Book by Julian Barth: Race Across America 2023 - Fritz Geers #675
If you would have liked to leaf through a book the way a team navigates the Race Across America, then this book would have been the right one for you. Unfortunately, the 200 printed copies have been sold, but you have the opportunity to find out more about Julian Barth's book 'Race Across America 2023 - Fritz Geers #675' on this page and to register for updates on the next book, which is already in development is. Both books are about the Race Across America, in which photographer Julian Barth from Dortmund accompanies Fritz 2023 as he covers 4,828 kilometers by bike in 10 days, 23 hours and 09 minutes. The books not only document enormous landscapes across America, but also a journey that friends, family and partners can experience as if they had been there themselves. Fritz plans to take part in the Race Across America again and Julian's work on the next book has already begun. For the upcoming book, you have the opportunity to receive updates by email, follow the creation of the new book and secure a copy early.
What is this book?
The Race Across America book by Julian Barth and his design team is no ordinary book. You open this book to immerse yourself in the surreal world of ultracycling: using information next to the page numbers, you navigate through the book like the team through America. By arranging the images and choosing the paper, you get a feel for what ultracycling feels like. And you'll discover lots of other little details throughout the pages that will keep you coming back to it again and again.
Extreme sports illustrated book
This book is not a 200-page guide to doing ultracycling yourself. The book is presented as if you were talking to someone from the team about Fritz RAAM. It describes ultracycling in pictures and quickly gets to the point. It is created from personal memories and stories from the team without being filled with unnecessary things just to make it have more pages.
Ultracycling book
The book answers many questions: It shows the many emotional and physical ups and downs of the Race Across America. It provides an understanding of why Fritz does this to himself, how he deals with the heat, how he eats during the extreme stress, how the team endures the race and what the preparation for such a project looks like mentally, physically and logistically.
Give a book as a gift
The book was not made to be sold in stores. The edition of the Race Across America book 2023 was deliberately limited to 200 copies. Copies that did not reach friends or acquaintances were bought by sponsors, photo book lovers or collectors to be given away. What the next Race Across America book will look like is still being planned. You can sign up for updates to see how the next book is gradually being created.
Data about this book
The book feels exactly like the route book from the Race Across America. If you open the cover, you can unfold an 87 centimeter wide map of America with various details of the RAAM route. The book also has two paper changes that underline the thematic change between the preparation, the racing part and the closing.
Book format
21.5 x 32.0 centimeters
Book binding
Endless metal spiral – soft cover
Photography
Julian Barth
Cartography
Luisa Zolnowski
Book design
Julian Barth
Jonas Brüggemann
Viola Design
Scope
212 pages
Collection of texts
184 illustrations
Font
Pirelli Regular, Pirelli Bold by Karel Martens and Jungmysung Lee, 2017 — 2018
Language & Publishing
The book was published in German. The edition is limited to 200 books, consecutively and manually numbered. The price when published was €50.00/book. If you are interested in updates about the new book, you can sign up for news below.
How did this book come about?
The photographer Julian Barth rides a lot of racing bikes and has a history in competitive sports. As a former handball player, he enjoys playing and working in a team. Julian has often heard about the Race Across America and its impressive atmosphere. He is fascinated by the extremes at RAAM and would like to capture the project photographically while he is part of the team - a challenge from which he would like to learn and grow. With the book he has set himself the goal of capturing and showcasing the landscape atmosphere, the emotions in the team, various characters and the athlete's inner conflicts in pictures.
Image selection
After the RAAM, Julian sorts 11,877 images from the trip through the USA. He prints out 1,000 of them and pins them to a bulletin board in the living room for further processing. He sorts the photos so that they best show the atmosphere of the race and decides to include 184 of them in the book. In addition, team portraits, pictures in preparation and of the equipment are taken.
Design
Julian works with the two editorial designers Jonas Brüggemann and Viola Dessin on the book design. The map of America is designed by the architect Luisa Zolnowski. Characteristics such as recurring movement patterns in ultracycling, navigation, short breaks, bad asphalt or the long route should be transferred into the body of the book. The page numbers and chapters are structured so that daily data on kilometers, altitude and sleep can always be found.
Paper selection
Paper is carefully selected that grips like the asphalt in the USA:
- Circle Offset Premium White 350 g/m2
- Circle Offset Premium White 120 g/m2
- Profisilk 170 g/m2
Binding
The design team describes the behavior of how pages turn and the story is told as “book rhythm”. The team tests different types of binding and consciously decides on an endless metal spiral. The work on the book lasted several months and was accompanied by many challenges.
In terms of craftsmanship, demanding challenges are particularly posed to the printing company that is supposed to print the book. Therefore, two books are produced in-house, which display the colors correctly and represent the finished result. After a suitable printing company has been found, Julian and his design team check the printing of the books and do little other work on the book in order to achieve a professional result.
Development of the next book
The Race Across America book 2023 was a complete success. Fritz wants to be at the start again in 2025 and complete the race in less than 10 days. Julian accompanies him photographically and there will be another exciting book that also looks at ultracycling from a scientific perspective. While the new project is in progress, it is possible to receive occasional updates about the work on the new book.
RAAM Book 2026
The new book will again be designed to make a good gift. It will cover many other aspects of preparing for a Race Across America in pictures and text and show how Fritz prepares for RAAM over several years. The book should be different than the book about the RAAM 2023 because the race will also be different: Fritz doesn't just want to get to the finish line, he wants to be faster - he optimizes his entire everyday life as an athlete for this. The next book will also be about that.
Publication
You can enter your email address below so as not to miss the publication and to receive occasional insights into the work on the Race Across America book 2026, as well as current insights into Fritz preparation. As soon as the book is available for pre-order, you can reserve one of the first copies.
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