BIKE Trials Victoria are set to bring their mountain bike mastery to the Swan Hill Show once again this year, to wow crowds with their crafty cycling control.
While it makes up a somewhat niche corner of the mountain-biking world, trials riding is quickly growing in popularity across Australia.
Now Bike Trials Victoria are hoping their demonstration will inspire the next Australian or even world champion from within the Mallee.
The sport involves manoeuvring a mountain bike across a range of different obstacles, without touching the ground or making contact between pedal and obstacle.
One of Victoria and Australia’s top trails riders, Matthew Harding, will travel up to Swan Hill to take part in the exhibition event with a fellow rider.
Harding said he hoped the smaller mountain bike discipline would gain a strong following across the Swan Hill region thanks to the demonstrations.
“We’re coming up again to hopefully give the sport and Bike Trials Victoria a bit more exposure,” he said.
“It’s quite a small sport here at the moment, but it’s a bit of a fun activity that I’ve been involved with for the past 16 years now.
“In competition we ride our bikes over various obstacles and use a range of different pedal stroke techniques and hops based on the shape, size and texture of the obstacle we are faced with.
“While there’s a big physically demanding side to the sport, there’s also the mental aspect to take into consideration.
“It’s a bit like problem solving, where you have to think about the best way to approach each obstacle and how it’s going to set you up for the next one.”
Mr Harding said the opportunity to set up a trials section using locally sourced obstacles gave riders the chance to try out things they don’t get in the Melbourne.
“One of the most fun parts of our demonstrations is that we source local obstacles,” he said.
“For a demonstration like this, we take whatever we can get locally and do the best we can for our section.
“The last time we were up here we were up on 1000 litre water tanks, a lot of pallets and hay bales.
“We even used some old combine harvester equipment to ride on, which is something you really don’t get to experience in the city.”
Harding’s abilities were on full display last year, when he represented Australia in trials at the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow last August.
“That was something that I’d earmarked back in 2017, so I had around six years in the lead up to prepare myself,” he said.
“I’d also taken part in two World Cups before the championships, so it was an amazing thing to be able to compete at the top level of the world.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to be able to learn in that competition environment, and we would love to see some younger Victorians pick up the sport.
“There is the high-level competition stuff, but anyone can take up the sport – even if it’s as simple as balancing on a concrete gutter, you can start anywhere.
“We continue to do this because of our love of the sport, and to inspire other people to get involved – if we can put a smile on someone’s faces by riding, then we are doing well.”
