Of Scandinavian origin, I have the past thirteen (!) years been residing in Brussels, Belgium.
What a life!
Gimme dry trails, dusty trails, singletrack, rocks, loose stones, small dips … and climbing only if there is good downhilling afterwards!
Little did I know what impact mountain biking would have on my life when I took my first pedal strokes in Dallas, Texas, in the year of 2001.
My meticulous studying of the bar scene stopped abruptly. I gave up alcohol and late nights out completely, to be able to ride my bike to the fullest. I lived to ride. I gave up dating to ride. It was me and my hardtail Gary Fisher Mt Tam. And the off-road we travelled.
From then until now
It’s been a bumpy ride since 2001 – in more ways than mountain biking.
Gary was buried after an accident in 2002, leaving me with a permanent bad knee. I guess it was not my time to go just yet. A full-suspension Specialized Epic joined my life and the 112k long marathon of Finnmarksturen in Sweden etched us into one.
I initiated and ran my own mountain bike club (bigM) during the years 2002-2006. Pressing family and medical issues, however, made me leave the reins of bigM to other people. From there, my riding became frustratingly irregular. Two fantastic, indescribable trips to Switch-backs in Sierra Nevada in between surgeries kept my spirits up: my confidence riding technical stuff got an enormous boost!
Summer of 2009 I finally made it back up on my bike!
Only to be taken down again by surgery, mid summer 2010. My trip to my second Roc d’Azur, and trail-exploring in Corsica, had to be cancelled.
Recuperating and slowly building up my fitness, I take the unusually snowy opportunity to research and weed out the best places to go in 2011. So many places to go!
Minna
To not lose your balance, you have to keep going. – A friend.
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