Keeping that winning feeling

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On the podium at the 2004 Olympics(Image credit: Tour of Japan)

An interview with Bart Brentjens, May 8, 2006

Now a spry 37 years of age, Dutchman Bart Brentjens started making an impact in mountain biking more than a decade ago when he won the 1995 world championships, following it up by winning the first Olympic mountain bike gold medal in Atlanta in 1996. He secured a second world championship title in the same year to become the world's best mountain biker during the mid-nineties. Brentjens spoke with Cyclingnews' Steve Medcroft about winning races at an age where most pros would have retired long ago.

After nine more seasons in the lead pack in both cross country and the growing discipline of marathon (in which he earned a silver medal at the 2005 world championships), you'd think a veteran of Brentjens' age would start slowing down. But no chance, says the Team Giant rider, who has won the world cup opener in Curacao and placed third in the Sea Otter omnium behind Frenchman Jean-Christoph Peraud and Englishman Liam Killeen so far this season. “I was healthy the whole winter so I didn't miss any training,” Brentjens said from his home in central Holland in early April about his early-season successes. “I did more gym training – twice a week with weights – and I feel like I have a little bit more power in my legs.”

BB: I did six marathons (last year); three world cups and three others. Which was one or two more than 2004 and about the same number I wanted to do this year - one or two world cups, two other marathons and the world championships again. This will let me stay focused on cross-country because qualifications for the country's Olympic start spots has already started so the national trainer asked me to ride for the points.

BB: I think it's a combination of things. I'm a little bit older than other riders. I have a lot of endurance and power. I like longer distances - the race can't be long enough for me. And it's very challenging to ride a marathon because the courses are not loops - you have to concentrate all the time, you have to check over the courses, the feed zones, the technical zones. It's also very beautiful to be out there in nature. Marathons bring you back to the roots of mountain biking.

BB: The Bart Brentjens Challenge. There's a website – www.bartbrentjenschallenge.com . I planned to have my own race once for a long time but waited until I found a good organiser and a good sponsor. We had 1,500 registrations. For a first-time event, it's not huge but we have a three-year contract so we want to make something big out of it in the south of Holland [the region of the Netherlands Brentjens grew up in].

BB: When I was 13 years old, I had an injury in my right leg; an infection in the bone. I used to speed skate in the winter and I always tried to skate on very thin ice – the ice was not strong enough for skating but we liked the feel of it. Then one day I fell into the water. The water was very dirty and I had blisters on my feet [Brentjens would use long-distance skates to play ice hockey] so I caught an infection. That water infected my blood and there was an infection in my bone. I was in the hospital for seven weeks; fifty days. After that, I couldn't walk for even half an hour. I started cycling to recover.

BB: In the beginning, it was a sport for winter – for road riders who wanted to stay in good health in wintertime. After we heard that mountain biking was a summer sport in the US and it became a summer sport here, I started competing in Europe and Holland. I was also doing road races and cyclo-cross in winter. I think I had more talent on the mountain bike than on the road bike, though. Soon, I was invited to join teams. It was unbelievable for me to get a bike and clothing for free so I started with a small team in national competition and a year later, I grew up to a big team and raced internationally.