{"id":6764,"date":"2020-09-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/43ride.com\/en\/?p=6764"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:35:31","slug":"visiting-graubunden-bike-kingdom-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/43ride.com\/en\/story\/2020\/visiting-graubunden-bike-kingdom-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Graub\u00fcnden – Bike Kingdom part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Graub\u00fcnden is the largest and easternmost canton in Switzerland. It has international borders with Italy, Austria, and Liechtenstein. The biggest town of Graub\u00fcnden is Chur, which is also the oldest town in whole country, but in mountainbikes world the best known city is Lenzerheide. It’s only 18km to the south from Chur and it’s known mostly from organization of UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Championships in 2018 or DH World Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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43RIDE bike mag editors Tomas & Tina somewhere on Graub\u00fcnden trails.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bike Kingdom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bike Kingdom, the most important cycling center in Graub\u00fcnden, made its debut in the 2020 season. But what excatyl is the Swiss Cycling Kingdom? In a nutshell, it is a cycling paradise with over 900 kilometers of cycling routes in as many as six regions. This number of kilometers was obtained by letting cyclists on mountain pedestrian routes, but the essence of riding around the region are single trails built only for fans of two wheels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tomas & The Parpaner Rothorn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Part one of our story – enduro<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We spent five days there and believe me, it is definitely not enough to visit every place in the kingdom at least once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The map of Bike Kingdom
(click on the image to view it full size)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We chose our hotel as the starting point, which is located next to the Bike Park Lenzerheide. The vicinity of the lower station of the Rothorn 1 lift (Valbella, 1500m above sea level) is ideal for exploring the region, as it lies in the very center of it. On this page you can find suggested routes, but as soon as you do a diagnosis of what is where, you can start to combine and combine individual routes yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enduro trails in Graub\u00fcnden offers beatuiful views.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day one – reconnaissance<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We got there late at night from Monday to Tuesday (unfortunately we had a serious car breakdown), which meant that the general fatigue did not let us go crazy on the first day. Thus, we decided to make a familiarization round on the next routes. Our choice was the 602 Runda Lai<\/strong> tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Somewhere on the slope there is a route on which we will ride a few days later to Arosa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we had almost 28.5 km to ride, and the start was located at the top of Parpaner Rothorn at an altitude of 2865 m above sea level. To get there, take the Rothorn 1 lift serving Bike Park, and then at the middle station on Alp Scharmoin (1922m above sea level), change to the Rothorn 2 trolley. The trip begins with the “Dark side of the moon”<\/strong> single trail, the name of which perfectly reflects lunar conditions and views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Dark side of the moon” trail offers amazing views and lunar climate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In general, all round is a chilly single trail with a lot of stones in upper parts and natural obstacles or tight turns in lower part. Especially second part of the descent is more flowy and man made style, but typical bike parks berms are still a rare thing. What it the most important are the beatufil views that literally take your breath away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Those views!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After “Dark side of the moon” trail we’re going to new single trail “Urdenf\u00fcrggli Twister”<\/strong> and our trip ends with “The Pipe”<\/strong> which goes directly to the middle station. Now we need to choose, take another round or ride down using bike park trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Dark side of the moon” trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day two – guided trip<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On the second day we had an appointment with a local guide which could show us some things in the area. Unfortunatly Dimitri had a nasty crash on the day before, but his colleague Benny replaced him and took us to the different side of Lenzerheide. We went through the city to the other side of the lake, where the Tgantieni and Scalottas lifts took us to the peak of Piz Scalottas (2323m above sea level).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A view from the Piz Scolattas peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Top Fops”<\/strong> is a new single trail from the top to the middle station. This is where Danny MacAskill and Claudio Caluori filmed few parts from “Home of Trails”<\/a> video which promote the Graub\u00fcnden region. This trail looks like typical flow trail, but with the right proportions between bike park & natural single trail. Anyway, lots of fun & good views are guaranteed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We finish the descend next to the middle station and we’re going up again to make another ride. This time to the Heidb\u00fcel peak (1928m above sea level) side. We start again with “Top Fops”, but after few hundred meters we took a turn to the left to blue single trail “Scalottas”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Day two and other side of Lenzerheide with “Top Fops” trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere in the middle we have an uphill, which especially in the last part are very steep, but for true enduro experts it shouldn’t be a problem for more than 15-20 minutes. After this part we’re on the start of another blue flow trail “H\u00f6henweg Alp St\u00e4tz”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left or right?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the end of this trail we must change our plans due to end of our time with Benny and we was far away from the hotel. So we had a moment to admire the views and we took a shortcut with a gravel roads & few forest singles towards Lenzerheide. It was another good day on a bike!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sometimes you just need to take a break and enjoy the views.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day three – a trip to Arosa<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the morning we had to do some editorial duties like photos or videos, so we started our last enduro tour quite late. Our third day of endurance was Saturday, which meant huge queues at the lifts. We had to wait about 30 minutes at both stations, but everything still worked very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Third day of our trip and the views were still amazing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We arrived at Parpaner Rothorn peak around 12pm and our main goal was to shot some photos. Everything went so well that we decide to took the risk and go to Arosa for a longer trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first part of “\u00c4lplisee Trail” goes on narrow traverse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The only bike trail after “Dark side of the moon” which goes to the Arosa town is black “\u00c4lplisee Trail”<\/strong>. This single led along a rather narrow traverse on a steep slope, which didn’t promise much pleasure, but full concentration and we just tried not to fall down. Nothing could be more wrong, maybe it wasn’t the easiest ride, but we felt safe at all times and we had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Second part goes through the valley, but you still need to concentrate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The distance was quite long and the path is very picturesque. Only real difficulty most of the way is staying on the traverse, but in the second part of the single trail there was much easier. Last part was tricky as the path connects with the hiking trail and we have to ride on few hundred meters with very tight switchbacks, steep sections and a lot of rocks. After this section we’re on the last straight to Arosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After hard traverse you can chill at the lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day three – Arosa<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived to Arosa it was almost 3pm and the last lift was closed shortly after 4pm. Quick decision to skip some sightseeing and we’re back on H\u00f6rnli Express to the peak. Ascent is very long and on the way up we saw “H\u00f6rnli Trail”<\/strong> which is local flow trail. So could we miss such an opportunity? It was almost 7 kilometers of flow trail which I can only compare to the Flow Country Trail in Petzen<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Arosa Flow Trail” from the H\u00f6rnli Express.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunatly in this moment our GoPro camera decided to make a joke on us and instead of video mode switch to time lapse photos… ehh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n