Lenzerheide MTB Guide: Bike Kingdom, Rothorn & World Cup Trails

Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide stacks five gondola-served freeride lines beneath the Rothorn, anchored by a World Cup downhill course. A field guide to the trails, the lifts, the season window and the train-first way in.

By the IMPT Travel desk · Published 2026-05-30

The first hint that Lenzerheide takes mountain biking seriously is the line of riders stacked at the Rothorn 1 gondola at 09:00, bikes loaded vertically, queue moving in two-minute pulses. From the valley station at roughly 1,500 metres to the Scharmoin mid-station at 1,904 metres, the lift drops riders into the heart of Bike Kingdom Park, the freeride spine of a network that hosts a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round every June. In 2026 the World Cup returns from 19 to 21 June for its tenth edition, with Cross-country Olympic, Short Track and Downhill all running on the same weekend.

The signature trails

Bike Kingdom Park concentrates on five gravity-fed freeride lines, each named with a deliberate identity rather than a number, and each progressing logically from the next.

• FLOWline (blue) — roughly 2.7 km with about 350 metres of vertical drop. The introduction line. Bermed, rollable, almost no exposed roots; the trail where first-timers stop being first-timers.
• PRIMEline (red) — around 2.8 km and 407 metres of drop. Faster, with jumps that gap rather than roll, and the trail most repeat visitors settle into for lap after lap.
• SHREDline (red) — a more natural, rooty companion to PRIMEline for riders who want the woods rather than the berms.
• STYLEline (black) — built for riders who want hits, not flow; tabletops, step-ups and step-downs in sequence.
• STRAIGHTline (black) — the World Cup downhill course. Short, brutal, almost entirely man-made, and the line that defines the resort's reputation. Not a warm-up.

Beyond the park, the wider Arosa-Lenzerheide network extends across the valley, with single-track XC and enduro routes that stitch into the cross-country World Cup loop on the Lenzerhorn side.

How the lift system actually works

Bike Kingdom Park is served principally by the Rothorn 1 gondola, which lifts bikes from the village to Scharmoin. From there, riders can either drop straight into the park or continue up Rothorn 2 toward the 2,861-metre Parpaner Rothorn summit for high-alpine enduro routes. A skill centre sits at the Rothorn valley station for warm-ups and feature drills, useful on a first morning before committing to STRAIGHTline. A day ticket runs CHF 54 in 2026; multi-day Gravity Cards extend access to the wider Graubünden bike-park network including Alpenbikepark Chur.

Getting there without a car

Lenzerheide is one of the more rewarding Alpine bike destinations to reach by rail. The route from Zürich Airport runs roughly 75 minutes by direct ICE/IC to Chur, then 30 minutes on PostBus line 182 up the Schyn pass to Lenzerheide/Lai. Buses depart Chur station every half hour through the summer, and the village stop sits a short pedal from the Rothorn gondola. Riders arriving from Italy or eastern Switzerland often combine Lenzerheide with St. Moritz further down the same PostBus line. Choosing rail over a flight-plus-rental shaves a substantial slice of carbon off the trip and removes the headache of bike-bag handling at a small Alpine car park.

Season window and when to ride

The Bike Kingdom Park season typically opens in mid-to-late May and closes in late October. In 2026 the operating window runs from 17 May to 22 October, with the formal park opening event scheduled for 6-7 June. Peak conditions sit in July and early September: dry, dust-tacky berms, long daylight, and quieter lifts in the shoulder fortnight either side of school holidays. June can deliver World Cup-grade racing but also lingering snow on the Parpaner Rothorn upper sections; late October can be glorious or already shut depending on the snow line. Riders chasing the World Cup atmosphere should aim for 19-21 June 2026; those chasing empty lifts should aim for early September.

Events worth planning around

Lenzerheide has anchored the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup calendar for a decade, hosting both Cross-country (XCO and XCC) and Downhill (DHI) rounds on the same weekend — a programme that few European venues match. The cross-country course is famously rocky and technical, with descents that punish line errors. STRAIGHTline, the downhill course, is regularly singled out by World Cup riders as one of the most physically demanding bike-park-style tracks on the circuit.

Where to base

The village of Lenzerheide spreads along the lake at roughly 1,500 metres, with most hotels and apartments within a short ride of the Rothorn 1 base station. Valbella, two kilometres north, offers a quieter alternative with direct trail access. Riders prioritising World Cup weekend should book six to twelve months ahead; mid-week stays in July or September are considerably easier to secure. A three-to-five-day trip is enough to learn the five park lines, ride the Parpaner Rothorn high alpine, and still leave a day for the Alpenbikepark Chur extension on the Gravity Card.

A run down STRAIGHTline, the black World Cup downhill course beneath the Rothorn gondola.