With picture gallery

Lake Wörthersee celebrates a record-breaking car-free day

Kelag board member Danny Güthlein and police colonel Adi Winkler motivated the bikers at the start.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

More than 50,000 cyclists, skaters and runners enjoyed the free ride on Sunday at the 27th Kelag Cycling and Skating Experience Day!

Not only the "car-free" partners such as Kelag, Volksbank, Hirter, Antenne and Co. were delighted with the record number of participants at the car-free day around Lake Wörthersee on Sunday; the restaurants and hotels were also pleased with the good pre-season sales.

By 10 a.m., many bikers and skaters had already gathered for the public start at the Minimundus.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

"The participants of the event flushed almost one million euros into the coffers of the Wörthersee region," according to the tourism experts. Some of the amateur athletes even traveled by bus from all over Austria, Germany and Italy to take part in the finale of the car-free days in Carinthia.

Even four-legged friends enjoyed the car-free day.(Bild: EVELYN HRONEK)

Little Mara is only two and this was her second time taking part with mom Marina and dad Stefan!(Bild: EVELYN HRONEK)

There was a great atmosphere in the Kelag Biker Village at the Forstsee power station.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

Gerti and Rudolf are already among the regular car-free cyclists.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

LH Peter Kaiser provided the cyclists with drinks at the Generali stand.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

Wolfgang Rutter and Robert Gojkovic from Volksbank provided support at the start and along the route!(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

Maria, Emily and Fabienne cycled from Grafenstein to the car-free start and around the lake.(Bild: Hronek Eveline)

From the chilout area to the biker village
All cyclists, skaters and runners got their money's worth on this day - there were all kinds of highlights around the lake. In addition to the chill-out area in Reifnitz and the biker village of main sponsor Kelag at the Forstsee power station, all Wörthersee restaurateurs as well as clubs and volunteer fire departments - such as the Pritschitz fire department, which even organized its own small, car-free church day - took care of the physical well-being of the participants.

Everyone is already looking forward to next year's car-free days!