So – a positive look at a strange year.

In January and February we were able to easily roll our 2021/2022 season of the winter bitch parade home, all quite unspectacular. A pleasant side effect: thanks to our small ticket donation campaign, we were able to cycle ten Buffalo bikes together for World Bicycle Relief. Thanks to the passengers who made this possible.

For years, the Düsseldorf Cyclingworld, one of the most important cycling fairs in Europe, has been a lively and perfectly timed start to the new cycling season for us and many others. In addition to the individual structures that we traditionally implement for our stand with our workshop at the trade fair, the trips require a lot of work in advance. An exclusive women's round with Iris "I Ride In Style" Slappendel as well as a road bike and a gravel round with Ritchey and Rapha were on the plan in 2022, three rounds in the most beautiful spring weather, with many international guests. We are always happy that we have become a small part of a really great trade fair with our trips, it is always impressive what Stefan and Thorsten have put together.

In 2022, the Eurobike was completely repositioned, instead of in tranquil Friedrichshafen, the specialist event will now take place in July in the metropolis of Frankfurt. Of course, the exhibition center there with the IAA-tested halls offers significantly more space, and it takes a lot to book all the hotel rooms in the area. But the advantage is also a disadvantage at the same time, the long distances between the halls were a topic at every trade fair discussion, the trade fair has become more extensive and less familiar. In general, however, the step is the right one, one of the world's most important trade fairs for bicycles is doing well in a metropolis and will certainly be perceived differently in the future. And for trade visitors, a trade fair location in the center of the republic is good because it is much easier to arrange a day visit.

April saw the second edition of Rapha's A DAY IN HELL campaign. In view of the hopeless task of being able to pretend hell in the bright sunshine around here, we simply planned a nice route of a good 100 kilometers, which, thanks to some lousy farm roads and cobblestone passages, was allowed to exude a tiny touch of Paris-Roubaix. And we were in our caps early enough to watch the Paris-Roubaix final together with a coffee and/or beer.

Traditionally, before Corona, we started our evening rounds in April, whether under the banner "Rookies, Chiller, Tempokillah" or "Mi6 - Wednesday at 6". In 2022, given the rustic conditions outside the door, we waited until May before we rolled out of the yard almost every Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. with our celebration evening round. Nice to see that despite the Corona break and many different organizers of evening trips, a very pleasant peloton quickly got together again, which rolled up and chatted well.

In view of some completely rainy evenings and other indispositions, we actually slouched and sometimes canceled the round or - better - postponed it to Friday evening with great encouragement. At the moment we are thinking about switching to another evening of the week in general, after all these years that has its appeal. We might find that the area around Düsseldorf feels very different on a Thursday or Friday evening than on a Wednesday. #thankgutitsfriday

In mid-September, the #womens100 exit, one of the world's most important events dedicated exclusively to women's cycling, was on our agenda. In 2022 there was an anniversary edition, all over the world women drove 100 kilometers for the tenth time on September 18th, but in only a few places in the world was the weather probably as modest as in Düsseldorf and the surrounding area. Even today, the participants of the 2022 edition are considered our heroines of the year, nasty continuous rain and lousy temperatures were really tough, but the fun didn't stop there.

We are currently in talks to organize a regular round by women for women together with others in 2023. More on that soon.

A week later we were able to look forward to a Pari-Souplesse-Ride with Paul Ripke as our eponym. Together with our friends from Schwalbe, Paul and a peloton of almost fifty participants, we did a nice little tour through the surrounding area, then had a stylish second half for connoisseurs in and in front of the cap with Költ, Bulle Quiches and other delicacies . We absolutely have to repeat.

Since the first Sunday in November, the winter bitch parade has been rolling again along the service roads between Duisburg and Rommerskirchen. As usual, relaxed, in a good mood, windproof and weatherproof, we enjoy the trips in the most varied of conditions, in autumn still at 15°, at the beginning of December even in the bitter cold of -4°.

Around the Kö has become an ever larger area in our appointment calendar in recent years, which to be honest makes us a little proud. The development from 2015 to 2022 is certainly very good for a criterium race in Germany, the attention and number of participants and spectators has increased steadily over the years. This year it was a hot edition with temperatures above 30° Celsius, which began with the draw for the city championship pairings on Friday evening in the cap, continued on Saturday with rides by the CCD, the Ruhr Riders Community and our friend Iris Slappendel and on Sunday then found its climax on the Kö. Even after the fast-paced elite race, things continued energetically, the party animals from Porno Al Forno let it rip in front of the magnificent backdrop of the Kö-Graben, a worthy conclusion to a cycling weekend in Düsseldorf. All those responsible for the organization team are already working on the 2023 edition, conceptual ideas and discussions are already in full swing and are now spreading beyond our hometown.

This also applies to the second Düsseldorf cycling event in which we are involved: the two-day Cross and Gravel Festival Querfeldrhein, which in October this year will once again feature major sport in the form of the Cross Bundesliga with races for everyone and women, as well as numerous formats for all age groups combined. Among other things, we took care of the night ride for the second time, a format that we and the numerous participants enjoy a lot.

Since Corona and our adventures associated with the move, we rarely get to attend other events. Every now and then a trip to the neighbors in the Netherlands, for example to the great Pathfinder Giro , more is rarely possible. But we were extremely happy about Brendt Barbur's invitation to the Bicycle Film Festival in Amsterdam and really enjoyed the three days there. From the opening film, the timeless classic "Stars & Watercarriers" by Jorgen Leth, brilliantly accompanied by Blonde Redhead plus a string trio, to the different short film roles, the trips during the festival, the party of our friend Jon Woodroof and his agency twotoneams to the talks, discussions and panels: the Bicycle Film Festival 2022 in Amsterdam was a complete success. We would be happy to find a few partners with whose support we can bring the festival to Düsseldorf again in good time. The organizational team is on the move, we need help with the financing.

Such events help to make cycling more popular in all its facets in our city. This is still urgently needed. Just a few days ago, a young woman died on her bike in Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf's car lobby is still big and strong, and people fight with conviction for every parking space and meter of lane in the city. Cyclists are still often seen as a nuisance. Such attitudes are so incredibly antiquated, annoying and will hopefully embarrass even their loudest voices at some point when they realize that a city where cars no longer play such a significant role is significantly more livable. Local politicians must not shirk their responsibilities, we must finally speak plainly and act accordingly. The available space in our city has to be redistributed, at the expense of individual automobile traffic. Pedestrians and cyclists need more space and more safety. It is the task of local politicians to moderate and organize this. Everything else is ChiChi.

So, enough ranting. We're just taking a few days' break from our hats, have partly unwound the #festive500 in one form or another and are now looking forward to 2023, which hopefully will bring fewer crises than this year. For our small, limited universe, we are happy when we can finally turn the cap into a bike café again, free of disabilities. Not that we don't feel good as a store, but part of the cap has been missing for quite some time now.

There is still a little news on our own behalf: from January we will finally have a small online shop here. We are curious to see how the virtual hat shop will be received by you and hope to be able to implement the start smoothly and charmingly professionally. In addition to our own stuff, we will select some specialties that we like and that we would like to recommend to you, wherever you are. More soon.

On the initiative of the busy association Team Dixsept, we will enter into a new partnership in 2023, which will also include other local companies such as Schvarz Kaffee and the Bulle Bakery. We're looking forward to it.

Happy New Year everyone. Take care of yourselves, on the streets, in the alleys, everywhere.

Here's to a fantastic cycling year 2023!

Your cap crew