Borderline experience on a racing bike: Winter excursion on the Eagle's Nest Road

The private road is closed to traffic, including cyclists (!) - mainly because shuttle buses cart the crowds of visitors up and down the narrow road from May to October. Peace returns from November onwards. The ideal time to look past the sign banning cyclists, thought a dozen racing cyclists and set off in icy temperatures ...

Lycra layers instead of sauna

Inside, in the Watzmann-Therme, everything could have been so beautiful on this Sunday morning. A warm brine grotto and a hot tunnel sauna await us. According to the head pool attendant from Berchtesgaden, guests can enjoy sweating at 90 degrees and a unique ambience with the look of a mine: Old wooden beams, solid natural stone and a lorry - a trolley - for the enjoyable infusions convey a feeling of being underground.

And what do we do? We stand outside. Outside the thermal baths, in the middle of winter. We're all wrapped up in several layers of sinfully expensive Lycra clothing like a fat cabbage roll from Grandma Waltraud and listening to Falk Nier.

Don't burn out!

"Men," says the man in his mid-forties, who is in charge of marketing for the Professional Team Alpecin - Deceuninck takes care of superstar Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman won the Paris-Roubaix spring classic, one of cycling's five monuments, in 2023 and 2024. On the cobblestones in northern France, it is usually wet, dirty and arse-cold. It's not wet and dirty in the Therme car park today. Not yet! The sun is shining and the golden autumn in the Northern Eastern Alps is at its best all around us. The leaves are coloured yellow, red or rusty brown. It's more beautiful than in summer. Until the moment when Falk warns us: "Don't exhaust yourselves. Because if you get to the top earlier, you'll have to wait for the others. And at the top means: freeze! Freeze! Freeze!" The destination is at the top: the Eagle's Nest at an altitude of 1838 metres. Strictly speaking, the road only reaches 1710 metres - the last stretch to the house is bridged by a hiking trail or, in summer, a lift.

The Eagle's Nest

The Eagle's Nest, located close to Adolf Hitler's centre of power Obersalzberg, was a project by Martin Bormann, his private secretary. Contrary to popular belief, however, the Eagle's Nest was not a gift for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939, and Hitler only visited the Eagle's Nest very rarely. It is called "Eagle's Nest" because that is what the Allies called it after the liberation. "Nid d'Aigle", "Eagle's Nest", is what the French ambassador called it after a visit in 1938. No matter what you call the Eagle's Nest, it still attracts people from all over the world to this day. They take the bus to the top. That's what sensible people do.

"A bicycle is not a piece of sports equipment"

Not us. We crank. The Eagle's Nest Road is actually closed to vehicles and sports equipment - even without a bus service. Ronald Fischer, blogger of the "Wurzlwerk", however, has a different opinion. The tour is "safely passable" when the bus line is on its winter break from the end of October to the beginning of May. Officially, according to the "holiday consultant" Feriel Boga from the tourist information centre "Bergerlebnis Berchtesgaden", the Eagle's Nest Road is closed to all traffic, whether vehicles or sports equipment, even without a bus service. Behind closed doors, the people of Berchtesgaden reveal that they are not yet aware of any cases in which the authorities have intervened. On the one hand, it is teeming with pedestrians, tobogganists and racing cyclists on beautiful winter days, and on the other, there are no cars on the road. Moreover, according to the unanimous opinion of all those who have been publicising their fabulous times on the Kehlsteinstraße on social media for years, we all don't have any sports equipment under our bums. The bike has finally been where it belongs for a long time, says Fares Gabriel Hadid, former head of the Berlin Bike Show: "It's more than just a means of transport. It is a socio-cultural link, design object, art object and status symbol all in one." So: not a piece of sports equipment!

Sophisticated and beautiful

So we seize the opportunity to ride up the road, which is unrivalled anywhere in Germany. "In Germany, there is no more challenging and architecturally beautiful road for racing bike fans than the road up to Eagle's Nest," says Falk. The man should know, he knows every pass in Europe, every road and every hill, no matter how small.

Approach

He receives support from Hermann Leikauf. "According to the author of the book "Die höchsten Rennradtouren", there is "no more beautiful and impressive route in this country". "Gemma!" yells Falk. "But don't dress so warmly, you'll get hot anyway!" he warns, and then he sets off with us. Tell me, does this guy have a shot? The thermometer shows just two degrees - and we're not supposed to dress warmly? Is he crazy? A long-sleeved jersey and a base layer are enough, he says. We wouldn't need gloves for a start. I'm completely overwhelmed, as I never sit on my racing bike when it's below 15 degrees. After all, the ski season starts in October, which is when I'm normally on skis in the Kaunertal and not on a road bike at the Eagle's Nest.

The first four kilometres are a relaxed ride, then we turn right in Unterau. From now on, the road leads steadily uphill for 6.5 kilometres to Obersalzberg. Not yet so steep, but already with gradients of up to 15 per cent. At Obersalzberg, the Kehlsteinstraße then turns left. Or rather: vertically uphill. After a few metres comes the first ascent with a gradient of 27 per cent. This doesn't look like a climb, but rather an emergency braking lane for lorries on busy pass roads. Within a few minutes, the lactate shoots up my legs and I start to sweat as if I were sitting in the tunnel sauna at the Watzmann thermal baths. I have to pull over for the first time and take off my gloves. It's so hot. Wow.

When the rear wheel spins

After the first brutal minutes, the route is a dream. Not a soul to be seen for miles around. Not a car, not a motorbike, not a hiker. The road of death belongs only to us. Us hobby cyclists. But we don't have much time to chat. The road is far too challenging, the landscape far too beautiful. "If I'm honest," says fellow cyclist Heiko Wild, manager of the Bikedress shop in Munich, "I didn't notice much of the landscape in the upper part of the route." In the first part, he was still able to look down on the marvellous Königssee, with the Watzmann and Hochkalter towering up around it. The Reck Tunnel, the Martinswand Tunnel and the Gams Tunnel, which were once blasted into the mountain, were also easy for him to ride. The last two, however, the Hirsch and Schwalbennest tunnels, were a real slog for all of us. And how! After that, millions of larch needles turned the tarmac into a slippery and soapy surface. Further up, first dew covered the road, then snow. The first time I spun my rear wheel, my heart almost stopped. Okay, pedalling in the saddle doesn't work so well on snow and ice after all. So I shift my lithe 80 kilos onto the rear wheel and my bum even further towards the end of the saddle. The tactic works.

To be honest, I didn't notice much of the landscape in the upper part of the route. - Heiko Wild, Bikedress Munich

Push

Suddenly the Franconian locomotive Heiko stands in front of me. He dismounts. Wasn't he the one who had the idea for this trip? Whilst I, who come from a ski racing background, am actually banging over slabs of ice at over 100 km/h on two boards, I'm now going crazy on two wheels. Like two adventurers in the Arctic, Heiko and I push our carbon sledges across the ice. Afterwards, I want to get back on my bike. But I can't. What's going on again? I just can't get into my clipless pedals. I try again and again until I realise that half a kilo of ice has frozen to the bottom of my pedals. Whilst you wipe the snow from under your boot on the binding when skiing, I can't pedal against my wickedly expensive carbon bike. So I get out my mini-tool and use it to chip away the ice. That's annoying. After ten minutes, I continue.

Between 300 and 400 watts

I'm sweating like an ox again. No wonder, as I'm pedalling between 300 and 400 watts in the steep sections, because the 6.2-kilometre route has it all: 711 metres in altitude, average gradient, 11.5 per cent. "In the Alps, only the Mortirolo Pass in Lombardy and Monte Zoncolan in Friuli have gradients like this," explains Falk, panting during the ascent. Both, according to Falk, are legendary classics of the Giro d'Italia. Well then ...

Dark past

The last 300 metres in altitude feel like a ski tour. All around us are snow-covered peaks and temperatures below freezing. The scenery up here at Eagle's Nest couldn't be more enchanting. And more disturbing. "It's hard to imagine today that a dictator and mass murderer once made decisions about war and the Holocaust in this picturesque mountain setting," writes ZDF about its series "Evil Buildings". All attempts to let grass grow over the Nazi past could not prevent the place from exerting a great attraction to this day. More than 300,000 people come here every year. I pause and reflect on our dark past.

Frozen

At the time, I didn't realise that things would get much worse from a cycling point of view. I couldn't just ride down like that. "Everyone please ride down at a maximum speed of 50 per cent," said Falk. For Heiko and me it was ten, after all we had always clicked one foot off the pedals for the first few hundred metres. It was too dangerous for us to fall on the ice and snow. We could no longer feel our fingers or our toes. My body was shaking like a leaf.

I'm thinking of the 1956 Giro d'Italia

"In winter, the Kehlsteinstraße is closed due to the high risk of avalanches. A snow depth of three metres is not uncommon," I remember the warning from the local warden as I slide over a slab of ice at a blatant 12 km/h. You could also say that we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't help but think of what happened to Charly Gaul from Luxembourg on the 19th stage of the 1956 Giro d'Italia when the peloton rode over Monte Bondone. The weather changed and the temperature dropped by 30 to minus ten degrees. Most of them gave up due to frostbite symptoms. It was life-threatening. Except for Learco Guerra, Gaul's sports director. He had a brilliant idea. He had Gaul climb into a tub of hot water so that he would be better able to cope with the climbs later, or so he thought. Let's put it this way: the idea didn't quite work out. A few hours later, rescuers had to cut open Gaul's stiff jersey. To prevent him from dying, they wrapped him in woollen blankets and took him to the hotel. That was a close call.

There is no more challenging and architecturally beautiful road for racing bike fans in Germany. - Falk Nier, Marketing Professional Team Alpecin - Deceuninck

"Dude, my brain is freezing"

Paul Fournel, author of the book "The Love of Cycling", put it aptly: "In the mountains, where it is bitingly cold in winter, the road surface is made up of large dark grains of rock: this caviar-like coating triggers a tiny continuous tremor that numbs the perineum, penetrates through the gloves and causes a tingling sensation in the hands. On the descent, this feeling travels up both sides of the spine, to the shoulders and on into the arms and hands," writes the author. It's my feet in particular that are almost numb in the sub-zero temperatures down from the Eagle's Nest. Heiko, who doesn't have that much hair on his head, shouts: "Dude, my brain is freezing!"

... At least it's not snowing.

Unlike on 5 June 1988, when the Giro d'Italia went over the 2618-metre-high Passo di Gavia. Just think, wrote the NZZ 25 years later, what that would mean for a ski race: Cancellation! For a football match: cancellation! An ice hockey match: cancellation! And for a cycling race: Too wet? Too cold? Too much snow? Roads too bad? Too dangerous for body and mind? Cancellation due to bad weather: "Please, pédalez, Messieurs!" "Bruttissima Italia", was the headline of the Tages-Anzeiger about the snow race.

Just don't look

And today? Today we've seen pictures of Chris Froome jogging up to Mont Ventoux due to a defect on his bike. But back then, on the Gavia Pass, Francesco Moser was standing in the middle of the road with a snow shovel, shovelling snow away. In shorts. Unbelievable. It was also unbelievable when Andrew Hampsten crossed the finish line first in Bormio. Years later, the American wrote a report about this hellish ride. The title: "The Day the Strong Men Cried". Hampsten: "I stopped begging God for help and instead considered whether I should make a deal with the devil." The deal with the devil worked, albeit with pain that he would never forget. On the descent, he had to de-ice the brakes by hand. "I looked at my legs, they were glowing bright red through a layer of ice and massage oil. I decided not to look again." Hampsten, who almost froze three of his fingers, was still in pain from the hellish ride three months later. Sometimes he still can't feel his fingers.

Rossfeld

We've made it, we're back down again. Down at the crossroads. Everyone is trembling, everyone is shivering. Instead of waiting a long time, we set off again straight away. Now we head up the 6.9 kilometre long and 540 metre high Rossfeld panoramic road. On the upper bends, the Berchtesgadener Land presents itself to us as a beautiful winter wonderland with views of the snow-covered, broad mountain massif of the Hoher Göll.

The road up to Rossfeld is not only wide and beautiful, it is also free of ice and snow. It's fascinating how quickly I warm up again. After just a few metres, I take off my jacket and gloves and get out of the saddle. At the top of the long pass, it's freezing cold again. No wonder, it's the depths of winter at an altitude of almost 1600 metres. And according to the mayor of Berchtesgaden, Franz Rasp, the Rossfeld at the top is a great ski resort because its altitude makes it the "most snow-sure natural snow ski resort in Bavaria". We realise this when we look out over the Dachstein mountains and the Berchtesgaden and Salzburg regions from up there. "The drive along Germany's highest panoramic road is an unforgettable experience," cheers Rasp, who has already won the Bavarian Triathlon Championship of Bavarian Mayors. We cheer along with him. But only for the time being.

If you crank it up, you have to crank it down again

Because we've all got our trousers full. After all, we, who look like clumsy ballerinas in our tight winter trousers, have to get back down the mountain. However, it doesn't get as bad as the icy and snow-covered descent from the Eagle's Nest. We are still bitterly cold, but the thought of the Watzmann thermal spa in the valley warms us up a little. The brine grotto and tunnel sauna await us. That's exactly what we deserve after 45 strenuous kilometres, almost 1800 metres of hard climbing and frosty hours on the road bike.