For the cyclist of the German Paralympic team, Michael Teuber, nothing stops him, especially on his bike. One more year the Olympic medalist returns to Gran Canaria to break all the barriers of this sport and climb the midlands and peaks of the island alongside the more than 500 participants of this edition.
Paracyclist Michael Teuber, who competes in track and road cycling in the C1 classification, holds the record for medals in this discipline representing Germany and his record of achievements is unrivaled. He has been a 5-time Paralympic champion, 21 time world champion, holds 10 world records and has been a 6-time World Cup winner.
He won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in individual, and in time trial, where he has historically been the leader, with a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, in London 2012, in Rio 2016, as well as silver in individual in Beijing 2008, and bronze in time trial in Tokyo 2020.
His volume of medals and sporting successes have not stopped growing in the last 20 years, with gold in the time trial at the 2014 Greenville Road World Championships, gold in the time trial and silver on the road in Nottwil 2015, gold in the time trial and silver in route in Bahía Comeau 2022, silver in the time trial in Glasgow 2023 and bronze in the same year in the road modality.
Teuber has been nominated for numerous awards, such as the Laureus Award in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2010 and as German Disabled Athlete of the Year, both in 2005 and 2009. In addition, he has twice been recognized with the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt and was named Paralympic Ambassador in 2008 by Sir Philip Craven, head of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Michael Teuber, born in Tegernsee, suffered a car accident in France at just 19 years old, which caused incomplete paraplegia of the spine and complete paralysis below the knee joint. He spent three years in a wheelchair, but just 10 years after the accident he was already competing in his first Paracycling World Championship. Teuber has been accumulating victories since 2008, and holds the world record for the UCI hour in the C1 classification with 42,583 kilometers, achieved in Velodrom (Berlin).
The EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts will feature Michael Teuber and will demonstrate that talent and effort always come before any problem or disability, with the German cyclist representing a group that, without a doubt, has him as a sporting reference.
The test will celebrate one of its most special editions on Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th, in an unprecedented international leap in the years of history of this event, which will receive cyclists from around twenty nationalities, is integrated into the UCI calendar and will host of the Gran Fondo World Championship, crowning the champions of the world circuit.
In addition, the EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts has launched its twinning with several events in Italy, such as the 5 Mila Marche, and the international Prosecco Cycling test in Valdobbiadene.
Cycling, differential value for Gran Canaria
The EPIC Gran Canaria RIU Hotels & Resorts will have two stages, with 115 kilometers and two timed sections on Saturday the 10th, and 75 kilometers and a competitive section on Sunday the 11th. This cycle sports race will launch an intense weekend of sport, with a first stage that starts from the RIU Palace Maspalomas on one of the most popular routes on the island, which runs through Arteara, Fataga, Tirajana and El Pajar to Pasito Blanco.
This first stage has a first timed section of 12,3 kilometers at 470 meters of altitude and an average inclination of 4,4%, which runs between Aqualand and Ayagaures, with the finish line at the Pedro González summit. The second time trial has 45 kilometers and 1.304 meters high, with an average slope of 4,7% in a circuit between Pasito Blanco on its way up to Ayacata, passing through Cercados de Espino, Soria, Barranquillo Andrés, the Las Niñas dam to Ayacata and with a great atmosphere throughout the entire journey.
The second stage has 75 kilometers of circuit and a time trial of 22 kilometers, at 1.304 meters high, and with an average slope of 4,7%. This stage passes through Fataga to Tirajana, in an explosive and dynamic time trial that will fill the town of Tunte with energy, to return to the RIU Palace Maspalomas via Santa Lucía, La Era, Vecindario, Doctoral and Bahía Feliz along the GC-65 and the GC-500.
