Three hours a day, every day of the week, senior Dylan Brown can be found tearing down hills at speeds of up to 30 mph. Having started mountain biking when he was a child, this sport has been a part of Brown’s schedule for most of his life.
“I remember never riding training wheels,” Brown said. “I probably started riding my bike when I was 4.”
Brown rides on a professional level and recently took third place in the Canadian Open, a professional mountain biking race at Crankworx in Whistler. For him, mountain biking isn’t just a hobby, it’s a lifelong passion.
“I really got into mountain biking when my uncle brought it up to me when I was 8 or so,” Brown said. “I never walked anywhere – I just rode my bike.”
Despite starting at such a young age, Brown says that mountain biking isn’t easy and is certainly more difficult than one would expect.
“It’s not a motorcycle. You do pedal, and it is actually very tiring,” Brown said. “People don’t really realize that races are coming down to the one one-hundredth of a second, and that every single thing on the bike comes down to that.”
The amount of training that goes into preparing for such tight races takes up more than 20 hours per week, Brown said. However, he finds that the long hours help him in other aspects of his life.
“When I really got into the professional world of racing, I had to represent myself and put myself out there to bike companies,” Brown said. “I was making my own resume, I was making business calls during passing; I really had to mature quickly.”
Despite the hectic schedule and workload that comes along with biking, Brown said he still prioritizes the sport.
“I really enjoy going out and riding and all the new places that I get to go,” Brown said. “And I guess I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie.”
Because Brown has spent most of his life mountain biking, it makes sense that this is where he said he wants to spend his future. With a new racing season coming up in April, Brown’s future in professional mountain biking is about to be tested.
“How well I do this year will determine if I continue on racing at a professional level,” Brown said.
Whatever his fate during the upcoming season, Brown still sees a future for himself involving mountain biking.
“I definitely want to do something that would involve it; I’m really interested in the design, or how people are making [bikes] better and faster and lighter,” Brown said. “I think that would be really interesting.”
