I’m passionate about roadbike and mountainbike cycling and I am an IT professional. Bringing both sides together is why I founded singletrails.com

Located near Nuremberg, germany, I discovered the pleasure of roadbike cycling a long time ago during my academic studies. The nearby hills of Franconian Switzerland are a great region for cyclists and my friends and me enjoyed it nearly every weekend: pleasant scenery, small roads with challenging climbs and numerous little guesthouses and breweries for a little stop. As the highlight of the year we went to the Alps, the Pyrenees or other mountain regions for one or two weeks, where we had fabulous trips where I still can recall many details.

Like us climbing the Col de Madeleine in the mid 90’s, getting a puncture at the top which we had to fix in a heavy thunderstorm. Or when we ran out of food 50 km ahead of Pamplona after re-enacting a TdF pyrenean stage and literally any store and inn was closed. So we finally found ourselves sitting on the safety fence sharing the last small piece of cheese among us four. Another time we climbed the Passo del Rombo end of may – what by the way is a bad idead –  which ended up us carefully blancing through ice-covered tunnels and carrying our bikes over large snow fields. And definitely I remembered the numerous trips we made in all parts of northern italy where we ended every day with superb meals and exquisite wine.

This passion of climbing mountain cols I kept till today. The indescribable feeling arriving at the top of a climb knowing a delightful descent lies ahead is something that I don’t want to miss any more.

A few years ago I discovered mountainbiking as the perfect addition. What I love in particular is the density of biking experience and the intense and undisturbed perception of nature.  A mountainbike tour is delight from the very first moment and worthwile even if you can afford only to ride one or two hours. As I’m already in my 50’s I often thought I should have started earlier.  But as I can’t change this any more I take it slowly, avoid the more extreme things and enjoy all the rest.

So what’s left to tell you about me? What do I have in mind with singletrails.com? Long story short: 10 years ago I was engaged in a website project called quaeldich.de  that is essentially a sort of wikipedia for roadbike cycling in the mountains. It performed well and currently is quite famous in the german-speaking area. I especially contributed to geo-referencing all the information on the site and implemented a trip planning software based on GPS tracks contributed by the users. Beginning in that time I developed some ideas how the full potential of the GPS information can be exploitet, especially when looking at MTB routes. As I am currently in the situation to quit my actual job at a major industrial company I decided to take one year off to try out these ideas – and simultaneously learn what’s state-of-the-art in developing and promoting a web project. So please don’t be surprised if you find blog articles about these IT related topics mixed with posts on singletrails.com functionality and – of course – cycling.

If there’s anything more you’d like to know please do not hesitate to contact me. I’d be very happy if this blog evolves to a bidirectional conversation.

Enjoy your rides,

Thomas