Germany: By road bike across the Franconian Alb - Franconian Alb: 2 road bike tours for the weekend
Unbekannt
· 30.06.2016
Coordination is a question of talent and practice. In the throng of red and green plastic canoes on the Altmühl, it seems that neither of these are all that far off, as the paddlers are constantly getting in each other's way or fighting against losing direction. Shortly before, below the pretty little town of Weißenburg, the little adventure has only just begun for many, and so there is still a lot of clamour coming from the bottom of the valley. On the road a little higher up, however, the course is clear: always along the river, with wide bends.
The incision of the Altmühl into the limestone of the Franconian Jura is particularly magnificent between Weißenburg and Eichstätt. Steep banks 50 to 100 metres high have repeatedly formed, from which rock towers protrude. Some of them are so high and compact that sport climbers have carved out daring routes. However, the area's rocks became really famous for places where they cling to each other in a rather slab-like manner: Several well-preserved skeletons of the prehistoric bird Archaeopteryx were found in the Plattenkalk near Eichstätt, the first of which came to light 140 years ago.
After the road has risen fairly straight over the Altmühltal valley, the gradient suddenly decreases. And as soon as the panting stops, the cyclist hears a bright clacking and clanking. It comes from a fossil quarry down to the left. Dozens of children and a few adults are at work with hammers and chisels, chiselling fossils out of the limestone - successfully, as the ammonites that the amateur collectors are stacking on beer tables show. Further back on the plateau, the handling of the stone is less romantic: companies such as "Franken-Schotter" mine the Jura limestone industrially. Some of the fields on the open plateaus are also littered with gravel. However, you can feel that the Jura heights are not flat plateaus in your legs every few kilometres when the charming side roads with short ramps give you a pinch. This easily adds up to 1,000 metres of elevation gain over 100 kilometres - if you are travelling outside the Altmühltal.
For endurance athletes, the area south of Nuremberg is not only known for its undulating elevation profiles, but also for several glorious events. On our route the next day, we will be travelling through the territory of the Roth long-distance triathlon and the former "Powerman" duathlon in Spalt. One of the things that makes the region attractive for triathletes is the abundance of lakes - even if it should be noted that only the less prominent Rothsee triathlon starts in a lake, the long-distance triathletes swim in the Main-Danube Canal during the competition.
You can download these tours and the GPS data below:
- Tour 1: Reservoirs and iron men(114 kilometres, 1,200 metres in altitude, max. 13 % gradient)
- Tour 2: Paddle river and gravel quarry (97 kilometres, 1,000 vertical metres, max. 13 % gradient)
