken you and what have been some of the highlights?

So far I have raced on 5 different continents and probably will add Australia as a sixth continent soon. One of the most impressive experiences I got in Venezuela, a poor country which is almost in civil war – dangerous, polluted but a beautiful country. I also raced in Senegal (known for the car rallies Paris-Dakar) and in China, where probably more spectators are than anywhere else.

The most fun I always have is on our road-trip through the USA and Canada, where racing is more a show than actually competing.

How did you end up racing for Team Ecuador and what is it like being part of the team?

I knew the team from several UCI races before, but it was always far away. The team base is exactly 10000km away from my house. I met a girl, now my girlfriend, from Ecuador. I spent a lot of time with her in the USA and Germany before I came first to Ecuador. It worked out and we thought about how we can stay together in future. For her coming to Germany was too expensive and way too difficult (Visa), so I decided to give it a try and applied for Team Movistar Ecuador. Finally it happened and I moved part-time to Ecuador, where I have an amazing life with my girlfriend and the team.

How hard are you currently training and what events and races do you have coming up in the near future?

I went to Ecuador for 7 months last September and started after a month of off-season my basemile training. I did two big bike trips through the whole of Ecuador and Colombia, just my roadbike and a backpack. Just recently I returned to Germany to get some more specific training in and I will start with some nationals races before I will race in the USA, South America and Europe.