They actually call it a mountain. This Bungsberg is 168 meters high, you can’t go higher in Schleswig-Holstein, at least not from a geographical point of view. From an alpine perspective, that’s little more than a bump in the ground. Flensburg is even lower than this, well: the summit of the Bungsberg. Almost exactly 168 meters deeper, at least near the port.
But every mountain bike tour also begins in the valley, so it is only logical that Flensburg does not shy away from starting from scratch. Or more precisely: at sea level. This summer is the first Flensburg bicycle summer. The goal: In the future, more people should leave their cars behind and get on bicycles. According to the initiators, the aim is to use an exhibition, guided tours and lectures to ensure that cyclists are finally recognized as equal players in road traffic and in urban space in general. And not just as annoying obstacles.
Since the townspeople do nothing better than to drive to the country, it won’t be long before the people of Flensburg will leave the contested urban space behind and head out into the countryside. The pioneers among them will even climb the dikes of the North Sea, and soon afterwards they will also be standing on the Bungsberg. You will be so fixated on it that from now on you will dream of Mont Ventoux, of crossing the Alps, of mountain bike tours in the Palatinate Forest.
With the bike in the mountains, that is no longer a privilege of the inhabitants of those regions that also have a vertical dimension. Mountain biking has become a popular sport, and e-bikes have once again increased the radius of cyclists significantly. At some point someone will cycle to the summit of the Matterhorn, and it is likely that a lane of the Brenner motorway will be opened for mountain bikers.
The only question that remains is when the hikers who have come under the wheels will speak up in order to be accepted as equal among all functional underwear carriers in the mountains.