Interview Harald Philipp: The bike mountaineer & speaker in a nutshell
Lives in an Italian mountain village: bike mountaineer Harald Philipp.
The bike mountaineer fills halls with his talks on adventure, flow and trails. Harald Philipp is one of Germany's best-known mountain bikers.
The bike mountaineer fills large halls with his talks on adventure, flow and magical trails. His speciality: alpine freeriding. Harald Philipp is a storyteller, author, riding technique expert, adventurer and one of Germany's best-known mountain bikers.
The Italian by choice lives in a mountain village 1300 metres above sea level in the Ligurian Alps, where he is renovating an old house with love and passion. More about Harald Philipp on his homepage: summitride.com
Harald Philipp, 41: "What I've always wanted to say ..."
With my E-Enduro, I can ride almost all trails uphill and have doubled the flow on my tours. I have to admit that apart from two or three rides a year, the bio-bike is usually kept in the dusty cellar.
I try to deal with my quirks with equanimity. If I'm not in balance with myself, I take some time out and go on a Vipassana meditation retreat.
I feel more comfortable on stage than in other social situations.
I want to do a good job for my audience and that gives me self-confidence. In normal life, I'm more of an outsider and sometimes even shy.
I didn't have an easy childhood, my father died when I was eleven years old. And many other things weren't good back then either. Fortunately, I found mountain biking as a passion, it set me free and helped me find therapy.
More about Harald Philipp:
Internet is almost as important to me as water and electricity.
I still know Vali Höll from my early days as a bike guide at the Spielberghaus in the early 2000s. I cheer her on at every race!
I can't do anything with gravel bikes. I get numbness just thinking about it.
My biggest fashion sin? I own a mono ski.
I'm not a dropout and with fast satellite internet I can participate in modern life from the end of the world.
Richie Schley was my great idol as a teenager. I used to programme myself with his video segment in New World Disorder 1 every morning before school, I must have watched the film segment over 1000 times. My A-levels were bad, but Mr Schley's lessons taught me more for life.
I live in Italy, the only thing I miss about Germany is the bread.
My life as a pensioner? I hope to have finished renovating my ruin by the time I retire... That would be my goal, otherwise I don't think it will be that different from now. In a quiet mountain village with great trails on the doorstep. There's no pension for my generation anyway, so I'd rather live well now!
I used to go on long-distance holidays - but not any more. I've seen a few countries, been skiing in Kamchatka, biking in the Himalayas and to North Korea. I'm no longer drawn further afield. Now I prefer to look for new paths nearby, immersing myself in the details instead of scratching the surface. And in Liguria, I already live in the best bike spot in the world anyway.
I am proud to have found my own way.
The last good book I read was: Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
Liteville was my main sponsor for 19 years and I am very grateful to Jo Klieber for supporting me so much and giving me all the freedom to develop as I want. With Bosch and Pivot I now have new partners with whom I can play at a much higher level.
