It was February 16, 2000, when a small earthquake shook the local mountain bike sport. It was the day the first "Singletrail Map" was published. At the time, I had dared to mark attractive single trails for mountain bikers on a map and bring them to the public in not inconsiderable quantities. The earthquake rippled through the offices and put foresters, gamekeepers and forest owners on edge. Mountain bikers were destroying the trails, they criticized. The game was being disturbed. And the conflict of use with hikers was coming to a head. And now someone came along and directed masses of these unwanted mountain bikers onto the trails.

Since February 16, a lot of water has flowed down the Rhine and the waves in the offices have calmed down. Meanwhile, the same wind is blowing from a different direction: today, it's the mountain bikers themselves who come up with exactly the same arguments when we describe new tours in Ride, publish further volumes of the Singletrail Books or expand the route network of the Singletrail Map. Our publication is destroying the trails and the conflict of use with hikers is coming to a head, they say. Our biggest critics are no longer foresters, conservationists or hikers. The harshest criticism now comes from within our own ranks, the wording is the same.

Schizophrenic and arrogant

I recognize schizophrenic traits in this howling. For these mountain bikers, the mountain bikers themselves are the biggest threat to the sport of mountain biking. Apart from themselves, of course. In other words: If two people do the same thing, it's not the same thing. I consider this mindset to be not only schizophrenic but also arrogant. It's a bit like road traffic: many drivers are annoyed by traffic jams without realizing that they are the ones causing them. It's always the others' fault.

But I'm by no means denying the accusations. Route publication can lead to the problems mentioned. But let's keep the ball rolling: There won't be a pilgrimage immediately after publication in Ride. If thirty to forty additional mountain bikers per day tackle a route at weekends, then these are tolerable dimensions.

Illusory in the age of the internet

I can understand the criticism of route publications, but it is actually unrealistic. In the age of the internet, it is downright illusory to want to conceal attractive trails. But that is not even necessary. Since the first publication of the Singletrail Map, none of these fears have come true. The single trails I've been riding on over the past two decades have gotten better, not worse. This applies not only to tourist regions such as the Upper Engadine or Lugano, but also to urban regions such as Zurich, where the trails are in better condition today. The reason: the more mountain bikers there are in a region, the more is invested in the trails and in intelligent usage concepts. In other words: The publication of routes does not lead to damage and bans, but to higher quality infrastructure.

More blog posts by Thomas Giger

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