Day 32: On to Austria

1 Aug 2011

Day 32: Leaving Livigno and on the road to Leogang. Off on the road again today. A huge thanks to Cristiano and family who run the Francesin Hotel in Livigno. The hotel is packed full of sporting trophies as the family has some serious talent… mum was a pro-snowboarder and runner, dad a biker and runner, 2 brothers into nordic skiing and football, and finally Beatrice, an ex pro-skier who raced Italian Nationals Giant Slalom until a knee injury cut short her career. They have a huge gym in the basement of the hotel, so after a day on the bike you can get down there and do some more work on the guns. I didn’t though because my guns are already massive. Anchor-man massive.

This marks the half way stage of the URT, and unfortunately that means goodbye to Dan, Kelly and Maggie (the border collie). A massive thanks to them for their support over the last few weeks. They cannot be easily replaced but we’ll give it a go, with many more joining us along the way! So we press on to Leogang – a 4 hour drive up in to Austria then east through Innsbruck and The Tirol, and into the Salzburg region. The route took us out through the Livigno “Munt La Schera” tunnel which (just for info) operates a 1-way traffic light system and is not open to pedal bikes – cyclists must take the bus. Then a few twisting alpine roads in the vicinity of Piz Buin. You know that really expensive brown-bottled sun tan lotion you see down the Coop? Well it’s named after a mountain on the Austrian-Swiss border – bet you never knew that!?

We arrived early evening and got set up at our base for the next few days – the Hotel Rupertus. This is pretty much perfect as it puts you right at the base of the bike park lift and offers dedicated packages for mountain bikers. Just before the sun set we took a quick walk up onto the trails. As one of the venues for this years UCI DH World Cup series we are all well aware of the serious trails this place has to offer. And of course it’s a Kona Approved bike park. But I have to admit the level of building work in the finish arena came as a bit of a surprise – a good one! It’s the kind of thing you just have to see to fully appreciate, but here are a couple of pics to try and do it justice. Could this just be the European Whistler? – it’s the first stop on the URT where we’ve seen the kind of stuff that would not have been out of place at Crankworx. As luck would have it there is a ‘Canyon Oakley Freeride Youth-camp‘ on this week, so we hope to get some pictures of some promising young riders launching off the big stuff…

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