This is a special post by a young man called Finlay who was meant to be coming and having coaching with us whilst over in the UK from Australia. Sadly Finlay hurt himself (riding his bike of course) so couldn’t come for any riding. However he did write us a little post on riding and his dreams of down hill podiums.
Good luck Finlay!
Where does it start? The desire to go faster, to go longer, to go higher? For those who don’t know me, I’m Finlay. Currently 16 years old with a dream to become a pro downhill mountain bike racer.
At the age of nine I discovered some small jumps in my local bushland. On the heaviest BMX of the century, I was petrified to send this foot jump to flat. Later I learnt about bikes that are designed to do this sort of thing, bikes that have gears and suspension. That summer I worked all weekends to save for a mountain bike. By the end of the summer I had saved $700. A short drive to Nannup and I had a Giant Talon. It was love at first sight, the fresh paint job, 2×9 gears and a front fork. What else does a beginner need? In my Nike trainers and green tee, I was flying down local trails. With a hardtail rocks felt like boulders, with my xc tires roots were like ice and all jumps had a hard landing.
Years down the line I now have a 2014 trek session which is my main bike. My mates and I raced each other down the local trails. From there I started to race in state rounds. I fell in love with racing and have wanted to do it as a career for a long time. I’m now doing bigger jumps and going faster than I ever could have imagined. I still want to go bigger, faster, longer and higher. I wake up every day thinking that I could win a world cup because if others can do it why can’t I? I’m dedicated to working out, eating healthily and lots of practice riding. The thing that gets me up at 6am to train and what I think about when I go to bed is that I can win a DH world cup, and one day maybe I will.