Top North American trials biking duo returning to Sun Peaks

Jeff Anderson and Steve Dickin are two of North America’s top trials biking athletes with North American Championship, UCI World Cups and World Championship experience under their belts.

On September 4 and 5, Anderson and Dickin will be returning to Sun Peaks to wow audiences with their unique balancing act.

Known as trials biking, athletes ride through obstacle courses while jumping and balancing on the obstacles with their specially designed bikes.

The goal of the event is to make it through the course without letting a foot touch the ground.

“On the obstacle courses, in competition, you have six gates that you have to go through. If you get through the gates without falling off the bike, then you get points,” explained Anderson.

While the event at Sun Peaks isn’t about collecting points, rather about impressing crowds, the duo have acquired quite a few points from international competitions in their respective careers.

Anderson, who grew up in Coquitlam and has been training since 2007, recently returned from the North American Championships in Arkansa, U.S. where he won the competition for the fifth time.

“I started with mountain biking and then saw some guys doing trials and tried it out for myself,” remembered Anderson. “I spent hours and hours just doing wheelies and little things bouncing on beams and stuff. Four or five years later I got to a higher level and was competing.”

Dickin, who has been honing his bike balancing skills for over 20 years and is known for his incredible balance and technical skills, is no stranger to world class competition either, having competed in three UCI World Championships in China, Australia, and New Zealand.

Although the events aren’t typically televised, Anderson said it’s a greater spectacle in person anyway.

“You don’t really see it on TV or anywhere, you can look it up on YouTube but live it’s definitely more impressive than on a little video screen.”

The obstacles at the Sun Peaks event will be set up by Anderson and Dickens, with several elevated four inch by four inch wooden beams.

“We can basically jump onto it, either with both wheels landing on it directly. From there [we] can jump to a higher box or obstacle, or just land [our] rear tire on the beam and then jump on the beam and turn to jump to another obstacle,” Anderson explained. 

He said that the two riders can essentially place their rear tires wherever they like with great accuracy.

“We haven’t done this trick in a long time, but we used to put a pop can on the ground, and then drop from a trailer or [obstacle] and land on the pop can with our back tire.”

While it may seem straightforward, the primary technique used in trials biking is something most people may not know about according to Anderson.

“The main technique that trials riders use is called the pedal kick, which is basically a wheelie but you just do one kick with the pedal, and then you jump up and down or just jump out and then you can essentially ride the bike on the back tire and kind of jump like a bunny to wherever you want to go.”

While the pair’s main focus will be to impress the crowds with their technical trials skills, they of course can’t help themselves with sampling some of Sun Peaks Resort’s great singletrack on their time off.

For more information check out the event calendar on www.SunPeaksResort.com and to view examples of what Anderson and Dickens will be presenting, check out their website www.trialstars.com.