24 Years of Riding Bikes

I bought my first mountain bike in 2001. My uncle got me hooked; he’d been riding since the late '80s, and his GT Zaskar with XTR components was the stuff of dreams. Growing up in the Netherlands close to a great network of trails, I spent my youth pedalling in the woods. A few years later, I discovered trials. That was before Danny McAskill became famous, and videos on the internet were in 360p. By 2006, bikes were all I would talk about. I would read magazines, work Saturdays in a bike shop, and spend every penny I saved on my bikes.

Downhill had always interested me, but it seemed very far away when I was growing up in the flatlands. That changed when a friend and I realised that we would soon be able to drive to bike parks in Germany and take trips to the Alps. I’d always loved the mountains; my parents had taken my brother and me camping in the Alps every summer for as long as I can remember, and I began to realise that I wanted to spend much more time in the mountains. Around 2008, downhill became the only thing I wanted in life. It took me to many iXS races, where I soon made friends who are still close friends to this day. Downhill was so much more than just the riding: it was about the people, travelling to different places and keeping up with all the latest trends. Years of riding and racing downhill bikes went by.

Fast forward to 2016 and the Madonna became the first bike to replace my Scott Gambler downhill bike for most trips. Its versatility meant that it could handle 95% of tracks, so I ended up selling my Gambler, also to help finance the first years of RAAW. However, I knew that if I made it through the first few years of RAAW, building a downhill bike would be an absolute dream. Launching the Yalla! in 2022 felt incredibly surreal, and I was fortunate to spend most of that year in Squamish, riding my Yalla! in Whistler Bike Park countless days. I spent so much time on the Yalla!, probably getting more airtime in a week than I had in my whole life before that, and my riding progressed for the first time in years. There is so much talent at Whistler Bike Park, and spending hours and hours on the hard-pack berms and jumps amongst it simply made me step up. It was one of the best experiences I've had on a bike.

Back home in Germany, I have only occasionally been able to use my Yalla! over the last two years. I've spent a couple of days in Champery and Morgins every summer, but the Jibb V2 has taken over most of the hours I've spent riding.

In February this year, Jonas and I visited Jack Reading and the team in Portugal to try out the updated Yalla!! V2. We had an amazing time with all the riders, and I took the opportunity to complete some Yalla!! laps myself. I’d seen videos of the tracks, but they just don’t do them justice. They were rough, loose, off-camber and fast — it was scary! I asked Jack if I could follow him to get up to speed more quickly. Even though I asked him to go as slowly as possible, I lost him after a few corners. The tracks and the way Jack, Rueben, Oskar and all the other guys rode them humbled me big time.

After 24 years of riding all kinds of bikes in so many different places, it’s incredible to see kids who are so talented and so fast. It was very humbling. After a few laps, I started to find my rhythm, riding at my own pace and enjoying every minute, at peace with the fact that kids half my age would go twice as fast.