All matters of honour: Merkur reporter completes all journeys to the European Championships by bike

The temptation was: get on the U2 close to home and get off the U2 close to the competition.

However: where, if not at home in Munich, can one fulfill the age-old dream of the frantic reporter?

Munich - Everywhere by bike - being independent of your own car (the worst idea anyway for major sporting events, where parking tickets are as scarce as Rolex watches), public transport or shuttle services.

Since the European Championships are also only a self-proclaimed mini-Olympics and not an actual Olympics, there is also no "Olympic Lane", a separate lane for accredited persons - which in times like these would lead to civil war. With the wheel you roll almost directly at the start - without anyone being bothered by it.

And if there's a competition you should cycle to, it's cycling, of course.

On the track.

matter of honour.

There seem to be good European Championships for the cycling community.

So far, the reporter has managed to drive into the Olympic Park every day.

Only once was there an announcement from the security personnel: "Schiiieeeben!"

The route from the city center to the exhibition center in Riem is - well - a joyless flat stage.

But you also have to go where it hurts.

So to Berg am Laim, which is one long straight.

At the weekend follows the king's stage of the regatta in Oberschleißheim (a round-the-world trip by public transport) - and at some point, when no one is looking, I try my eight-speed belt drive bike on the Olympiaberg - Munich's Alpe d'Huez.

GUNTER SMALL