In an interview with the magazine Bikesport, mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner talks about mountain biking for the first time - with sensational words. Mountain bikers belong on forest trails and closed-off pistes and have no place in alpine terrain. At the same time, he shows understanding for their demands.

The full interview can be read in the current issue of "Bike Sport" magazine, but an excerpt is now available online on the Newsnetz outdoor blog. In the interview, Messner shows a lot of respect for the freeriders and downhillers on the closed routes. However, this has nothing to do with alpinism and mountain bikers have no place on steep rock. Hiking trails are clearly for hikers and not for mountain bikers. But you don't have to ban them from access as long as a special bike route is not designated.He is then tempted to make a statement that will be met with incomprehension by many mountain bikers: Messner would give bikers forest trails, saying there are fantastic opportunities for up and down. It is not clear whether Messner actually means forest roads by forest trails. And whether he means that mountain bikers have no place above the tree line. Another sentence also has great potential for discussion: Messner says that mountain bikers should be given a playing field where they can get their kicks. No mention is made of the fact that many mountain bikers - just like him as a mountaineer - are looking for the mountain and nature experience combined with a sporting activity.

The excerpt from the interview with a lively discussion can be found here:
http://blog.tagesanzeiger.ch/outdoor/index.php/38350/gehts-doch-vernuenftig-auf-den-berg/