BIKE Festival Willingen 2026: Thunderstorm night with flying tents and race vibes on day 2

The big storm with floods of rain forecast by the weather service did not materialise, thank goodness, but some exhibitors still had to search for their tents in the Expo Area this morning and re-anchor them before the festival opened its doors at 10 am. By that time, the marathon racers were already on the road. The starting signal for the long-distance race was given at 7.30 am.

The field of participants set off at 13 degrees and with clouds still hanging low. In front of the handlebars: a whopping 110 kilometres and 2930 metres in altitude (long loop). Those who partied a little longer yesterday might want to shorten their ride to the medium loop (71.8 km / 1880 metres of ascent) or even take the small loop (33.7 km / 830 metres of ascent). That would be a shame, however, as the sky turns a bright blue again shortly after the start.

The Bosch eMTB Challenge crowns the German champion

This also pleased the enduro racers, who were allowed to start a little later. For the first time, the Bosch E-MTB Challenge will be shredding for the German Championship title. The field of prominent riders is correspondingly dense, and the choice of the optimal tyres was discussed frantically until late into the night.

The next few hours will show who has chosen the right tyres, as the rain lasted until the early hours of the morning. The trails may still be wet, but perhaps dried out by the sun and therefore perfectly grippy. We will hopefully find out soon from BIKE colleague Dimitri Lehner, who took part in his first E-Enduro race of his life today. Impressions of the first two days can be found in the gallery, we'll be back with the race results.