E-Mountainbike |

M³ Montafon Mountainbike Marathon – E-Mountainbike Hydropower Route 2025

E-MTB pleasure route - From the source to the mouth. The Ill route.
View of Kopssee
Kopsstausee

Photo: Andreas Haller

Factbox

Difficulty: mittel
Distance: 55.81 km
Ascent: 1225 m
Descent: 1218 m
Duration: 8 h
Deepest point: 674 m
Highest point: 1834 m
Condition:

Experience:

Landscape:

  • Höhenprofil

    The e-mountainbike hydropower route takes you on the trail of hydropower in the Montafon, offering you exclusive insights. What is a pumped storage power plant, how does it work, and how is the water captured and supplied to the power plants? You will learn all this and more on this route.

    This tour will be ridden as part of the M³ Montafon Mountainbike Marathon on Saturday, July 26, 2025. The refreshments are therefore only available on this day.

    Start: 08:00 am, Kirchplatz Schruns (meeting point 7:30 am at Kirchplatz)

    Number distribution: until 07:30 am, Kirchplatz Schruns

    Scoring: without timing. The focus is on the panorama and hydropower.

    Registration: To registration

    Understanding energy where it is created

    This guided e-mountainbike tour opens rare insights into a world that usually remains hidden: alpine hydropower in the Montafon. The focus is on two extraordinary visits that impressively show how sustainable energy is generated from natural forces.

    The first highlight is the Kops dam – a technical masterpiece amid high alpine landscape. During a guided walk, you learn the history and function of the imposing dam. Particularly impressive: the walk along the dam crest with views of the turquoise Kops reservoir and the surrounding peaks. Here, you can see how precise engineering and landscape conservation work together in Montafon.

    After a shared refreshment break, the second part of the tour follows: visiting the Kops II power plant, one of the most modern pumped storage power plants in Europe. Under expert guidance, you gain access to areas normally not open to the public. You stand in the midst of the massive turbine hall, gain insight into the control of the power plant processes, and learn how electricity is generated around the clock through the intelligent use of height differences – the backbone of a climate-friendly energy future.

    Between the visits, there is plenty of space for natural e-bike passages, quiet moments at historic maize stands, and personal exchange within the group.

    The hydropower route is aimed at all those who want to not only pass through Montafon but also understand it – technically interested, connected with nature, and with the desire to make the major topics of our time tangible on site.

    This tour will be ridden as part of the M³ Montafon Mountainbike Marathon on Saturday, July 26, 2025. The refreshments are therefore only available on this day.

    Our tip: You can rent your e-mountainbike for the Montafon e-mountainbike enjoyment route at a sport shop in Montafon or at Intersport Fisher (10% discount on the event day). A reservation in advance is recommended.

    Note: This tour will take place in this exclusive form only once this year on July 26, 2025, as part of the M³ Montafon Mountainbike Marathon.

    Presented by: Montafon
    Author: Andreas Marent

  • Difficulty: mittel
    Technique:

    Condition:

    Experience:

    Landscape:

    		Altitude: 1834 m 674 m Best season:
    JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
    JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

  • Directions

    The guided tour starts in front of the Schruns tourism information and leads you down the valley past the Aktivpark Montafon along the bike path to Partenen. Along the way, the gigantic Kops dam, the highest point of our tour. Afterwards, it goes back through the Ganifer to Partenen, where the impressive Kops II cavern power plant is on the program. Once you have mastered this, you continue down the valley back to our starting point in Schruns.

    Waypoints

  • Public transportation:

    Just leave your car behind.

    The regional buses operate throughout the Montafon. The main lines run every half hour from Schruns station.

    Bus stop at the start/finish of the route: Schruns station

    Timetable: www.vmobil.at

    Getting to Montafon by train

    The Montafon railway runs hourly (partly every half hour) from Bludenz station. There are also direct connections from Lindau (D) and from Bregenz.

    Timetable: www.oebb.at

    Approach:

    Take the A14 to the Bludenz/Montafon exit and continue on the Montafonerstraße L188 to Schruns town center.


    Route Planner

    Park:

    Underground parking Löwen Hotel, station parking garage