Ben Dengate
Tell us about yourself.
I'm a 19 year old downhill racer from Canberra, Australia
What would your perfect day look like?
Waking up in either Schladming or Whistler to some warm weather and punching runs all day with some Aussie boys!
What two wheeled sports are you involved in?
I mainly race downhill but try to ride cross country as much as possible and do a bit of racing here and there.
How did you get involved in the sport?
I got involved in mountain biking as my dad used to race downhill as I was growing up. When I was 8 years old and still on a 20 inch hardtail he let me race a club round and since then I haven't stopped!
How many bikes do you have?
I have three bikes:
Bilt Eight downhill bike kitted out with Spank, k9, cSixx and Mucky Nuts gear.
Bilt Prototype all mountain bike freshly built with Spank and KS goodies.
Giant road bike.
What is your favourite Pushie brand/component?
My favourite Pushie product so far has been the Spank Vibrocore bars. Usually a new set of bars isn't going to excite me a huge amount but I was stoked with these on my first ride. I'm soon going to grab some of the new iXS protection stuff and I'm sure it will give me the same impression.
Got any top tips for aspiring young riders?
Have as much fun as possible. There is heaps of advice I could give to young riders from my past couple years of racing so but the biggest ones would be just to enjoy it since it is why you started riding. If you are serious about racing, train hard and do everything you can to get better and get where you want to be!
What are your upcoming goals?
Next year I would just like to keep improving my riding. I'm aiming to have a solid off season of training, have a consistent national season then go overseas for the 2016 world cup season and whatever other races fit into my schedule.