MTB tours & trails for spring
Especially at the beginning of the season, you don't want to break your bones right away. And you don't have to, because some trail builders have come up with new ideas on the subject of flow.
Bolzano trails
The mountains around South Tyrol's capital are only just under 1500 metres high, so the trails of Ritten, Kohlern and Jenesien have long been snow-free. The cable cars also run all year round, as they are practically the suburban railway of Bolzano. Find out where the best trail descents around the city are hidden here ->
- 5 different trails | difficulty 3 out of 5 points
Innsbruck: Muttereralm
Who says Innsbruck is only for adrenaline addicts (Nordkette)? From 21 May, trail beginners will find a freshly polished flow trail at the Muttereralm (1608 m). The built-in wall rides and dirt jumps are suitable for families and lead to a quick sense of achievement. There is even rental equipment and an introductory downhill course to prevent riding mistakes from creeping in. Directly on the way to the Brenner Pass, Innsbruck-Süd motorway exit. Operating hours: www.muttereralmpark.at
- 4.8 km 653 m elevation gain | Difficulty 1 out of 5 points
Blindsee Trail
Some love it, others hate it. The fact is that the Blindsee Trail has now been officially opened to bikers. Together with the Barbarasteig and three other descents in the Zugspitz Arena around Ehrwald and Biberwier. The ascent to the trail entrance on the Grubigstein has a pleasant gradient, but you can also use the lift. But then the trail: still wonderfully flowing at the top, it suddenly plunges down to the lake with great determination and the many boulders don't make braking manoeuvres any easier. The Grubigstein cable car is open from 13 May.
- 24.1 km 830 m elevation gain | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Hot Shots Trail Leogang
The Bikepark Leogang has one more flow trail attraction: the Hot Shots curves from the Asitzbahn mountain station down to the middle station and leads into the Hangman II, which has long been a feast for trail beginners. Trail manager Reini Leitner got the inspiration for the tables and berms on his last trip to Canada. This means that the Leogangers are back up to date. Info: bike.saalfelden-leogang.com
- 3.5 km 1720 m elevation gain | difficulty 2 out of 5 points
Brenner Trail No. 1
On the way to Lake Garda, you always pass it so carelessly, but on the old Brenner border ridge road you not only experience a lot of views and history, but also one of the most beautiful trails in the Eastern Alps: Trail no. 1 from Sandjoch down to Brenner. At the beginning, it undulates gently into the panorama until it becomes a little more bumpy in the forest. Start in Vinaders.
- 40 km 1343 altitude metres | Difficulty 3 out of 5 points
Legendary MTB passes
You should set yourself highlights at the start of a new season. This motivates you to scrub the kilometres and makes you proud when you've done it.
Madritschjoch (3123 m)
It is considered the highest rideable pass in the Eastern Alps. However, even masochists will grit their teeth on this ascent. The gravel road is rough and steep and leads through dense forest. So it's better to take the cable car after Sulden. From the Schaubachhütte hut to the top of the pass, you have to slog up another 500 metres of gravel road anyway. At the top, the landscape formed by the glacier is magnificent and the downhill trail to the Zufall hut has become legendary. Start in Prad.
- 73 km 2290 altitude metres | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Forcella Ambrizzola
The pass is located in the middle of the Dolomites, in an incomparably beautiful landscape. It is therefore worth planning an overnight stay in the Croda da Lago hut. If only because the ascent from Cortina d'Ampezzo is quite steep. From the hut, however, a trail leads gently up to the Forcella. Downhill very varied trails with panoramic views of the Dolomites!
- 36.3 km 1510 m elevation gain | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Stelvio Pass (2757 m)
With its 48 hairpin bends, Italy's highest mountain crossing is one of the most iconic passes in the Alps - at least for racing cyclists. Mountain bikers are also amazed by the architecture of the tarmac bends, but have completely different highlights in mind that only start at the Stelvio Pass: the Goldsee Trail, for example, or the Tibet Trail. To make sure it stays that way, please pay attention to the journey times on the Goldsee Trail: Before 10 am or after 4 pm!
Information about the Giants Tour: Stelvio Pass and Timmelsjoch ->
- 47.6 km 2335 m elevation gain | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Fimber Pass (2608 m)
Technically experienced Alpine crossers would never skip it, the Fimber Pass between Ischgl and Scuol in the Lower Engadine. The ascent leads over the Heidelberger Hütte, 350 metres of ascent have to be pushed. Downhill, the trail is only rough at the beginning and then always nice to ride.
Info Transalp stage 2006 ->
- 42 km 1600 hm | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Colle di Tenda (1871 m)
48 hairpin bends and further along the Ligurian border ridge road. A military road must for all those who are on holiday on the coast anyway.
- 80.6 km 2226 m elevation gain | Difficulty 4 out of 5 points
Single trail centre for bikers
Who says that a bike park always has to have a lift? Trail centres spread out their network of trails in a hilly landscape and therefore have their own rollercoaster character.
Rabenberg
Five trail circuits of varying degrees of difficulty from six to 25 kilometres in length: the trails wind around the trail centre at the summit of the Rabenberg in the Ore Mountains and can be combined as desired. There is an overview map for orientation, but the trails themselves are signposted. Open from April to October, fee 7 euros. Info: www.trailcenter-rabenberg.de
Czech Republic: Pod Smrkem
A total of 80 kilometres of single trails now encircle the Tafelfichte mountain in the Czech Jizera Mountains. Connoisseurs consider the bends to be almost perfect, as they were created by Welsh trail designer Daffyd Davis. Shops with accessories and rental bikes, a restaurant and all the information about the events await you at the start centre. Info: www.singltrekpodsmrkem.cz
Scotland: Seven Stanes
Stane is the Scottish word for stone and the now legendary seven Scottish trail centres are built around seven stone sculptures that you really have to experience. The best thing to do is grab a motorhome and visit one after the other: Glentrool, Kirroughtree, Dalbeattie, Mabie, Ae, Glentress and Newcastleton. Info: www.7stanes.com
Spain: Zona Zero
In the village of Ainsa on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, a trail network has been waiting in the bizarre rock formations of the Sierra de Guara since 2011. The Enduro Series has also made a stop here. Most of the 20 routes are signposted and GPS data is available for some of them. Info: www.bttpirineo.com
CZ: Rychlebské Stezky
European trail designers always like to come to this trail centre to learn about berm shapes and curve combinations. The Czechs seem to have a perfect knack for it. Unfortunately, Rychlebské is too far away for a spontaneous weekend trip (east of Prague). But an extended road trip with a detour via Rabenberg and Pod Smrkem will definitely be a lasting holiday experience. The trail centre is located in Cerná Voda. Open from April to October. Info: www.rychlebytrails.eu
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SUMMIT HAPPINESS - IT BEGINS IN THE VALLEY
Cable car drivers also know summit happiness, but it's not the real thing. Because that can only be achieved from the very bottom. (Gitta Beimfohr)
Happiness at the summit begins after 100 metres in altitude. For me anyway, because that's about the moment when I think to myself: I'm not going to make it today. No way. My legs are heavy as lead and my thumb is pressing desperately against the gear lever. The others are going far too fast anyway. I think about whether I should throw the "stop, take off your jacket" anchor. What does that have to do with luck? The suffering at the start is the proverbial welcome drink for the summit celebrations later on. Of course I know that I will make it to the top. I've never given up - my pride wouldn't allow me to. By now, my thighs have also warmed up and I'm stomping along smoothly in autopilot mode. I could keep up the pace and rhythm for hours. Time to let my thoughts fly. At some point, the tree line thins out and I look down at what we have already achieved.
The first happiness hormones start to flow - but only until the view upwards turns off the tap again: Oh God, 600 metres of altitude to the pass. Keep going! It's no longer possible to think about it, because I now have the finish in front of me. And it's simply not getting any closer. On the contrary, the mountain somehow stretches out. Okay, look in front of the front wheel and hum a song - that distracts me, but only briefly. Staring at the speedometer and deliberately underestimating the number of metres in altitude to the next hairpin bend and then being happy that it was more - helps for three hairpin bends. Pull the pee break joker? No more forest here. Instead, the path now becomes steeper and more bumpy, unfortunately not enough to push. And what always, always, always happens on a climb like this? "Griaßt's eich!" A local passes by on a scratchy hardtail! But suddenly it's done. The view! I want to throw myself on my stomach on the ground, claw my hands into the mountain and shout "MINE!". But of course I don't. I beam silently into the distance and savour the fireworks in my body.
GROUP EXPERIENCE - RONNIE COMES ALONG
They say that sweating together brings you closer together. But there are touring companions who grate on the softest of seams.
(Sissi Pärsch)
I like my fellow human beings. Not all of them by any means, but quite a few. And of course, as a social person, I prefer group rides to solo biking. Pedalling, chatting, rocking up, stopping off, trail surfing - the pain is half as bad, the experiences twice as nice. You go through something together, you bond.
However, group biking is also a tightrope ride. Either you're surfing on top with enormous fun - or nasty, deep abysses open up. As is so often the case, it threatens to tip over when it gets too much, i.e. when one person jumps up and causes everything to totter. It's often introduced like this: "Ronnie called. He's coming too." With Ronnie, the balance is gone and the abyss is very close. Everyone knows Ronnie, because Ronnie is the one,
who is late because a) he has the wrong meeting point in mind, b) he has picked up XY or c) nobody knows why, but it can't be long now.
Ronnie is the one who lets us all be late because a) the setup doesn't fit yet, b) the GPS is still waiting for a signal, c) he still has to pee.
Ronnie is the one who is a posting poser and has a) this new little GoPro session on the back of his hand, b) iPhone in hand and c) Facebook posts on his mind. And he's the one who likes to share his knowledge and say things like a) "You can ride with that cockpit, yeah?", b) "Whistler is totally overrated." c) "None of these guys can do a clean hairpin."
I've experienced it all. But what I have also experienced: Helplessness when the chain breaks on a tour alone. Dangerous fork in a stream bed alone on a tour. Talking to myself alone on a tour. I've even cancelled a hut because I didn't want to stop off on my own. Solo trips can be nice, but I usually experience the brilliant ridge rides with co-bikers. And who knows: Ronnie might deliver cool pics, you finally have the track from the tour, and you won't be longing for Whistler anymore.
BORDER EXPERIENCE - VERTICALLY UPHILL
Some things first have to ripen like strawberries: the desire to agonise uphill, for example. But then it's a heavenly feeling. (Henri Lesewitz)
At the beginning of the nineties, I thought I was riding the bow wave of the bike scene. On the one hand, this was due to my sharp-as-a-rat Klein Attitude in Moonrise paintwork, the purchase of which had even driven me into the clutches of the credit industry. And on the other hand, my cool Uncle Sam shirt, the front of which was adorned with a John Tomac autograph that the MTB god had scribbled on the fabric at the Grundig World Cup in Berlin. I was a biker through and through. At least that's what I thought when I travelled to mountainous terrain for the first time in my life in May 1994 - to Riva on Lake Garda for the first edition of the BIKE Festival. I knew from the newspapers that bikers ride in the mountains. But it remains an indelible moment in my life when the freak I met at the festival entrance pointed to the rock faces on the west bank and murmured: "We're going up there tomorrow." I stared upwards in shock, head tilted back. I have no idea why. I wanted to go!
The destination was to be the Tremalzo Pass, which, as a flatlander, I had never heard of - nor had I ever heard of altitude metres.
"Two thousand metres up!" announced one of the guys, whom they called "Keule". Pah, I thought and started panting. My legs felt like they had been poured with acid. I was almost choking with shortness of breath. But the climb didn't stop and didn't stop. In Pregasina, I asked: "Hey, how much further is it?" The answer hit me like a bolt of lightning: "Five hundred metres." I was completely taken aback: "Huh? That was more than half a kilometre!" Then I understood: metres in altitude = vertical metres. Nope, right? We cranked and cranked. It seemed as if the serpentines were spilling out of the front wheel. Two thousand metres! Measured vertically! What madness! Why do people do this, I thought. After an incredible number of hours, I staggered off the Attitude half-dead at the pass. My Uncle Sam shirt was soaking wet. An awesome moment!
DOWNHILL EXPERIENCE - HOLIDAY FOR THE BRAIN
The downhill is the supreme discipline of mountain biking. If you dare to leave your body completely to your subconscious and reflexes, you usually get a lot of happiness hormones as a reward. And a kind of short holiday for the rational half of the brain. (Ludwig Döhl)
So, it's the end of the day. While some of my colleagues are still stewing in the office or watching the evening TV programme, I get on my bike for an after-work ride. Not that I'm done with work yet, but my productivity is already close to zero after a long day. Just get a few breaths of forest air, clear my head. The first few kicks feel good. The blood, which has been pumping into my legs from sitting for so long, is slowly pulsing back towards my heart. Only the working film with stem lengths and gear ratio tables is still in my head.
Shortly before sunset, I reach the tree with the wooden sign "T-Rex Trail" nailed to it. Without stopping, I hastily adjust my glasses and drive into the dinosaur's mouth with the last rays of sunlight. Its root carpets and small berms have given the trail its name. If you're careless here for just a moment, you'll be spat out.
T-Rex out of the next bend. My eyes scan the trail. I tug at the handlebars. My finger twitches on the brake. Full commitment. I literally throw my bike from bend to bend until a polished longitudinal root comes along. As soon as I spot it, the front tyre slips on it. Rodeo! Full body tension, a pulse of 180 and a shot of adrenaline now push every last lame blood cell from the legs up the veins. Everything happens all by itself. Somehow my reflexes manage to tame the rodeo horse beneath me and I'm back on track. Only my pulse continues to beat as I cruise down the rest of the trail in a relaxed manner.
What was I actually doing on the descent? I spent the last three minutes full of adrenaline in the present. My reflexes took control of my body and gave the rational part of my brain a break. I am a new person. Sweaty and splattered with dirt on the outside, blown through with a steam jet on the inside. Everyday working life? Not a trace of it left in my head.
You can read this article or the entire issue of BIKE 6/2016 in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or buy the issue in the DK shop reorder:
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
