Hanna Lutz is one of those cyclists who couldn't go a day without pedaling, a cycloaholic. She is German from Ludwigsburg, a small town on the outskirts of Stuttgart, on the banks of the Neckar river, she has been cycling since she can remember, but she has never been allowed to use a racing bike. Then one day in 2016 she went into a bike shop and bought one. Too big for her, but that didn't matter. The important thing was to pedal. Seeing her pedaling on that bike that wasn't suitable for her, a dear friend of hers decided to give her the best gift of hers: building her a custom-made bike. As soon as Hanna gets on that bike, her love for her two-wheeled pedal invades her heart and soul.
Bikes, many bikes, more and more bikes. What attracts her are the long rides, the journeys and so she, together with some friends, crosses the French Alps from the mountains to the sea.
Hanna's passion is all thanks to the "right friendships", that is, the fact of having found a group of friends in Stuttgart who shares the same passion as her and the same way of looking at cycling: no tables, no coaches, just fun, long bikepacking trips and fast commutes with a fixed gear.
Hanna doesn't really train, her training is the 40 km daily to and from work, plus the endless days in the saddle during the weekend. More than training we would call it lifestyle.
Hanna defines herself as a true cyclist, not because she has a shiny, polished bike (on which, to our pride, the Miss Grape bags are beautifully displayed, but above all because she feels that without the bike her life would be empty. For her, every moment of her life involves cycling: going to work, visiting friends, on holiday. She has never had a car, she doesn't need it, all she needs is a bike and a train ticket (and living in Germany, Ed.) to get anywhere.
Thanks to cycling and travelling, Hanna met fantastic people, but above all she discovered enchanting places that she would never have enjoyed in the same way traveling fast in a car. Once, just over the top of the Oberallpass in Switzerland, she found herself in front of a magnificent mountain lake, the clear and almost silvery water reflecting the high peaks that surrounded it. Stendhal syndrome, we could venture, the fact is that she no longer wanted to leave, it was so beautiful. This is the real motivation that drives Hanna to travel: it is the search for beauty, fun and novelty.
In his cycling history there are also "exploits", such as the journey from Geneva to Nice, or the very famous Route de Grandes Alpes, 684 km, 15 Alpine passes and 15,713 meters of altitude, covered entirely on a fixed-gear bicycle.
“So many beautiful places, so much pain in my legs and so many great friends around me, which I think is my best cycling memory.”
Hanna is a real source of inspiration for anyone who wants to live their life in the saddle, because the only really important thing is to pedal, eat an ice cream as a reward and never take the Miss Grape Tendril 4.10 off the handlebars, because it's in there there is the essential for every bike ride, from home-work commuting to long tours... because when you leave home, you never know where the road takes you.
