For many bikers, the tour starts where the gravel road ends. Because only a trail descent provides the flavour that sticks in the memory. So it's high time you tackled the truly epic trails!
Recently, our colleague Henri Lesewitz returned from a mountain bike race in the Himalayas and reported on a 60-kilometre descent. Wow! But then he soberingly added: "... on sandy tracks." Oh. How boring. Don't you fall asleep? No, Henri didn't fall asleep. He was just glad that the headache subsided after a certain altitude, that his brakes didn't go flat, that the sandy bends didn't tear off his front wheel and that he didn't crash into an oncoming car during the downhill rush - all problems that you don't even have as a singletrack rider.
On a lonely trail descent in the high mountains, there are no high-speed descents waiting, but rather a challenge. As soon as you set off, your heart starts pounding with anticipation and a certain amount of tension as to whether your riding ability will be up to the challenge. Smaller hurdles can be overcome with body tension, concentration and by keeping your eyes off the pigs. If the obstacles are too big, you just get off for a moment and push. There's no shame in this and it prevents unpleasant injuries.
However, you may have to explain this to your mates later on. Because while not a single gravel road descent in the Alps has made it to "legendary" status, the single trails are the stuff of legends. On Facebook, Twitter and in the relevant bike forums, people have been bragging all summer long. Some people talk about a newly discovered "insane flow trail", while others have long known that they have ridden halfway down this very trail.
Descriptions such as "Some of the bends are perhaps a little tight" on the La Varda Trail in Les Arcs, France, for example, conceal the fact that these are steeply sloping hairpin bends that have been hacked into the rock in a makeshift manner and which also come within a hair's breadth of the abyss. Brave forum participants, who still feel the adventure on this trail in their bones, may then dare to give a more realistic counter-report, and a lively discussion ensues. At the end of the discussion, the downhill trail in question not only has a name, but usually also the title "cult".
"There are no legendary gravel roads. There are singletrail descents, the rideability of which is often the subject of controversial discussions on the internet. This is how the trails get their name and quickly achieve cult status."
In the case of the Tschilli Trail, things have gone wrong before. Thousands will have ridden this legendary trail on the Vinschger Sonnenberg at some point. Along the way, everyone down in the valley will certainly have wondered when the trail will become sharper to live up to its name. But no such luck. Even trail beginners will only have to put one foot down briefly at the narrow suspension bridge to avoid catching their handlebars in the railings. After that, everything runs smoothly again. So where does the name "Tschilli" come from? The trail owes its name to a German network author who couldn't remember the name of the farm he cycled past on the way. He wrote "Something with Tschilli" on the worldwide web, referring to the Ratschillhof ...
The Goldsee Trail in the Stelvio National Park does indeed lead past a small, shimmering golden lake. However, its basin is only filled with water in summer after particularly snowy winters. Nevertheless, the trail triggered a real gold rush among bikers - even after it was banned for bikers for a few years. The national park administration decided that hikers could not avoid the exposed terrain on the Dreisprachenspitze and put a stop to bikers. This led to years of public debate and discussion. Until the happy news of a compromise was finally announced: Bikers are allowed to ride the trail with its 2000 metres of depth again, before 9 am and after 3 pm. The rush was huge right from the start. Those who want to can now even hop on the shuttle bus to get to the early start.
Can you actually list which of the legendary Alpine trails you have already ridden? Probably not off the top of your head. Then you're like my colleagues here in the editorial team. But when they had the list of charismatic Alpine trails in front of them, they were able to tick off a surprising number of them as "already ridden". But the "I've always wanted to ride that one" effect was also huge.
Try out the test for yourself! On the list below (in the download area below this article) you will find the 20 longest, legendary Alpine trails. However, as there are also super trails that don't stand out due to their four-digit depth metres, but rather due to their particularly enjoyable routing, we have added a few more trails to the list. Simply download, hang over your bed, dream and go for it!
Incidentally, I have now remembered a gravel road descent that has achieved cult status: the Tremalzo on Lake Garda. Amazing, actually.
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Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
