A TRAVEL DIARY BY LAURA & SARAH KASTENHUBER.
Both have received interdisciplinary training in their own cycling club, competing on both the track and the road. Sarah has already ridden for the Maloja Pushbikers FEM women’s team and was later part of the Spanish professional women’s team Sopela Women Team, for which she also competed in the Vuelta a España Femenina. Her younger sister Laura has won several medals in recent years at the German Track Championships in the individual pursuit and points race.
What unites both sisters is cycling as a fundamental part of their lives from a very young age. You could almost say: life without cycling is simply unimaginable for them.
When asked which three people they would most like to invite over, they answer without hesitation: “As long as they’re cyclists, there will always be great stories.” And when asked, “What would you do immediately?” their reply is: “Hop on a plane and ride under the sun.”
Full of life, carefree, and ambitious — that’s exactly the spirit Laura and Sarah took with them when they headed to Australia in February. Not exactly just around the corner for their 2025 season preparation. Want to know what their journey Down Under was all about? Find out here.
“Why don’t you go to Australia for a preseason training camp?”
In the dull, gray November, Pushbikers’ boss Christian Grasmann planted the idea. What followed was a six-week trip from Melbourne to Sydney and Brisbane, during which we took part in three rounds of the Australian Provelo Superleague and made true friends along the way on our road trip.
The small travel group boarding the A380 from Munich to Melbourne consisted of us – sisters Sarah and Laura. We are 22 and 19 years old and have already raced all across Europe. Our father, Alex, is a former professional cyclist who competed in races all over the world during his active career. “Cycling will take you around the world,” he used to say. Inspired by his words, we began planning. Since both of us are taking a gap year after finishing university and school, it was the perfect time. Our travel companions were two different bikes: Laura chose the Argon 18 Sum to have the ideal setup for fast training rides and even faster races. Sarah wanted to add a bit of Outback gravel experience to her training and therefore went with the Krypton, which she could convert with road wheels.
Time flew by – from the day we booked our flight to the moment we said goodbye to Germany for quite a while. After 22 hours of travel, we safely arrived at our first destination: Bendigo. There, we had the chance to stay with an Australian family who had already been a second home for Christian and many Pushbikers riders over the years. As a result, we were immediately and warmly integrated into the town’s social life – because even before we arrived, everyone already knew that two German girls were coming to visit for two weeks.
During training, we got to experience the Australian way of life just as we had always imagined — luckily without any dangerous animals. For two weeks, we enjoyed sun and heat, which “forced” us to start our rides early in the morning. Early group rides were the routine — sometimes just the two of us, other times alongside local riders. Along the way, we saw hundreds of kangaroos hopping beside the road or even right in front of us.
What lay ahead felt like something straight out of one of those cliché road trip movies – almost too perfect to be true: hours of driving, singing our favorite songs at the top of our lungs, and probably more coffee stops than we’ve ever had while cycling. Our rental car was packed to the brim with all our bikes and bags, but somehow, over time, we became true Tetris masters when it came to packing.
From Bendigo, the first long drive up to Sydney for the opening race weekend awaited us – and all of it on the “wrong” side of the road, since Australians famously drive on the left. With the Harbour City Grand Prix, we slowly found our way back into racing after the winter break in Germany, and with each race, our excitement for the next one grew – along with our enthusiasm for the 2025 season, for which Australia was just the beginning.
Away from cycling, we blended in with the tourists and explored the surroundings. From a rainy Sydney, we continued on to Coffs Harbour, where we really felt the change in climate: from sunny, dry Bendigo to rainy Sydney, and then to humid New South Wales, where the forests felt more like jungles.
The second race weekend was the legendary Grafton-Inverell race. A very special highlight for us, as our father had competed in it himself a few years ago. After a rather long race—110 km for the women and 230 km for the men—we moved on to our next and final destination: the Brisbane area, where we got to experience the beautiful beaches of the Gold Coast. The Q-Tour was probably the highlight of the Provelo Superleague finale, especially the 90 km queen stage with a 2 km uphill finish. It was a real pleasure to race alongside all the international girls!
Over the weeks, we found a perfect rhythm of training, racing, and sightseeing. During our last few days together in Australia, we tried to fit in as many adventures as possible – but the absolute highlight of the trip for all of us was the legendary Australia Zoo near the Sunshine Coast, where we got to pet koalas and kangaroos! We will never forget how soft their fur was.
When people ask us about Australia and our time there, one key insight stands out: this country is all about its people. And the people we had the chance to meet made our time there truly unforgettable.
Photo
— Dion Jelbart
— Auriol C Photography
— Kobe Henderson
Photo
— Richard Scriven
— Private