MTB Tour To The Schauinsland

The days between matches pass. There’s a lot to do. In between, preparation for the big MTB tour up the Schauinsland. You have to get to know Freiburg by bike. Cyclists are more important there than cars.

A typical Freiburg street looks like this: 2.5 metres of cycle lane and car lane – green tram lane – 2.5 metres of cycle lane and car lane. Zone 20. If you want to overtake as a car driver, you can only do so at the cost of a jousting tournament against a tram.

We cycle through parks and the zoo. Freiburg hates cars and loves animals. Even caged ones. That’s why the zoo costs nothing. Car parking fees are five euros, and real animal rights activists can make a donation for any particular enclosure. Fortunately, this is not directly linked to advertising like football. Otherwise Freiburg Zoo would probably have something like the Allianz Arena, but labelled “Haribo bear enclosure”.

We get lost in the vineyards off the Tuniberg on an MTB tour to the Kasierstuhl. Freiburg cyclists can only follow cycle paths, they are used to that. If there are no red stripes, they get lost and puncture their tyres. After crossing the forest for the third time and cycling 40 kilometres for a distance of perhaps 10 kilometres, we turn back. There’s a rear-end collision on the mountain. Drivers in Freiburg also brake for cyclists outside the city – even harder than the car behind if necessary.

I’ve never really ridden a mountain bike before. If you take the mountain literally. There have been lots of big hills, but never a mountain. We cycle up the Schauinsland from Freiburg by mountain bike. The tour starts practically in the centre of Freiburg. The Black Forest begins five metres behind Freiburg. The gravel road climbs gently for 8km from 255 to around 800 metres in altitude. As soon as the road descends, it climbs vertically up the mountainside to the left to a ridge.

A hut stands in the sun. Inside is an empty Absolut Vodka bottle and a few old clothes. A lounger sawn from a tree trunk flickers in the meadow. A runner passes by. The trail now goes uphill along the ridge with lots of roots and small rocks flanked by stinging nettles and brambles.

The descent into the small valley is steep over gravel. At the end of the high valley is the exit of a mining gallery. Cool air blows out. The last five kilometres up the Schauinsland are tough. After 500 metres in altitude, the thighs grumble for the first time. After 800 metres they howl. After 14 kilometres of non-stop climbing, you just want to walk the last 30 metres.

Once you’ve ridden 1000 metres uphill on your mountain bike, every metre of downhill counts double. At least. Everything happens in slow motion. The sun and shade alternate calmly through the fir trees at the edge of the meadow. The shock stretches and stretches. The studs rumble on coarse gravel.

We get lost despite good maps. We end up further south than planned. The way back leads via Krumlinden, Münster and Stauffen. After about 1200 metres in altitude, the last 300 metres via Bollschweil and Au back to Freiburg resemble a crusade.

There is a rubbish bag on the road with the sticker “please sort cleanly”. Waste disposal is a big problem in Freiburg. Nowhere else in the world is rubbish disposal more expensive. That’s why people limit the number of bins they use: a 20-litre plastic bowl is hung in the residual waste bin and the bin costs only a fifth of the price. Unfortunately, the savings are spent on securing your own bin with a security lock. Where elsewhere you dig a pit for others, in Freiburg you simply throw 20kg of toxic waste into your neighbour’s bin.