Tegernsee and Sudelfeld Pass
3 passes in 420 km, topping out at 1340 m
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Why this ride
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. A 420 km loop that starts and ends near Isen, about 8 h 44 of riding. It goes by way of Manching, near Affing and Grünwald. The climbs: in Peißenberg, near Miesbach and Scenic stretch in Bruckmühl. It tops out at about 1,000 m.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Isen
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- Near Manching, on the way back
swim
South of Ingolstadt on the Danube plain, the ground is so flat that the horizon becomes the main landscape feature. This stop lies between Manching and Ingolstadt, in a region once covered by the great Donaumoos, a peat bog drained in the eighteenth century under the Bavarian elector Karl Theodor, who wanted farmland and settlers. The road network that crosses the old moor is neat, straight and carefully ditch-lined, with fields of maize, wheat and sugar beet standing behind.
Manching has a history much older than the roads. The Celts built a huge fortified settlement here, an oppidum, in the last two centuries before Christ, one of the largest in Europe, with ramparts that ran for kilometres. Today the town is better known for its military airfield and aerospace industry, but the Celtic past still lingers in the museum, which is worth a look if you like objects with stories. Ingolstadt, seven kilometres away, is a large city with over a hundred thousand people, home to Audi, a medieval wall, and the claim to be where the Bavarian beer purity law was issued in 1516.
For a rider, this is a start, not a destination. Fuel and food are easy in Manching, and Ingolstadt has everything you could need. The roads near the Danube are good for covering ground quickly, but they are also busy with commuters, so a morning start before the traffic builds is a good plan. The Danube floodplain nearby has paths and beech woods if you want to walk for ten minutes before you mount up.
The reward for a start like this comes later, when the road turns south and the first hills of the Alpine foreland rise ahead. The contrast makes the mountains look taller than they are. Check your luggage, fill the tank and enjoy the rare luxury of flat tarmac, because you will want to remember it when the hairpins begin.
- Food stop near Affing
food
A break here at 120 km.
- Photo stop in Peißenberg
pass
Peißenberg owes its existence to coal. For more than a century a deep mine worked the seams of pitch coal under the town, and when it closed in 1971 the place had to reinvent itself. You can still see traces of the mining past in the old shaft buildings and a small museum, but the modern town is a pleasant, unpretentious market centre in the rolling foothills between the Ammersee and the Alps.
The real draw lies just above it. The Hoher Peißenberg, a lone hill of almost a thousand metres, rises from the moraine country with a pilgrimage church on top and a meteorological observatory that has been recording the weather since 1781, making it one of the oldest mountain weather stations anywhere. The road to the summit is short and steep, and on a clear day the panorama runs along the whole wall of the Bavarian Alps from the Allgäu to the Karwendel, with the Zugspitze unmistakable to the south. It is a superb spot for a photo or simply a pause.
Riding around Peißenberg is a pleasant mix of small roads through meadows, forests and villages with onion-domed churches. To the west, the Ammer river has cut a deep, wooded gorge, and the roads towards Rottenbuch and Wieskirche lead into the classic Pfaffenwinkel landscape, so named for its density of monasteries and churches. Surfaces are good, but on weekends cyclists and day trippers are out in force, and the narrower lanes demand patience.
Peißenberg has fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries, so it makes a natural top-up before heading south into the Ammergau and towards Plansee. Weilheim, a few kilometres away, is the larger town if you need more. The inn on the summit of the Hoher Peißenberg is a classic Bavarian stop for coffee and cake with a view.
- Grünwald
finish
It is a quiet, wealthy area of villas and forests, and for riders coming back from the Tegernsee and the Sudelfeld it is a pleasant, low-key finish, close enough to the city but still among trees.
The plateau has been inhabited for a very long time. In the forest near Grünwald, the Römerschanze is an earthwork on the edge of the Isar bluff, used as a fortified site in prehistoric and later times, and Roman roads crossed the river nearby. Upstream, at Schäftlarn, a Benedictine abbey sits beside the river, with a Baroque church and a long tradition of brewing, and its beer garden is a popular spot for walkers and cyclists following the Isar paths.
The Tegernsee and Sudelfeld ride is a classic Munich day out. The Tegernsee is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, with a monastery and brewery at Tegernsee town and elegant villas around the shore. From there, the German Alpine Road continues over the Sudelfeld pass road to Bayrischzell, a curving mountain road that is extremely popular with motorcyclists, and as a result it has a history of accidents, noise complaints and frequent police controls. Ride it with respect.
Coming back to Munich, the roads through the Isar valley and the forests south of the city are calm and pleasant, especially in the evening. The B11 and the Isartal roads are lined with trees, and the views over the valley are lovely. Grünwald, Pullach and the surrounding villages have fuel and shops, and there is no shortage of beer gardens for a final drink. On summer evenings, the river below is full of swimmers, kayakers and people grilling on the gravel banks, a scene of very Bavarian contentment.
- High point near Miesbach
pass
In 1882, a wire strung on poles between Miesbach and Munich carried electricity over a distance of fifty-seven kilometres, one of the first long-distance power transmissions in history, a demonstration organised by the engineer Oskar von Miller and the French physicist Marcel Deprez. It powered a small pump driving an artificial waterfall at an exhibition in Munich. The achievement helped launch the age of electricity, and Oskar von Miller went on to found the Deutsches Museum.
Miesbach is a pleasant market town in the Bavarian Oberland, between the Tegernsee and the Schliersee, with an old centre, a church and a lively market. The surrounding landscape is the Alpine foreland at its most beautiful, with green hills, meadows, forests and farms, and the mountains rising to the south. The Miesbach breed of cattle and the local cheeses are part of the region's pride, and the traditional costume, the Tracht, is still worn on festive occasions.
The roads roll over the hills and wind through the valleys, with gentle curves, good surfaces and views of the mountains. The roads to the Tegernsee and the Schliersee are popular and can be busy on weekends, but the quieter roads through the hills offer more relaxed riding. The Taubenberg, a hill north of the town, has an inn with a view over the Alps. Watch for agricultural vehicles, cyclists and cows.
In Miesbach you will find fuel and food within a few hundred metres of each other. A coffee in the town square, followed by a short walk through the old centre, is a pleasant break. The Sudelfeld Pass lies to the south, through the Schliersee and Bayrischzell.
- Scenic stretch in Bruckmühl
pass
The Mangfall flows out of the Tegernsee and winds north through a deep, wooded valley before turning east towards Rosenheim and the Inn, and Bruckmühl sits on its banks, a modest industrial town with a church, a few factories and modern homes. The valley's springs supply a large part of Munich's drinking water, which is famously pure, and the forests along the river are protected to keep it that way.
The town itself is practical rather than beautiful, but the surrounding countryside is lovely. The Mangfall valley is green and wooded, with meadows, farms and small villages, and the river is clear and fast-flowing. To the south, the land rises towards the Alps, with the Wendelstein and the mountains of the Mangfall range on the horizon. The views from the hills around Bruckmühl are superb on a clear day.
From the saddle it is pleasant. The roads follow the river and climb over the hills, with gentle curves, good surfaces and moderate traffic. The roads towards the Tegernsee, Miesbach and Bad Aibling offer varied riding, with views of the mountains. Watch for agricultural vehicles, cyclists and the occasional sharp bend. Traffic can be heavy on the main roads towards Rosenheim and Munich, especially at rush hour.
Bruckmühl has fuel stations, shops and inns, making it a convenient stop. A Bavarian lunch in a local inn, perhaps with a view of the river, is a pleasant break. The Tegernsee and the Sudelfeld Pass lie to the south, with the mountains growing closer and the roads more winding.
- Back to Tegernsee and
finish
East of Munich the Alps vanish from view, and the landscape becomes one of gravel terraces, fields of wheat and rapeseed, and little towns clustered around onion-domed churches. The dot sits in the Erding district, near Buch am Buchrain and Pastetten, where the main business is farming and where the roads are straight and the villages have a tidy, prosperous look. It is the tail end of a long day that took in the Chiemgau and the Tegernsee valley.
The upper part of the ride has a good deal of history. Tegernsee's monastery was founded in the eighth century, and later became the summer residence of the Bavarian royal family, the Wittelsbachs, whose former abbey now houses a brewery and restaurant by the lake. The Chiemsee, often called the Bavarian Sea, holds the island of Herrenchiemsee, where King Ludwig II built a palace modelled on Versailles but never finished it. At Sudelfeld, a high pass road between Bayrischzell and Oberaudorf, the road climbs to about eleven hundred metres and offers wide views over the Inn valley.
Back in the lowlands, the character changes. The roads are open and fast, and the speed limits are low in the villages, so ride with some restraint. In spring the yellow of the rapeseed makes a striking contrast with the distant mountains, and in autumn the fields are brown and the air has a sharp smell of woodsmoke and harvest. Fog can settle in the shallow valleys, and early mornings can be wet and cold even in summer.
Buch am Buchrain and Pastetten are small, so for fuel and shops head for Erding, a few kilometres to the north, or Markt Schwaben, which has a railway station, supermarkets and plenty of cafes. Bavarian bakeries open early and are an excellent source of breakfast, with fresh pretzels and Leberkäse rolls.
The sun sets late over the plain in summer, which means you can usually enjoy the last stretch of the ride in a warm, golden light, with the faint outline of the Alps still visible to the south.