A little ride by the lake (Image credit: Stefan Eisend)
Thomas Frischknecht is one of the most experienced XC riders on the World Cup MTB circuit. In a break from competition recently he was given the opportunity to ride the Alta Rezia freeride tour, a transalp odyssey throughout Switzerland and into Italy. It makes for intersting and entertaining reading, and the photos show how spectacular the environment is. Hans Rey takes up the story... Just...wow!
A few days ago I finished my latest 'Hans Rey Adventure Team' trip together with XC legend Thomas Frischknecht from Switzerland. We took a six-day freeride tour in the heart of the Alps, utilising ski-lifts, gondolas, trains and shuttles to get around and to the top of some of the best singletrails in the world. We did close to 60,000ft (20,000m) of vertical downhill trails. The Alta Rezia regions consists of approx. 40 villages, partly Swiss and partly Italian; our route started in St. Moritz via Tirano via Livigno to Bormio, with many detours and surprises along the way.
The "Alta Rezia Freeride" will become a permanent route for people to ride on their own in the future. One can either ride the entire six-day route or choose any individual stage, always using public transportation to get up the mountains or back to the point of origin. The region will provide maps, a DVD and GPS coordinates free of charge in 2006 to follow our tyre marks (www.alta-rezia.com).
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Frischi was the perfect partner for this trip. The Freeride boom is just about to hit Europe and our diverse backgrounds - Mr. Cross Country and Mr. Extreme - were the perfect combination for this expedition. But we also have much in common besides our passion for mountain bikes and Italy; we are both Swiss, World Champions, MTB Hall-of-Famers and both of us have been around since the early days of mountain biking. Frischi rode a Scott Genius MC10 (4 inch) with a Fox Trail Tune 130 fork, I rode a brand-new prototype GT i-drive 7 (7 inch) with a Fox 36 fork.
