Want to race your mountain bike overseas but don’t think you cut the mustard for UCI World Cups? Why not head to a bike festival, hang out with like minded people, and hit some trails in a different country?

One that you could attend is the Kirchberg in Tirol KitzAlpBike festival held in late June. It’s been going for a few years now, and has some established (and popular) races. Including a hill climb, marathon races (various distances), a UCI XCO (cross country Olympic – I.e. multiple laps of a technical course), and more.

I attended part of this years edition whilst travelling through Europe and enjoyed the events I participated in (it started a few days before I arrived into Austria). The weather was great, the organisation was good (and thankfully, the organisers spoke English when I had a couple of questions that my third-form/Year 13 German couldn’t cope with, and the goody bags had some sweet offerings (Swarkovski crystal necklace…I kid you not, and a small bottle of champagne for the ladies; and that was just for the Hill Climb event!).

I’d spent the morning ‘exploring’ (aka, getting lost, then finding my way again) a couple of tracks around Kirchberg. By the time the Hill Climb event came around in the evening I was feeling a little spent! However, it was worth it as I located some great trails around the Fleckalmbahn ski/bike area (there were a number of events held at this location, as well as being the expo and registration area).

The Hill Climb took place a bit later in the evening (thankfully, as it is hot during the day) in Brixen in Thale (about a 30 min bike ride on the flat from Kirchberg) and concluded with a good feed at the bottom of the hill in Brixen (can’t recall if I had to pay for this – but it was welcome kai at the end of the day/race!). Oh, and there was free beer at the top of the mountain after the ride up! This was very popular….

Start line for the Hill Climb.

Beer at the top of the mountain.

View from near the finish line of the Hill Climb event.

Watch a clip of the Hill Climb event (in Austrian-German):

The other event I entered a couple of days later (and another goody bag! Score!) was one of the marathon events. A challenging ride (I chose one of the ‘smaller’ rides; 36km with 1,300m of climbing. For the truly enthusiastic, there is a 90km option (with 3,800m of climbing….I’ll just let that sink in a bit…), and other distances as well.

I’ll be honest, I found this race hard work! Looking at the data afterwards, I could see why….it was about two-thirds climbing (about a third of that was just on one climb alone – 17km up), topping out at 1800m asl (yes, I felt this), and the temperature was hovering around 31C (dipping to mid-20s). But the views over alps and mountains were pretty amazing! And the support from spectators was awesome! I believe the gondola that went up to the highest point, was free for spectators, so that people would head on up and cheer riders on. They also had music and an MC (at 1800m in the mountains!). The final technical descent was quite challenging; the ground under the wheels has little grip in the dry conditions and it was relatively steep, so any sudden braking just leads to long skids with not actually slowing down or stopping. I think modulating or feathering the brakes was the key here! The conclusion of this race also came with good kai (I went with the spag bol option) and free drink (beer, or coke or whatever).

Expo/rego/start/finish area for the KitzAlpBike marathon on rego day.

Watch a clip of the KitzAlpBike marathon:

When I first thought about doing races in Europe, my initial goal was race, race hard and to ‘do well’ (oh, how I wish I’d had Cam’s excellent post on goal setting! There is a link below if you missed this). However, once I got there, I realised that riding new and different tracks and terrain was of more interest to me. In reality, these ‘races’ weren’t getting me any points for anything, I was doing them as a personal challenge. In addition, life had thrown a few curve balls at me prior to leaving for overseas, so the training had become patchy in terms of ‘effort’ – I was still (mostly) fitting in the training, but it was half-hearted and with half-effort with everything else that was going on. Once I actually got to the KitzAlpBike festival I realised that if I took the racing ‘seriously’, and did all that that requires (resting for instance), I’d miss out on riding some new trails, in a new country, and in a summer! So for me, the new trails won out over racing hard and trying to achieve some-sort of PB.

Read Cam’s post on goal setting: Pro Tips: Cam Cole – The Racers Edge

The town of Kirchberg was a great base for a few days. It’s primarily a skiing town (ha, as many alp towns are), but it is really compact, quiet (ie. away from the main roads), with lots of food options and a few good supermarkets within walking or short biking distance. Accommodation was easy to obtain. The train station was literally on the edge of town (50-100m from town). There are also a couple of bike shops; I had great service and help from Tonis Bike Shop (a few metres from the train station incidentally).

Tonis Bike Shop – (they spoke English)
KitzAlpBike Festival – (English version)

Getting there: The closest big international airport is actually Munich (Germany). From there I caught the train (yes, with the bike) to Kirchberg in Tirol.

There are HEAPS of bike festivals in Europe – a Google search will give you plenty to delve into.

Okay, some tips that might be helpful:

If you do head over to do bike races in Europe, first step is to arrange race insurance. Don’t leave home without it. Seriously. Don’t even contemplate skipping this. There is no ACC in Europe. You are on your own with hospital bills (thousands of dollars). Make sure the insurance covers training and racing. “Normal” travel insurance usually covers emergency dental or medical care, but will not cover ‘high risk’ activities like mountain bike races.

While you’re at it, make sure your helmet is “CE” compliant (‘Certified European’ e.g. certified for use in Europe). Most are these days, but check the label inside your helmet.

Gels: Depending on what you use, chances are, whatever you get at home you’ll be able to get overseas (ahhh, the globalization of sports products). However, I did find it cost me more to purchase overseas. For example, 3 Euro for a gel in Munich = 4.72 NZD (at time of writing). In NZ, that same gel would have cost about 3 NZD…. So it’s probably a bit six of one, half dozen of another whether you incur baggage weight by taking your own vs purchasing overseas. You also need to factor in the hunt-the-sports-shop part.

Smartphone apps I found useful:

Google Translate – no explanation needed. Very helpful when checking ingredients of food and products (I almost purchased hair volumniser when searching for moisturiser….).

Maps.me – this was soooo helpful! It had offline maps which were a lifesaver a couple of times. However, you do need to download the maps first. So when you are in wifi range, get those maps!

Bookings.com – apart from the obvious usefulness, I also used it to alert accommodation providers that I was bringing a bike. Although Europe is relatively bike-friendly, not all places had designated areas for bikes, so let them know before hand so they can sort something out for you.

Right, with that; #seeyououtthere !