Livigno (Italy) Season 2010 Review

Livigno (Italy) looks back at a successful season 2010 and gets ready for 2011

After another successful season, Livigno can look back at a really eventful year 2010. Some of the biggest legends of the mountain bike sport visited the Kona groove approved and mottolino-operated Swatch bikepark to explore the trails and take in the breathtaking landscape Livigno has to offer. Riders such as Brandon Semenuk, Trond Hansen and Hans “No Way” Rey could not get enough of the flowy and diverse trails.
The opening of the first Flow Country Trail in the world, events such as La Pedaleda, as well as the introduction of a new GPS system for the trails had a noticeable effect: this year, Livigno saw its busiest summer in its history with more riders than ever tearing down the tracks. For now, the Livigno trails will have to cede to the snowboarders and skiers, but from June 11th, 2011 bikers can re-conquer their trails and hit them hard until September 25th.

Many years of event experience as well as a location that makes any mountain biker’s heart beat faster also convinced the International Mountain Bicycling Association, short IMBA, to choose Livigno for the first official IMBA Europe Conference & Flow Country Workshop. Overall 27 attendees and organizations from ten countries – including Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic and the USA – met in the Northern Italian bike destination to discuss such subjects as trail development, advocacy or funding.


The IMBA chose Livigno with good reason – all kinds of trails are represented in one unique mountain scenery: from easy going natural single trails with great panorama views to technically challenging bike park trails featuring all kind of different obstacles and pure fun specials. Tourism Director Giorgio Zini has every reason to be happy with the past year: “We are very satisfied with the results of the summer season. We registered a great affluence of bikers during the entire summer not only on the trails, but also in the bikepark. At the same time, we are working hard on constantly improving the bikepark as well as the trails in the surrounding area and are happy that people are taking notice!” On top of that, Livigno is the first bike resort that calls an official Flow Country Trail its own and continuously expands it. Hans “No way” Rey, who invented the Flow Country concept together with Diddie Schneider, explains the main idea: “The recent past and future of mountain biking and trails has and will be based around the word "flow". Flow Country Trails are very flowy trails where riders can experience the "roller coaster" feeling. These trails are never steep, extreme or dangerous. They are suitable for almost any kind of mountain bike or skill level.” With strong support from the IMBA Conference attendees, the first official IMBA Flow Country Trail was completed during the conference with an additional section next to the Swatch Bikepark Mottolino.


Hans “No Way” Rey is one of the many world-class riders who keeps coming back to Livigno as one of his favorite riding spots. And for one week in July, some friends joined him. Brandon Semenuk, Martin Soderstrom, Graham Agassiz, Paul Basagoitia and Trond Hansen hit the local trails with Hans. The pros spent their time with countless descents in the Mottolino bike park, heavy sessions on the Swatch air cushion or easy going enduro rides. In all fairness, after their runs they hit the spa as hard as the trails and spoiled themselves with shopping sessions, delicious Italian food and also found some time to just relax.

A highlight clip of the riders' time in Livigno is waiting for you:




The best Swatch Bikepark Mottolino action can be seen:




Even though the weather did not always fully cooperate with Livigno’s event plans, this year proved once again that Livigno is definitely worth a biking-trip. One of the 2010 highlights was definitely the La Pedaleda from August 19th to 22nd. An action-packed 4-day event and side program attracted mountain bike and cross country fans from all over Europe. Over 450 competitors participated in the “Marathon” (80 kilometers) and “Short” (40 kilometers) races of the La Pedaleda. Thanks to glorious weather and flawless event organization, rookies, pros and spectators enjoyed Livigno at its best. After such an eventful season in 2010, 2011 has much to live up to. Planning and preparations for the coming season are already in full swing to make sure next year tops even this year’s overwhelmingly successful season. The newly introduced online-based GPS information and planning tool will be one factor to make the next biking trip in Livigno and surroundings an even better experience. Besides the perfect trails, events such as La Pedaleda and the Transalp On The Road in August will be sure to leave bikers coming back for more.

General information about the destination Livigno can be found on: www.livigno.eu

For all the details about the Swatch Bikepark Livigno operated by Mottolino, its trails, opening times, conditions and events, please take a look at www.mottolino.com.


General Information about the bike destination Livigno:
Livigno is famous for a great range of winter sport activities and provides a breathtaking nature that can also be discovered by bike in the summertime. Its unique mountain scenery is often nicknamed as “Little Tibet”. Down in the valley, the town centre of Livigno offers 250 tax free shops. Located right in the heart of Europe, Livigno can be easily reached by car or train. The specialized AR Bikehotels provide customized services for all bike fans and vacationers. The spectrum of trails around Livigno features a broad variety: cross country, all mountain and downhill riders can choose perfectly fitting sportive challenges. Also road cycling athletes choose Livigno (1816 m a.s.l.) for altitude training. Overall 3,200 kilometers trail-maps and GPS-tracks around Livigno are available. The Swatch Bikepark Livigno Mottolino is not only well-known among the gravity sport fans, because of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in 2005, but also for a big range of different freeride tracks. This Kona Groove Approved Bike Park combines progression in building new trails and obstacles with respecting the environment at the same time – a project supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). All cross country fans might also know Livigno as an official tour stop of the Transalp stage race or as host of the La Pedaleda Marathon http://www.lapedaleda.it/en/. Both competitions are again part of Livigno’s event schedule.