The Lac Blanc bike park is located in the border triangle (Germany, Switzerland, France) (1 hour's drive from Freiburg). This park achieved the highest number of points of all the parks we tested (out of a total of 26 parks). Lac Blanc is nestled in the Vosges mountains - a low mountain range with a moderate gradient. A fast 6-seater chairlift with very smart bike transport quickly shuttles you up the 300 metres in altitude, with room for 4 bikers and their bikes. One major drawback: unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the park is only open at weekends - which means long lift queues when the weather is nice. German downhill series champion Marcus Klausmann knows why so many people want to ride here. "Lac Blanc is really fun! Parks like Bad Wildbad or Todtnau are nowhere near it. Above all, you can also hold riding technique courses here with a clear conscience, as there is something for every skill level! "
The day ticket costs €23 - a fair price in our opinion. Restaurant, bike hire, equipment hire, shop - everything is there too!
THE TRAILS
In fact, Lac Blanc has managed to create trails of all levels of difficulty and design each descent with so much variety that even the easy trails are fun for experienced riders. Easy does not mean boring - the trail builders at Lac Blanc have understood this. Like ski slopes, the well-signposted trails in Lac Blanc have colours: green (= easy), blue, red and black. There are a total of seven main routes to choose from. In other words, you'll spend the whole day checking out all the trails. Pleasant: the compressed soil on all trails.
Two examples:
The highlight of the park is undoubtedly the red Le Fat" jump trail. It is the busiest trail in the park and not without reason. There's airtime here! Around two metres wide, it curves down into the valley and is peppered with jumps and berms. The single drops up to a height of around 2.5 metres are nicely integrated into the trail, well-built and equipped with wide, steep landings. Caution: The double jumps are not marked. So take a look first to avoid any nasty surprises. In the upper section, the trail leads to a battery of drops. Three heights of up to 2.5 metres. The landing lines lead to an almost vertical wooden slab - but hardly anyone jumps against it. If the slab were tilted slightly, it would certainly look different. Most people use a jump under the wallride for a hip jump. Fun: the following long step-up. Very nice: The long jump combination further down the trail: drop to double to step-up-hip to table jump. There's always something going on here. Riders also like to push back up to experience this fun again. If you want to jump completely over the approximately 5 metre wide table jump, you have to launch over it with a good pull and not be scared by the high air. It is safely built with a wide landing. Even with a somewhat hesitant take-off and subsequent cascade, there is hardly any risk of falling! The next jump combination is a little more challenging. Two consecutive doubles require determination. The first is easy, the second loses speed on the approach (because of the tight turn), but with a little pop and less speed, you can make it to the landing hill. The last stunt in the red descent is a curved wallride. Vertical, without a landing hill. We haven't seen anyone attempt this.
Experienced park riders can turn into the short variant called the "R-Line" here. It starts with a wooden plank approach, leads into a northshore approach with a drop-off, followed by a somewhat tricky double. Now the trail dives into a dip and requires determination. You have to master a gap jump (built as a hip) with a pull to get enough momentum for the following step-up. The ramp builds up almost vertically in front of the rider and you land on a plateau at a standstill. Now it's time to kick in again to drop over a stream gap. Approximately 3 metres high, landing (into blind) between tall trees. This also requires some determination, but works well.
Conclusion: great! This trail could also be in the Whistler Parade Park. Well and safely built, high fun factor. We could ride "Le Fat" all day long without getting bored. We can only advise every trail builder to take a look at this fun trail for inspiration. We couldn't find anything comparable in the bike parks we tested!
Downhillers and moshers come to the DH descent "La Nuts" at their expense. Roots, boulders, steps in the terrain. The trail twists and turns through the light-coloured forest and offers plenty of technical challenges. However, some of the terrain is quite flat, too flat for full-throttle fans. The trails on the Geisskopf or Spicak, for example, are much faster. After a few bends, root fields and jumps, you come to the highest drop in the park, a road gap around 5 metres high. Coming out of a bend, you ride onto the long, horizontal wooden ladder. It provides good guidance and a pleasant ride into the steep landing. Our verdict: superbly built! The impact here from a height of 5 metres is less violent than some 2-metre drops with a muck landing. In the following stone fields, you want to hit the line well to get through with momentum. At the end, there is another 3-metre gap as a finale. Our verdict: It's mainly the jumps that make the trail attractive, the descent is entertaining, but not the big hit like "Le Fat".
Conclusion: In our first bike park test in 2011, we gave Lac Blanc 9 out of 10 possible points. And rightly so! If the park was also open during the week, we would even add half a point! Many parks can take a leaf out of Lac Blanc's book. It's a shame we don't have it just round the corner in Munich, we'd be there all the time!
You can find all the trails as video clips on YouTube. More information and opening times at: http://www.lacblanc-bikepark.com
