Blog

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

Nine days ago, the silence of the North Cape was broken by the sound of 75 cyclists clipping into their pedals at 00:01. Riders from around the world set off under the Midnight Sun, each carrying the same dream – but with their own personal journey ahead.

Nine days later, NorthCape-Tarifa 2026 has already delivered everything that makes this adventure so unique.

The Arctic landscapes of Norway gave way to the endless forests and lakes of Finland. Riders experienced 24-hour daylight before gradually returning to normal nights as they travelled south through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Yesterday, race leader Florian crossed into Germany, the ninth country of this incredible journey, and passed the halfway point of the 7,400-kilometre route near the Czech-German border.

Along the way, riders have battled cold rain, warm sunshine, relentless headwinds, welcome tailwinds, mosquitoes, mechanical problems, fatigue and sleep deprivation. Every day has brought new challenges – and new stories.

The first checkpoint in Helsinki – around 1,700 km from the start and already longer than many ultra-distance races – has now been left well behind. The front of the race continues to captivate, with Florian maintaining an impressive pace while Ralph and Jens continue their determined pursuit. After more than 3,700 kilometres, however, the race is far from decided. Every hour brings new dynamics, and there is still a very long road to Tarifa.

But NorthCape-Tarifa has never been only about the leaders.

Throughout the field, every rider is fighting a different battle. Some are chasing ambitious finishing goals, while others are simply determined to keep moving south, one pedal stroke at a time. Friendships are forming on the road, strangers are helping each other, and every kilometre creates another unforgettable memory.

One of the great additions to this year’s event has been the daily commentary by Marco Milesi, who has been following the race closely on NorthCape-Tarifa.com. His race analyses and insights have added another dimension to the daily blogs, bringing the action to life for everyone following the riders from home.

From the Arctic Circle to Germany, the first nine days have already been packed with adventure, determination and unforgettable moments. Yet, with more than half of the route still ahead for most riders, the real challenges are only just beginning. The Alps, southern Europe and, ultimately, Tarifa are still waiting.

Congratulations to every rider still out there. Whether you’re racing for the podium or simply chasing your own dream, you’re all writing a story that will stay with you for a lifetime.

Ride safe, enjoy every kilometre, and thank you for inspiring us all.

🌍 Follow the dots, read the daily blogs and Marco’s commentary, and continue sharing this incredible adventure with us!

#NorthCapeTarifa #NCT2026 #Bikepacking #UltraCycling #SelfSupported #AdventureByBike #RideYourDream

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

Looking at the leading group formed by Florian, Jens and Ralph, the situation looks stable: the last two are riding at 30km of distance from each other, while the first one is far ahead, well after the 3250km mark.

As usual, the first to start pedaling at 6am is Florian, followed by Jens, and finally Ralph. By midday, Florian is beyond the 3500km mark, and Ralph has lost a bit of terrain. Meanwhile, the French pair (Patrick and Benoit) informs us that they will separate their routes.

We also receive the sad news from Yves (4^th position so far) that he will not continue the race due to physical problems. This puts Hannes Munzner in fourth position, followed by Peter Gontkovic.

Florian starts to slow down, allowing for Jens and Ralph to catch some terrain, as they get closer to the border between Poland and Czech Republic, which Florian has already crossed the day before. By noon, aero man seems to start feeling fatigued: he hasn’t stopped for sleeping at all, yet his average speed decreased consistently.

Temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius as the clocks mark 7pm, and we see a curious situation: all the three leading riders are separated by the same distance (about 150km).

By midnight, Florian has officially crossed the border into Germany, getting closer to the next checkpoint: Bregenz in Austria. Jens and Ralph, instead, trail still in Czechia, getting closer.

Is this the beginning of the downfall for aero man, or is this just a bad day for him?

Photo credit: Andy Buchs – Lithuania & Poland from route check by bicycle in May 2026

Is this the best checkpoint photo so far?
“Cheers! Jérôme”

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer

At midnight, when the temperatures at the front of the race almost fail to go below 20 degrees, we find Florian still leading. He is the only rider who has already passed checkpoint 3: Torun in Poland.

Ralph and Jens get there at around 2:30pm, when Florian is already 150km away towards the South West. Meanwhile, 30% of the riders have crossed checkpoint 2 and 70% have crossed checkpoint 1. Helsinki (checkpoint 1) is located at a distance from the beginning where most ultra-races end: roughly 1700km.

Now Florian is starting to show some signs of fatigue. As proof, his average moving speed is slower than the one of both Jens and Ralph, and his daily average is decreasing rapidly: he started with a solid 550km per day, which has now dropped to less than 450km per day. Additionally, if we look at the percentage of time spent resting compared to the one spent riding, Florian and Ralph rode for about 75% of time, leaving just 25% of the total time for resting; Jens, instead, managed to rest for 35% of time, yet keeping second position.

At this pace, it looks like Jens can sacrifice a bit more resting time in favor of more cycling time, resulting in longer distances and a chance to catch Florian and conquer the lead. Will it be this way? Or will it be one of the riders in the background to surprise us?

Photo credit: Florian, Jens, Ralph – the mandatory selfie at checkpoint Torun with Copernicus.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

It has been one week since NorthCape-Tarifa 2026 started in Norway on June 20 2026. So far, this edition has already marked itself as full of records and unexpected events.

The seventh day is no exception. As the riders cycle towards South, the weather gets warmer, and finally, once docked in Tallin, the normal day-night light cycle is restored. At midnight, when the only light shining is the one of the moon, none of the three riders at the front of the race are moving. More specifically, Florian stands alone in first position with a whopping advantage of roughly 300km, followed by both Ralph and Jens resting in the same spot: Jurbarkas in Lithuania.

At 4am, Aero man (Florian) and Ralph (Record man) start cycling again towards the next checkpoint, followed by Jens some time later. The last two are able to keep a sustained pace and re-gain part of the lost terrain from the first, keeping an attentive eye on Yves (fourth position) who reaches the Hill of Crosses checkpoint at 9am.

Meanwhile, the French couple (Benoit and Patrick) start to put some distance in their legs after a slow start in Norway and Finland. They are getting back on track for their objective of reaching Nice in 15 days.

At 4:30pm Florian reaches the checkpoint number 3: Torun in Poland. A slight tailwind and a very sunny and hot weather have accompanied him in this amazing race so far. Both Ralph and Jens take advantage of tailwind, reducing distance with Aero man to about 200km by 7:30pm.

At midnight, when everything is covered in dark, this is the situation: Florian still moving, Ralph and Jens standing still at 230km of distance from him, increasing. Yves, meanwhile, finds himself at about 200km from the now resting couple of riders in second and third position.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

As usual, aero man (Florian) is the first one to wake up and start pedaling towards Torun, the next checkpoint. Meanwhile, both Jens and Ralph wake up and start cycling afterwards; however, Jens faces unexpected mechanical problems with his front wheel and therefore is forced to go back to Riga to fix the issue. Kudos to him for keeping a cold blood and a focused mind: he Is back in the race after slightly more than 2 hours.

Consequently, now the leaderboard looks like this: Florian, Ralph, Jens and Yves. After these first four riders, a uniform block of cyclists is formed right after Tallin.

Ralph strategically slows down to let Jens pass again, while he saves some precious energy. At the end of the day, the order of the riders is the same as it was in the morning. Still, Florian now has 250km of advantage against the others, now both resting in Jurbarkas (Lithuania).

As Torun (Checkpoint 3) gets closer, Florian seems to be in a good position, but sooner or later he will have to pay for all this pushing. And when that moment comes, will Ralph and Jens be able to exploit it?

Photos: Florian cap 66 in Lithuania near the border to Poland.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

We left our riders at midnight, with Florian already riding in Estonia, chased by Jens and Ralph at, respectively, one ferry away and two ferries away. Meanwhile, Yves and Stefan, the trailing riders in third and fourth position, still have more than 50km to cover before getting to Helsinki. Anyway, the first ferry leaves at about 8am, so they are forced to a stop.

Jens surprisingly chooses to take a break in Tallin and therefore almost gets overtaken by Ralph. But he manages to wake up in time and starts moving right before the other rider’s ferry docks. Florian handles the gravel section before Sindi in Estonia perfectly and keeps the lead with an advantage of 160km over Jens and 200 over Ralph.

By 8am Florian has officially crossed the 2000km marker, in just slightly more than 103h and 30m, after other 2 gravel sections: one still in Estonia and another right after the border with Latvia. At the same time, it looks like Jens has issues staying on the bike, as he continuously stops, reducing the advantage against Ralph, who can close the gap before Riga, bringing it down to just 5km.

Time goes on, and in late afternoon Yves also gets to the shore. Followed by April and the French pair with a very ambitious goal: to reach Nice in 10 days (Benoit Merchez and Patrick Gilles). Still, there is a gap of approximately 150km between the third and fourth rider.

At 10:30pm Florian reaches the second checkpoint: Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. At 11pm all the leading riders stop for resting.

Florian on his TT bike has been keeping an unprecedented rhythm, but Jens and Ralph have been good in remaining close to him. It looks like somebody is risking his strategy: is it the veteran and record man forcing their pace to not loose terrain or is it aero man pushing beyond his limits to gain some distance?

We’ll find out when the first ascents will begin in the following days. Stay with me.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi, Andy Buchs

During the night, most riders choose to take a break and sleep, apart from Florian. He only stops for a couple of hours and then starts cycling again at around 3am. Meanwhile, we receive the news from Peter Wieneke, number 48: he scratched due to health issues.

At 6am the leaderboard looks like this: Florian leading, Jens and Ralph trailing at about 130km from him, Yves, Stefan and Udo forming a chasing group right afterwards and then a big chunk of riders cruising at a more peaceful pace.

Florian keeps pedaling non-stop and reaches Helsinki at about 11am, that’s officially a new record! He managed to cover 1753km in 3 days and 11 hours, improving the record by roughly 9 hours. He then stops in Helsinki to get some rest, waiting for the ferry to take him to the other side of the Gulf o Finland into Estonia.

When Florian gets to Tallin, Jens arrives in Helsinki, just in time for a ferry. Same for Ralph. They both get the chance to rest on the ferry on their way to Estonia, although just for 2 hours. Ralph chooses to stay in Tallin, while Jens keeps pushing through the night.

Meanwhile, Florian has increased his advantage to a massive 200km, resting for just 20% of the total time. Will he be able to hold this rhythm or will he burn out?

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Marco Milesi

We left the action with Florian (aero man) leading, followed by Jens (the veteran) and Ralph (the record man). During the night the only one to keep on pedaling is the first, going all out till 01:30 in the morning, when he stops for a quick nap. Ralph is the first to get up, and by 04:00am he almost catches Jens. But the veteran has a sixth sense and starts cycling a couple of km before he gets caught by the record man.

Meanwhile, in the background things start to take a defined turn: Yves, Leon, Stefan and Udo all travel at roughly the same speed, rapidly putting some km of distance between them and the big group behind. But they still have a long way to go to catch the leading group.

Time flies, and in the afternoon, also thanks to the tailwind and the generally good weather, the front group is way beyond the middle point of Finland, flying towards checkpoint 1: Helsinki.

At around 3:30pm Leon Koning (5^th position) is involved in an accident and is therefore transported by helicopter to Oulo’s hospital, where he is forced to scratch, postponing what would have been and will be an amazing performance.

As time goes on, at 7:30pm the situation is almost the same as before, except for Jens catching up with Florian: now between the 2 riders there are only 30km. Ralph, instead, falls a bit behind.

At midnight Florian has re-gained all the advantage by pushing through when Jens stopped for sleeping. Now there is only one question that needs and answer: will Florian beat the record set by Stefen Streich to get to Helsinki in 3 days and 20h?

Stay with me to find out, the answer will surprise you.

By Marco Milesi
Adventure cyclist and long-distance travel writer
Photo credit: Andy Buchs

Despite the rainy night, riders continued their journey towards the border with Finland at a sustained pace. Out of all the 75 riders, the lead was taken by Ralph Dizzy, followed by Florian and finally Jens.

This fleeing group is quite heterogeneous and remarkable: Ralph holds the world record for most km cycled in 24h, Florian is trying a new and unprecedented setup (aero bike + only one saddle bag) and Jens is a veteran of ultra-cycling (more than 20 ultra races on his back).

They manage to create some distance from the other riders (roughly 30km), with Jens dropping behind after noon.

By the time they get to the border with Finland, they have no idea what’s coming next. The leading group officially becomes a couple, and the distance from Jens increases to the point of including Leon Koning in the battle for the third place.

The leading group, in the end, splits in two: the original triplet spends the night in Sirkka, having covered roughly 550km, while Leon chooses to stop at Enontekio, about 100km behind. During the night, he gets overtaken by several riders, but they all stop after a couple of dozens km.

“Good night”, that’s what we would say if it wasn’t NorthCape-Tarifa 2026. At exactly 02:20, Florian starts moving again, gaining an impressive 75km of advantage over Jens and Ralph. The last one mentioned is the first one to wake up among the three, followed by Jens after 1h.

Florian keeps pushing till noon, when he is still leading, having consolidated the first position. Jens and Ralph, meanwhile, continue their effort to not drop too behind Florian, followed by Leon.

Things change again when Ralph, at 18, chooses to stop for resting, leaving the leading group. In the meantime, Florian crosses the 1000km mark at 18:45, followed by Jens exactly 1,5h later.

In the last km before midnight, Jens was closing the gap with Florian. Is this the start of a battle? The aero man against the veteran.