On Sunday, the 1st of May, the 23rd edition of Bike Festival winded up in Riva del Garda. It is already a well-established reality and an event not to be missed during the tourist season in Garda Trentino. Have you been among the strapping athletes, or rather among the “dynamic” viewers of the races? (anyway, it is scientifically proved that even the eye rotation contributes to a calories dropping!)
Monika Weber – event manager for the magazine Bike, official media partner of the event – explained that “Bike Festival is growing year after year, involving an international and young audience. The 80% of the racegoers comes from foreign countries. Moreover, the 34% of the visitors comes to the Garda Trentino area for their first time thanks to the Bike Festival, according to the data we have collected.”
This last edition set some records: 160 stands, including a big area where Garda Trentino has presented its tourist opportunities to the visitors. During the Expo more than 300 specialized brands have been appreciated: a full festival about the MTB market, when all the latest products could be tested.
As usual, Bike Festival is not only an exhibition, but also and mainly a mix of competition, pathos and fun!
The peak of the event has been reached with the Rocky Mountain BIKE Marathon, which gave us a breath-taking contest thanks to 2300 competitors, both professional and not, who took up four different tracks. The Swiss machine Urs Huber – first place in ranking (90,4 kms in 4:17:03:3) – entered the hall of fame of the event with good reasons. Together with him, Alexey Medvedev from Russia and Hermann Pernsteiner from Austria were on the podium in the second and third place respectively.
However, Bike Festival always offers us a lot of news, you can’t really get used to it! This year in fact the athletes could try a E-MTB Marathon for the very first time. A targeted track of more than 40 kms, athletically challenging, with a 1500-meter drop and climbing at more than a 15% grade. Although helped by the electric bicycles, the athletes didn’t save their energies in order to reach the finish line without running out of batteries.
What about the traditional mountain bikes? They had their leading role as well! As tradition, on the last day the Junior Trophy for kids took place, while 300 participants competed in the North Lake Enduro on the new tracks designed in the Garda Trentino Bike Park; five stages with a 1400-meter drop, leaving from Brentonico, going through Mount Altissimo and finishing in Le Busatte, precisely above Torbole.
As it happens every year, it has been a success in terms of passion, fun, lure and involvement! Thus, Bike Festival folded up the 2016 edition. I bet you are already thinking about the next one; the dates have been confirmed during the weekend of May, the 1st. I am already training to be in: from a tennis match to a swim, from a a sailing cruise to a diving session and…. a mountain stroll, how is it possible not to be fit in Garda Trentino?
