Et was the day of the cycle race: After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the classic tour from Frankfurt to the Taunus took place again on May 1st One-day race takes place under changing names. Although the race this year was once again decided in the sprint in front of the Alte Oper, the actual spectacle took place in the Taunus, as always, where the drivers struggled up the Mammolshainer Berg and the long ascent to the Großer Feldberg. And it was in these moments that the decision was made in front of the television screen: It’s high time, instead of the leisurely tours on the Rhine, Main and Nidda, to tackle the cycling cult route on the Großer Feldberg again. So we looked for the washed-out jersey with the checkerboard pattern and the logo of the French bicycle and car manufacturer in the closet, but couldn’t find it. We put our helmet and yellow safety vest ready, adjusted the brakes, pumped up the tires, oiled the chain properly, and that was the basic requirements satisfied – easy enough. The journey itself would be all the more difficult.
First find the kicking rhythm
The Großer Feldberg is not a mountain giant, but as a cult mountain and legend of cycling it has little competition in Germany. Beyond the borders things are very different. The final ascent over twenty-one switchbacks on the stage to Alpe d’Huez is a recurring ritual during the Tour de France and has long been a cycling legend. No less famous are the climbs to the top of the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees or to the bare, windswept peak of Mont Ventoux in Provence, where ambitious imitators of stage winners like Bernard Thévenet, Marco Pantani or Chris Froome like to cavort. The Italians, on the other hand, have the Mortirolo in Lombardy and the Monte Zoncolan in the Carnic Alps in the Giro d’Italia. Two decades ago, the Spaniards built what is probably the most brutal climb in cycling into their Vuelta: the Alto de l’Angliru in Asturias with a passage of almost twenty-four percent gradient. Amateurs have no place on this notorious mountain tour, because even the top riders have to equip their chains with a special gear ratio to even get to the top. In comparison, the Feldberg seems like child’s play, although not for everyone.
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