Pro biker from Germany keeps coming back for Wisconsin's Tour of America's Dairyland race

Bike parts lay on the patch of grass between the sidewalk and Tyler Street in Cedarburg while professional biker and Germany native Wolfgang Brandl's support team services his bicycle.

They are preparing Brandl, 38, for a 75-minute race around four blocks in the city, the sixth of 11 locations on the Kwik Trip Tour of America's Dairyland bike race series.

A day earlier, during the Tour De Pere, the fifth race in the series, one of the wheels on Brandl's bike was damaged when another rider's pedal hit it. The quiet residential area on Tyler street is the unofficial pit stop where Brandl's support team ensures his bike is in tip-top condition.

Wolfgang and ToAD's history

Brandl lives in Germany, but he keeps being drawn back to Wisconsin for the Tour of America’s Dairyland, or ToAD, bike races. He's one of the people from 15 other countries to come to Wisconsin to compete in the ToAD series since its genesis in 2009.

Brandl rides with his professional biking teammates from the German group the Maloja Pushbikers.

ToAD is an 11-day criterium race series through Wisconsin communities. Criterium bike racing, also known as crit racing, is a short lapped-circuit race. There are typically 8-10 category races held each day of the series.

According to the ToAD webpage, founders Tom Schuler and Billy Ochowicz believe that everyone should have access to a world-class bicycle racing experience.

According to the executive director of ToAD, Bill Koch, even if bikers do not finish the 75 minutes of laps there are still cash prizes to be won during the course of the race. These cash prizes are called "primes" (pronounced "preems" after the French word for "gifts") and have offered at as much as $5,000 in past years.

"Primes can change the dynamic of race flows," said Koch.

Brandl mentioned nothing of these cash prizes in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, though. One thing he did talk about was his longtime love for biking.

Even on his vacations, Wolfgang Brandl can be found biking. He trains between two and four hours per day on his bike and averages 40 to 70 miles of biking per day.

Brandl started bike racing when he was a child, but stopped when he went to university to get his degree. In 2009, when he was 23, he returned to the racing scene.

He came to Wisconsin for the first time in 2016 after his friends told him about the Tour of America's Dairyland races.

What keeps Wolfgang Brandl coming back to Wisconsin?

Due to Wisconsin's history of being home to many German immigrants, Brandl enjoys the familiarity of the culture here.

"The food is very similar, we also have a lot of dairy, we eat a lot of cheese, a lot of fried stuff," Brandl said. "The second names of people are German, and some even speak German, or their grandfather or grandmother speaks it."

Although Brandl was thinking of retiring from the Tour of America's Dairyland races this year, once he had finished his 75 minutes of racing, he had firmly changed his mind about this being his last ToAD race.

"I'm just having so much fun," said Brandl amid the ringing of cowbells held by the cheering spectators lining the sidewalks of Washington Avenue. "I made so many friends here, so it would be hard not to come back."

He thought of retiring because he believed that 38 years old would be a good age to retire. If he doesn't race professionally in the coming years, he will be racing in the amateur category.

Wolfgang Brandl won the Janesville Town Square Grand Prix

Brandl won first place in the Janesville Town Square Grand Prix, the first race of this year's ToAD. He also earned enough overall points to place third in the ToAD Cheddar Series Omniums.

The official Tour of America's Dairyland website lists the results of each race on their results page.

ToAD’s final two races of 2024 are the Café Hollander Otto Wenz Downer Classic Saturday, June 22, and the Cafe Hollander Tosa Village Classic Sunday, June 23.

Plans for the rest of his trip

Brandl planned to join a short community ride out of Wauwatosa on June 21.

"We do a one-hour spin of juniors," said Brandl. "We try to be idols for younger people to get into the sport and bring more people's attention."

Brandl said that he is going to stay even longer than the duration of the ToAD series, because he has so many friends to visit. He said they will explore the cities and the countryside along with some stops at museums and lakes.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bike racer from Germany 'just having so much fun' at ToAD series