TOUR Special "Alps" - Interview with Beat Hauser

May 2010

"I simply wanted to go higher" - Interview with Beat Hauser

South Tyrolean Beat Hauser has set himself an unusual goal: he wants to collect one million metres of altitude this year on his racing bike. The 41-year-old extreme cyclist from St. Leonhard in the Passeier Valley explained to us what is behind it.

TOUR: Normally, racing cyclists set themselves kilometre targets for the year. Why is it the altitude metres for you?
Hauser: That's obvious, because we only have mountains. Besides, at 1.70 m and 54 kilos I'm a lightweight. Going up in the mountains has always been my everything.
How did you get the idea to climb a million metres this year?
I used to ride 400 mountain passes a year. And in the days when I covered 50,000 kilometres a year, it was already 600,000 metres in altitude anyway. last year I set myself the goal of 730,000 metres in altitude - and achieved it. In 2010 I wanted to go higher. that means an average of almost 3,000 metres of altitude per day.
How do you reconcile that with your job?
As a confectioner, I work from three o'clock to ten o'clock in the morning. After that I have six hours to train.
And what do your wife and your nine-year-old daughter say?
They are right behind me. After all, the family always comes before cycling. The early evening is all theirs. My daughter doesn't know me any differently.
Which is your favourite pass?
The Mendel Pass, because you can cycle up it all year round - I know it at zero degrees and forty degrees. I ride all winter long, and with the other passes I have to turn around at 600m. I cycled up the Mendel Pass 62 times last year.
Do you also cycle outside South Tyrol?
Yes, of course. I've been around a lot: to the Canary Islands, to Majorca, to Crete. But there have to be mountains. Otherwise I don't like it.

(Interview: Angelika Rauw. Published in TOUR-Special ALPEN, may 2010)

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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TOUR Special "Alps" - Interview with Beat Hauser

May 2010

"I simply wanted to go higher" - Interview with Beat Hauser

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