robert-loughlin

1 - Brandon Semenuk 2 - Brett Rheeder 3 - Ethan Nell

1 – Brandon Semenuk 2 – Brage Vestavik 3 – Tom Van Steenbergen

Sorry you lost the spot. This is a problem across Germany, and we are having similar problems in Berlin. Luckily, we have some clubs that are getting organised and are actively speaking with forest management to try and find suitable solutions for trails to exist in the forests. There was a very heavy increase in MTB traffic on the trails since Corona started in conjunction with a large uptick in general forest use by non-cyclists as people weren’t able to travel so much. We noticed a large increase in trail sabotage and we experienced much more conflict from other forest users in that time too. But like you say, mountain biking isn’t going away and the sooner that is realised, the better. There are organisations working nationwide on trail advocacy such as the DIMB (www.dimb.de), maybe they can offer some assistance with the situation in your area?

I use my gravel bike for from-the-front-door rides. If I want to ride any MTB trails then I have to do a total of at least 60 mins of driving (in good traffic) round trip, and when you can only spare an hour or two for a ride then it makes more sense to go for a local spin than drive and try and cram in some rushed laps and potentially have to sit in traffic. Also depends on what is near you. The surrounding countryside where I live is very flat for 100’s of kilometres in every direction, but we do have a lot of decent gravel roads, forest paths and very easy trails that would be totally overkill on an XC bike. You need to ride some road to get out of the city and onto the dirt so a gravel bike is a perfect compromise in that scenario. I’m an MTB guy at heart and always will be, but if I only have an hour or two to ride then I’m jumping on the gravel bike and will try and catch up with the MTB crowd when I can make more time to ride.