My name is Maximilian Brandl, I´m 23 years old and professional cyclist at Lexware Mountainbike Team.

 

I was born near Stuttgart, grew up in Lohr, where my home club is, the RV Victoria Wombach. In the end of the 2015 season I moved to Freiburg in the south-west of Germany. Here I started studyng Biology and I´ve been profiting from the good training possibilities, such as the Olympic training center, many other top level cyclists and the neighbourhod to my team headquarter in Kirchzarten.

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My first international success was in 2014 in U19 category, when I had a constant season in between the top10 and top20 at the UCI Junior Series and at my first world championships in Hafjell (Norway) before I had a puncture in the last lap laying on 8th position (I finished 17th).

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In 2015 I made it to an international top level, winning the UCI Junior Series in Gränichen (Switzerland), the German national championships and the silver medal at the world championships in La Massana (Andorra) - still one of my greatest experiences.

Also in the first year of U23 category I could increase my level, but had to work myself up through the world ranking. Step by step my world cup results became better: 16th, 11th, 8th and finally 4th in La Massana. Of course that was my highlight in that season, especially because I had a sickness before the world championships in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) and only reached the 28th place.

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My second year of U23 category brought incredible highs but very hard lows as well. After starting super successfully in the season with a 2nd place at HC race Bad Säckingen and winning the HC categorized Bundesliga in Heubach. Only two days later I broke my left wrist and was forced to wear a cast for 6 weeks. But I worked very hard and had great support during that time and 4 weeks later I was back on my level and could reach my best world cup result so far: 2nd place in Lenzerheide (Switzerland). Two weeks later I won my second national title after having a mechanical in the first lap that cost me 1:30 min. One week later, next low: European Championships. After falling back on nearly the last position after one lap I still couldn´t find my strengths or concentration and I quit to not risk a crash or further physical problems. Luckily I had enough time to solve the problems until world championships in September in Cairns, Australia. It has been my biggest success to win the bronze medal there and I´m very thankful about everyone who supported me and brought me that far.

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2018 started with an early world cup and a training camp in South Africa which went quite well. Then I had some very very good results before the home world cup in Albstadt. But after that luck wasn´t on my side and none of the world cups and the world championships as well went as I hoped. At least I could defend my national champion title and win the sliver medal at the world championships team-relay. Luckily the end of the season had some sweet moments for me. Together with my teammate Georg Egger I could win the Ford Epic Israel S1 partner stage race and had two more great results during the Israel trip. It was a very emotional victory which gave me back the power and motivation to work harder than ever for the 2019 season.

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Beside the bad luck of crashing very hard in Albstadt in 2018, on what I had no influence, I knew what I had to do better and how to change my mindset for the 2019 world cup season. My confidence in the international races came back step by step only but I was able to see the progress. At the end of the first half of the season it was enough to go for the elite national championships though I was still in U23 category. The only goal was to win that title, nothing less. It was even more interesting because the race took place at the town where I grew up and it was a big challenge to stand the pressure of that situation and change it into positive energy but I made it - what a success and relieve. Two weeks later at the world cup in Andorra I managed to take a first B-qualification for the Olympics and the next week I even made the A-qualification with a 2nd place in Les Gets. At the end of the season I had another two B-qualifications but finished my U23 years without a world cup win, a big goal I missed. Although I made some big achievements and won the last three races of the season, which were all in elite category, I had the feeling that I would need to change something to make the next step and to develop further. So I did what many athletes do in a situation like this and changed to another coach, which sounds like an easy step but wasn`t an easy decision at all, because I knew that once made there is nothing but 100 % trust into it. Nevertheless I thank Marc Schäfer for beeing a good coach and friend during my four years of U23, he`s doing a great job as U19 national coach of Germany and maybe we`ll see him as U23/Elite national coach somewhen in the future.   

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About David List, my teammate who also lives in Freiburg and has been working together with Fabian Neunstöcklin already during the 2019 season, I knew he has been training really a lot, probably more than me. So I thought I had an image of what kind of winter would come towards me but I didn`t think I could train as much as we did in the end. Even today I can`t believe how good I got along with the increase of volume and intensity. The season started well with the Cyprus Sunshine Epic but found a sudden stop after the world wide spread of the covid-19 pandemic. The UCI froze the world ranking and no races took place until July. During that time I spent most of the time at my girlfriend`s family and helped at jobs around their organic bakery beside the training. The first race I did was unfortunately compromised by the preparation for an exam I had a few days earlier, but a week after that I toped my numbers from the race during training easily and the back problems I had from the studying  were gone aswell.

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Since 2015 I changed my nutrition to vegan. At first I did it just for health reasons and it was not a sudden cut but after getting into that topic I decided to be strict. I´m not missing anything, except that plant based food are sometimes not that functional for cooking or baking, but veganism is also about seeing animals not as something functional or kind of tool, but as equal creatures. Nowadays, vegan recipes also have endless possibilities and with a little bit of creativity there are nearly no boundaries set to you.

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Now I´m looking forward to the 2021 season.