Month: May 2026

How to follow Taunus Bikepacking No. 9

Taunus Bikepacking No. 9 starts on June 14, 2026.

Once the riders set out on their adventure, 99 different stories will play out.

It can be difficult to keep track of what’s going on, so we’ve put together this short guide to help you keep an overview.

Dotwatching

The riders are tracked by Follow My Challenge under this link:

https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/taunusbikepacking

Their position on the map will update approximately every five minutes.

Understanding what is really happening out on the course can be a little bit like trying to solve a fun puzzle.

If you’d like to dig a bit deeper, here’s how.

Social Media

If a rider has given us an instagram account, that link will be visible on their rider card and linked in the start list on our website, so you can check out their posts and stories. 

On our own instagram account, we will share photos that our own media team takes, so make sure to follow that, too:

https://www.instagram.com/taunusbikepacking

Ride Reports

Our ride reporter Ross Brannigan will publish daily articles. These stories bring you the insights that you can find nowhere else, because Ross is right there in the middle of it all, roaming Taunus and talking to our riders.

The daily reports will appear in three different places:

Podcast

You’re watching the dots, you’re looking at the photos and you’ve read the articles, but you also want to listen to the unfiltered sounds and voices of Taunus Bikepacking. Paola Handley has got you covered with daily podcast episodes.

So make sure to subscribe to the podcast and already listen to last year’s episodes by Tom Probert to set the mood:

For locals, friends and family

We do our very best to bring you the most interesting stories from the course, but we can not be everywhere and we’ll never be able to cover it all. Part of the fun of following an event like Taunus Bikepacking is the unknown, the gaps that you fill with your imagination.

Is one of the riders your family member or a good friend?

If you haven’t already followed your loved ones doing a self-supported ultra-distance event, you might find yourself surprised how engaging it is, but also how nervous it might make you. Dotwatching has the tendency to make friends and relatives irrationally more worried than they would be otherwise. Trackers are not always 100% accurate. There are areas in Taunus with bad mobile reception. If your favourite dot has stopped or seems to be lost, please don’t worry right away and don’t intervene. They might have stopped to eat, to sleep or to fix something on their bike. Maybe they have left the track to get some supplies. In some cases, it’s just the trackers acting weird. Rest assured that we have a team of dedicated dotwatchers that are overseeing the tracking map and reporting any anomalies. If a rider does get into actual trouble, please remember Taunus is a very safe area and the nearest town is never far. Riders will be briefed how to act in cases of emergency.

You might also feel the urge to help them with information or logistics from afar. Don’t do that, unless the rider has abandoned and is marked as DNF (did not finish). Our riders are self-supported and they have signed up to ride under these conditions because they see value in this kind of riding and truly wish to do so. So helping them, even against their will, would compromise their adventure, as it constitutes an unfair advantage. 

If you’re not familiar with the concept of self-supported riding, please read this: 

https://dotwatcher.cc/feature/a-word-what-self-supported-really-means

Do you live in the area?

We understand that you might want to go out on the course and show your appreciation, cheer on the riders, maybe write some encouragement on the road or even bring some snacks. Please remember that support is only allowed if it’s available to all riders equally. Some people even want to ride alongside our riders. Never do that without kindly asking for permission before. If it’s your friend or family member, please don’t ride with them. This can easily be understood as private support and you don’t want to be the reason your friend gets disqualified. There are many ways to support the riders without getting too close or giving individuals an unfair advantage. We love the enthusiasm and we really appreciate everyone’s support, just please keep in mind the particular nature of this challenge, stay fair and above all, respectful of all the riders.

Thank you very much and we hope you enjoy following Taunus Bikepacking No. 9!