Eastern Switzerland is not exactly considered a mountain biking Mecca - but it certainly has the relief and landscape for it. While individual regions such as Toggenburg or Appenzell Innerhoden deliberately keep mountain biking to a minimum, others simply find it difficult to accept that bikers like to ride more than forest roads. As the sport is also booming in Eastern Switzerland, things are becoming increasingly tight for trail aficionados. In order to continue riding single trails, mountain bikers need to do something about it.

Different organizations in eastern Switzerland are working to ensure that trail bikers can pursue their sport legally: for example MTB Rheintal, Wäglibiker Flawil, Verein FunPark-SG, Veloclub St. Gallen and #Wägmacher Sarganserland. They have now joined forces to campaign for their cause not only in their own communities, but throughout the cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden. They do this under the umbrella of the St. Gallen section of Swiss Cycling, which acts as the sponsor of Biketrails Ostschweiz.

The chairman of the Biketrails Ostschweiz working group is Philip Mayer. He already championed his sport 20 years ago in the IG Mountainbike and supported its integration into Swiss Cycling. He got involved when the canton of St. Gallen drew up forest development plans and contributed to the long-term Waldegg Trail project on the outskirts of the city (the last section of which is due to be completed in spring 2022). "The repeated negative reporting about mountain bikers in our region convinced me and other people who had been active in the past that we needed a common voice at regional level," he says.

What's the point of all the organizations?

The question that arises with every additional mountain bike lobby organization is whether this organizing and networking really achieves anything. Concrete projects and solutions are almost always initiated by local groups. Philipp Mayer agrees that this is not the purpose of Biketrails Ostschweiz. "However, when cantons develop mountain bike concepts, we want to ensure that the needs of bikers are heard and we contribute our knowledge if requested." He refers to his home canton of St. Gallen, which commissioned Bikernetzwerk AG to develop a mountain bike needs analysis. "If such knowledge is available, then pressure is needed for something to happen. It is then our job to generate this pressure," he explains.

Mountain bike infrastructure should become as commonplace as football pitches and hiking trails, according to the press release from Biketrails Ostschweiz. This does not only evoke good associations. Bike trails have been built in various places in Switzerland in recent years and bans have been imposed all around them. "We are very aware of this danger and will fight to ensure that this does not happen," emphasizes Mayer. The working group's communiqué on this topic states: "The magic formula is coexistence on shared paths."biketrailsostschweiz.ch