Mountain bikers will love the region around Heiligenstadt in Franconian Switzerland. There are three different routes, combining to a total of 128 km and 2.500 metres of elevation gain.
They're all conceived as circular routes, so you can start at various points. You can also criss-cross the routes and combine them differently. The marking is excellent, so you'll never lose your way.
"Route Matzenstein" is the shortest of the trails. With 33 km and 500 metres of elevation gain it takes you up to the Matzenstein (476 m), starting and endling in Heiligenstadt.
"Route Geisberg" is a 47 km trail taking you from Heiligenstadt to Geisfeld and back conquering 900 metres of elevation gain. Formed in a figure of eight it enables you to short-cut at several points.
The longest trail is "Route Altenberg", forcing you to 1.000 metres of elevation gain and approximately 50 km, starting and endling, once again, in Heiligenstadt.
For the really sporting mountain bikers, you can combine all three trails to one big circular route of 128 km and 2.500 metres of altitude gained. That should suffice for a delightful afternoon tour...
