Mountain biking – Exhausting and astonishing at the same time.

By: William Sarmiento

Living in the city is sometimes stressful. We are surrounded by routines, tasks, crowds in the street, noise everywhere and pollution; and have no other choice but to bite the bullet and carry on.

These situations had been affecting my quality of life, so in my free time, I just wanted to hit the sack. But, I never feel happy about staying enclosed by four walls, passing my time and waiting to start my routine again.

One day in a meeting with my boss, who is always upbeat and looks healthy in spite of his responsibilities, he started to talk about his adventures. Every weekend he rides his bike through beautiful forests in the countryside and he talked about how he appreciated the wonderful natural landscapes.

That experience made me think about changing my routine and starting to get more out of my free time. One week after, I bought a mountain bike and I joined a group of cyclists who ride their bikes around towns close to my city, searching for new lands to pedal. I have to say my first time was not a good experience because of severe weather and the fatigue I had after 40 kilometres riding difficult terrain.  It was a perfect storm!

However, over the following weekends, I kept improving and my life changed. I was in awe of the wonderful scenery as well as my physical and mental energy. Even now, some years later, I continue to feel a fresh interest in cycling and meeting new challenges, and an added bonus is also that cycling has awakened in me a passion for photography.

So, I recommend you do as I did and mountain bike. It will be difficult at first but without doubt, you will fall for the sport, the great outdoors and knowing how far you are able to go.

If you are interested to get more information about mountain biking in Melbourne, check out the links below:

Where to go?

Where to buy or hire a bike?

How to join an MTB group?