Road cycling in the Ore Mountains: These four tours will take your breath away

Beat Bünzli flies up the ascent from Antonsthal towards Antonshöhe in the heart of the Ore Mountains, a blissful smile on his face as if he were going downhill and not uphill at much more than ten per cent. Bünzli knows a thing or two about flying; the Swiss-born pilot once set several world records as a glider pilot. But the fact that he flies up the ramps on his bike is simply down to the fact that Bünzli is on an e-road bike. As a die-hard purist, you could now turn up your nose. But you could also leave it at that and give Bünzli the electric support from the bottom of your heart - because the man is rapidly approaching 80.

Bünzli invited me to explore his adopted home, the Ore Mountains, on a racing bike. He moved here many years ago; as a building contractor, he was originally only supposed to build a hotel, but after a few too many beers - and a few too many schnapps - he was persuaded to take over the running of the hotel he had built, "Am Kurhaus". He signed the contract on a beer mat back then, and today the hotel is a partner of the cycle tour operator Roadbike Holidays.

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I have to confess: Before the invitation, I knew next to nothing about the region in south-east Saxony - apart from the well-known clichés about nutcrackers, smokers and other carved kitsch in the form of angels and Christmas pyramids. And I knew FC Erzgebirge Aue, a football club that seems to be promoted or relegated between the second and third division every year. I had never heard of the more than eight centuries of mining history in the region, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2019 as the "Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region".

Years ago, Beat Bünzli not only fell madly in love with his current wife, but also with the Ore Mountains, which he raves about: "You have it just as beautiful here as in Appenzell. Unspoilt nature, wonderful views, relatively little car traffic. Only the very long mountain passes are missing compared to Switzerland." But, according to cycling enthusiast Bünzli, "there are one or two climbs that will kill you if you're travelling without an E." Bünzli and Roadbike Holidays have recruited Olaf Ludwig and Mario Kummer as guides for their road bike camps in the Ore Mountains. Ludwig, once one of the best sprinters in the world, Olympic road race champion in 1988 and winner of the green jersey at the 1990 Tour de France, had to struggle up the steep ramps in the Ore Mountains several times as an active racer during the legendary Peace Tour. "Fuck you," says the now 65-year-old, "I really don't need that anymore."

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"Steep, miserable roads, dirty and bad air" was how Ludwig, a child of the GDR, remembered the region for many years. What's more, the Ore Mountains were always considered more of a mountain biker's paradise. Almost 40 years later, Ludwig got to know the region anew as a bike guide and says almost the same thing as Bünzli: "It's really cool here. You have cycle paths that are easy to cycle on, relatively little traffic even on the main roads and always wonderful views." However, Ludwig, once a world-class professional and now the self-proclaimed "King of the Cappuccino Group", has to admit one thing: "I'm really good at chatting as a tour guide, but I really can't talk the climbs in the Erzgebirge flat."

Beat Bünzli is therefore now travelling with support. "Always at the lowest level," he emphasises, "so it's still a challenge." He looks at me mischievously: "How about it?" he asks and offers me the chance to test his e-road bike for a day - knowing full well that many road cyclists would rather put up with a puncture and thorns in their tyres than use a motor on their road bike. But I'm curious and have never ridden an e-racer like this before. It makes no sense for me at home in the flatlands. What's the point if the motor stops pushing at 25 km/h and the guys from the cycling group accelerate to 40 km/h? But here in the Ore Mountains ... Bünzli catches me at exactly the right moment. I've had a few stressful weeks at work, I've hardly trained, I've long been allowed to ride in the over-60 age group anyway, and my mate Matze doesn't arrive in the Erzgebirge until two days later. It's best not to tell him about it and I finally accept Beat Bünzli's friendly offer with thanks.

Uphill like Pogi

After just a few kilometres from Bad Schlema, I come to a climb near the village of Lauter, which is called the "Teufelstein" and is just as devilish. In any case, the climb was categorised as the most difficult in the Peace Tour. For the first few metres, I'm still convinced that I don't need the electric assistance - but at 18 per cent, a motor can really help. And because it's so smooth and I feel like Tadej Pogačar even on the steepest sections, by the end of the day I've run out of battery and spare battery.

But okay, firstly Beat Bünzli needs his e-road bike again and secondly I'd rather do the rest of the tours using only muscle power. Tours through deeply incised valleys and with some brutal climbs where I would have liked to have had the e-road bike. Tours through places with names like Oberpfannenstiel, Sauschwemme, Kuhschnappel and, on the Czech side, Gottesgab, Jungenhengst, Hefekloß and Sauersack. Road bike tours that sometimes lead over hard gravel, but on lonely little roads through enchanted forests, such as the Riesenberg houses behind the Sosa dam. Or past the bizarrely shaped Devil's Stones between Steinbach and Erlabrunn - not related or related by marriage to the disgusting climb near Lauter.

And we cycled past sights that definitely don't exist anywhere else in the world. In Johanngeorgenthal, for example, the largest free-standing candle arch in the world towers above the town. The arch symbolises heaven or the gateway to paradise and the lights on it represent the miners' longing for daylight. The candle arch near Johanngeorgenthal on the border with the Czech Republic is an impressive 25 metres wide, almost 15 metres high with candles and consists of 700 tonnes of reinforced concrete and 15 tonnes of stainless steel. You don't have to think it's pretty, but it's certainly impressive.

Twice we were on a neighbourhood tour in the Czech Republic. Once we crossed the border from Rittersgrün on a towel-wide but perfectly tarmaced little road. The other time we followed the small Černá river from Johanngeorgenthal and ended up on an impressive plateau. Hundreds of small hills characterise the heath landscape, so-called Raithalden. These are spoil heaps that were created hundreds of years ago during tin soaping, i.e. the extraction of tinstone. In the east of this peculiar landscape, the Fichtelberg and, directly opposite on the Czech side, the Keilberg both rise a good 1,200 metres into the air.

In the restaurant in the hamlet of Rýžovna, we are greeted in German, and here too they actually say "Glück Auf" instead of "Guten Tag". The eager landlord recommends lamb ribs and tells us, without being asked, that the legendary singer Karel Gott, the "golden voice from Prague", always favoured the lamb ribs at his restaurant. Like most of the other cyclists in the beer garden, we prefer to just drink a non-alcoholic grapefruit-flavoured beer. Most of the people sitting on the beer benches next to us are mountain bikers. As beautiful as it may be on the plateau, the roads there are unfortunately still pretty bumpy, although improvements are supposedly in sight. But if you're currently on a gravel bike instead of a racing bike, you're doing everything right on the tours to the Czech Republic.

On the trail of the peace ride

One of our four routes is a little out of the ordinary. We leave the Ore Mountains and head north-west through the Zwickauer Land region to a small, inconspicuous town called Meerane. It's Sunday lunchtime and hardly anyone is outside the door. Once upon a time, thousands of spectators stood here on the steep Meerane wall and cheered on the cyclists during the Peace Ride. Officially, the cobbled ramp through the town is 13 per cent steep, according to other sources 14 per cent, but it seems steeper. And above all, the Steep Wall of Meerane harbours another pitfall that made it a feared obstacle in cycling races: "You came round the bend in the race and were completely baffled, it built up out of nowhere," recalls Olaf Ludwig. "And because many racers still had 53/11 chained at the start and couldn't shift gears so quickly, they would ride in serpentine lines or even fall over."

Hundreds of years ago, it was called "Berggeschrey" when rich ore or silver was found in the Erzgebirge, the news spread quickly and a mining district soon developed. What Beat Bünzli does today could also be described as "Radgeschrey". Out of love for his adopted home and the sport of racing cycling, he is once again stepping on the gas to ensure that the Ore Mountains develop into a veritable racing cycling region. The region has what it takes.

Information on

Journey

Railway: Our Aue-Bad Schlema location can be reached from Frankfurt am Main and Berlin with two changes in just over five and four hours respectively; from Hamburg with at least two changes in six and a half hours. To take your bike with you, you need a parking space reservation and bike ticket, which costs from 7.99 euros to 14.99 euros depending on the distance, booking date and train capacity utilisation. It is around three kilometres from the train station to the "Am Kurhaus" hotel; a taxi ride costs around 13 euros.

Car: From Hamburg to our Aue-Bad Schlema site via Leipzig and Zwickau a good five hours, from Frankfurt am Main around four hours.

Accommodation

Aue-Bad Schema, Hotel Am Kurhaus, telephone 03772/3717-0, am-kurhaus.com

The 4-star hotel is a member of Roadbike Holidays, a group of hotels that specialise in the needs of road cyclists (www.roadbike-holidays.com). E-car drivers will find two quick-charging points in the hotel car park. Good breakfast, super nice service, varied and very good cuisine in the Beatus restaurant. Double room with breakfast from 160 euros. If you want to relax after a bike tour, you can do so in the hotel's Ayurveda centre and in the Actinon health spa right next door - with sauna, saltwater pool and cold chamber.

Don't miss it!

• Cycling marathon: With 290 kilometres, almost 5,000 metres of elevation gain and around a dozen steep ramps of up to 18 percent, the Stoneman Midiquiri Road is one of the toughest cycling marathons in Germany. Those who complete the route through the Ore Mountains in one day can receive the Stoneman trophy in gold, those who take two days are rewarded with silver, and three-day finishers receive bronze. Info: road.stoneman-miriquidi.com Mountain bikers can expect 162 kilometres with 4,400 metres of elevation gain on the trails along the Erzgebirge ridge. Info: www.stoneman-miriquidi.com
• Mining: You can learn interesting facts about the centuries-old history of mining in the Ore Mountains in the region's visitor mines and mining museums. A selection can be found at www.erzgebirge-tourismus.de/welterbe-bergstaedte/museen-ausstellungen-bergwerke
• Space travel: In honour of the first German in space, the cosmonaut Siegfried Jähn, a space exhibition was set up in his home town of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz: www.deutsche-raumfahrtausstellung.de
• Jens Weißflog: Jens Weißflog was the first and only ski jumper to win gold at the Olympic Games in the traditional parallel style (1984 in Sarajevo) and in the V-style (1994 in Lillehammer). In 2024, the four-time winner of the Four Hills Tournament opened the "Olympika" exhibition in his hotel in Oberwiesenthal, where you can retrace Weißflog's extraordinary career. Information at jens-weissflog.de/olympika
• Chemnitz: Chemnitz is the European Capital of Culture in 2025. But it is not just the city itself that hosts numerous cultural events throughout the year. Exciting art projects can be seen throughout the region, such as the "Purple Path" art and sculpture trail. Information at chemnitz2025.de

Food & Drink

Over the centuries, Erzgebirge cuisine has also been characterised by the numerous immigrants who came to the region to find work after each so-called "Berggeschrey" - the news of rich ore discoveries. Potatoes are the main ingredient in many dishes. Known elsewhere as potato pancakes or potato pancakes, the Erzgebirge "Klitscher" are served either as a sweet version with sugar and apple sauce or as sour Klitscher with sauerkraut. Buttermilchgetzen, another potato dish made from raw and cooked grated potatoes, is also available sweet or savoury. The so-called "Raachemaad" is made by mixing potatoes from the previous day with quark and linseed oil and baking them in a pan or casserole dish. Schwammebrieh" is a mushroom soup and "griene Kließ", or green dumplings, are often served with meat dishes, whereby they differ from other dumplings due to their high proportion of raw potatoes.

TOUR tips

• Eibenstock (16 kilometres south of Bad Schlema) Ybnstoker Brewery, phone 037752/879850, www.ybnstoker.de: The brewery brews first-class craft beer. The range includes exotic beers such as Siberian Birch Ale, but also a palatable pale lager called BSG Wismut Hell. Especially for racing cyclists, they brew "Kettenöl", a naturally cloudy cyclist beer with an alcohol content of 2.4 per cent; only a completely alcohol-free beer is (still) missing.
• Czech Republic: Both of our tours through the Czech Republic come across the Salaš Rýžovna restaurant (restaurantguru.com/Restaurace-Salas-Ryzovna-Bozi-Dar) at a crossroads, which serves good Czech home cooking. If roast pork with dumplings or goulash are too heavy for you during a bike tour, you can simply enjoy a refreshing non-alcoholic grapefruit-flavoured beer in the beer garden. An alternative to the restaurant is the Bistro Pila-Brettmühl (www.facebook.com/BistroPila) just behind Potůčky. From a covered wagon, the very friendly owners sell bratwurst and steak in a roll as well as chilled drinks.

Bike service

The Hotel Am Kurhaus in Bad Schlema is one of many certified Roadbike Holidays locations (www.roadbike-holidays.com / www.gravelbike-holidays.com) and offers the usual services (workshop, route suggestions, packed lunches, return service in the event of a breakdown) as well as guided road bike tours with Olaf Ludwig and Mario Kummer as guides. If you would like to hire a bike, you can book it in advance. In addition to normal racing bikes, e-racing bikes are also available. Prices per day: 32 euros for both racing bikes and e-road bikes (per week: 200 euros).

Info

Tourismusverband Erzgebirge e.V., phone 03733/18800-0, www.erzgebirge-tourismus.de (under "Summertime" you will find lots of information on cycling), the guest information centre in the spa town of Bad-Schlema is a stone's throw away from the Hotel Am Kurhaus. Info: www.kurort-schlema.de

Literature and maps

Travel guide "Erzgebirge und Sächsisches Vogtland", Reise Know-How-Verlag, 2022, 384 pages, 19.90 euros. Map Marco Polo leisure map "Erzgebirge, Chemnitz", 1:100,000, 2021 edition, 8.95 euros.

Tour character

In the Ore Mountains with their deeply carved valleys, it is not uncommon to encounter ramps with a gradient of around 15 per cent, so a 100-kilometre route can easily accumulate 1,500 to 2,000 metres in altitude. Most of the small farm tracks over the wooded hills are not tarmac, so it is risky to deviate from our recommended routes on a racing bike. But even on our routes, you have to put up with short passages over firm, easily rideable gravel - but then they lead us to particularly scenic corners. On the sections in the Czech Republic, the roads are all tarmac, but some of them are quite bumpy. Around Aue in particular, you have to expect a little more traffic on the country roads. And one thing unfortunately doesn't seem to have sunk in yet in the Ore Mountains: that drivers have to keep a distance of 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists. Sometimes it feels more like 1.5 centimetres.

Orientation

The Ore Mountains were once called Miriquidi - also Mirikwidi - which translates as "dark forest". Even today, the densely wooded low mountain range stretches from southern Saxony to Bohemia in the Czech Republic. The highest peaks are the 1,243 metre high Keilberg (Klinovec) in the Czech Republic and the 1,215 metre high Fichtelberg near Oberwiesenthal; in total, around 30 peaks in the Ore Mountains rise to more than 1,000 metres. Mining has characterised the region for centuries; since 2019, the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří mining region has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our location in Aue-Bad Schlema (population around 20,000) lies in the valley basin of the Zwickauer Mulde at an altitude of almost 400 metres above sea level.

GPS data for retracing the tours

Routes

Tour 1 (green) - Visit to the neighbour | 95 kilometres | 1650 vertical metres | max. 16% gradient

After starting at the guest information centre in Bad Schlema, we roll along the Mulde cycle path from Aue before turning off to Lauter and climbing up to Breitenbrunn via Schwarzenberg and Antonsthal. Then it's straight back down to Rittersgrün, where you cross the border to the Czech Republic - a narrow asphalt strip leads through the forest up to an altitude of around 1,000 metres. We roll down to Potůčky on sometimes quite bumpy roads and back to Antonsthal via Johanngeorgenstadt. A tough climb, a speedy descent down to Zschorlau and two more short climbs later, we are back in Bad Schlema after almost 100 kilometres.

Tour 2 (red) - Devil's Stones and Giant Mountains | 117 kilometres | 1840 vertical metres | max. 16% gradient

After starting at the guest information centre in Bad Schlema, we roll back onto the Mulde cycle path from Aue, an old railway line, before we have to tackle the first serious climb to Sosa and the Riesenberg houses. From Steinbach, you should treat yourself to a detour past the Teufelssteinen (Devil's Stones) before you pass Potůčky - as on Tour 1 - and this time cycle up to the plateau. If you like, you can climb the Fichtelberg, which can be very crowded, especially at weekends. Alternatively, you can climb the Keilberg. Through sleepy Czech villages and small towns such as Abertamy, Pernink and Horní Blatná, the route leads back to the border and via Wildenthal and Eibenstock back to Bad Schlema with constant ups and downs. Between Sosa and Steinbach there are two short but easy gravel sections.

Tour 3 (purple) - Miriquidi pure | 62 kilometres | 940 vertical metres | max. 11% gradient

Rather short tour through the forests of the western Ore Mountains. Via Zschorlau in the direction of the Eibenstock dam, Saxony's largest drinking water reservoir, and onwards on a lonely and perfectly tarmaced forest road through the "Miriquidi", up to the Riedertberg, past the Ameisenhübel, before rolling down the B 283 along the Mulde towards Schönheide. After a moderate climb to Stützengrün, the route continues on small roads past Hundshübel. There you can enjoy a beautiful view of the Zwickauer Land region from time to time before returning to the starting point in Bad Schlema via Neustättel and Schneeberg. This route also has a short gravel section.

Tour 4 (blue) - To the steep wall of Meerane | 110 kilometres | 1050 vertical metres | max. 13% gradient

Strictly speaking, you leave the Ore Mountains on this tour, but for good reason: it goes through the undulating Zwickau countryside to the "Steep Wall of Meerane", the legendary climb of the Peace Ride (see text). Via Wildenfels, the route leads through Mülsen, the longest street village in Saxony, and on small side roads via Crimmitschau to Meerane. The cobbled ramp is said to have a gradient of 13 per cent at its steepest point; it definitely feels like more. The route leads through sleepy villages such as Kuhschnappel to Hartenstein and from there back through the Mulde valley to Bad Schlema.