A few prefabricated blocks. A market square that has nothing to offer anyone interested in shopping. Bars in side alleys that you'd rather not know what goes on in them at night.
The satnav announced my arrival minutes ago. But I'm still waiting to be impressed. So this is it, the place shrouded in legend. The mountain bike paradise, the Durango of Europe. The place where the super single trails supposedly wind so smoothly along the mountain flanks that even the climbs feel like downhills.
"Ey, really: like geomagnetism!", my Berlin mate Hagen kept raving to me after his visits, as if he had stumbled upon the eighth wonder of the world. My goodness, why do people always let themselves be talked to like that? The region where I live has topped the tourism charts for decades. And I spend five hours travelling by car to the Czech border region to indulge in supposed geomagnetism. Great. This doesn't look like a mountain bike stronghold at all. More like a town frozen in hopelessness. The tongue struggles to get the unwieldy name past the lips: Nové Město pod Smrkem.
The "Singltrek Centrum" is located just outside and - phew, lucky you - forms a sharp contrast to the ambience of the village. At the bike station, which was built in the style of a Western saloon, there is a relaxed hustle and bustle. Mountain bikers lounge at the tables and savour refreshing beers. A group of Lycra men roll towards the trail entrance. Further back, on the meadow, igloo tents are being erected. It smells of grilled sausage. Beats are playing from the speakers, the kind that guests of so-called wellness oases would also approve of. There is no sign of the testosterone-fuelled atmosphere that is common in downhill parks. It seems to be more of a meeting place for everyone who owns a bike. A distillate of all disciplines. Grey-haired occasional bikers, enduro poppers, touring cyclists with weathered polystyrene shells on their heads, performance-oriented full carbon racers. And a conspicuous number of children. Which could actually be an indication of geomagnetism. How else do five-year-olds make it up the hills, some of which protrude quite boldly from the landscape? There's no lift, after all.
Hagen and his mate Jonas are already waiting. They set off from Berlin in the morning. Three and a half hours on motorways and country roads. Nevertheless, they want to get on their bikes straight away. They have been eagerly awaiting their visit to the trail centre for weeks. Of course, not a minute can be wasted standing around.
"Hey, do you know what the biggest problem is here?" Hagen grins, only to follow up with the answer like an anticipation booster: "You're constantly passing stalls where half a litre of beer costs a euro. And the trees are quite narrow in some places for a seven-hundred-and-twenty-pound bike."
I don't get a chance to say anything back. Hagen and Jonas are already scurrying off with swift kicks. Along the rattle-free feeder trail. Over the road at the border crossing to Poland. Then into the singletrail network.
"You can go full carrot long!", encourages Hagen, his cheeks red with excitement: "Everything is directional! There's nothing coming your way!"
I put a few more watts into the pedals, but my scepticism is still great. The world is full of paths, tracks and gravel roads. Why should you let an artificial track force your direction on you when it's so smooth in the forest that it looks like it's been poured with screed? What an effort! Just to calm down the stress hormones that single trail riding is actually about stimulating. Or is it?
What has not already been tried to make biking compatible with the masses! Full suspension has been invented to put an end to bouncing. Lifts have been fitted with mounts for bikes to spare the sweat glands of the lazy. In the meantime, motors have even been built into mountain bikes so that you don't even have to make the effort to get to the lift. A whole generation of engineers has worked hard to filter out the brittle and strenuous aspects of the sport. The corners of your mouth must be quivering with grief at the latest trend: flow trails. If the bikers are too clumsy to ride, the trail is adapted to their motor skills. A completely new approach that suddenly makes action biking possible without prior knowledge, lifts and monster trails. Trails are springing up everywhere. But nowhere is there such a sprawling network as in Pod Smrkem. The more than 50 individual segments can be combined to form an 80-kilometre loop. Because the number of tourists is increasing year on year, they have simply added 20 kilometres of trail over in Poland to attract bikers. You have to imagine that.
"Now it's getting really cool!" shouts Hagen and turns into the black piste called "Okolo Medence", whatever that means, with a jagged steering movement.
The trail is only shoulder-width wide. It's not so much a path as a furious series of bend combinations. Accompanied by the buzzing of the tyres, which have maximum grip on the gravel-free surface, I get the bike up to speed. Left turn, right turn, left, right, left, right. As if in a frenzy, I speed through the tree-lined lane, my eyes focussed on the narrow, brown ribbon that winds its way through the landscape like a wild anaconda. My fingers lurk on the brake levers, but remain unemployed. A lightning-fast twitch of the handlebars is usually enough to speed through the chicanes. Left, right, right, left! This must be how downhill king Gee Atherton feels, a thought express flits through my head as a marvellous feeling of competence and invulnerability flows through me. It's the exact opposite of the thrill that quickly turns into death panic on alpine hell runs.
You tremble with fear, click in, roll over and get a 10 prescription for physiotherapy. There's often not much more to say about the Alpine downhill experience. Here, on the other hand, a marvellous feeling of competence and invulnerability flows through me.
It's slightly uphill here all the time. The earth's magnetism? Perhaps! But if so, how is it downhill afterwards when the suction effect turns into repulsion? Positive pole, negative pole and so on.
"Hey, you have to be careful not to wear out the headset on that slalom," grins Hagen as we finally click off the pedals at the legendary Hubertka picnic kiosk. Hossa! For me, trail parks have always been the opposite of species-appropriate biking. But this one: unfortunately awesome! If there was a tattoo parlour here, I'd have "Pod Smrkem, yeah!" engraved on my forearm.
The sun is already dipping behind the hills when we reach the Singltrek Centre, feeling pleasantly groggy. The tables in the catering area are well filled. The beats no longer bubble ethereally, but now push out of the speakers as powerfully as nostril-pierced urban youths would favour. It's "Bike Yo House Party". Happy kids are cruising on the pump track. Campfires flicker in the camping area. The aroma of grilled sausages wafts over everything. A festival atmosphere.
Tomáš Kvasnička (39) sits in the middle of the hustle and bustle. A beefy guy with the aura of a lumberjack. Full beard, bull neck, tangled hair. He's holding his after-work beer in his hand. And it certainly won't be his last after-work beer of the day. The party will go on until the early hours of the morning and he will be the one to switch off the lights. Tomáš is the boss of the Singltrek Centrum. Some people say he is the "Robin Hood of mountain biking". You just have to speak to him. Then the words gush out of him like fountains of water from a geyser.
"I'm in a fight every day," says Tomáš. And then he tells the story of the bike park, which to a certain extent is also the story of his life. As a child of outdoor-loving parents, Tomáš says, he had an intimate relationship with nature from an early age. When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, mountain biking gave the whole thing a new dimension. He raced for a while. But somehow he had the feeling that it disturbed the purist idea of the sport. "For me, biking is an activity close to nature," says Tomáš. When biking was denigrated as a threat by conservationists in the mid-nineties, he decided to become a resistance fighter.
Tomáš is now talking loudly, the words sweeping over his lips with monkey-like speed. The subject is highly emotional for him. Every detail is important. How he fought for years with the Czech authorities to get biking legalised. How he met trail designer Dafydd Davis during his studies in England, the motherland of singletrack parks. He told him that you can only be successful if the routes are accessible to everyone and the region benefits from it. Tomáš then developed a concept and offered it to countless regions. A family-friendly amusement park for bikers, gently embedded in nature. But only the Bohemian State Forest recognised the tourist opportunity, and that was for the withering Nové Město pod Smrkem. With EU funding, the miracle finally came true. The annual number of visitors shot up from virtually zero to over 50,000. But this also caused Tomáš a few worry lines.
"Everyone wants to make a profit from it," he sighs and points to the caravan area that an investor has concreted between the bike station and the neighbouring bathing lake without any sensitivity to nature. Tomáš stares silently into the distance. Then: "Some people accuse me of McDonaldising the sport of biking. Okay, I sell food and shower vouchers. But that's it for the capitalist side." He doesn't charge admission to the park. Tomáš believes that access to nature is a fundamental right.
The night has become its dark shroud over Nové Město pod Smrkem. What a story! What a place! Marginalised for decades. Economically. Structurally. And now suddenly: centre! Mountain bike-wise at least. I'll call all my mates tomorrow and persuade them to come here immediately. But now it's time to get into my sleeping bag. My eyelids are already starting to droop.
It's probably due to the earth's magnetism.
INFO TRAILCENTRE POD SMRKEM
The region
The small village of Nové Město pod Smrkem (New Town on the Table Spruce) is located not far from the Czech city of Liberec in the border triangle of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. The green mountains of the Jizera Mountains rise up from the landscape around it. Due to its location close to the border and the resulting special status during the communist era, the infrastructure is poorly developed. There is no pomp and luxury in Nové Mesto. Instead, there are prefabricated buildings and grey facades. There are a few small shops and pubs in the town centre. But that's about it. Since the opening of the trail park, however, the number of tourists has increased year on year, which is now also reflected in the small businesses around the village - in the form of new kiosks, campsites and bike stations.
The park
The basic idea of the Singltrek Centre pod Smrkem (the name is freely translated from English into Czech) is to boost tourism in order to counteract the bleak economic situation in the region. For this reason, the trails have also been designed for the widest possible range of bikers. Children and beginners have just as much fun as marathon cracks and enduro freaks. The trails wind so gently along the mountain flanks that you don't even need a suspension fork. The routes are marked according to difficulty level, are directional and can be combined with each other - up to an 80-kilometre loop. Enthusiasts can easily manage this in one day. It is neither steeply uphill nor terrifyingly downhill. Even black pistes are easy to ride.
The trail centre
The bike station in Nové Město pod Smrkem is the starting point of the trail network. Here you can hire bikes, eat delicious food and camp. There are toilets and showers. There's a festival atmosphere here at the weekend.
www.singltrekpodsmrkem.cz/de/
Overnight stay
There are numerous guesthouses, holiday cabins and campsites along the trail network. However, the best place to camp is right next to the bike station, at the foot of which is an idyllic lake. If you want something more comfortable, you can stay at the Wellness Hotel Antonie in Frydland, ten minutes away by car.
Journey
Nové Město pod Smrkem is easy to reach by car. Journey time from Dresden: approx. 1:45 hours. From Munich: approx. 5:30 hours. From Berlin: approx. 3:30 hours.
The perfect bike
Even if it sounds crazy: you can whizz through the trail network on almost any bike. With an enduro bike just as well as with a cyclocross bike. A bike with 100 millimetres of suspension travel is ideal. Fully or hardtail, it doesn't matter. If you want to leave the trail network and pedal on normal gravel paths - for example to the 1124 metre high Smrk, the highest peak in the Jizera Mountains - you should have a gear ratio suitable for mountain biking. Some of the climbs are long and tough. No matter. In any case, the effort is rewarded with marvellous panoramic views.
Costs Biking in the trail park is free of charge, as organiser Tomáš Kvasnicka believes that everyone should have access to nature. He earns his money with the bike station. Camping costs the equivalent of around 4 euros per person per night. A freshly tapped beer is available for one euro, hot food for around 5 euros. The pubs along the route are similarly inexpensive. Please note: Although the Czech Republic is part of the EU, you still pay in crowns. But no problem: there is an EC machine in Nové Město pod Smrkem.
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SINGLETRAIL CENTRE IN EUROPE
Well connected: single trail centres are playgrounds for bikers - without lifts. The offer in Germany is still rare, but something is slowly happening. In these places, biking is fun all along the line.
1st Rabenberg
Germany's first single trail park winds its way through the Ore Mountains in the form of five exciting loops. All of them can be combined with each other. The crowning glory is the 26-kilometre-long loop called Black Raven, which features all kinds of fun boosters such as kickers and berms. Fee: 7 euros/day.
Length: 5.7 to 26.2 km (total trails: 73 km)
LocationRabenberg (Saxony)
OpenApril to the end of October
Info www.trailcenter-rabenberg.de
2nd Rychlebské Stezky
The trail centre in Cerná Voda, a sleepy village deep in the Czech Republic, is something of a cousin to the Singltrek Centre in Nové Město pod Smrkem. It has the same DNA: super trails modelled with fetishistic dedication, wooden bridges, berms, gently ascending uphills, not too steep descents. Many people who have been there claim that it is the park with the best flow. However, there are also numerous natural sections where the suspension of the bikes is put to the test. Top: free admission. Tip: the cosy Trailhouse Café with bike shop.
Length: various laps from 7 to 21 kilometres in length and 80 to 470 metres in altitude
LocationCerná Voda (Czech Republic)
OpenApril to October
Info www.rychlebytrails.eu
3. Treuchtlingen (still under construction)
The bikers from the RCG Weißenburg no longer wanted to live out their hobby on the fine line between toleration and illegality. In order to be able to let off steam legally, an officially authorised trail hotspot is now to be created in Treuchtlingen. Eight municipalities have joined the project. It is set to become the largest artificial trail network in Germany. Club member David Lischka estimates the approximate size at 50 stages, similar to those used in enduro races. According to the plan, the first segments can be ridden from 2017.
LengthNot all routes have been planned in detail yet. Final completion will take three to five years.
LocationTreuchtlingen (Bavaria)
Information on the progress of the work: www.rcg-weissenburg.de
4th Gisburn Trail Centre
England is the womb of the singletrail centre, the egg cell, the delivery room - or however you want to put it. This is where the idea of reclaiming the hills for bikers without spoiling the landscape with lifts was born. There are now more than thirty single trail networks in the region. One of the most exciting and popular is the Gisburn Trail Centre not far from the city of Lancaster. Although there are only three variants to choose from - "moderate", "difficult" and "very difficult" - these can easily be combined with each other. If you want to have fun on the loop with the highest difficulty level, you should have a good level of riding technique. Root carpets and drops challenge your courage and reflexes.
Length: Loops between 9.5 and 18 kilometres in length, which can be combined into various variants.
PlaceCumbria (North West England)
Open: all year round
Info www.gisburnbiketrails.com
5. 7 Stanes
Click in, ride off and enjoy the finest single trails. It is the concept of 7 Stanes to make it as easy as possible for bikers. At least as far as the logistics are concerned. Seven Scottish trail centres have joined forces to form a marketing association in order to make biking accessible to as many people as possible. The central website provides information about the individual parks, which are only a short car journey apart. The route concepts are also a joint affair. Each location offers trails for beginners as well as riding technique virtuosos. Perfectly signposted, the routes lead through the rugged hilly landscape of Scotland. They pass idyllic lochs and castles, but never urban areas or hectic traffic arteries.
LengthThe route covers a total of 400 kilometres, including the "Forest Road" sections.
PlaceSouth Scotland
Open: all year round
Info www.7stanesmountainbing.com
