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The internet portal quäldich.de, which is very popular with amateur cyclists, has been completely revised. Reason enough for Velomotion to talk to quäldich.de Managing Director Jan Sahner about the success story of his website, his offers and road cycling in Berlin.
Velomotion: Jan, you used the social network with friends during your studies quäldich.de created, which has since gone through the roof. How much Mark Zuckerberg is in you?
Jan Sahner: (laughs) Very little. Mark Zuckerberg wants to make money from the contacts and data he collects on Facebook. I connect people who share the passion for road cycling. quäldich.de offers them an attractive range of information. You can find out about large and small pass roads, plan the small tour at the weekend as well as the annual holiday in the Alps, find hotels, collect ideas for stages, read reports and much more. Of course, there is also a commercial thought behind it, after all we offer cycle tours and sell high-quality sportswear. But everyone can use the community free of charge to get information and network. No one has to disclose their personal information. As is well known, this is different with Mark Zuckerberg. I guess I'm just not greedy for money.
Nevertheless, you have now invested and revised the tormented website. What's new?
quäldich.de arrives in the present. It is mobile-capable, so it can also be used optimally on smartphones and tablets. So far - I admit that - the website was conceived from the point of view of the provider: what do we want to achieve with the site, what do we want to accommodate, how does it benefit us? Now we have turned the tables, the user comes first. What is the user looking for and what is the quickest way to get his information? The user wants to find passports, at home on the computer while planning, but also on the go when a lap needs to be extended spontaneously or enhanced with a mountain, and the user is standing at the side of the road with his smartphone. GPS data, maps, mountains and tour suggestions in the immediate vicinity can all be viewed at a glance.
The operation is based on the user, not the other way around.
Exactly. The site seemed very overloaded. Now everything is restructured and therefore tidier and clearer. Above all, there is a subdivision into three subject areas – passports, travel and shop. But the content behind it will all remain the same.
Is there a transition period?
Yes. The entire passport lexicon and the shop are already available in the new design, the other content will gradually move. You are currently being redirected to the old design here and there, for example with tour suggestions. We want to do this as quickly as possible, but Rome wasn't built in a day either.
On the hands-on principle of quäldich.de hasn't changed?
No, everyone is welcome to get involved, for example by writing a description of their own favorite mountain or tour suggestions, writing experience reports, sharing hotel tips and so on. The next step planned here is to better support the user when entering such content. Contacting the editors is currently still via e-mail, but in the future it should be possible to write directly into an editorial system, similar to Wikipedia. So far, this has only been partially implemented.
Sounds like a lot of work that you put into the project. How many people are behind qualdich.de?
I'm the only one who works full-time for quäldich.de. I have an assistant who comes in three days a week and helps me with all the planning, logistics and administration, including shipping the orders. A large team in the background organizes trips and acts as guides on tours. And then there is a volunteer editorial team of about 15 people who standardize the texts that are contributed by users. This involves text length, writing style and structure as well as the setting of photos.
And how many people use qualdich.de?
In the summer we have 1,5 million page views per month. Of course less in winter.
Can you tell something about the history of quäldich.de? How and with whom did you come up with the idea?
Well, actually I wanted to do something sensible professionally (laughs). I studied computer science and mathematics in Bonn and got into racing cycling during this time. In the summer of 1998 I went on my first tour of the Alps with friends. Within this group, the idea of making a website about road cycling in the mountains came up very quickly. And at the same time, the idea came up to name this site, based on Udo Bölts' famous saying, "Quäldich". We then implemented that. It all started in the summer of 1998, which means we're older than Google, by the way (laughs). In the first few years, the content was simply on the page of my personal university account. In October 2000 we then acquired the domain Quäldich.de and described the passes and tours we drove ourselves here. We still drew the elevation profiles by hand. In short: It was a very private thing from a group of computer science nerds racing by bike. It wasn't planned at all for this to be a big deal.
But then it was.
Yes, somehow, very slowly and continuously. At some point someone came and said "Hey, you don't even have the Großglockner yet, here's a description for you." And we thought, "Cool, we'll enter that." At first everything was linked to private e-mail addresses. And such external contributions were suddenly being made more and more frequently. It was similar with the jerseys: First we designed them for ourselves and also drew a tormented logo. And suddenly more and more people were asking if the jerseys could also be bought. It was very important for the continuous development of quäldich.de that for a long time I was not dependent on it being worthwhile: after graduating in 2003, I worked part-time as an assistant at the university and did my doctorate. And at the same time I was able to push myself further.
And then at some point it paid off.
But very slowly. At first I had the naïve idea that I could make a living from banner advertising. It's now an important extra income, but it wasn't possible back then. The duality of travel and shop was actually more realistic. We are doing well with this and can now say that quäldich.de is financially sound.
What exactly are you offering?
We have various collections of high-quality cycling clothing in our range. Long and short jerseys and pants, arm warmers, waistcoats, winter jackets, in short: everything that racing cyclists need. Our passion for riding passes is expressed in the design and that obviously appeals to many road cyclists. People also like ours very much distressed calendar, which we have been offering for several years: impressive photos, supplemented with pass information and tour suggestions. Since 2011 we have also expanded our trips.
What are you offering here?
Short trips in the immediate vicinity and longer trips, wherever racing bikes are particularly fun, in accordance with our motto "main thing uphill": in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, in the Harz mountains, on Lake Constance and in the Vosges, in the Alps, Pyrenees and Dolomites , in France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, in several stages from one location or as a stage trip over several days from A to B. The highlight of 2015 was definitely our tour of Germany from Flensburg to Garmisch. In 2016, the Berlin-Vienna adventure or the long-distance journey from Garmisch to Florence are top of the list. We are planning these two trips with 100 racing cyclists. Normally, however, we have 30 participants on our trips.
What makes your travels special?
In addition to the whole organization such as accommodation and meals, this is certainly our special group structure, which guarantees a suitable group for every participant. We always accompany our trips with at least three guides. Because experience has shown that the participants are divided into three performance groups: the relaxed, the enduring and the sporty. With our three guides we manage to reconcile all the different performance classes. So you don't have to drive around as a lone fighter, but enjoy the group experience at "your" optimal speed. And we aim to know and drive the most beautiful routes.
Why does someone who loves road cycling in the mountains as much as you do live in Berlin?
Yes, these are the intricacies of life. Of course, I would also prefer to live in Freiburg, for example. But actually, since I've been living in Berlin, I'm even fitter than before. Here on the flat, I just have to always have tension on the chain to have the racing bike feeling. And I noticed that it also helps me on the mountain. As long as I keep the weight under control, I'm strong on the mountain. There are very nice stretches in Berlin, for example the Rauener Berge, which we affectionately call "Kackwellen". Seriously, I love the sound of rattling freewheels in the group behind me while working upwind. I can have that particularly often in and around Berlin.
Are you an ambitious racing driver?
I was actually never and I saw myself more as the persevering guy. Recently, however, we have also driven more ambitiously, for example on a legendary tour with some guides, the so-called Guide massacre, or at Rad am Ring. I would like to start there again in 2016. So I'm developing more in the sporty area, also in terms of serious life and training. But I don't want to overdo it. And with the quäldich trips and tours, the focus is on the shared experience, not outdoing one another.
What do you wish for the future of quäldich.de?
quäldich.de should remain the number one contact point for all mountain racing cyclists in German-speaking countries and increase its profile even further. Many amateur athletes benefit from quäldich.de - and I'm very happy about that. Of course it's nice when they identify with us to the extent that they wear our jerseys or travel with us. But that's not the focus at all. If quäldich.de continues to manage the balancing act to be so successful that we can make a decent living from it and further develop the offer, I will be very satisfied.
Jan, good luck and thank you for the interview.
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