Mountain bikers in Austria have a hard time. This is because they are generally excluded from using forest roads. Only exceptions and routes explicitly authorised for cyclists allow mountain biking - and this even applies to forest roads.
Latest prospects of success for a possible change in the law (BIKE reported) have now been disappointed for the time being: because the Wengerwald road co-operative in Kuchl, Austria, which is responsible for the access road to the popular Nesslangeralm, did not unanimously agree to continue tolerating mountain bikers on the forest road up to the alpine pasture, the road has now been closed. What sounds like a fairy tale is unfortunately a reality: a single member of the road co-operative is refusing bikers access - the reason is allegedly an age-old feud between two long-established forest-owning families. One direct consequence of this is that the lack of mountain bikers means that the Nesslangeralm is apparently not worth running and the landlord has announced that he will not be opening his mountain hut for the 2019 season. Not to mention the bikers who are suffering...
David Schäffler, mountain bike guide from Kuchl, commented on the escalation of the conflict in a press release from the Austrian biker interest group Upmove: "The example of Wengerwald shows very clearly that the contractual solution so often invoked by the Chamber of Agriculture and the government does not work. Nevertheless, Austria advertises internationally as a 'bike country' and with the slogan 'You like it? Bike it!'. None of this fits together. Only an amendment to the Forestry Act to allow mountain bikers freedom of access can defuse such conflicts, which are typical for Austria. Otherwise, we can only continue to ride mostly on normal roads, which are curiously labelled as MTB routes. I wonder why these are not also designated as lorry routes, for example!"
The organisation Upmove is now calling for a protest action in Kuchl/Weißenbach (Salzburg) on Thursday, 6 June at 18:00. During the so-called Trutzpartien, bikers will push their bikes over closed sections of the route to draw attention to the muddled situation and allegedly do what is actually permitted in Austria according to forestry law. More information can be found on the Website of Upmove or in the social media, for example at Facebook. If it were a fairy tale, the happy ending would come soon, or so we hope.
Sebastian Brust
Editor
