"We'll start with weeding and fencing," says Lukas Blickenstorfer, describing the status of his project. He is raising the money himself for now. What he has: a piece of land measuring 25 by 100 meters.

Merenschwand AG is located in the Reuss Valley, roughly halfway between Lakes Zurich, Zug and Hallwil. In this region, Cyclingskills.ch has been offering cycling technique courses for children at various levels for years with J&S instructors, and Lukas is one of the trainers. "We wanted a place where we could leave a few small obstacles and not always have to clear everything away again," he explains his motivation. He is also president of the Bikesport Oberfreiamt association, which also took part in the search and will be involved in the construction and maintenance of the skills center.

The stacks of pallets in Merenschwand can then become more. The Skills Center in Thusis is a role model. The only difference is that Blickenstorfer doesn't want to use the big ladle - he prefers to go small and fine.

But even that has to be financed first. Blickenstorfer heralds the search for sponsors: "Every donation helps us to be able to offer the bikers something as quickly as possible. Any kind of support is welcome, whether financial or in kind." As an example, he mentions the possibility of a landscape gardener helping to create a rock garden or a construction company filling in mounds of earth. "Above all, manpower is needed, with a shovel and pickaxe in the skills center, or in the background in administration, social media and designing the information boards."

A temporary park

"We can also imagine a jump line, but we'll just build what we can at the moment," announces Blickenstorfer. The park should be suitable for children's training sessions, but also be fun for experienced mountain bikers. There will also be a few drops. The highest point of the meadow is four meters higher than the lowest, "you can make something out of it", the initiator is convinced. The facility will be open to everyone and can be used free of charge.

The appeal period has now passed without anyone raising an objection to the project. However, the Skills Park will be an interim use. The 2500 square meters are part of a larger plot of land on which residential buildings will one day be built. "This development will be so large that the municipality will first have to extend the school building. That will take long enough for our efforts to pay off," Lukas Blickenstorfer is convinced.

cyclingskills.ch