Ledro Residents Demand Fair Promotion of Bike Festival to Support Local Tourism

Until the Rivana organizers of the Bike Festival promote the Ledro Valley equally with the Busa, the residents of Ledro will not cooperate with the sporting event that attracted 17,000 bikers to the Lower Sarca area in recent days. These are the “threats” from Angelo Pellegrini, the coordinator of the group of local residents, as well as former president of the Consorzio delle Pro Loco ledrensi, who had offered his assistance during the previous three editions of the event for young mountain bikers.

Thus, he responds to the still-unquenchable criticisms from local tourist operators, upset because this year no bikers were seen in the valley. Hoteliers and shopkeepers, however, consider involvement in the Bike Festival essential. Unable to follow the old Ponale route, operators had proposed transferring the participants from Busa by bus.

“I fully agree with the position of the operators,” adds Angelo Pellegrini, “and with my friends I am ready to resume collaboration with Rivanoes, but only if the contribution from the residents of Ledro is recognized and ‘rewarded.’ We demand that the promotion of the Bikefestival does not focus only on the Busa. This also happens on other occasions: I remember a flyer where Ponale was placed in Tremosine. We enthusiastically participated in the first and second editions of the Bikefestival, but when we realized we were the stepchildren, we left.”

We returned for the fourth edition, but without satisfaction.” Pellegrini and his friends are the promoters of Ledro Bike, the international race scheduled for Sunday, May 13, in Ledro. To avoid losing ground, they wanted to give the event a supra-municipal imprint by linking it with the “Arco outdoor,” which was later canceled.

Pity. And since he’s at it, Pellegrini criticizes the lukewarm participation of about forty valley hoteliers, who are among the main beneficiaries of the race. “Few were present at the meeting to plan the competition,” he comments bitterly, “only about twenty placed an advertisement in the introductory booklet for Ledro Bike. The remaining forty listings are from companies with little to do with tourism and sports.”