Dandyaka Trailnnja

People often ask me how I got into racing, and honestly, it wasn't something I planned.

Back in 2008, I came across a mountain biking magazine and thought trail riding looked amazing. But I was living in Hong Kong, where trails are hard to come by, and I couldn't afford a mountain bike anyway. I was also busy playing other sports, so MTB stayed as something I admired from a distance.

Ten years later, I moved to Germany, but American football was still my main sport. In 2019, I finally bought my first mountain bike—a Vitus Nucleus hardtail. At that point, I wasn't riding trails. I mostly used it for long rides, bikepacking, and exploring.

Everything changed in 2021 after I moved to Leipzig. I randomly found the local trails and got hooked straight away. I was riding there almost every day, learning everything from scratch. My jumping improved pretty quickly, but after only two months I had a huge crash. I went over the bars on a gap jump, broke my right cheekbone, cracked my skull, and broke a finger.

I didn't touch my bike for the next 13 months. Even then, I never thought about quitting.

While I was recovering, I slowly built my dream bike—a Privateer 161—buying parts whenever I could. When I was finally back on the bike, I went straight back to the same gap jump that had put me in hospital and cleared it without any problems. It felt good to get that out of the way, but mentally I wasn't the same rider anymore. The crash definitely left its mark, and I realized I wasn't interested in chasing bigger jumps anymore.

I still wanted to push myself though, so I started looking into racing instead.

My first race was EnDuo Rabenberg in 2022. I signed up with absolutely no clue what I was doing. No proper training, no race nutrition, and a terrible bike setup. I was running 3 bar in both tires because I thought harder tires meant a faster bike.

Obviously, I didn't win. But I had a great time, learned a lot, and wanted more.

A month later, I entered E1 Trieb, which felt like my first real race. I was nervous, especially because of the famous drop near the finish, but I made it down clean, finished somewhere in the middle of the guest category, and met a lot of amazing people. That weekend made me realize enduro was exactly what I wanted to do. The racing was fun, but the community was what really got me.

In 2024, I raced the full series and finished 3rd overall with one race win.

The winter after that wasn't really an off-season. I trained properly for the first time and stuck to a structured plan. The results showed in 2025. In the first five races, I was on the podium every time—two wins, two second places, and one third. Even on my off days, I was usually finishing somewhere around the top ten.

Then came another setback. Later that season, I crashed in Switzerland and broke five vertebrae in my spine. I had to be airlifted off the mountain, and that was the end of my 2025 season.

2026 wasn't really a comeback either. My mobility was still limited, so I couldn't train or race the way I wanted.

Now I'm looking ahead to 2027. Once the screws are removed from my spine, I'll finally be able to get back to proper training and see what I can really do.