We were in the Kamsdorf mine with guide Lucas Rham, who was looking for the perfect year-round touring biking area. A photo report from a bizarre underground world.
Fly to the Canary Islands? Go to a spinning class? Or sweat up the living room floor on the exercise bike? The fact that these questions are being asked at all shows the desperation that winter can cause among mountain bikers. Of course, you can try to defy the evil: dress like an Eskimo and then ride around on muddy trails in disgustingly cold and wet weather. But there is another alternative. The mine in the Thuringian village of Kamsdorf is probably the only place in Germany, perhaps even in Europe, where you can go for a long mountain bike ride even in winter with stable plus temperatures and 100 per cent snow-free trails. Lukas Rham offers guided tours in the underground tunnel system. The tunnels in the bizarre, pitch-black labyrinth, which runs on four levels at a depth of 10 to 40 metres, are almost 300 kilometres long. The tour lasts three hours. A spectacular experience with climbs, downhills, wild combinations of bends and even a bike park complete with a flowtail.
In BIKE 1/2018 - on newsstands from 5 December 2017 - you'll find the big report on the underground bike tour. You can find a photo gallery in advance here.
Website to book the tour: www.erlebnisradtouren-saaleland.de
