Vali Höll was just thirteen years old when fan mail suddenly flashed up in her email inbox. That doesn't happen to many 13-year-old mountain bikers, not even in the Austrian bike mecca of Saalbach. And then there was the sender: Rachel Atherton! Even the laid-back young Austrian Vali Höll must have almost fallen off her chair. After all, Rachel Atherton is none other than the most talented and successful downhill racer of our time. In 2015, she won every World Cup (with the exception of Lourdes) and the World Championships, and in 2016 she even managed the perfect season, winning every World Cup and the World Championship title. It simply doesn't get any better than that.
However, it is no coincidence that Rachel Atherton wrote fan mail to the 13-year-old at the time. After all, Vali Höll is regarded as the greatest young talent in downhill racing. In order not to make life too easy for herself, she took it in turns to beat the boys or adult female racers in races. In 2016, she won both the iXS Rookies Cup and the German Downhill Cup in the Open Women Class in Winterberg. It is therefore no longer surprising that Vali Höll has been under contract with the Forchheim-based bike company YT Industries for almost a year now. Henri Lesewitz reported in detail in the portrait.
Vali Höll joins the PULS Team Playground
So far, however, YT has merely sponsored her. As the young racer is far from 18 years old, she has so far been denied access to YT's World Cup team. So the enquiry from PULS, the youth radio station of Bayrischer Rundfunk, probably came at just the right time. The radio station wanted to unite young action heroes from different areas in one team. Team Playground" consists of snowboarders, wakeboarders, freeskiers, skateboarders and now Vali Höll, a mountain biker, is also part of the team. The main task of the team members is the video blog, which accompanies the athletes in their everyday lives. Whether races, training, holidays or work in the workshop, you can experience everything on the Team Playground channel on YouTube. So far, Vali has combined skiing and biking, ventured onto the infamous Kohlern Trail in Bolzano and explained how to properly fit tubeless tyres.
Have fun watching. Here is the link to the YouTube channel of the Playground team.
Click here for Vali Hölls Athlete profile at YT Industries.
Adrian Kaether
Editor
