By Steve Hubrecht
Invermere dirt biker Trystan Hart recently earned a silver during the Red Bull Erzberg Rodeo Hard Enduro in Austria, widely considered the toughest off-road dirt bike event on the planet.
Over the past several years Hart has risen to the top of the professional dirt biking world. He’s won the U.S. Hard Enduro Championship series for three straight years (he is currently gunning for a fourth consecutive year) and he earned bronze at the Erzberg Rodeo Hard Enduro in both 2022 and 2023.
This year he was aiming to win the Erzberg Rodeo, and just might have done so had he not been knocked off his bike right at the start of the race.
Of the 2,000 dirt bikers who enter the massive event, only 500 actually qualify to get to the start line. The riders set off in waves of 50. Hart, as one of the best in the world, was in the first wave, but the start was chaotic as everyone peeled off the line several seconds early.
“Someone caught my front wheel and someone else caught my back wheel. It knocked me to the ground. It was crazy; other riders were riding over my bike or riding over me,” Hart told the Pioneer. “I got back up and on the bike as fast as I could, but by that point I was as dead last as you can be. I had to work my way back up, passing other riders one by one. It was a battle.”
That he was still able to finish second is testament to Hart’s considerable skill, and he did concede that aside from the terrible start, and one or two slight errors on a hill, he made a near-perfect ride.
“I was pretty happy since that’s the best I’ve ever ridden there, but at the same time I was angry that the guy behind me didn’t get on his brakes when he should have at the start, and that it (the ability to win the race) was in some ways taken out of my control,” said Hart.
The Erzberg Rodeo is a massive event in Europe. The race is held at the largest iron mine on the continent, which normally operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The only time the mine shuts down is for the five days surrounding the Erzberg Rodeo. There are 2,000 entrants, 500 of them make it to the start line, and most years only about 10 riders actually manage to complete the whole course. The event attracts more than 30,000 spectators and millions of viewers tune in through television or online streaming.
Hart was also not helped by a very tight schedule this year. Normally he gets to Erzberg a few days early, and has a chance to pre-ride some sections of the course. This year he did a doubleheader race in Pennsylvania immediately before flying to Austria, leaving him jet lagged and with no chance to pre-ride the course.
Still, Hart likes having his schedule going at full throttle. The Pioneer was lucky to catch him last week for a chat, while he was briefly home in the Columbia Valley between the Erzberg Rodeo and his next set of races in the U.S. — he normally only spends about 40 days a year at home in the valley, mostly in December, between a first racing season that runs from January through August and a second that runs from September through November.
“It is tough physically and mentally,” he conceded. “You are bound to get injured at some point, so that means you have to get good at coming back from injuries.”
Although hard enduro racing may not be as widely known in Canada as it is in Europe, Hart still gets recognized walking down the streets of Invermere. He was modest about his global fame, saying he is simply grateful for the support he gets from the valley and for all the people in Invermere who wake up at 4 a.m. to watch him compete in a dirt bike race in Europe.
“In the future I want to repay that, and help out young kids who are just getting into dirt biking,” said Hart.
Other Invermere residents put Hart’s modesty in perspective. Christine Shaw and Jay Lightfoot watched Hart compete in the Red Bull Romaniacs race in Romania last year, and told the Pioneer that he is a bona fide celebrity on the other side of the Atlantic.
“It’s (enduro) a very big deal there, and he’s a very big deal,” said Shaw, outlining the huge crowds that follow the races. Every time Shaw and Lightfoot told someone they were from Canada, conversation instantly turned to Hart. “It’s pretty awesome.”
Hart is the first Canadian dirt biker (and only the second ever from North America) to get on the podium at the Erzberg Rodeo.
He next heads to the U.S. to compete in the last two races in the U.S. Hard Enduro Championship series. Hart is five points behind first place in the overall standings, but is optimistic he can do well enough in the final pair of events to surge into first and win the series for the fourth year in a row.
