“After my first bikepacking trip across the Alps I fell in love with this special feeling of being totally free: I just needed to ride.”
Tell us how you first got into adventuring by bike. What are some of the lessons you learned in your past biking adventures that you’ll carry forward to the next one? What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out with bikepacking?
Since I started cycling I quickly realized that I am deeply passionated about long-distance-cycling-adventures. I was excited about cycling all day dong while not knowing where I am going to come across or having a place to rest and sleep at the end of the day. After my first bikepacking trip across the Alps I slowly grew up mentally and I started with my first brevets (ultra-long-distance-cycling-trips). I fell in love with this special feeling of being totally free: I just needed to ride. All day and all night long. Nothing more and nothing less. I learned that even in the darkest hours there will be another new day, another “shining light” as we German say. I learned that I can grow by facing my fears and challenging myself once more again. But also that I really have to care for myself – in every second!
If you just start with bikepacking: just think less and do more – Cause it is just all about being in the outside, riding your bike, eating & sleeping well and to live and love your life at its fullest! 🙂 Do not set yourself under pressure – it is all about passion and love for the things you really want to do.
You’ve set some tremendous goals for yourself on your bike this year! So amazing! Tell us about your project the ‘heimattriple’.
Due to the current coronavirus situation and closed borders to Switzerland and France, I was forced to change my project “Heimattriple” into a new one. I called it “Across no borders – Just riding & pushing to set some marks”.
So in June I will be part of the “GST – Grenzsteintrophy,” a bikepacking event which track follows the former german wall. This route is an 1250 km long track in the middle of nowhere – in the middle of Germany and its fascinating wilderness, following the “Grüne Band.” Since the coronavirus set us into the situation of closed borders and restricted freedom of movement, I wanted to set some important marks.
First of all – I want everybody to see and learn that we are able to experience adventures just behind our backdoors and second – that we have to appreciate our actually state of freedom and democracy as well as open borders! Its not a matter of course and we should stay cautious about it.
So this project “Across No Borders” will be something really special for me in a really outstanding time period and I hope to inspire as much people as possible through this new adventure!
When you aren’t adventuring on your bike, you spend your time working as a vet, a coach, yoga teacher and more! How does your personal passion as a woman pushing your own limits in biking relate to the professional work that you do?
My personal passion to push my own limits in biking relates very well to my professional work. It is kind of a “lifestyle” for me. I don’t really differentiate between “working” and “living” – I just love what I do, in every case. I found my passion in living my own diversity and I draw all my strength from creating my own life with all these fascinating things and projects. Often this means to push myself further and further again – just to grow on and to develop myself mentally. I try to take every crisis as a new chance to rise and move forward again, even if for example a series of bone fractures knocks me out (as it happened in 2019) or fate is catching me up again.
As an Ambassador to The Cairn Project, you’re joining a team of women who are catalyzing their outdoor passion into a force that passes this opportunity on to the next generation. How and when did your connection to the outdoors blossom, and who were the people in your life who helped to make that happen?
I grew up in a childhood surrounded by nature and animals. Being in the outdoors always have been a huge and important part in my life. Living on a farm I spent my time all day long in the outside – specially by doing my beloved horseback riding. After struggling with a severe anorexia and following depressions when I was a teenager I slowly got back into life by riding my bike and challenging myself through all these new experiences and adventures. Thankfully my mum supported me in every way she could – she made everything happened! So she is my biggest love and inspiration – a woman with the biggest heart I have ever seen and I am just grateful for everything she did for me. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today! <3
Leona Kringe
Leona grew up surrounded by nature and animals. Being in the outdoors has always been a huge and important part of her life. See her ambassador page.