Lisbon: Sintra trails to the Atlantic
The first urban downhill took place in Lisbon in 1999 - the steep gradient and the many small steps in the city made it possible. Today, one organiser still offers the route as a night ride. But Portugal's capital city bikers are even luckier: the 900-hectare Monsanto hill forest sprouts up in the centre of the city. Here, the locals have draped plenty of trails in the terrain. Fast, sandy lines with jumps, gaps and berms that are enough for a full day's riding.
Lisbon's big highlight, however, lies 25 kilometres west of the city, close to the S-Bahn: the Serra de Sintra. A natural park with a jungle-like forest, from which peaks 400 to 500 metres high repeatedly emerge. Moorish castles and palaces are enthroned on some of them, which is why most day tourists flock here.
However, hardly any hikers get lost in the forests in between, which is why it's hardly noticeable that the trails have all been polished up a bit: The trails have a surprisingly rhythmic and undulating course, curve around the trees in wide radii and, as if by magic, there are stones or logs in front of terrain steps ready for you to jump off. But there are also descents with larger play elements on which downhill pros compete. However, everyone's favourite is the Donkey Trail. It starts in the west of Sintra at the Peninha monastery (448 m) and winds endlessly down the treeless slopes to the sandy beach with gigantic views of the Atlantic.
Tours: Tracks can be found on the usual tour portals. The Organiser Weride (weride.pt) offers local enduro tours with shuttle, but also cool night rides in the city.
Overnight stay: Stay in the city for a few days and then move to the Serra de Sintra? Or: With the Lisboa Card (54 euros for 3 days), you can visit sights via Fast-Track and use the local trains between Lisbon and Sintra (35 minutes one way).
Weather: You can bike all year round and the sea is still at bathing temperature until the end of October. Top surfing spot, by the way!
Barcelona: Enduro & dirt jump superspot
A flight from Germany to Barcelona is cheap, takes only two hours and can be booked quickly. Nevertheless, it is worth travelling by car or, even better, by camper van (1400 km from Munich). This is the only way to get to all the super spots around the Catalan capital. The coastal mountains between Barcelona and the northern city of Girona alone are criss-crossed by a dense network of trails. A little further inland, professional bike parks sprout from the flanks of the hills, which are open all year round thanks to frost-free winters. However, bike enthusiasm in northern Spain is now so great that some locals are building dirt lines and enduro trails in their private forests. They also grant visitors access on request.
The best bike spots around the city:
La Poma Bikepark: Gigantic dirt lines in Premià de Mar, just a few kilometres from the city centre. With foampit, airbag jump and a small campervan pitch for a cheap overnight stay.
Lloret de Mar and Mataro: Dirt jumps for advanced riders, but also plenty of enduro trails with sea views. On the coast north of Barcelona.
Bikepark Santa Coloma de Farners: Even celebrated by professionals, very creatively equipped enduro lines in the forests south-west of Girona (about an hour's drive from Barcelona)
What else can the city do: Gaudi artworks that can be explored on well-marked cycle paths, Mediterranean flair and countless tapas bars!
Weather: October is the rainiest month in Catalonia. But still with an average air temperature of 20 degrees. This is much more pleasant than the 50 degrees that are often measured in summer.
Markus Greber, photographer:
Even if you don't dare to ride in the La Poma bike park itself, Barca's gigantic dirt jump area is a must-see.
Málaga: Enduro on the Sierra Nevada
Picasso's birthplace on the Andalusian Costa del Sol is known for many things: Museums, beaches, marinas and a total of nine golf courses. But not necessarily as a hotspot for hikers and mountaineers. In other words: mountain bikers have a free choice of trails in the two neighbouring mountains! However, you should bring two things with you for the Montes de Málaga and the Sierra de Mijas, which are both just over 1000 metres high: Fitness for the often steep Fireroad climbs and plenty of suspension travel for the descents.
The trails in the marble and granite mountain flanks are rocky, stepped and scree-covered. If you dare, you can even ride over huge, steeply sloping boulders, just like in Moab. A mecca for enduro and downhill specialists. However, as this clientele is naturally less interested in cranking up metres in altitude, an organiser in Málaga offers enduro rides with a shuttle. At least from November to the end of April. In the summer months, these guides move to the nearby but cooler Sierra Nevada. Its peaks, which reach up to 3482 metres, are of course a trail adventure in their own right.
Tours: Guided enduro and downhill tours with shuttle from November to the end of April are offered by the tour organiser Switch Backs (switch-backs.com). The bike station in Bubión at the foot of the Sierra Nevada also opens in the summer months. For more information contact: mtb-trip.com
What else can the city do: Picasso Museum and the painter's birthplace, the Moorish fortress Alcazaba, nine golf courses, fish restaurants (sardines!), beaches
Weather: The average annual temperature is 18 degrees, and most of the rain falls in December (6.6 days) - the entire winter feels like spring here.
Vienna: Trail centre with connections
What luck: the easternmost foothills of the Alpine arc undulate right up to the baroque city gates of Vienna. What bad luck: The forest humps, which are up to 600 metres high, have been declared a biosphere reserve and are also located in Austria. This meant that the chances of legal trails were practically nil when ambitious bikers joined forces in 2015 to form the Vienna Forest Trails Association and endeavoured to obtain approval from the authorities. Its members are now proud of several trail spots that are growing ever closer together thanks to connecting trails: firstly, there is the celebrated Trail Centre Vienna (or Hohe Wand Wiese) with 11 lines and 2 uphill trails, drag lift, pump track, bike school and catering - accessible from Vienna by S-Bahn. There are now also 4 flowing lines in the Weidlingbach trail park, which were linked to neighbouring spots by trail in July 2024. For example, with the Babenberger and Kahlenbergerdorf trails, the Hameau trail and the Dombachgraben-Roan trails. This means that the MTB club has come a big step closer to its declared goal of connecting all of the sections into one large trail area at some point.
Tours: An up-to-date overview map with all the trails permitted to date can be found at wienerwald.infoand wienerwaldtrails.at
Info about the Trail Centre Vienna: (hohewandwiese.com) Admission: day ticket 11 euros or including lift: 35 euros, bike shuttle per ride: 6 euros
What else can the city do: everything. St Stephen's Cathedral, imperial palaces, Hofburg Palace, Hundertwasser House, Central Cemetery - the best way to explore the many highlights from the Baroque era is simply by bike. Followed by a Melange in a coffee house.
Weather: Autumn in the Vienna Woods is particularly beautiful when the leaves change colour and the air becomes clearer. However, the trails themselves are subject to the condition that they may only be used during daylight hours and from March to October (or until November if the weather is fine).
Stefan Frey, BIKE editor:
Explore the city centre and Ringstrasse by bike, then take the well-developed cycle paths to the Prater - Vienna by bike is a dream.
Graz: open all year round
150 kilometres from Vienna, the capital of Styria basks in the sun on the southern side of the Alps. Ten times smaller than Vienna, but still the second largest city in Austria. A 400 metre high protective wall of mountains shields it from the weather from the north, but a Mediterranean climate blows through its winding old town streets from the south. This gives the club-organised bikers mostly snow-free winters, which is why the trail area at the Schöckl cable car, 20 kilometres away, is one of the few that is open all year round. Even the downhill elite meet here for winter training on the quite selective trails called Gedscho (2 km) and Gibim (1.7 km). But there are also legal, flowing trails directly above the city: the Enzi Trail in the north-east, which has been lovingly maintained since 2013, and the west-side trails on the local Plabutsch mountain on the other side. Both bike spots were expanded again last year.
Tours: the year-round open Trail area on the Schöckl (schoeckl-trail-area.at), Wheel bearing association (wheel-bearing-mtb.at) with information on events and the condition of the Enzi, Chimney, Knight Rider and Short West trails.
What else can the city do: Eggenberg Castle, Graz's Schlossberg and the winding old town (World Heritage Site), the spaceship-like Kunsthaus, the farmers' market on Lendplatz, hip and stylish cafés and restaurants
Weather: Thanks to its location in the Southern Alps, shielded to the north but open to the south, a Mediterranean, milder climate flows into the city, with significantly more hours of sunshine per year.
Stockholm: worthy of a Nobel Prize
The international successes of slopestyle icon Martin Söderström have triggered a bike boom in Sweden. Since 2007, bike trails have been sprouting from the forest floor like blueberry bushes all over the country. Bikers can even let off steam on four spots around the capital Stockholm, and none of them are more than 15 minutes away from the city centre. First address for downhillers: Hagapark in the north of Stockholm. There are two descents from a 70 metre high hill here, which are loved, cherished and showcased on YouTube by the locals. But there are also longer trail loops that run through the entire park. Easily rollable flow trail circuits wind their way through the forests of Fiskartorpet, close to the university.
But the really big run awaits in Hellasgarden, a huge recreational area in the south of the city. Downhillers prefer to head for the Hammarbybacken ski hill with its drag lift and constructed downhill runs. But in the forest and lake area behind it, hundreds of kilometres of trails open up in the hilly landscape. You simply follow the blue dots on the tree trunks, cranking your way through the alpine-like landscape and concentrating on roots, rock slabs, footbridges and sometimes quite narrow trees. Technical riding skills and fitness are definitely an advantage here due to the constant ups and downs.
Tours: Most of Stockholm's trails can be found on trailforks.comHappyride organises weekly rides, happyride.se
What else can the city do: Beautiful old town with royal palace, Nobel and ABBA museum, bus & boat tours in the archipelago (24,000 islands), creative pubs
Weather: In October, temperatures are around 11 degrees. Rainy days: 16, daylight: 7.30 am - 5.45 pm. Summer with the midnight sun is the best time to tour.
Gothenburg: Trails with lots of airtime
German slopestyler Erik Fedko called his mate Emil Johansson's winning run at the Red Bull District Ride in Nuremberg "out of this world". But anyone who has ever been to Gothenburg, on the south-west tip of Sweden, will no longer be surprised why such casual high-flyers come from this fairly flat northern country. The online platform Trailforks offers an impressive overview of the densely woven but difficult to spell trail network around the city. The map looks as if someone has thrown colourful spaghetti on it. According to this, you would have to work very hard, especially in the south of Gothenburg, not to come across a worthwhile MTB trail. The Swedes make up for the lack of vertical metres with extremely piled up dirt ramps. This can be seen in the video clip by Simon Johansson (right here below), who was able to shovel a monster freeride line at Bollenkollen, which is now available to the general public.
Tours: Simply drive to Lackarebäck, Kallebäcksdirten, Änggardsbergen, Ruddalen and Bollekollen and follow the signs to the trail network. The best way to get an overview beforehand is to visit the Trailforks website.
What else can the city do: Northern Europe's largest (container) harbour with historic sailing ships, canal boat tours, cinnamon buns in the café and vintage district of Haga, fish church (market hall), reindeer wraps
Weather: Sweden's second largest city is located on the Kattegat and enjoys a slightly warmer climate than Stockholm. You can bike here all year round, but the warm, long summer days are more fun. Average maximum temperature in October: 12 degrees.
Lutz Scheffer, bike designer:
In my ranking of trail metropolises, Gothenburg is number 1: so many trails between granite rocks, old forests and lakes!
Dublin - Playground at Ticknock
British trails never lead from A to B. At least not as long as hills, forests and meadows still leave room for extra fun turns. This is also the case in Ireland, where the sport of biking has been expanding throughout the island since 2011. One of the top spots is located in the south of the capital, in Ticknock Forest, on the edge of Wicklow Mountains National Park. The finest, hand-shaped trails wind through the countryside for 13 kilometres with many easy play elements. On the other side of the mountain, The GAP is a trail paradise for advanced riders with rocks, steep slopes, roots and a shuttle service.
Tours: The starting point is the Ticknock Mountain Bike Trails car park. From here, simply follow the red and black arrows. Information at Dublin Mountains (dublinmountains.ie), be sure to visit the trail centres Rostrevor and Ballyhoura!
What else can the city do: Dublin Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral, National Gallery, the Guinness Storehouse, Temple Bar (artists' quarter) and over 800 pubs
Weather: Especially in autumn, you will definitely get wet. At 12-13 degrees, it's not exactly warm either. But thanks to the Gulf Stream, there are only 14 frost days a year.
Copenhagen - Highway to the trail
The Scandinavian glaciers did not leave many mountains standing when they gouged over Denmark. The highest peak in the country is just 170 metres high. Instead, the country and even the capital are spread over several islands. This also has its charm, especially when travelling by bike. Cycling along Copenhagen's legendary cycle highways is an experience in itself. But the top MTB spot is located in the north-west of the city: the Hareskoven Trail Park. Four project groups are working on the fun trail lines (10 km) of this forest hill area. And they are doing so with extremely creative ideas.
Tours: Since 2014, the Hareskoven trail spot has been growing by several hundred metres a year. A map overview can be found here: Hareskoven MTB Sport, hareskovensmtbspor.dk
What else can the city do: Prices. Copenhagen is very expensive, but unfortunately also worth seeing: the colourful houses on Nyhavn, boating in the canals, the Tivoli amusement park and the Öresund Bridge to Sweden (8 km).
Weather: The air and water are 12 degrees in October. The wind shovels in rain clouds, but quickly takes them away again. Bright until 10 pm in summer!
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
