My first impression of Willingen: I'm in the wrong place. Downhillers, freeriders and cross-country riders roll over the tarmac in groups, their chunky tyres buzzing. The downhill World Cup course is on the left, while a poster from the last Sympatex BIKE Festival hangs on the lamppost on the right. Willingen is firmly in the hands of mountain bikers. Volker Schröder has been working towards this for a long time - and now wants to change it. The innkeeper designed mountain bike tours for the tourism association, built trails with his own hands and leads track cyclists through the dense coniferous forests of the Hochsauerland. "But now we also want to attract racing cyclists here," he says as he casually swings onto his racing bike and pedals towards the end of the village, where the first 150 metres in altitude are already waiting for us.
Where the highest mountains in North Rhine-Westphalia stand in the way of cyclists, the air is often fresh. Even in midsummer, the weather station on the 842 metre high Kahlen Asten measures an average of just 13 degrees. The path up there, which ends at the Astenturm tower built in 1884, is long but not too steep - so even on the climb, it's best to put on a gilet and arm warmers. As the cloudy sky opens up at the top, the sun lends colour to the high heather that grows around the Astenturm. The heather glows purple next to the green of the bristle grass. On a clear day, you can see as far as the Brocken in the Harz mountains, 162 kilometres away.
You can find everything about the trip in the Sauerland as a PDF download below.
The GPS data for these tours can be downloaded below:
- Tour 1: Hochsauerland-Runde (117 km, 2,060 m elevation gain, max. altitude 781 metres, max. gradient 18 percent, mountainous characteristics)
- Tour 2: To Waldeck (67 km, 1,250 m elevation gain, max. altitude 661 metres, max. gradient 13 per cent, hilly)
