Sigr at the Breisgau Triathlon in Germany

- Who are you?

My name is Marco Welter and I live in Freiburg im Breisgau in south west Germany. I am 42 years old and have loved cycling since I was 3 years old. A few years ago now, during my studying and time in the military, my weight climbed to an uncomfortable level reaching a peak of 120kg. Cycling was my saviour. I started cycling again. Every day. This together with a change in my nutrition saw my weight plummet to a healthy 84kg.

After enjoying a couple of years of mountain bike marathon racing, I switched to triathlon in 2016. This also meant me switching from mountain bike to road bikes.

- How did you meet Sigr and what made you start selling these products?

I visited the Eurobike Show in 2017 with a vision. I wanted to start a business in the sport sector. My plan was not yet ready, so I tried my hand at blogging about products. I met Sigr by accident at a trade fair where I saw their bike clothes. I immediately fell in love with the designs. After feeling the material and finding out about the special product features, I was officially in love with Sigr.

Being a blogger, Sigr gave me the chance to test the jersey, bib short and pack jacket. It was a great experience.

At the end of 2017, my vision for a sports shop was ready to start. The "Triathlon Concept Store" was born. The plan was to have an online store and later a local show room where people can look at, feel and try on the products. People would be able to check out and research my products online, and for the more expensive products come to a cool local store to get up close and personal. The final touch will be an online chat system partly by an intelligent bot and partly a personal chat by myself, run from the show room.

One of the concepts of the shop is to have only one manufactor per product group. For bike clothes, I chose Sigr and after a brief discussion with Jenny from Sigr, we had a deal.

- We hear you are going to an event in August and will be bringing Sigr apparel to sell on site. Tell us about it.

One of the selling strategies is to run a pop-up store at triathlon events. In 2018, I visited three. The first was in July in Freiburg where I showed Sigr Apparel. The next event is the one you heard about, it is the Breisgau Triathlon in Malterdingen, near Freiburg. It is an event with around 500 athletes doing middle or short distance races. The Triathlon Concept Store will be there at the finish line, selling Sigr cyclewear with some great special offers for the Hyacint and Havtorn cycle jerseys and Sigr's bib shorts.

- When buying cycle clothing in August, what do you think one should consider?

In southern Germany, the summer lasts until the middle of September and most years we get a "golden autumn" which means people can easily ride their bikes into October and November. Freiburg and the surrounding area is also a real cycling place which means a lot of people also ride throughout the winter too. Triathletes usually start training for the next season in October or November both inside and outside so there is no better time to buy cycling clothes than now.

I chose Hyacint and Havtorn especially because the Hyacint jersey is made with a slightly thicker material so it is perfect for colder days and the Havtorn cycle jersey comes in orange, not only a really lovely colour but also very visible - the perfect color for autumn because car drivers will see you better.

- What's your next cycling goal?

It depends a little bit on how much free time I get but I am planning a ride from Freiburg im Breisgau through Switzerland to Chiavenna in Italy. It is roughly 389km and 4500hm in altitude difference. I'll be trying to do it in one day but may have to rest in Chur (Switzerland) after 265km.

- Good luck Marco!