Mountain Bike Icons – the Claudio Caluori story

Former Swiss World Cup Downhiller Claudio Caluori is best known for his Red Bull TV POV course previews. This is his story

off.road.cc staff

Jul 14 2023

Feature

[Words by Steve Thomas / Photographs Pump for Peace/Velosolutions and Red Bull Content Pool]

Chances are that if you’ve watched the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup on Red Bull TV in recent years, you would have seen the legendary course preview POVs videos of Claudio Caluori. But there’s a lot more to the former racer than his characterful videos and, like most of the athletes featured in this series, it all started at a young age.

“I would say I have a pretty traditional and good old Swiss background with a hard-working father that was also playing hockey and riding road bikes, both of which he taught me.”

It was the big and bent wooden stick that Claudio picked up first in his sporting career.

“I was playing hockey at one of the main clubs in Switzerland and it was quite intense, with training on the ice at 6am before school.”

Needless to say, the early starts were a chore for all, which is what led Claudio to cycling.

“My parents asked me if I'd be okay with riding to the hockey training on my own if they bought me a mountain bike so that they wouldn't have to drive me almost every day. I was like ‘yeah!’ and soon mountain biking became the new priority.”

Finding fun in the woods

In no time at all Claudio found himself following the well-trodden Swiss cycling route, mixing up all disciplines.

“The first races were cyclo-cross, XC, road and track, with a focus on MTB. I guess I was an early ‘Van Der Poel’ but without the talent. During a cross-country training session, I came across the BMX track in Winterthur, and I tried it out, and I couldn't help but spend the next six months riding it. Gone were the good old cross-country days - a whole new life started.”

Gravity defiance soon took over his life.

“I started DH when I was 19 and basically, my first race was the World Cup in Nevegal, Italy. Even though I came from an XC background, the time on the BMX track gave me quite a good start in downhill racing. Back in the 1990s, there were still a lot of top DH racers without any jumping skills. And so, the time I spent on the BMX track really gave me a good advantage over the old-school downhill racers from Switzerland, who had similar backgrounds as me, but without the little (but very important) time on the BMX track.”

The Tomac influence

Soon enough Claudio was winning national titles, and his skills led to a place riding under the wing of, arguably, the greatest mountain biker of all time - John Tomac.

“The times in the team Tomac are some of the best memories I have from my entire cycling career. Riding together with John Tomac and the team on his farm and in different places in Colorado and Utah, traveling through the overwhelmingly beautiful sites in the USA, was nothing short of living the dream. Yes, JT had a very particular approach to racing and it was very interesting to learn from him. He was the experienced guy at the end of his racing career, and I was the young punk that was exploring the world.”

Sadly, the Tomac dream team came to an end for all concerned but Claudio couldn’t just let that iconic influence fade into the dust.

“I was very committed to giving it all in racing until 2007 when I realised that I was completely maxed out. I followed the training plan to the second, I ate the right things, and had a good team but my results were only getting worse. At the same time, I had a young family and I just couldn't justify putting all of my focus on training and racing while not really providing for the family. So, the opportunity came up to open the racing team for the re-launched brand of Tomac."

"Basically, in the middle of the racing season 2007, my focus went from racing to 200% creating this racing team. Thinking of it now, this was totally crazy, as I was spending the nights building a concept for this team, approaching sponsors, writing to riders, and building everything from scratch. All the while using the days for training and racing, with a newborn daughter.”

Landing face down in the brown stuff

“At the end of 2007, I had a lot of vague sponsorship ready for the Tomac Racing Team 2008, with quite some financial support. None of them were closed deals but I was pretty sure that at least one of them would materialise so that the expenses for the team were covered and I could provide for myself and the family. The final answers from these sponsors just didn't come but I kept on working fully committed to the team. At some point though, I had to admit that these sponsorships just wouldn't happen and that I was basically in a position with a fully committed World Cup team, with a family and with no income.”

“One sponsor of the team was a sewage company, named Aweka. The owner of the company had his two sons in my racing team. He offered me a job in his company so that I could continue with the team. This meant that for the following months, in 2008, I was working underground in the sewage channels around Zurich during the day and organising the racing team during the day. By the way, I was also still racing that year for my own team.”

“At a World Cup race, I'd often take the role as the team manager, mechanic, bus driver, comms manager and racer all at once. Thinking of it now, I don't know how that worked. I only know that my family suffered from it massively.”

Solutions to get back on track

Going off-piste without brakes usually leads to one nasty ending – and yet Claudio picked himself up, looked around and found a new path in life – one based on creating pump tracks around the world.

“When you're stubborn like me, evolving takes time, lots of time. So, basically, the family suffered too much from my ambitions and it eventually broke to pieces. Luckily, I finally did evolve quite a few years later and we somehow reunited. Not in the sense of being a couple with my ex-wife but in the sense of being a family.”

“Velosolutions was founded already before all of that, in 2004, as a trail-building company together with two friends from Zurich. These two friends soon realised that I wasn't ready to quit racing anytime soon, and they didn't want to run the company without me, so they took other job opportunities. I used the company to build race tracks like the one in Champéry, which people might know from the famous race run of Danny Hart in 2011.”

“In 2009, the topic of pump tracks came up. We built the first one in concrete and, later on, the world's first one with asphalt, which basically initiated the worldwide pump track boom.”

Pumping for peace, all around the world

Having witnessed first-hand just what introducing a pump track facility can do for a community, Claudio took his ideal far and wide and has since gone on to create facilities in some of the most remote corners of the world.

“Every project is different, there is no strict rule we follow. We always had the clear aim to get it done no matter what. We saw what our pump tracks do to communities around the world and therefore created Pump for Peace, to have an organisation that facilitates the construction of Velosolutions pump tracks in disadvantaged areas of the world. Funding comes from Velosolutions, sponsors and fundraisers. “

Recently the plan has evolved to incorporate a small race team, which is geared to helping riders from far-flung and non-cycling nations get to the world stage.

“The Pump for Peace Racing Team follows the same idea: giving riders from these countries the chance to take part in races, both nationally and internationally. There are many riders out there who need support. The tricky thing is to choose which one you want to add to the team because we don't have the funds to support all of them. The funding for the racing team, besides Velosolutions, we get very beautiful support from the cycling industry, mainly from Endura, SRAM, Vittoria, Orbea, Crankbrothers and quite a few more.”

“On the Pump for Peace construction side, we have Rotwild Bikes/ The company is heavily committed as well, and in return, I ‘work’ as a test rider for their new prototypes, which really gave me a whole new motivation for riding. I'm really loving it.”

The highs and Lows

“Result-wise, the highlight was my 4th place at the World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne 2002 and the seven Swiss National Titles I won. What mean most? Clearly, every track that we can build with Pump for Peace!”

“Well, the lows have been breaking my family with my commitment to the world of cycling or maybe I should say with my ego. The good thing is, we've got it all in a beautiful place now, so I can't really say there are regrets.”

Field of Future Dreams

“We're working on what I call the "Velosolutions Farm", which is a modern community centre or retreat, where athletes, teams, brands, and companies will find everything they need to train, prepare, recover, meet, work, and just have fun. That means having top quality trails, jumps, a pump track, a co-working space, an organic garden and restaurant, a bed & breakfast, a yoga and meditation space, presentation and meeting rooms.”

“It is a hub for the cycling industry that also creates jobs for its surroundings.”