Feldberg (from Todtnau)

The Black Forest's highest peak at 1,493m is accessible by road from the valley floor, and the Todtnau approach from the south is the finest cycling ascent to the Feldberg plateau. The 14.5km from Todtnau gains 870m at a sustained 6.0% average — a long, consistent effort through increasingly open spruce forest before the summit plateau emerges above the treeline in the final 3km. The upper road carries sections of 14% on the steeper hairpins as the gradient forces the route up the final exposed slope to the ski station complex. At 1,493m, the Feldberg is the highest point in the Black Forest and the highest in Germany outside Bavaria — on clear days the panorama extends across the Alps from Mont Blanc in the southwest to the Zugspitze in the east, a horizon of 400km of Alpine peaks that makes this one of the great viewpoints in Central Europe. The Feldberg-Thurner ski area at the summit has cafés and facilities open year-round.