Velosolutions Celebrate 534 Pump Tracks in 10 years

Jan 3, 2023
by Velosolutions Global  
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Harstad Bike Park, Norway / Photo: Dan Griffiths

Words: Velosolutions

Velosolutions celebrates 10 years of asphalt pump track construction in 2022 with 534 tracks completed in 50 countries. We are extremely thankful for all the people, cities, partners and crews that have shared this incredible journey with us and have helped us to make cycling and action sports more accessible for so many people around the world.

The support of our clients and the mountain bike industry has enabled us to launch the Pump for Peace program which takes Velosolutions Pump Tracks to underprivileged communities and developing countries.

In 2022 Pump for Peace facilitated the construction of pump tracks in Armenia, Rwanda, Nepal, Israel and Kenya and started the Pump for Peace XCO World Cup racing team with Faranak Partoazar from Iran and Tumelo Makae from Lesotho.

While continuing the development of pump track design, we’re grateful for being in a position that also allows us to grow the UCI Pump Track World Championships since 2018 together with Red Bull.

Below is what feels like a snapshot of 10 incredible years and could be easily replaced by 10 000 different photos.

You can find all of our pump tracks on the new revamped pumptrack.com. Check it out!

Where it all started...

 during the 2010 World Championships in Mont Sainte Anne Quebec Canada.
Mont Sainte Anne, Canada 2010

Mont Sainte Anne pump track race in 2010?

Just kidding, we wanted to use this photo and it only worked here

It all started here

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Jenaz, Switzerland 2009

We tried it in concrete first - in Jenaz, Switzerland in 2009. Honestly we had no idea if we could work with concrete. We did, but asphalt worked better and the pump track in Chur, Switzerland was our first asphalt pump track. Built in 2012 and our start of the official 10 year count, it has stood the test of time and is to this day a great facility.

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Chur, Switzerland 2012
DCIM 100GOPRO
Chur, Switzerland 2022

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Zurich Bike Park

May 25th 2013 was the inauguration of the then world’s biggest urban bike park: The 5900m2 bike park in Zurich. Sils was the first Pump Park, there was also Pontresina, but they didn't trust the asphalt idea just yet. There was also Lindlar in Germany, which was actually our first German project and only our second asphalt track (maybe third) and we did it all alone, just 3 of us. Claudio almost killed himself on that one, working so hard at 35°C, laying the asphalt on the entire track as well as compacting it. It was close to going to the hospital after finishing in the evening. (Not the first and probably not the last time for Claudio being close to going to hospital)

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We made some friends in the Netherlands and we started calling them Velosolutions Benelux
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We did the same in the UK

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Aranyaphrathet, Thailand construction 2014

And in 2014 we took the show on the road to Asia, first we headed to Thailand

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Adrien Loron and Claudio

We did a calendar shoot (we really didn’t).

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Aranyaphrathet, Thailand 2014

We did build this though, covering an area of 2800m2 with a total track length of 400m in Aranyaphrathet.

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New, York USA 2015

Then the Big Apple called

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We answered

And what an experience that was and still is The initiation of Velosolutions USA and a deep friendship, as well as the love for New York City.

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New, York USA 2015 / Photo: Sven Martin

We know we owe you a new pump track New York. We’ll be back.

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Bali, Indonesia 2016

Then we went to Bali, some surfed, some attempted to surf.

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Kerobokan, Bali, Indonesia 2016

We did this too...

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Nanaimo, Canada 2017

We surfed in Canada, it was a touch little colder.

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Stevie Smith Memorial Bike Park, Canada 2017

Privileged to have done our bit in preserving this legacy in Nanaimo at the Stevie Smith Memorial Bike Park

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India, 2017

To Hyderabad in India

Venue of Red Bull Pump Track in Puerto Varas Chile on April 28 2018 Gaspar lvarez Red Bull Content Pool AP-1VNKWNRY92111 Usage for editorial use only Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information.
Kotaix Bike Park, Chile 2017

And for our first track in South America we headed to Chile

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Roma, Lesotho construction 2017

To Roma, Lesotho and the construction of the first Pump for Peace pump track

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Scandinavia
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Baltics

We made more friends around the world

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Belgium
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China

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South Africa

And many more friends to account for 25 amazing partners we have globally.

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Red Bull Pump Track World Championships 2018, Arkansas, USA/ Photo: Dan Griffiths

We started a thing in 2018

And it became a bigger thing.

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Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships, Bern, Switzerland 2019 / Photo: Dan Griffiths

The Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships hands out the first rainbow jersey to Tommy Zula and Payton Ridenour in 2019.

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Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships, Lisbon, Portugal 2021 / Photo: Dan Griffiths

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Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships, Santiago, Chile in 2022 with Niels Bensink and Christa von Niederhausern/ Photo: Dan Griffiths

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Faranak Partoazar, Iran 2022

We launched the Velosolutions - Pump for Peace XCO racing team with Faranak Partoazar from Iran and Tumelo Makae from Lesotho in 2022 and the future is bright.

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Thank you to every single person who has ever ridden one of our tracks or trails, we hope to see you all out there real soon. This is only the beginning of the journey. Come along for the ride.



Author Info:
velosolutionsglobal avatar

Member since Jul 30, 2011
81 articles

66 Comments
  • 85 1
 I'd love to see an economic impact study of velosolutions work, it seems to me they have done a lot for communities around the world and while maybe not huge econ impact this early on, I think what it is doing for young kids, families, etc could be put in a report to show the huge positive impact they are having on health and community. Bravo Velosolutions!
  • 21 54
flag konastab01 (Jan 3, 2023 at 13:55) (Below Threshold)
 Really its not like veto solutions have paid for it themselves, its the community's that have paid them to install it and the community that make it work. Really VS dont do that much apart from build it take the cash and move on. Giving them all the credit is wrong imo.
  • 38 2
 @konastab01: Well I personally believe you can have both a profitable and morally successful business, so I'm happy to give them lots of credit for making the economics work while they build something valuable for these communities.
  • 4 22
flag konastab01 (Jan 4, 2023 at 4:56) (Below Threshold)
 @plyawn: There is no one saying they aren't doing it morally right or wrong but to give them the kudos for something that the local community/council has paid for is insane. They didnt so any of the ground work for getting it, they dont do any post it being built. As I said its the local community that should get the props for making it work and engaging the public.They build them for a very large amount of money and to have built 500 odd world wide at 200k plus each they are making a lot of money.
  • 7 0
 @konastab01: if a study showed positive economic impact from a pumptrack being built it would help make the case to more councils around the world to build more. That doesn’t mean you’re taking credit from the communities that fundraised and lobbied for it to be built. I’ve been to some shocking pumptracks which were complete waste of council money. So absolutely the builders deserve some credit.

We’re spoiled for pumptracks in SWE, 4 of my favourite 5 are velosolutions. (Shoutout Clark and Kent for the other one)
  • 35 1
 Claudio is the ambassador for bikes. Here's to 20 more years!
  • 22 0
 That Zurich bike park...wow
  • 1 0
 I really really really want to live in Zurich :’)
  • 1 0
 @dirtyburger: i didn‘t know about it when i was there and had no bike with me … that hurt
  • 16 0
 Build one in my neighborhood
  • 14 0
 We're getting a Velosolutions track in my village this year, less than a 5 minute ride from my house. Excited to say the least!
  • 11 2
 I want one nearer to seattle than the two that exist in bellingham. There is so much riding east of Seattle yet no pump track lol
  • 20 1
 Sounds like someone isn't doing their job advocating for one in you're area. It's takes real riders to approach your city council to demand a pumptrack. Otherwise the old farts running your city have no clue what a pumptrack is or why they need one. They need your voice!
  • 1 0
 Jump on the ferry to Victoria...
  • 3 0
 we have one near Seattle...been open since Thanksgiving...
  • 3 0
 As a former Seattle resident, it's very surprising that there isn't at least *one* public track somewhere within city limits. Green Lake? Seattle Center? Gasworks? Magnussen Park? SODO? Hiawatha? Alki? (Correct me if I am wrong.) And as a current Bellingham resident, there are uh, more than two... (dodges tomatoes).
  • 1 0
 @MrLynch: Where is this ?
  • 4 0
 New Pumptrack at Seatac BMX in Burien is now OPEN Also Grindline is building what looks to be a SICK new one on Vashon Island. And I hear a new pumper at Collenade under I5 is coming up.
  • 2 0
 @sngltrkmnd: have you been to Seattle lately?
  • 2 0
 @sngltrkmnd: south 168th and 18th dawg! Might not b finished yet!
  • 1 0
 @brass-munky: I have not! I’ll look to change that by March.
  • 1 0
 @brass-munky: Thanks!
  • 2 0
 I know old thread but I was looking for something else and it came up. I think Auburn is getting one next year. Not sure who is building it, but it is supposed to be in the Auburn Bike park.
  • 9 0
 Pumped .
  • 3 0
 Huge thanks to these guys for popularizing the paved pumptrack. We have 3 solid asphalt pumptracks (one Velosolutions and two others) where I live now and they are an unbelievable asset to the riding scene here. Not only are they awesome for more advanced riders, but I see so many young kids getting into riding because of them. What an incredible way to bring bike riding to urban areas.
  • 1 0
 Absolutely agree. Still never ridden a velosolutions, but have a paved one 1 hr away which is great resource when dirt/trails are a mess, another by same builder completed recently as well. Paved pump track with a good nearby playground is phenomenal resource for my kids. Bounce back and forth between pump track and playground at same spot!
  • 3 1
 Anyone know how much it costs to get one of these beauties? We’ve been given permission to use a 6 acre chunk of FLAT land that abuts our local city park for jumps and a pump track, even got all of the environmental impact stuff taken care of….a few local organizations have donated $$, around $10,000…. But it’s a relatively poor community so I doubt we could afford an asphalt pump track.
  • 4 1
 Ive heard about 200k
  • 7 0
 @konastab01: I guess we won’t be getting one then.
  • 6 0
 @wobblegoblin The one in Lisbon was 230k but had a lot of extra work on area improvements, night lights ,drainage and probably a lot of other stuff it could do without if it was built on a empty land.
The trick it to pitch it as a very low maintenance to municipalities.
  • 4 0
 @wobblegoblin: I was going to chime in and say our local pump/jump lot couldn't possibly be that expensive... BUT Holy Chit. They say they spent 420 grand on it...??? And that's in 2011-2013 dollars. So with today's inflation that must be a million! Smile

sfct.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/5.-The-dirt-on-the-north-valley-bike-park.pdf

But seriously, I can't believe a basic pump track would cost so much. Hell, people build them alone in their back yards.
  • 6 0
 Don't underestimate the costs of public facilities. Yes it is a lot of money, but the street furniture, trashcans even, cost a lot too. The benches in a small park will probably exceed those 10k already. I think the added value of these pumptracks is that they last with minimal maintenance and are accessible AND fun for everyone on wheels. With other playground facilities, it is incredibly hard to stike a good balance between too boring and too dangerous and you end up with still quite some expensive equipment that's only useful for a relatively small population. Something to climb, swing and slide on that's fun for a kid between 6 and 9yo is too challenging for kids below 4yo and too boring and childish for a kid of 10yo. These pumptracks are for everyone. So if you take all that into account, the costs of these makes more sense.

A gravel pumptrack is much cheaper but also useful for fewer people (only bikes, basically), is much more sketchy and requires much more maintenance. I'm happy to have a pumptrack 3min from home. It is gravel, a design by Lee McCormack called "Pumptopia". Only the materials, digger etc cost already something like 15k, the manual labour was "free". But several times a year we've got to fix the holes with concrete.
  • 7 0
 Hi, I'm project manager by Velosolutions here in Switzerland. Please contact us on info@velosolutions.com so I can transfer you to our team in USA. They will help you to estimate the cost and check with you what is possible.
Cheers mate!
  • 1 3
 @stiingya: That's probabely $ 200.000 on consultancy and planning and $ 220.000 for the pumptrack Wink
  • 3 0
 @wobblegoblin: $10k from the community is an awesome start, but won't stretch very far if you're looking at contracting someone to build this project. You should look into some grants or other funding opportunities using the $10k in secured funding as part of the application pitch. Grant applications are more like to be successful if you already have some money to bring to the table, can demonstrate community buy in, and have all the permissions/permits in place ready to go. Sounds like you have all three of those so you've probably got a good shot of finding some more money somewhere. Good luck with the project!
  • 1 0
 The tendering document for my forthcoming local one specified a maximum budget of £100,000 drive.google.com/file/d/129ksdGan8jUvd8RG-F6CI1UHV1d6F-rY/view
  • 1 0
 I didn't do much more research than a quick websearch, but this is what you're competing with: publicskateparkguide.org/fundraising/how-much-do-skateparks-cost.

Stuff like this just costs money. The difference is that only a tiny fraction of those who would ride a pumptrack would be safe and/or have fun in an actual skatepark whereas I think most people who'd ride a skatepark will also have fun on an asphalt pumptrack. When well built, neither would require much maintenance afterwards. But for the same money, an asphalt pumptrack caters to more people.
  • 2 0
 We have two in Chicagoland, well three as the site in the city itself has a small and large track. The tracks themselves are incredibly well built, from a conceptualization and functionality standpoint as well as a construction quality standpoint. They have lived through several 4-season cycles and function as if they are new. The tracks in northern Europe go though even more severe winter weather and seem to hold up fantastically too. I don't know the exact numbers but 100-200k USD would not be surprising for a ideation to run-able track build. It is a huge hurdle for smaller locations, but the net result is a low maintenance track that will last many, many years. Unless some NYC developer decides to blow it up after only a few...
  • 2 2
 I work for American Ramp Company. The sole company allowed to sell Velo tracks in the U.S. What is your email address and I can get some info to you.
  • 2 0
 I'm so stoked for these projects and this company. We got an enormeous one built in our town a couple years back and it's so nice to have. Kids are progressing so fast, and it's dynamic enough that me and my friends really enjoy it too.
  • 2 0
 We had the first paved pump track built in the Midwest a couple years ago by VeloCity, a local trail contractor in Lacrosse Wisconsin. Pinehurst Project in Eau Claire had a new pump track built this year as well. Such a great way to involve the community. I’ve seen so many families come together and enjoy time outdoors.
  • 3 0
 That's an amazing accomplishment. Well done, Velosolutions.

I'm curious for those who've lived with one of these in a area with with heavy freeze thaw cycles, how do they hold up? Does the asphalt need frequent patching?
  • 2 0
 Tried to get a small pump track built in our local town in Wales. Not far from Revolution bike park. Velosolutions were our choice, but couldn’t raise the cash via funding routes. Shame, it would have been great for the kids (and ex-kids)
  • 4 0
 NYC needs a paved pump track again. I moved just as they demolished the Brooklyn Bridge one.
  • 3 0
 While not paved, there's 2 good ones at Cunningham Park. I've never seen the one at High Bridge in person (also unpaved).
  • 5 0
 We have one in our city. I take my kids there almost every day. Thanks
  • 5 0
 That’s more than one track built per week for ten years. Pretty amazing!
  • 4 0
 That Chilean one looks like it has about 40 pumps in it, if you pumped everything. Assuming that’s fairly average, then over 10 years they’ve built over 21,000 pumps. Almost 6 pumps a day. So many pumps. Pumpin’.
  • 4 0
 great work claudio & co! witer so!
  • 3 1
 Just wow! They literally made pump tracks into a thing, love their work, I've ridden a few of their tracks,and I would so love to have one in Northern Nevada!
  • 3 0
 Its criminal that Whistler doesnt have a half way decent pump track and a velosolutions one is the answer.
  • 2 0
 Proud to be part of this big fantastic family! Cheers!
  • 2 0
 Love my local Velosolutions pumptrack in Chopwell.
  • 1 0
 Thanks for the trailblazing Velosolutions. Let’s see 10000 pump tracks next. And one pumptrack really close to me!
  • 1 0
 I love that these exist even if I've never rode one. I wish every community had one....
  • 3 0
 Vancouver please Smile
  • 1 0
 we need a company that can work like this to fill in pot holes on the uk's shite roads
  • 2 0
 Dirt jumps > pumptrack
  • 2 0
 Big up Claudio!
  • 1 0
 This is great! I hope the trend continues!
  • 1 0
 Redding California please!
  • 1 0
 Orange County California PLEASE!!
  • 1 0
 We need a pumptrack in Poole, Dorset, England please!
  • 1 0
 Meanwhile, since 2010, I built.. two.
  • 1 0
 Olympic Games ?
  • 5 0
 Why? The Olympic idea seems nice, but the actual Olympics have shit-all to do with that. It is all about ego, patriotism and all that bullshit. The pumptrack vibe is beautiful the way it is. Would hate so see it getting messed up with the Olympic crap.

Sorry for my language.







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