Grossglockner Alpine Road

[rallybiker]

Just back from an alpine holiday in the Austrian Tirol. On Wednesday we took a coach tour to the highest mountain in Austria, the Grossglockner, which has an alpine road that climbs for 38Km through 32 haipin and like a huge version of Bwlch y Groes is used by car manufacturers to test new cars. We saw 3 McLarens and a Pagini Zonda while ascending as well as an absolute load of cyclists who were up for the challenge. It's an absolute killer of a hillclimb, averaging 12% incline the whole way. It's situated about 10 miles from Zell am Zee but apparently most cyclists (roadies and MTB) base themselves in the village of Fuschs which is near the toll booth at the start of the climb. There's a wealth of MTB routes there as well, as well as a load of downhill in Kitzbuhel, which is also an excellent base. Here are some links.

youtu.be/ygC6uB3t1p4
Heading down the road (5.01 onwards)

www.grossglockner.at/en/hochalpenstrasse/radfahrer/

www.mountainedge.co.uk/content/2491/mountain_bike_holidays

[BenKMV]

The roads look like a roadies dream come true whether you go up or down

[Rupert]

Nice part of the world that, we've had a couple of holidays in Austria and both were excellent, although we only had a Polo to go over the Grossglockner. Looks like the guy that took that video could teach the bikers in these parts something about how to overtake safely.


For MTB you really have to pick your spot carefully over there as a lot of official trails are just fire road, and if you go off piste it can get very technical. We found it quite dissapointing, but you probably need a guide to get the best of it.

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