For the past nine years, German rider Max Hartenstern has been competing for the Cube racing team in the Downhill World Cup. A second-place finish in Les Gets in 2021 was his best result to date; he is currently sidelined due to injury. He spoke with Ride about how he stays motivated despite setbacks in the tough world of professional racing.

2Rad Produktions GmbH, the legal successor to the insolvent Vorarlberg-based bicycle manufacturer Simplon, has once again filed for restructuring proceedings. This means that the ongoing insolvency proceedings have failed; liabilities total 33.4 million euros, and 54 employees in Hard are affected.

The dispute over the flagship trail at Blindsee in Tyrol appears to be resolving itself amicably. The trail will remain open in 2027 with largely no changes. Only in the lower section along the lake shore will the hiking trail and the mountain trail be physically separated.

The municipality of Biberwier has decided to close the scenic Blindsee Trail to mountain bikers starting in 2027. The mayor says the decision was prompted by ongoing conflicts between hikers, swimmers, and cyclists. Hunters and farmers have long been calling for the closure.

An 18-year-old downhill skier died in a fatal accident in Austria over the Pentecost weekend. The young man had fallen on a black run in Leogang after the resort had closed for the day and, according to media reports, was “inadequately” equipped. The resort operators are urging visitors to take personal responsibility and plan to further improve their safety measures.

A mountain biking region is emerging in eastern Germany that, thanks to its uniqueness, has what it takes to compete with Europe’s very best. This development is the result of years of strategic planning and the political recognition that bike tourism can be a significant economic factor.

Industry figures for 2025 show that the Austrian bicycle market once again saw a slight decline in sales volume, but an increase in revenue. E-bikes, gravel bikes, and children’s bikes, in particular, gained ground. The impact of political conditions on bicycle use also became clear in 2025.

While sound design is an integral part of the development process for cars and motorcycles, the field is still in its infancy when it comes to bicycles. The Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden has now developed an acoustic test bench specifically for e-bikes. This is because there is still much room for improvement when it comes to noise on bicycles.

The hoped-for turnaround in the German bicycle industry did not materialize in 2025, but the crisis has clearly lost momentum. Declines in sales and turnover were less severe than in previous years. The industry is talking about stabilization in challenging times.

Following media reports of gross abuses against migrant workers in Taiwan's bicycle industry, the US imposed an import ban on all products from Giant, one of the biggest players in the business, in September. The entire industry came under pressure and is now responding with initial improvements.

37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was shot dead by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis on January 24, was a member of the local bike scene. They are now calling for a memorial ride in honor of their friend, and hundreds around the world are following suit.

Fewer teams, fewer races, less money. The Enduro World Cup continues to shrink. The reasons for this are manifold, but so far there seems to be no cure.

The mountain bike scene in Austria is growing and networking at all levels. In addition, a lift was built just for bikers for the first time and mountain biking recorded the most race participants in cycling. But there were also some failures to report.

The sparrows had already been whistling it from the rooftops, but it was only on her 24th birthday today that downhill world champion and overall World Cup winner Vali Höll officially announced her change of team. From the 2026 season, the Austrian will be racing for the French team Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres.

In September 2024, the Vorarlberg-based bicycle manufacturer Simplon filed for insolvency. In December, a new investor was presented and a new start at the Austrian site was announced. Now part of the production is moving to Romania and further redundancies are imminent.

The Bavarian company Syntace GmbH, which also owns the Liteville bicycle brand, has filed for insolvency. A further step in the process of cutting the cord from the Austrian Pierer Industrie AG, which had acquired a majority stake in 2022 but had itself run into serious turbulence.

After YT Industries had to file for bankruptcy, Austria's downhill stars Andreas Kolb and Valentina Höll suddenly found themselves without a team. The Schladming native has now announced that he has found a new team home at Santa Cruz, under manager Steve Peat.

After YT Industries filed for insolvency in self-administration in July, the associated World Cup Downhill Team is on its own shortly before the end of the season. For Valentina Höll, Andreas Kolb, Oisin O'Callaghan and their coaches, this means they will no longer receive any money and will have to look for new employers.

Karl Morgenbesser and Thorsten Schmitz have been awarded the mountain bike coordination office put out to tender by the federal government. They now have eight years and a budget of 2.8 million euros to implement this project.

The incident is said to have occurred during the 2023 World Cup weekend in Leogang and was reported last year by Spanish enduro rider Ares Masip Ibañez. The accused Edgar Carballo Gonzalez is suspended for one year following an internal UCI investigation. He denies the allegations and his team Mondraker immediately parted ways with him.

Two beers, a garden hose and a grapevine cord. What started out as a whimsical idea in 2021 is now used in 66 bike parks and has turned passionate mountain biker Simon Hanl into a global entrepreneur.

The US Specialized rider Christopher Blevins wins the fifth Short Track World Cup 2025 in a row in Val di Sole. The Swiss riders put five women and five men in the top ten, but were denied a podium finish.

The Verkehrsverbund Tirol (VVT) will be equipping most new buses with rear rack systems for bicycles with immediate effect. However, anyone planning a tour with public transport support should find out in advance whether the service is available on this route.

For five years, Austrian trail builder Daniel Tulla has been experimenting with heavy equipment to make his work easier. With the help of Bavarian forestry machinery manufacturer Pfanzelt, he has now developed the "snow groomer for trails" - which has also earned him some criticism.

The rigid prohibition policy in Austria's forests makes mountain biking an illegal pastime. Passionate biker Gerald Simon has had enough and has now launched a petition to persuade politicians to take action.

The crisis in the bicycle industry has also hit the Austrian market. However, the decline was less severe than expected. The number of e-bikes sold actually increased in 2024 thanks to strong support from subsidy programs.

From this year's World Cup season, there will only be three places on the podium for mountain bikers instead of the previous five. There is now resistance to this in the paddock. The Ride editorial team is divided in its opinion.

In Innsbruck, politicians have been successfully preventing mountain biking from becoming the sporting flagship of the urban-alpine metropolis for decades. The farce surrounding the Hofwald Trail is the latest example of this dilemma.

The German Two-Wheeler Industry Association has presented the industry figures for 2024. After the gold rush at the beginning of the pandemic, full warehouses put pressure on prices, sales and production figures in the previous year. Recovery not expected until 2026.  

The Danish investigative journalist Peter Bengtsen describes terrible conditions in the production facilities of the world's largest bike manufacturers in Taiwan. Systematic exploitation and intimidation of migrant workers are apparently the order of the day there.

Syntace GmbH, to which the Liteville bicycle brand belongs, wants to leave the mother ship of Pierer Industrie AG, which has run into wild turbulence. The Austrian group only acquired a 70% majority stake in the Bavarian bicycle and component manufacturer in 2022.

Last week, the video of Russian Ivan Makushev, in which he is the first rider to land a Stanley flip bar twist on a mountain bike, caused a stir on social media. Ride Magazine caught up with him in Yekaterinburg and spoke to him about the mountain bike scene in Russia.

Jumps for which a pilot's license is an advantage, and speeds like in motorsport. The second edition of the Red Bull Hardline takes place in Tasmania on Saturday. The track already took its toll during training and many a professional backed out of the race out of self-protection.

Schneefräsn is the world's only downhill racing series on snow and has been held every winter in Austria since 2016. The first race in 2025 was won by a Swiss rider, Andreas Kolp, while the women's classification went to Elke Rabeder.

On January 24, Austria's tireless pioneer of mountain biking, Tyrolean Kurt Exenberger, passed away. He not only shaped the sport itself, but also a generation of athletes as a coach.

More than 40 kilometers of single trails are available in Burgenland, the Schöckl Trail Area offers downhillers the longest cable car-supported bike season in the Alps and mountain bikes are no longer stored away for the winter in the Wachau region.