What do you tell us about this 2024?
Actually our season has just ended, in fact we still had one last long weekend, from Friday 1st November to Sunday 3rd November, to enjoy the trails of the Fai Zone and Molveno Zone. This confirms, for the umpteenth time, the fact that here we have the longest bike season in the Alps.
The 2024 season was definitely influenced by the markedly adverse weather conditions, both between April and the end of June, and from the beginning of September onwards – even, in both cases, with heavy snowfalls down to altitudes well below 1500 metres above sea level. This is confirmed by the data on the number of bike passes sold, as well as the first admissions, the data we analyse most carefully.
How is the presence of bikers distributed during the season?
Anticipating opening and closing allows us to be more attractive for a longer time. Especially in spring and autumn when there are few open structured locations, this gives us a sure advantage.
The central summer months, July and August, are definitely better and above all show a greater permanence in the local areas – therefore daily bike passes decrease, to the advantage of multi-day bike passes.
Constantly increasing, as has already happened in previous years, are the numbers of the Gravity Card, the seasonal pass that allows access to the best 29 European bike parks.
When was the idea of a bike park in Paganella born? What are the strategies that allowed you to achieve success in this sector?
The Bike Park, originally and as in many other cases, was born from a private initiative of some enthusiasts who created the first trails in the current Make Zones: They were decidedly technical tracks and therefore intended for a fairly limited audience.
The big change occurred between the 2015 and 2016, when The Dolomiti Paganella Tourist Board has taken on the role of leader, regulating and weaving daily relationships between the various subjects involved in the project, both public and private.
Next to the Fai Zone, the Molveno Area and then the Andalo Zone, thus arriving at defining a single Bike Area composed of three “different” areas, but closely linked to each other, through the dense network of ski lifts, natural trails and forest roads. The three Bike Zones have, right from the start, taken on a very specific connotation: the Make Zones the area of remained higher technical level, l'Andalo Zone, also thanks to its geographical centrality, it has become characterised by a medium level, for the environment, and the Molveno Area it has come to define itself as the Bike Zone made easy.
In addition to this division, we have always pursued the goal of increasing the difficulty of the trails as the altitude increases: lower down and closer to the villages, therefore, we have less complicated trails. The Bike Area has expanded almost every year and numerous projects are obviously on the table.
Trail maintenance has always been one of our main goals: Trail Zone (a company of trail builders that follows the construction and maintenance of the trails, NDR) has grown significantly year after year, both in the number of machines and in the number of workers.
Alongside the trails, all the infrastructures and "surrounding" services have been enriched: thus the T was bornRail Center “The Cave” in the heart of Andalo, the ideal gym to take your first steps on a MTB. The number of bike rentals has increased considerably, a new Paganella Bike Academy, the official MTB school of the destination, around forty accommodation facilities and more than 10 refuges have decided to embrace the project, also specialising in welcoming bikers and their needs.
What type of bikers choose your destination?
Given our geographical position, we have always operated trying to intercept both the Italian market and the very large German-speaking market, a market that, as is known, is extremely interesting when it comes to bikes and the outdoors in general.
What is your strategy regarding events?
In the very early years we also organised some enduro races, but in recent years we have opted for non-competitive and decidedly lifestyle events, first of all the Dolomiti Paganella Bike Opening at the end of May (the start of the season event that combines music and riding) and the Bike Women Camp in June.
Great visibility is given to us by our partners, international brands in the bike sector: with some of them we have had the fortune and honor of collaborating, in a very fruitful and positive way, for years now.
Two additional factors of success are the already mentioned presence of 3 different, but united Bike Zones, and the strong mix of trails in Bikeparks and natural trails with little (or no) human intervention. The Bike Area is truly for everyone and able to satisfy all tastes.
What are the plans for the future of Dolomiti Paganella Bike?
As mentioned, there are many projects on the table, some actually already in the process of being realized (or just realized), some in store for the years to come.
In June 2024 we inaugurated two new trails within the Andalo Zone, the Interstellar and Supernaturel: two trails that were flowy but with a natural accent, which allowed us to complete (with the trail Hustle & Flow and with the iconic trail Willy Wonka) the connection between the top of Paganella and the centre of Andalo on a trail for exclusive bike use… more than 10 kilometres of trail and more than 1100 metres of altitude difference!!!
In August 2023 we also expanded the Molveno Zone by opening the Matrix trail, also in this case closing the connection between the highest altitude reachable with the ski lifts and the town.
2025 will bring us a dowry Duel, a further new trail, within the Andalo Zone and upstream of the already existing Zanna Bianca trail: with 5 kilometres of development, it will be the longest trail in the Bike Area, from the Paganella 2 locality to the Gaggia locality, developing an area of the Paganella which until now has been slightly marginal with respect to the main flows.
