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I'm making a permanent move to Amsterdam in three months' time and I'm trying to scope out some riding spots within a 3-4 hour drive.
From what I can tell, the closest 'real' mountain range is an area called the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerland ]Sauerland[/url], which lies between Dortmund and Frankfurt. It even boasts two small ski resorts (Winterberg and Willingen), which turn into bike parks in the summer. From what I can tell, the area seems to be fairly popular with German mountain bikers, but I have found very little info about it in English.
Has anyone been there?
I've ridden both, willingden quite a long time ago, maybe 8/10 years and didn't go back.
On the other hand been to winterberg five or six times, it's got a decent selection of downhill tracks, dirt jumps and a slopestyle area.
It has a main ski lift for the majority of the dh and a small t bar for two small 'fun style' tracks.
The main downhill runs aren't massively long (alps style) but are (at a guess) 2-3 minutes, more like the uk. It's a bit lethal in the wet due to the mud but it's open for a really long season. Definitely worth the trip!
Rode at Winterberg last summer and it was awesome. As above its a bit slippy in the wet and it rained both days we were there. There's enough to keep you interested for a weekend with a range of runs. The best bit though is the uplift. You can do a 2-3 minute run and be back up the top in about 3 minutes with minimal queing as it's so quick and efficient. As a consequence you can do about 30 runs a day ( or more if you want ) and so you need to pace yourself as you'll only do 8-10 a day at BPW or Cwm Carn. Restaurant / bar at the top is great for food and drinks and reasonable. Bike hire and workshop by the car park to sort any issues. Natives are all friendly and seem to speak perfect English to you before you have even opened your mouth. The town itself was also very nice and reasonable for eating out and beers. Do it, it's a cracking place to ride.
Thanks a lot for your comments. It's making me feel a bit less apprehensive about continuing mountain biking after moving to Amsterdam.
Aside from the bike parks, is there much trail riding in the area?
Might be worth checking out the MTB News forum.
It'll all be in German, obviously, but they'll speak English.
That has a subsection for practically every area in Germany, and Sauerland will certainly be one.
There'll definitely be lots and lots of forest tracks. Finding trail riding may need local expertise.
The German word for singletrack is "singletrail", or "flowtrail" if it's a maintained trail.
I wouldn't rule out other areas though. Ardennes in Belgium and Luxembourg must be easy to get to too. Depends what you like on the XC to gravity scale.
There are also a couple of bikeparks in the Harz mountains.
There's a trail center in Brilon (biggest town in that area) and in the hills around Willingen and Winterberg there's plenty of good riding to be had.
Normally I head out to Willingen Bike Festival each year and have ridden a few "local" trails in addition to the bikepark stuff. It's ace!
On another note, be very careful driving on the roads round there. They're littered with variable speed limits and speed cameras with a 0% tolerance over the limit.
I was out there a couple of weeks ago for work and got flashed twice in one day, going only a couple of KPH over the limit (about 54kph in a 50... GRRR!)
Another area worth a look is near Bielefeld, the Teutoburg Forest. No trail centres but lots of singletrack and homemade trail features when I was there.
Been to Winterberg a couple of times, as others have said it's good and the uplift spoils you for BPW! Me and a mate managed 12 runs in 2 hours.
Also a bus uplift run by the local Loose Riders club in Hurtgenwald on Summer weekends, worth a visit. Chatting to one of the locals he said the Willingen World Cup track is still there but much tamer now (all doubles filled in etc) since it was on the WC circuit "back in the day" before Warner bought shares in Back To Black bumper restorer
If you don't have time to get to the mountains but fancy a quick XC blast then Amerongen near Utrecht is suprisingly good for a flat course. Its about 20km of pumptrack style singletrack and works in the winter due to the excellent drainage.
Thanks a lot for your excellent suggestions. My list of riding spots is slowly growing:
[b]Netherlands:[/b]
Schoorl
Amerongen
[b]Begium:[/b]
Ardennes
[b]Germany:[/b]
Winterberg
Willingen
Brilon
Teutoburg Forest
Hurtgenwald
Harz mountains
[b]Luxembourg[/b]
Various
Look forward to hitting up some 'singletrail'! 8)