Bike patrol, live from the field | Val d’Isère : Alps ski resort and winter sports

Interview with Max Higel from the BikeSolutions design office

What is a Bike Patrol?

The bike patrol is the person who looks after the mountain bike trails and their users.

He has 5 main missions:

Setting up the mountain bike trails: after the winter season, in May here in Val d’Isère, with the opening of the first electrically-assisted mountain bike trails (VTTAE) around the village.
Course maintenance: MTB and VTTAE trails wear out and need to be maintained: removing large stones, redoing bends, etc., usually by hand!
Course dismantling: just before winter, so as not to interfere with winter activities.
Advice: the bike patrol knows the area like the back of his hand, and it’s his job to point riders in the right direction, for technical reasons or to recommend the best viewpoints.
Rescue: in the event of an accident, they help the fire department locate the injured person, and can reassure the victim and his or her family that help is on the way, and that it’s the right thing to do (by calling 112).

How do you imagine a Bike Park?

A bike park is a cycling area for mountain bikes and ATVs in the mountains. Every Bike Park is different, and for my part, I imagine it in 2 main aspects:

What can the terrain do? Is it dirt, rock, undergrowth, alpine? First of all, it’s by observing the landscape that I’ll be able to imagine the future Bike Park.
Who will the trails be designed for? Some areas don’t allow you to do everything, but here in Val d’Isère, the terrain, the landscape and its relief are full of facets, so there really is something for every taste, practice and level.

And how do you design tracks?

We work in two main phases:

Design phase in our BikeSolutions engineering office: analyzing the terrain, proposing a route and estimating a budget. We need to obtain authorizations for the land to be crossed and carry out an environmental study to respect protected areas.
Construction phase: work in the field using mechanized equipment and a human team for certain narrower and more technical sections, installation of directional and informative signage to guide riders correctly and warn them of the various crossing points and modules.

What are the advantages of our Bike Park?

A complete domain that will satisfy a wide range of riding profiles: Downhill tracks, enduro courses, VTTAE courses, beginners’ zones, trials and even an asphalt pumptrack with 3 levels of difficulty over 1700 m2!
An area for every level of rider, designed and conceived for beginners, initiates, experts or the elite.
Varied terrain: from trails around Val in the forest to alpine trails in the high mountains, the variety of landscapes, soils and environments is breathtaking.
A well-maintained resort: 6 bike patrols maintain the 100 km of trails in Val d’Isère on a daily basis (in addition to the 100 km in neighbouring
neighboring Tignes!)
A dynamic, constantly-developing resort: Val Isère was one of the first in France to offer real VTTAE trails, designed specifically for playing and discovering electrically-assisted mountain biking; it was also one of the very first to offer a real introductory trail for downhill mountain biking, designed specifically for families and beginners: the “Popeye” green downhill trail.
A safe area: each course is clearly identified as downhill/Enduro/TVTAE; classified by difficulty level: green for beginners, blue for initiates, red for experts, and black for elites.