Jesse Vandenborn Mountain Bike Racer

Jesse Vandenborn, Junior Expert Mountain Bike Racer

Text by Charlie Cooper

“My downhill bike was the first bike that I ever customized changing out the bars, grips, stem, pedals, lots of little things to make it my own” Jesse said. “Customizing a bike is really cool because there isn't two of them out there. Someone may have the same brand and or model but yours is personal and stands out next to theirs. Along with that it also makes the bike lighter, faster, quieter and just makes me a better rider in general.” Jesse has no shortage of skills when it comes to bike knowledge being that he is also a mountain bike technician. He knows what the best upgrades are to give a bike to make it perform at its best. “I love getting to go tinker on my bike adjusting little things here and there to get the setting just right for my riding style.” he said. The first bike that Jesse customized was in his garage at home with the minimal tools he had at the time. Now he has access to an amazing bike shop with every tool and part he could ever need. His most recent bike that he customized he changed out and personally chose over 30% of the bikes factory parts. To most people it may seem wasteful to replace brand-new parts but you need to feel how differently the bike behaves to truly understand.

Eighteen-year-old Jesse Vandenborn moved to Bend in 2007 when he was four. Four to five years later, Jesse started riding in elementary school because his dad was starting to get into it so he wanted to ride with him. At first, he mainly only road with his dad until he realized how much he really loved the sport, so he started going any chance he could. “I always made an effort to get out and ride, I never felt like I was drug along, I was always excited and wanted to go” Jesse said. It wasn’t until 2016 he really started to get serious with his riding. He realized how good of a rider he was and wanted to test his skills racing downhill. “I felt like I was pretty fast and I wanted to measure that by competing with other racers. I also knew that if I entered these races, it would take me to some cool places and I'd get to ride a bunch of different bike parks.” he said. Jesse didn’t want to be isolated to central Oregon's trails, he wanted to have an excuse to get out of the state and ride some serious stuff and racing provided that.

Jesse had to stop racing for a while because of Covid-19. He hasn’t had a race since the start of the pandemic but he says “Once races start again, I am going to transition to mainly enduro races. I like the idea of an all-day event/ race where you have the climbs included with the race.” Jesse has lots of practice in cross county/ enduro riding, which is the majority of riding he does on his free time. It’s not easy to get consistent practice with downhill being that the mountain is only open a couple months out of the year and it is a longer drive to get there.

At the beginning of the season before the pandemic closed things down, Jesse broke his back practicing before a race. “I was coming into one of the worst sections with a bunch of big boulders that you have to drop down. I was bucked off my bike coming off of one of them, hitting the ground head first drilling my helmet into the dirt then flipping over smashing my back on more rocks,” Jesse explains. He knew that if he stayed on the trail another rider would come barreling down and hit him, so despite the pain he was in he got up and moved himself and his bike off the trail. At first, he didn’t know how bad it was so when he got back to his camp he still intended on racing. It wasn’t until after he had been sitting for a while and stood up, he understood this was more serious than he thought. “Right then we packed up and went straight home. It was late so I went to get an X-ray the next morning and found that I broke my C-6 and C-7, both were 50% crushed” he said. “It still bothers me now and then but not enough to where it effects my riding.

During the riding season Jesse probably dedicates about 70% of his time to mountain bikes. Between working as a bike mechanic, working on his own bike at home, and riding there isn't much time in Jesse’s life that doesn’t involve mountain bikes. “Riding just clears my mind nonmatter what mood I'm in. Putting headphones in my ears as I ride lets me think about nothing” he said. “It's very peaceful to go out in the woods wherever you're riding and just let go.” Riding is very therapeutic to Jesse allowing him to reset.

Jesse doesn’t intend on making a career out of riding but if he has the opportunity to race again, he will take it. He wants to start enduro racing as he believes it suits him better and he wants to try something different. Not to say that he will stop downhill racing. “If there is a downhill race nearby, I will try to go to it” he said. Unfortunately, most of those races are far away. As for work, he has thoughts about having his own bike shop one day, but right now he works with his Mom in real-estate sales. “The bike shop isn't my top priority, it's just not practical right now. Although it would be cool to have one eventually” he said. No matter what happens, biking will always be a large part in Jesse’s life. He is constantly improving and developing new skills, tricks, and techniques with every ride.