At the 2nd Ride Mountain Bike Congress in Chur at the beginning of October, Markus Pfisterer, Managing Director of Swiss Cycling, dropped a bombshell: his association will be creating a position in November 2014 in which its owners can take care of the concerns of "normal mountain bikers". The position will most likely be split between two employees.

In this way, the association wants to open itself up to the mountain bike scene beyond competitive sport and listen to and take into account the needs of the mountain bike scene. According to Pfisterer, there will be a call - as soon as the job holders have been trained - so that all mountain bikers who wish to do so can get involved. Close cooperation with organizations such as Schweiz Mobil, bfu and trailnet will also be sought. Political networking is also to be strengthened."The entire mountain bike scene should get involved," says Pfisterer and also mentions that it is important for this position not to generate any overlaps with existing organizations. The declared aims of the office for the promotion of popular mountain biking are also to create an information platform with examples of best practice and to improve networking between those involved in popular mountain biking.

"It is a logical consequence of our association's focus to now support popular mountain biking. We wanted to implement this earlier, but we didn't have the funds. Following a successful reorganization and financial restructuring of the association, we now have the resources for this important next step," says Pfisterer.

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