Bike City wants to be Innsbruck. The area around the capital of Tyrol is perfect for this and, as part of the Crankworx World Tour, the city hosts one of the largest and most prestigious mountain bike events in the world.

Unfortunately, mountain biking also has a powerful rivalry. Nevertheless, it was possible to approve a third route, the Hofwald Trail, and it was almost handed over to the mountain bikers in good order.

Then the angry politician Gerald Depaoli came onto the scene. He usually mobilizes against the Green mayor's transport policy. In this respect, it is logical that he is not only campaigning against the promotion of cycling in the city, but also in the forest. He succeeded in getting the city government to order the relocation of the long approved, planned and almost completed route.

Approved route to be relocated in the middle of construction

MTB Innsbruck, which will build and operate the route, and the city then came to a remarkable compromise: a new route would be evaluated while the planned (and approved) route would remain in operation for the time being. That's what happened, but the joy didn't last long.

Now it was no longer a single campaigner Depaoli, but the Innsbruck opposition parties ÖVP, FPÖ, Liste für Innsbruck and Seniorenbund, who successfully campaigned for the Hofwald Trail to be closed a few days after opening. In a special meeting (!), the municipal council - with the SPÖ joining the majority - decided to close the route approved in 2021 and to close the controversial section. In its original form, this crossed the Bishop Reinhold Stecher Memorial Trail; after the first amendment, it briefly ran alongside it. Despite the record-breakingly short time of its existence, there is a POV clip that is now also commemorated as a reminder of the Hofwald Trail Version 2.

Approved trail opens and closes after a week

Wasting taxpayers' money is usually an accusation that opposition members level at the government. In this case, it was Mayor Willi who accused his political opponents of this. 120,000 euros have already been invested in the Hofwald Trail. Part of this will now be dismantled immediately. The special municipal council has allocated a further 40,000 euros for the new line. For those who want to read all the details of the Tyrolean farce, we recommend the article by Steffen Arora in the newspaper "Der Standard"

MTB Innsbruck has launched a petition with which the association wants to emphasize the need for legal trails. One thing should be clear to everyone by now: The conflicts will not decrease the less legal space is granted to mountain bikers.

More information about Innsbruck

Tours in the ride database: ride.ch/touren/innsbruck
Innsbruck in the singletrail map: map.ride.ch