REAL EXPERTS IN REAL ESTATE
With these words, members of the Otto-Bock hand bike team, Stefan Lange and Tobias Knecht, explained the advantages of their training venue. Especially during the winter, you can meet in Lanzarote different sportsmen from all over the world. With a great variety of techniques and discipline, they prepare for their next season exactly like Stefan, Tobias and their team mates. The only difference for the hand bikers is that a perfect place to train is even more important, because their physical handicap only allows them to move powered by their arms.
For some years, members of the Otto-Bock racing team, together with a lot of other hand bikers from many different European countries, had come to Playa Blanca to prepare for the summer seasons. That year especially, things were even more important because there were not only the regular scheduled competitions, but the Paralympics in Beijing. Stefan said that during the winter they met in Playa Blanca the Czech National Team, also Doctor Hannes Koppen, who was the winner of the handicapped class in the Hawaii Ironman Competition.
TRAINING VENUE 2005
Over the last years we have seen that, here in the Municipality of Yaiza, there have been a rising number of hand bikers who, using only the power of their arms, propel their peculiar bikes from a sitting position. Curious to know more about this sport we talked to two of them during one of their tours.
“Playa Blanca is the perfect place to start a tour. Up to Yaiza there is only a 200 metres difference in height, perfect for warming up. After that you can choose lots of spectacular routes to go on with your training.”
With these words, members of the Otto-Bock hand bike team, Stefan Lange and Tobias Knecht, explained the advantages of their training venue. Especially during the winter, you can meet in Lanzarote different sportsmen from all over the world. With a great variety of techniques and discipline, they prepare for their next season exactly like Stefan, Tobias and their team mates. The only difference for the hand bikers is that a perfect place to train is even more important, because their physical handicap only allows them to move powered by their arms.
For some years, members of the Otto-Bock racing team, together with a lot of other hand bikers from many different European countries, had come to Playa Blanca to prepare for the summer seasons. That year especially, things were even more important because there were not only the regular scheduled competitions, but the Paralympics in Beijing. Stefan said that during the winter they met in Playa Blanca the Czech National Team, also Doctor Hannes Koppen, who was the winner of the handicapped class in the Hawaii Ironman Competition.
“Playa Blanca is perfect not only for our sport, it provides also ideal infrastructure and conditions. With wheelchairs such as ours, it is vey easy to move around and people here are very helpful and friendly, we often go for a drive along the promenade and have a coffee in the new marina. We have ideal conditions for our training, the roads are quite good and there is less traffic than on the other islands. Additionally we have a perfect climate. To find a place in the winter with similar weather you would have to go to the other side of the world, and that would be too expensive and complicated for many of us.”
