The precinct
The Sauerland is predominantly located in North Rhine-Westphalia. Only the well-known winter sports resort of Willingen in Hochsauerland forms a small Hessian enclave. The highest elevation is the 843 metre high Langenberg - the highest mountain in NRW. The Bike Arena Sauerland, one of the largest mountain bike trail networks in Europe, has been created here in recent years. It comprises 1700 kilometres of signposted trails with 34,000 metres of altitude difference. In the Bike Arena project, 19 communities are doing their best to provide mountain bikers with the best possible infrastructure. The two most important towns are certainly Willingen and Winterberg. They set standards with their nationally popular bike parks. Winterberg and Brilon also act as visitor magnets with their trail centres. Outside of the built park routes, the signposted tours have a typical low mountain range character. In other words: mainly forest roads, but with beautiful trail passages. However, with a local guide, the proportion of trails on a tour can easily be increased to 40 per cent.
You can download the complete "Germany: Sauerland" area guide with the three best bike tours from BIKE 4/2021 as a PDF in the download area below.
The area guide costs 1.99 euros. Inside you will find the BIKE web code, which will take you to the download of the free GPS data for these tours.
- Tour 1: Willingen - Brilon (60.2 km | 1235 m elevation gain | 5 h)
- Tour 2: Willingen Trail Quartet (62 km | 1496 m elevation gain | 5:30 h)
- Tour 3: Hochheide loop (31.5 km | 760 m elevation gain | 3 h)
Guided tours
Rockmytrail: Courses and tours with Marc Brodesser. www.rockmytrail.de
Biketherapy Brilon: Courses and workshops in the trailground and MTB zone. www.biketherapy-brilon.de
Bike-Willingen: Bike hire, courses and guided tours directly at the K1 chairlift. www.bike-willingen.de
Maps
The Hochsauerland mountain bike map shows 30 mountain bike tours including tour descriptions and elevation profiles. The trail centres in Winterberg and Brilon as well as the Willingen and Winterberg bike parks are represented with a detailed map. The map has a GPS-compatible UTM grid and a waterproof coating. Scale: 1:35,000, price: 7 euros.
Accommodation
The Hochsauerland and Willingen in particular offer a very good tourist infrastructure with accommodation in every class, from wellness hotels to campsites.
Partner companies of the Bike Arena Sauerland: www.bike-arena.de/de/Uebernachten
Tip: If you want to meet your peers, you should take a look at the Bike-Hotel Hochheide in Willingen. Hotelier Michael Behle is a keen mountain biker and bike guide himself and regularly takes guests on tours. Info: www.hochheide.com
District highlights
The Continental BIKE Festival Willingen has also been postponed in 2021 due to Corona and will now take place from 27-29 August 2021. All registrations already booked for the BIKE Marathon 2020 remain valid for 2021. Info: www.bike-festival.de
The bike parks
The two bike parks in Willingen and Winterberg are national tourist magnets. In terms of the quality of the trails as well as their length and infrastructure, the two bike parks have nothing to fear from comparison - not even with those in the Alps! Both parks are dominated by flow lines with the typical waves and berms, where the level of difficulty can be easily controlled by speed. However, there are also black downhill trails available in both parks, which also demand full commitment from professionals. In 2019, for example, the German Downhill Championships were held on the Ettelsberg descent in conjunction with the BIKE Festival in Willingen.
The opening of the enduro trail in Willingen has been announced for the 2021 season. This was also built for the 2019 BIKE Festival, but was not opened to the public by the authorities after the race. Info: www.bikepark-winterberg.de, www.mtbzone-bikepark.com/willingen
The trail centre
The Trailpark Winterberg offers a network of 40 kilometres of trails around the 809-metre-high Bremerberg, 20 kilometres of which are single trails. The routes are grouped into loops of varying degrees of difficulty. Most of these loops utilise existing forest roads and paths. However, many trails have also been created especially for mountain bikers and spiced up with jumps and berms. Info: www.trailpark-winterberg.de
Trailground BrilonThe trails are mainly located on the north side of the Bilstein. The transfer passages run along forest paths, while the trails have been optimised for bikers. A complete loop through the trailground is 17 kilometres long with 500 metres of elevation gain and offers a very high proportion of trails. Info: www.trailgroundbrilon.de
