Challenge
accepted
Last summer, our team spent a day high above Lake Lucerne. The fact that the weather didn’t reasonably cooperate and spoiled the view didn’t matter to us this time. We were absorbed in suspense watching as lots of tiny dots made their way through a map of eastern Switzerland on a computer screen: We were following the participants of «Dead Ends and Cake».
We became aware of the event because our friend Simon was taking part – and it sounded like a pretty weird challenge: Dead Ends & Cake does not consist of a predefined route but of five checkpoints that all participants have to complete. Everyone can plan the course themselves – but the checkpoints are distributed so that it is simply not possible to cover less than 500 km. You have three days to do this, and you’re on your own; you won’t find a bunch of equipment. And the craziest thing: if you want to be at the front of the pack, you have to do it all at once. The prize? Fame and glory for first place, that’s what. No Maillot Jaune!
It was immediately apparent that this was not a bike race like any other. The immense athletic challenge of completing the course, which might be reason enough for some athletes, was not the sole focus. Instead, the event was planned and designed with attention to detail. The checkpoints were all placed in picturesque dead ends in the Swiss mountains. And a piece of cake waited at each checkpoint as a reward – hence the event’s name.
In 2021, for example, the 100 starting slots were sold out within minutes. We discovered some familiar faces among the motley group of participants during our dot-watching. By chance, one of the brains behind our website also took part in the event, as he can almost see the starting point of the route from the sofa in his apartment in St. Gallen and knows the founder of the event, Dominik, very well. And so, one grey winter day, we talked to Dominik and decided to support Dead Ends and Cake 2022.
Dead ends are never the end of the world.
Le Picot and Dead Ends and Cake are not only connected by their passion for two-wheelers. We both go our mainstream ways, where significant challenges are always waiting for us. But we share the conviction that challenges are there to be tackled. Challenges make you grow, whether it’s a 500 km cycling event or producing sustainable clothing. And dead ends, whether real ones in the Swiss mountains or apparent ones in the supply chain of a clothing brand, are never the end of the world – as Dominik so beautifully put it. This collaboration is the first project of this kind for us, and we are looking forward to this adventure.
Photos: Tobias Schürer, Jonas Traber
