Imagine this: You buy a carton of eggs. When you get home, you realize that there are six potatoes in the carton instead of eggs. You complain to the producer and are told that, for insurance reasons, no eggs can be put in the carton. The risk of food poisoning is too great.

This story is bizarre and fictitious. But it has always been a reality in mountain bike tourism. Because to this day, where it says "mountain bike" on it, it is far from being "mountain bike" inside. Cheating has been going on for twenty years. In Italy, for example, several destinations advertise themselves as mountain bike strongholds. However, their advertised route network does not contain a single meter of single trail. For them, mountain biking takes place exclusively on wide alpine roads. In any case, there are no conflicts with hikers for this reason. This story is bizarre but true. Eggs or potatoes, it doesn't matter in mountain bike tourism.

Austria is blowing the same horn. The fact that single trails are not allowed by law here, and even many forest roads are not accessible to mountain bikers, is kept to a minimum with elaborate advertising measures. The Austrians cheat when it comes to mountain biking, and the latest campaign "You like it? Bike it!" is the latest, but perhaps also the most brazen example to date. Almost all landowners refuse to allow bikes on their trails, sometimes for liability reasons. Mountain bikers are unwelcome on Austria's single trails. Although several million euros are now once again being poured into an advertising campaign, at the same time the actually devastating sections of the law remain untouched. This is cheating on behalf of the state. The same scenario can be found in southern Germany, where the two-meter rule hangs over the Black Forest like a sword of Damocles.

In Europe, Switzerland and France are becoming the poster boys for mountain bike tourism. The conservative Swiss, of all people, have realized in many places that mountain bikers can no longer be led around by the nose. The canton of Graubünden has gone the furthest: The authorities' credo is that the hiking trail network is also available to bikers. Interesting to note: Graubünden borders directly on Austria - where the mountain bike world is the other way round. In Graubünden, it has been recognized that mountain bikers belong on single trails and not in pepper country. Just like eggs belong in an egg carton. It would be as simple as that.

More blogs by Thomas Giger

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