"The legendary Werner", as Werner Dittrich is called in the synopsis of the short film that Martin Hanisch from Action Shot TV was filming. The internet video entitled "Relaxed & easy" has since become a cult film. It portrays the then 65-year-old Werner, who had just started freeriding. Werner is now seventy and has also infected his ten-year-old grandsons Nico and Luca with the freeride virus. Have fun watching!
Others your age go aqua jogging. You started freeriding at the age of 65. How do you come up with an idea like that?
I've always enjoyed riding difficult trails. Even as a child, when I was still pushing up hills on old steel bikes with torpedo coaster brakes and then hurtling down them at full throttle. A lot of things got broken. That's how the wild cycling started. When skiing, I later realised that a second in the air is better than a minute on the ground. When I was biking, I always picked the difficult routes. But I never thought I would jump like the young lads. I don't like bike parks that much though, it's all too artificial for me. However, the five-person battery on the Geißkopf is great. And bike parks also have an advantage for people my age: you can find your way back there even with Alzheimer's. (laughs)
Nevertheless, freeriding is not exactly the typical senior sport, is it?
I've been mountain biking for a long time, but I've had nothing to do with crazy jumps all these years. Then, six years ago, I rode around the bike park in Portes du Soleil on my fully. There were jumps everywhere. I thought: Yes, you're crazy! But by then it was too late to stop, I had to go over it. I liked that. Back in Regensburg, I said to my dealer: "I need more suspension travel!" He grinned: "Hey, at your age you need a bike with a low step-through!" So I bought the Specialized Demo. Endless suspension travel! I went straight to Bischofsmais. Downhill trail, freeride trail, Evil Eye trail, those wooden racks there. It was amazing! I roared down there and shouted "Yay!" the whole time.
What did those around you say about your new passion?
Oh, they all think: the old git, he's got a stroke (laughs). For me, age is just a number. I feel exactly the same when I'm cycling as I did thirty years ago. The other day I said to a friend: "Can you give me a plausible reason why I should stop doing such a marvellous thing just because the age number is like this or that?" He replied: "You're going to break your neck." I replied: "So what? And you might end up with a nappy stuck to your arse and pushing around in a pram." Nah, I'd rather break my neck freeriding! When you're as old as I am, you have to enjoy every day. You don't know how much longer it's going to last.
What does freeriding feel like?
You can't describe it. It's just marvellous. I feel a sense of security in the forest. That's where you belong as a human being. Not in a shopping centre. When I see how frustrated the consumers are walking around there. It's sad. When I see a tree, I'm happy. I think: what it has already been through. Storms, winter, thunderstorms. In comparison, we humans are weaklings. The forest is the best place for therapy. You don't need a pharmacy there.
Do you also crank up?
Of course. Cranking, that's the most important thing. I don't like shuttling at all. I once watched an enduro race. It took until midday for them to get everyone up the mountain in buses. If you can't get up a mountain, you should go to the
bike park and ride the lift. The pleasure of riding uphill is irreplaceable for me. I would never get on an e-bike.
Five years ago, you became famous for the internet film "Entspannt & locker", a portrait of yourself. How did the project come about?
I met Martin, the film maker, in the bike shop where I bought the demo. The lads here in Sinzing were always digging really nice jumps in a hollow. It was marvellous. I often went there and sometimes Martin was there with his camera. At some point he told me that he had edited something together and put it on the internet. I have nothing to do with the internet. But the response was great. The film then went to even won first prize in a short film competition.
Freeriding is all about style. In the film, you have a massive mudguard on your downhiller and are wearing Lycra. Brave.
Oh, I'm not whistling. Lycra trousers are practical. Unfortunately, you quickly get caught on the tyre when you go behind the saddle. It tears your balls off (laughs). That's why I fitted the mudguard. There was quite a crowd when I arrived at the bike park. The young lads were whispering. But things quietened down very quickly when they saw me speeding down the downhill track. Because the mudguard was constantly rattling, I unscrewed it at some point and bought a pair of baggy trousers. They're nice and robust on the arse.
Do you actually speak scene slang?
No. I don't generally like glamour. Nail studios - Nails and more. Everything is more. What a load of rubbish. Those wooden things in the bike parks, for example. Northshore trails, say the young people. For me, they're just scaffolding and that's it. All those freeride videos aren't for me either. Disgusting music, hectic cuts (laughs). I want to enjoy the footage in peace.
The detailed interview with Werner Dittrich can be found in BIKE 3/2016. You can read the issue in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or in the DK shop order:
