Kelowna

Photo: Contributed - Harrison Mendel, Matthew Butterworth, Eric Marciniak, Rupert Walker

It appears that the sport of mountain biking is alive and well in the Okanagan Valley and you don’t have to look further than Tom van Steenbergen for proof.

The 16-year-old has been riding mountains bikes for the past three years, ever since he moved here from Holland and switched over from BMX.

“There’s a lot of riding here and a lot of people who ride too,” says van Steenbergen, who counts Dreamland as one of his favorite areas.

After entering a few competitions earlier in the year, he received his first big break when he was invited to Crankworx in Whistler, arguably the world’s biggest mountain bike festival.

“It was a big change from what I was used to from racing, where there’s not a big crowd,” says van Steenbergen.

“This crowd was huge and it just gets you pumped up. There were a lot of kids doing big tricks and that motivates you too.”

Steenbergen’s event was the Best Trick Showdown, his trick of choice: front-flip, no hander on the step down.

“I didn’t have any nerves because I didn’t have any expectations, I just kind of rode for fun and it worked.”

He aims to ride at some indoor tracks during the winter months and enter more competitions in the spring.

You can find a great video of van Steenbergen produced locally by the guys at Virtu Media