FINDERS, KEEPERS

You’ve probably noticed that over the last year mountain biking has seen a huge surge in popularity.

There are more people out on the trails, bike shops are seeing unprecedented demand for all types of bikes and components while mechanics are flat-out breathing life into bikes that have seen better days.

Lockdown has unarguably been the main driver for this boom, but there are plenty of other reasons that have led to people discovering or rediscovering mountain biking. With so many new and returning faces on the trails, we decided to stop a few of them and ask, why mountain biking?

MARK BOURGEOIS

MARK FEELS MOUNTAIN BIKING IS MORE DEMOCRATIC

To say Mark is a keen cyclist would be an understatement. He averages 150 miles a week on his road bike, races when he can and once rode a tandem from Edinburgh to London in record-breaking time – 17 hours and 52 minutes. Despite being a roadie, Mark does have a mountain biking background.

Back in the early 1990s when living in Yorkshire, he dabbled in a bit of racing, but a move down to London for work meant mountain biking was put on pause.

“Following a move back to Yorkshire I bought my first