Visionaries: The Simon French Journey So Far

I’VE KNOWN FRENCHIE FOR COMING UP TO 20 YEARS NOW AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN AN AVID FOLLOWER OF THE ENDLESS LIST OF AMBITIOUS PROJECTS AND CONSTANT SUCCESSES THAT HAVE FORMED THE WEEK-TO-WEEK LANDSCAPE OF SIMON’S CAREER TO DATE. RECENTLY WE WERE CHATTING OVER A BEER, HAVING JUST DONE A COUPLE OF RUNS TOGETHER DOWN AT HIS MEGA MAYDENA BIKE PARK, AND HE WAS TELLING ME ABOUT SOME OF THE PLANS THAT HE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON FOR FUTURE. I REMEMBER SITTING THERE THINKING TO MYSELF, ‘THIS GUY IS A STRAIGHT UP VISIONARY!’ WHERE DOES ONE EVEN COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF SETTING OUT TO CREATE THEIR OWN WHISTLER BIKE PARK RIGHT HERE IN AUSTRALIA? AND THEN MORE TO THE POINT, HOW COULD ANYONE THEN HAVE THE BALLS TO ATTEMPT TO TURN THE IDEA INTO A REALITY? THIS GUY, THATS WHO. OF COURSE HOWEVER, SIMON’S JOURNEY TO THIS POINT HASN’T BEEN WITHOUT ITS FAIR SHARE OF GOOD ‘OL BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS, SACRIFICES AND STEEP LEARNING CURVES. AS YOU’RE ABOUT TO DISCOVER OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF PAGES, SIMON IS A SUPER PASSIONATE AND HIGHLY DRIVEN INDIVIDUAL. AT THE AGE OF JUST 35 HE HAS ALREADY BUILT HIMSELF A MOUNTAIN BIKE EMPIRE. BUT IF YOU ASK HIM, HE’S STILL FAR FROM DONE YET!

A lot of people reading this are probably familiar with your name ‘now’ but perhaps, probably, at least a portion of them might not be aware of the journey that you travelled throughout the MTB world leading up to the point where you’ve ultimately built an empire and created many of Australia’s biggest trail centres. And not to mention also building Australia’s biggest bike park, you actually started your MTB career as a rider and you raced for Australia on the Jr National DH team? Correct! I raced junior downhill way back in the day, winning the Sub Junior National Champs in 2000 and racing Junior World’s in 2001- the year Been Cory won in Colorado.

You came through the DH ranks in the same year as Sam and Cory and Hannah didn’t you mate? Clearly you had your work cut out for you to try and make a name for yourself with the field as stacked as that. That’s it, I grew up racing and hanging out with those guys and we’re all still good mates now. I loved racing but ultimately it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life (the competition was pretty tough too!). It was a great time to race though, I think things were a lot more laid back. It’d probably be safe to say that most of us weren’t training as hard as the juniors are now.