The 15-kilometre flow trail in Bad Kleinkirchheim in Carinthia is three kilometres longer than the Wellenbahn on the Petzen 40 minutes further east by car and has since become the longest flow trail in Europe. With five more flow trails and soon a joint lift pass for several regions in Carinthia, the Austrian province wants to win over bikers. We were among the first to ride the longest flow trail in Europe.
It's a small step for me, but a huge step for all mountain bikers. It's a bit like biking has just been elevated from the gutter to the nobility. While an employee of the mountain railway lifts my bike out of the gondola like a valet, I step into a new era: for as long as I've been sitting in the saddle of a mountain bike, the rest of society has treated me like a leper. Who voluntarily rides their bike through the mud for hours on end?
Now the days of being an outsider seem to be over. Bikers are the new favourite target group of tourism associations and are being courted by a booming outdoor industry. Outside the mountain station, family men in trekking trousers are waiting. Ready to manoeuvre the fully loaded children's buggy along the panoramic trail. A pensioner is pulling a warm blanket over his pug, while teenage girls in leggings and mountain boots pose for their next selfie. And I'm standing in the middle of it all. But nobody looks at me the wrong way. No one is bothered by my dirty outfit. Mountain biking seems to have arrived in the mainstream...
You can read the entire travel report "The Monster Wave" in BIKE 6/2020 - available in print or as a digital version for iOS and Android.
