MTB

Innsbruck’s best downhill trails

The Crankworx venue's finest

Despite all the odds and a heavy dose of scepticism, Innsbruck put on a hell of a show when it welcomed Crankworx last year.

The Whip Off was the most stunning yet, the downhill track delivered in spades and Nicholi Rogatkin put down one of the greatest slope runs ever to claim the biggest prize of the week.

Innsbruck is developing its mountain bike offer and introduced the bike city card, which gives access to all trails on the surrounding mountains. Here are five of our favourites.

Crankworx downhill/The Rough One

The Crankworx downhill event was run on one of the existing runs in the Bike Park. It used to be called Bulgarian Way but has been rebranded now as The Rough One. The trail winds its way down from the Nockspitzbahn mid station and it’s an old school beauty.

Danny Hart’s 2:50 is the time to beat from its maiden race but you’ll have to be hauling because conditions were nigh on perfect when it was raced last summer.

Nordkette Singletrail

From a three minute blast to one of the longest downhill trails in Europe. The Nordkette singletrail is a 4.2km monster that takes even the fastest pros around 10 minutes to get down.

The trail is full of finicky, steep corners and narrow singletrack that will require delicate precision or leave you feeling like you’ve just taken your stabilisers off.

The Chainless One

You can’t have a modern bikepark without a sinuous flow trail and The Chainless One provides just that for Innsbruck. As all these things it’s basically an elongated, sloped pumptrack that can be cruised or crushed depending on how you’re feeling.

The Wild One/Auerhahn trail

If you want to extend the Crankworx downhill experience then you can start off on the Wild One trail that lies just above it. It’s on the same lift and twists through mountain meadows down to the mid station where you can pick up the Hungarian Way.

This video is a bit your-dad-just-bought-a-GoPro but you can an idea of the endless turns to warm you up for the main event.

Anzer Alm

Anzer Alm is a locals’ trail that was so good, the BikePark decided to make it official. It’s based on the Nordkette side of the mountain. It’s a short, sharp, flowy blast and well worth doing if you’re tight for time. Either pedal up from Innsbruck itself or pick it up after the Nordkette for a flat out finale