A flat area about 800 meters high, surrounded by large pine forests and where summer greenery reigns supreme, it is no coincidence that it is called the valley of the painters and anyone with a shred of passion for art can only share this nickname.
Here stands the egg of the plain of Vigezzo, which rises up to about 1700 meters, where in winter you can ski and in summer you go downhill by mountain bike.
A sui generis locality; in fact, while many build tracks similar to marble tracks, here they still believe that the charm of MTB is to be found in contact with nature, in the paths where the roots are seen as an opportunity to give dynamism and where rock gardens allow the biker to create that syncopated rhythm that unites a descent to a metal song.
A location with a strong personality, it is difficult to say 'this trail looks a lot like that of location X'. I will be able to present the various opportunities, both those closest to the bike park tracks, so to speak, ascent with the cable car and descent; both the tours that allow you to wander through a valley that has so much to offer to the biker.
I decided to start with DH, partly out of respect and the right of seniority. As is often said of kids, I saw this track being born. Those were the years in which the Aleotti brothers sowed panic on the trails with impractical gangways and jumps worthy of a rampage.
Here they found a terrain suitable for their crazy imagination, managing to trace a run halfway between a DH track and a free ride line. Wide tracks, with different interpretations and an infinite number of trajectories. For the time it was a sui generis dh, much closer to the black snake of Val di Sole than to what the downhill panorama offered.
I talked about Black snake, it is no coincidence, because the comparison fits, the Vigezzo DH has in common with the creature of Pippo Marani the natural element and the challenge to it.
A descent where the biker is constantly confronted with nature, with its elements and with the difficulties that only she can invent. There are no wall rides, artificial rock gardens or walkways that can compare with the sublime charm of a natural descent, where every stone, root or curve is there because it is the slope that decides it, not a spade or a ruspino.
Here the task of the trail builder is to indulge the wills and whims of the mountain, trying to give rhythm to everything, as an orchestra master puts order among the different instruments.
Ok, maybe I let myself get carried away a little, but the reality is that this DH keeps the spirit a bit rebellious and improvised of the dawn, but it does it with a new conscience, born from a maniacal work of Luca and both. crew; who have been able to harmonize the curves, improve the rhythm and make everything an experience with a strong emotional impact. Here the biker will arrive at the end tired and with sore hounds, but with the desire to return to him, to resume a never predictable discourse.
Enjoy the video I shot with Martino Lani and judge for yourself if a ride on the DH della Piana is worth it.
