One year after Jürgen Knupe’s phenomenal Panamericana Bikepacking trip we were keen to catch up with him to see how his VeloViewer infographic, and year wrapped, landed for 2025.
Jürgen tells us the story behind his impressive 30,000km year of riding, despite a hip replacement, his focus of increasing his MaxSquare, and shares the inspiration he gets from the tiling community in our VV Wrapped Q&A looking at the stats from his VeloViewer Infographic.
For 2025 (at the time of writing) Jurgen sits at the top of the VeloViewer Explorer Max Connected Row and Explorer Max Cluster Score leaderboards.
VV: What are you most proud of from your VV Wrapped?
Jürgen: The distance I’ve covered this year (30,000km), despite having to undergo a hip replacement at the end of August.
The number of new Tiles collected, which at almost 13,000 was nearly as high as in 2024, the year I completed most of my Panamericana trip.
VV: Which of your stats were you most focused on in 2025?
Jürgen: I wanted to increase my MaxSquare from 140 to 150, which I even managed to exceed at the end of November with 151. Increasing my MaxSquare now requires me to travel a long way from home, so I usually do multi-day tours on the edge of my MaxSquare. Another difficulty is that I am into more mountainous German terrain such as the Black Forest, Odenwald, Spessart, and Franconian Jura. These rides always include a significant amount of gravel and elevation gain, which makes them even more adventurous and varied.
On the other hand, I’m constantly trying to ride new routes, which of course means new tiles. Whenever possible, I try to combine this with increasing my cluster size.
VV: What challenges did you face in the year?
Jürgen: The biggest challenge was certainly that my right hip started causing more and more problems from May onwards. Due to congenital hip dysplasia, I had to have my left hip replaced back in 2020. I knew it was only a matter of time before the same would be necessary on the right. Before the surgery at the end of August, I became increasingly limited in what I could do but the recovery went very quickly, and I’ve been fully fit again since October.
VV: Are there any riders or adventures that inspire you?
Jürgen: Among the VeloViewer Tiles Hunters, there are several riders I admire, and I’m in contact with some of them. To name just a few:
Dead Balladur, who has an unassailable lead in the MaxSquare ranking (at least for me), and is constantly and consistently working to increase it.
Rafal Nowak, who also has a virtually unassailable lead in the overall Tiles ranking. Looking at his cluster, it quickly becomes clear that in a few months he could potentially lead all three major rankings (total tiles, MaxCluster, MaxSquare)! He rides an incredible number of long distances, mostly over 300km, and racks up tiles along the way!
Peat Faerie, with whom I’ve been having a bit of a battle for second place in the MaxSquare ranking for some time now. He just recently drawn level again on 151×151 ranking and will certainly overtake me again soon. I met him and his wife for dinner during a bikepacking trip through Poland with my girlfriend Mariagrazia in August.
Sem Elders, who was my closest competitor in the MaxCluster ranking in the middle of last year. He and his girlfriend visited me this year during a bikepacking tour in Munich.
Yorick Dix, whom I met a few years ago in Amsterdam. Back then, I was still competing with him for 6th place in the MaxCluster
Elmar Hogenboom, who has since built a far-reaching cluster from Denmark to Spain. Since I’ve started to build my cluster to Spain along the coastline from Genova to Dénia, I know how hard Elmar’s journey was, involving lots of hard gravel and hike a bike!
Everyone I’m in contact with is incredibly nice. We’re all united by the goal of having fun on our bikes. The mutual challenge often motivates us to go for an extra ride and collect an extra tile.
VV: Have you set yourself any targets for 2026?
Jurgen: I always set myself goals because it’s motivating and makes cycling even more interesting for me. I would have liked to reach 80,000 total tiles this year – unfortunately, I’ll miss that by a few hundred. But next year, 90,000!
I’d like to expand my MaxSquare to 160×160.
I’d like to get as close as possible to 50,000 tiles in the MaxCluster.
Besides these “official” numbers, I also try to include as many countries as possible in my cluster. I’m currently at 11. Contrary to my 2025 goals, I haven’t connected any new countries this year. Since I’m currently in Dénia, Spain, building a mini-cluster there, I definitely want to connect Spain at the beginning of next year. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands are still on my list. I’ve had the route plans for all of them on my computer for a long time – I just need to find the time!
Another big goal is a four-week bikepacking trip from Deadhorse, Alaska, to Vancouver, Canada, in July to complete the entire Panamericana route. Due to time constraints, I was only able to start from Vancouver to Ushuaia in August 2024.
Download your VeloViewer Year Wrapped via the Yearly infographic page on our website.