"We are not very successful," is how Hans-Peter Kienast begins his introduction to the Trail Friends organization, which he has chaired for several years. Its aim is to promote biking in the canton of Zurich, improve the infrastructure and secure it in the long term. By unsuccessful, Kienast means that the Trail Friends are only making very slow progress towards their goal. Nevertheless, the number of visitors to the meeting, which he regularly organizes, greatly exceeded his expectations this time. He had expected 20 people and that they would be able to sit together around a large table. In fact, there are over 50 people from various regions in the hall in Zurich.

"Today, for once, we can present people who are successful," says Tom Meister, alias Combo, from the IG Biketrails in Winterthur, picking up the thread. One reason why so many people came to the meeting was the court victory won by Alec Wohlgroth and Matthias Lüscher. But Alec's appearance comes later. Before that, former bike orienteering world champion Simon Brändli explains that he usually had to ride abroad to train. Nevertheless, he has managed to organize several bike orienteering competitions in Switzerland. Unlike their running colleagues, the orienteering bikers always stay on the trails. The next success story is Cyrill Rüttimann from the MTB Club Oberamt, in the area between Albis and Zug. Within two years, they have managed to obtain a piece of land from a farmer for a short series of trails, a meadow from the municipality for a skills center and permission to bike on the Vita course.

Then surprise guest Andy Stalder, MTB Lucerne and Imba Switzerland, points out that the Lucerne project in the Bireggwald is one step further and that it is now only up to MTB Lucerne to take on the responsibility offered. And to raise the small sum of CHF 220,000 for the construction, while the municipality of Horw is contributing CHF 120,000 to the trail construction and the city of Lucerne is contributing CHF 12,000 to the project costs.

How will the ruling become common practice?

The star of the evening then steps forward: Alec Wohlgroth is the face of the legal dispute that led to what is probably the most important ruling for the sport of biking in the canton of Zurich and perhaps beyond. He no longer needs to tell his story, everyone knows it from newspapers, radio and television. His most important message that evening: "Now we bikers have to show that we share the roads with respect and consideration."

As a result, the assembled bikers from various corners of the canton of Zurich are happy about the ruling, but don't quite know what to make of it. Some call for more to be done to make the ruling the current practice throughout the canton. Others express concern that a retaliatory response could come, for example in the form of numerous driving bans. In addition, some of those present said that they now had many more single trails and much more infrastructure at their disposal, while others saw no major difference to the situation before the ruling. They were always convinced that they had the right to ride the single trails and did so. This applies to the Uetliberg, for example. Mountain bikers have been using the narrow trails marked on the topographical map since the 1990s. There were rarely any fines for this. Nevertheless, the municipality of Hausen am Albis has already confirmed the right to ride bikes on the narrow paths of Huserholz following the decision of the first instance.

What impact the ruling will have on the Zurich Oberland, Winterthur, the Glatttal, the right and left banks of Lake Zurich or the Säuliamt is the big question. A coordinated campaign by Zurich's trail lobby organizations was discussed that evening, but no concrete details were given. In Zurich, a written request to the city council is also pending, submitted in response to the decision of the first instance, when the ban on riding on trails with stairs and those that are not on Swiss Topo was still supported. The game could tilt in either direction, and further clarification steps will follow. This is another reason why Hans-Peter Kienast, Tom Combo and Alec Wohlgroth recommend in unison: "Enjoy it for now!"