South of Reutte, it's time to duck behind the bridge railing next to the leaning bike. I had just been staring uphill into the gently curving Lechtal valley, revelling in the romance of nature, when a gust of wind rages over the gravel banks and pelts me with beige-grey dust. Over tens of kilometres and from the impressive width of the riverbed, the Föhn has collected the freight, which it is now hurling violently towards Bavaria. The storm is said to be blowing at well over one hundred kilometres per hour on the mountains. Down here in the valley, apart from gusts like this one, it is mainly raising the temperature. It's almost twenty degrees at the end of October. One last warm weekend, winter could start at any time. It's the ideal time to take a leisurely gravel bike ride through the border region between Tyrol and the Allgäu.
The timing is perfect not only because of the muted autumn colours ranging from matt green to golden brown. It is also the time when this much-travelled region comes to rest between the summer and winter seasons. There are hardly any e-bikers with panniers on the long-distance cycle paths, the noisy motorbikes have been deregistered, the locals are chopping wood, quickly sealing the carports - or have time to pass on their best gravel tips.
Tirol sees a market in gravel biking
It's important to realise that route tips in Tyrol are a tricky business. The locals keep the really exciting mountain bike routes strictly to themselves, as practically all interesting trails are illegal in this federal state. However, the province sees a market in gravel biking: the official website "gravel.tirol" lists dozens of routes that often combine the technically simple, permitted bike forest roads and the tourist cycle paths - a sensible concept to give the hybrid "gravel bike" hundreds of kilometres of exercise. But the choice of route is even finer with the help of a real gravel enthusiast. And there is hardly any way around Thomas Schneider.
"Ten years ago, when there were no gravel bikes, we fitted racing handlebars to our 29er hardtails," remembers Schneider, "that was a weird idea. But there are dream routes for such bikes here, whereas it's not easy with hardcore mountain biking." Thomas Schneider is around forty, wears a neat little braid and sits diagonally under a 1930s Bianchi frame with the first Campagnolo derailleur gears at the Tannenhof bike hotel, which is run by his family. When asked about this, he admits to owning more than a hundred such collector's items - and also that he now even collects team cars from the last century. In short: the man is passionate about cycling.
The Lech Valley is always brilliant, if only because it looks like a wilderness. And because you start off flat and can turn off into any side valley
Thomas Schneider from the Radhotel Tannenhof
A few years ago, he came up with a gravel challenge called "Gravel King": more than 200 kilometres and 4,000 metres in altitude around Reutte, to be ridden independently on a route devised by him and a few specialists. But where to start? "The Lech Valley is always brilliant," says Thomas, "if only because it looks like a wilderness. And because you start off flat and can then just turn off into any side valley."
Steep into the Hornbach valley
I decide in favour of the branch-off into the Hornbach valley, combined with a more challenging approach on the eastern slope of the Lech valley. The eastern bank is the wilder choice anyway, as the tarmac Lech cycle path runs along the western bank. The additional metres of elevation gain in the otherwise short loop also speak in favour of the tougher start - and curiosity. The route crosses under the "Highline 179" suspension bridge, which was built specifically as a tourist attraction. The rope bridge has been swinging between two mountain peaks 400 metres apart for ten years and allows a good hundred-metre view down through its lattice floor. It has set some kind of suspension bridge world record, but I decide not to cross the swinging pulse accelerator. The steep ramps before and after do the job. I probably wouldn't have come up with this extra loop on my own, but as my tour guide said with a grin elsewhere? "I don't want to be told that there's no spice in it."
A gravel bike is the Swiss Army knife of sports bikes. In the same way that this pocket-sized emergency helper doesn't really shine as a knife, screwdriver or saw, a gravel bike doesn't come close to the performance of the specialists either on the road or off-road. But: You are "always ready" like a scout when you enter uncharted territory. The Hornbach Valley is one such unknown territory. From Vorderhornbach, a wide but strangely quiet tarmac road climbs gently into the valley. I wonder if it leads to a ski area that is currently closed. No, it doesn't. It only leads to Hinterhornbach, which consists of a handful of houses. Behind the end of the village, a sign points to the Petersbergalm, my destination. The route immediately crosses to the other side of the valley, the road becomes narrow and the tarmac rough. I reach for the top handlebars and turn on the large sprocket between conifers and hay barns, where the valley walls increasingly close in on each other. The tarmac ends at a step in the terrain. Between almost bare blueberry bushes and orange-needled larches, the tyres finally bite into the earth and gravel. The mountains lean back again, a basin opens up and the official route ends at the closed Petersbergalm. Tyre tracks continue for a few more metres, then the valley ends as a dead end.
The gravel bike has proven its versatility and delivered me to where mountain bikers with and without batteries stop by for a sundowner in summer. I wash down the energy bars with a sip of water and pull the waistcoat up to my chin. Gravity and the wind pushing down the Lech push me back to the start in Reutte in no time at all.
Germany detour around the Ammergau Alps
The next day takes me northwards, where the Lech Valley leaves the Tyrolean rocky peaks behind and expands into Bavaria. The plan: a tour around the Ammergau Alps. The largely uninhabited mountain range belongs partly to Bavaria and partly to Tyrol and is only crossed by a narrow tarmac road. It is magnificent, but so popular with motorised excursionists that once again the gravel bike gets to show off its talents. It escapes the stress and still covers a good distance - a good 120 kilometres are on the cards.
As soon as the legs have warmed up to operating pressure, there is a gentle slalom between horse-drawn carriages and a crowd of international tourists. Looking upwards: Neuschwanstein Castle beckons - at least to the others. After a few hundred metres, the hustle and bustle is over and the Lech Valley widens into a landscape in which green pastures and meticulously mown meadows undulate around the villages like a boundless golf course, except that cows are grazing here. The odour of freshly spread cow dung wafts through my flared nostrils, then it's back uphill and into the forest. But what does uphill mean here? While the sharp peaks around Reutte are around 2,500 metres high, the gentler forest mountains on the northern edge of the Ammergau Alps end 1,000 metres lower. Not so spectacular, but smoothly rideable and somehow cosy. Sometimes water splashes against your calves from a small ford, sometimes an asphalt passage climbs out of a dark valley, then the fine gravel forest road of the "blue piste" quality swings downhill to Murnauer Moos. There, tufts of yellow grass rise into the air, black-brown earth swamps between them, black and white birch trunks grow crookedly into the blue sky. The large moor is the proof: I have travelled eastwards from the Lech Valley into the parallel Loisach Valley. In the grey-blue distance, to the right above Garmisch, the Zugspitze points the way back south, next to it the summit structure of the Alpspitze sinks to the left as a broad rocky plateau. It's a broad panorama that the board-level cycle path keeps heading towards unwaveringly until it reveals a gap.
Looking upstream, the Loisach valley turns right before it collides with the Zugspitze. I follow it. The Loisach squeezes through a narrow valley. Me too. The Loisach accompanies a busy road. I don't do that, because there is plenty of gravel on the other bank. The Loisach comes from Lermoos, but I don't want to go there. In Griesen, where the border guards once stood at the guardhouse and straw-rum boards advertised Austrian strong spirit, I turn out of the Loisach valley into the mountains again. Of course, I could have done the route the other way round. But the approach with a view of the Zugspitze and this shortcut up to Plansee are dramatically superior. The yellowish-grey limestone gravel track initially follows the gravel banks of the Neidernach in a straight line. The mountain stream is clearly rippling, disappears behind willow bushes, almost seeps away and collects again. Pines stand matt green and scattered, larches and maples provide autumn-coloured splashes. Then the valley narrows into a gorge. The contour lines on the GPS device move closer together and I escape the gorge upwards via a few easy serpentines.
An overdose of forest
One problem with gravel cycling on forest roads is often the overdose of forest. It smells good, helps the climate, provides shelter, but sometimes offers too few distant views. The wild forest in the Ammergau Alps is a splendour anyway, but when it ends on the flat eastern shore of the Plansee, a pause for reflection is unavoidable: distant views for miles. To the south, the peaks rise 1,000 metres above the water level. On the northern shore, the lakeside road, now almost traffic-free, beckons. And from the south-west, almost exactly above the adjoining Heiterwanger See, the sun casts a leaden grey glow on the surface of the water from the foehn-like sky. There is an almost solemn glitter because it is already dangerously low.
I clamp the torch to the handlebars and in the last light of the day, I cheat my way down to Reutte. Thomas Schneider is sitting there, sees my glowing face and says with justified cycling patriotism: "A wide valley deep into the mountains, plus the lakes and the huge network of forest roads - you don't get that often in the Alps, do you?" The question mark at the end of the sentence is presumably a purely rhetorical garland.
Information about travelling around the Lechtal
Journey
Railway: Given the proximity of Reutte to Füssen railway station, it is strange that there are no tracks between Bavaria and Tyrol. All trains from the north travel via Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which makes travelling by train rather slow and impractical. Exception: A regional bus with limited bicycle transport runs every two hours from Füssen station to Reutte in 25 minutes. www.vvt.at
Car: On the German side, the A 7 motorway from Ulm ends directly at the Austrian border and leads as the Fernpass federal road through the border tunnel to Reutte, toll-free but prone to traffic jams. From the east (Munich), the route via the A 95 motorway, Oberammergau and Plansee is a scenic alternative.
Best time to travel
End of April to November - depending on snow conditions. Even if the maximum altitude reached on the tours is only 1,300 metres, snow remains can persist in spring, as the gravel roads are not cleared. The mountain huts close at the beginning/mid-October, but they are not really essential for supplies.
Food & Drink
Without wanting to offend Reutte too much: For a town of this size and in a tourist region, the choice of restaurants is manageable, with pizzerias dominating. At the time of our research in late autumn, a number of restaurants were also closed for the season, which is why our recommendations may be incomplete.
Restaurant tips
Reutte, Joyce: Phone 0043/(0)5672/21099, www.joyce-reutte.at
The Joyce in the city centre is rather simply furnished and has a little snack bar charm, but the food is convincing: international dishes from bowls to curry, freshly prepared directly behind the counter and delicious. Very good vegetarian options and large portions at a fair price. Quite informal, so it's also a tip for topping up your energy levels at the tables outside directly after the tour.
Breitenwang (bordering Reutte), Restaurant Pizzeria Alina: Telephone 0043/(0)5672/65008, www.restaurant-alina.at
Spacious, rather modern restaurant with a classic menu ranging from pizza to goulash to steak at a medium price level. The quality is good, the service is professional and in summer there is plenty of space on the terrace.
Accommodation
Wängle (2.5 km north-west of Reutte), TannenhofPhone 0043/(0)5672/63802 www.tannenhof-reutte.at
The Tannenhof is probably an exception even in the cycling hotel segment: You can see the owners' passion for cycling in the quiet, family-run hotel from the valuable historic sports bikes on display. So much cycling enthusiasm is rare. Fitness room, sauna, bike room and knowledgeable tour tips. Different sized, individually designed rooms and flats, double room with breakfast from 136 euros.
Pinswang (8 km north of Reutte), Gutshof zum Schluxen: Phone 0043/(0)5677/53217, www.schluxen.at
Situated between pastures and the edge of the forest, this estate rents out flats from around 80 euros per night (for two people). Not quite as charming as the Tannenhof, but the Schluxenhof is also quiet and close to nature - and a little cheaper.
Don't miss it!
Tannheim Cycle Marathon
However, you don't need a gravel bike for the classic cycling event in the region, which takes place in July (www.rad-marathon.at).
Neuschwanstein
If you want to photograph or marvel at the castle, which has been photographed millions of times, from the top spot Marienbrücke, it's best to get up early or wait for evening light: from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the pleasantly ascending, asphalted bus road is open exclusively for buses. This must be respected! Outside of closing times, you can easily crank up in a few minutes - and don't have to wait in the queue until the revolving gate to the bridge opens up again. The official, all-day cycle path on a gravel road crowded with tourists is extremely steep uphill, but easy to cycle downhill.
Bike service
Lechaschau (bordering on Reutte), RadhausTelephone 0043/(0)5672/65245, www.rad-haus.at
Sports orientated shop, workshop without appointment.
Literature & Maps
The Compass hiking map 4 "Füssen/Außerfern", 1:50,000 (12 euros) covers most of the tour area. Waterproof and highly recommended. www.kompass.at
Four gravel tours around the Tyrolean Lech Valley
Orientation
In the middle of the German winter sports centres of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Oberstdorf lies the municipality of Reutte in northern Tyrol, with a population of around 7,000. It is only ten kilometres from there to the German border near Füssen. The broad Lech Valley lies around 800 metres above sea level, while the surrounding mountains, some of which are rugged, rise to around 2,000 to 2,400 metres. The main traffic axis of the valley is the Fernpass motorway.
Tour character
Extremely low-traffic laps on side roads, tourist cycle paths, alpine and forest roads. The gravel sections are technically easy, at most briefly moderately difficult and easy to master with 40-millimetre tyres. The climbs rarely exceed 150 metres in altitude in one go. On some steep ramps, strong legs or a slight reduction gear increase the fun. Almost all tours are half gravel and half tarmac, with the exception of tour four, which is only one third gravel.
Tour 1: Tannheimer Tal with a shot
- 82 kilometres
- 950 metres altitude
- max. gradient approx. 20
Half of the scenic route is on tarmac and starts gently on tourist cycle paths in the Lech and Vils valleys, before climbing briefly and nastily two or three times behind the Kalbelehof Alpe towards the Tannheimer Tal. In this well-known holiday region, a branch road to the Vilsalpsee basin, which is closed to cars during the day, branches off. We cycle to the serviced Vilsalpe on the eastern, less frequented shore. Back in Tannheim, the most strenuous part follows: the long and steep climb to the former Adlerhorst restaurant above the Haldensee lake, where the highest point of the route is reached at around 1,380 metres. The descent from there is open in winter as a toboggan run and is correspondingly steep, as is the former Gaichtpass road back into the Lechtal valley, which is partly gravelled. Not an issue with cross or mountain bike experience, but possibly strenuous for pure asphalt disciples. We therefore follow very easy paths along the Lech back to the start.
Rest tip
Kalbelehof Alpe (33.5 km) before Schattwald or Vilsalpe (45.8 km) at the Vilsalpsee lakeboth of which are only open in summer. Otherwise there are numerous restaurants in the Tannheimer Tal.
Tour 2: Around the Ammergau Alps
- 123 kilometres
- 1,200 metres altitude
- max. 14 % gradient
The royal stage around the Ammer Mountains lives up to its name, as it passes Neuschwanstein Castle (and its hustle and bustle) after just a few kilometres. It also follows a so-called royal road in the northern section. The route takes a full day to complete, but is easy as most of it follows tarmac cycle routes. Gravel is favoured where it offers more beautiful and quieter routes. Scenic highlights include the Forggensee, the Murnauer Moos, the Zugspitze views before Garmisch and the magnificent Neidernach valley, which climbs from Griesen towards Plansee. The route can just as easily be cycled anti-clockwise, but the impressive Plansee and Heiterwanger See (bathing beach!) are dramatically better placed at the end of the route. In terms of riding technique, the route is rather easy. Only the final steep gravel descents to Reutte require a little braking routine.
Rest tip
Schwaigen-Grafenaschau (Km 57), Café Habersetzer, www.cafe-habersetzer.de (check opening times!). Situated in a scenic and quiet location on the Murnauer Moos, good selection of cakes and lovely terrace.
Tour 3: Fallerschein-Almdorf and Namloser Tal
- 68 kilometres
- 1,000 metres altitude
- max. 16 % gradient
The route follows the Lech on the gravelly east bank before climbing into the deeply incised Namloser Tal valley at Stanzach and thus towards the Fernpass. For many racing cyclists and motorcyclists, the Namlos valley is part of the popular route over the Hahntennjoch to the south - and motorbikes can be a pain in the arse. The gravel bike proves its worth as an escape vehicle there, as it always allows us to get out onto the old, partly gravelled Namlos road, where we briefly scratch the 1,400 metre mark above Kelmen. Before that, the detour towards Fallerschein-Almdorf is a promising option for a longer rest. Another beautiful spot is Lake Heiterwanger See, which is also visited on Tour 2. Please take the connecting path between it and the Plansee road very carefully - it is narrow and very busy. Finally, it's a fast and smooth ride back to Reutte on the finely tarmaced Plansee road.
Rest tip
Almdorf Fallerschein (Km 30), Michl's Fallerscheinstube (www.alpe-fallerschein.com). In summer, this is a catered snack station with a favoured location at the turning point of our detour.
Tour 4: Into the head of the Hornbach valley
- 79 kilometres
- 800 metres altitude
- max. 18 % gradient
Many views of the vast and largely unspoilt Lech Valley, plus a climb into a practically hopeless alpine basin with a stop at a hut - the tour is much more impressive in reality than on the map. We have spiced up the outward route to the Petersbergalm with a few little-used but briefly steep side trails. In addition to long flat sections along the Lech, there are also steep gravel sections. This makes the route moderately difficult in terms of riding technique. If you want to save energy right at the start, cycle south of Reutte along the east or west bank of the Lech and skip the ramps towards "Highline 179" and the Fernpass road.
Rest tip
Petersbergalm (www.petersbergalm.at). The agricultural pasture at an altitude of around 1,290 metres is the magnificent high point and turning point of the tour.
You can find the GPS data for the four tours in our tour portal
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