The Dutchman from Canada
Tom van Steenbergen was born in the Netherlands and started racing BMX at the age of eleven alongside his brother Bas. In 2010, the family moved to Canada, settling in Kelowna, British Columbia. There, Tom swapped the BMX track for mountains, jumps and the sort of terrain that’s usually just shown as brown hatching on hiking maps. His brother also turned professional. Other families play badminton on Sundays – not the Van Steenbergens.
Tom Van Steenbergen – known in the scene simply as TvS – switched from slopestyle to big-mountain freeriding without giving up one for the other. He’s technically gifted, he can tackle big terrain, and above all, he can do both at the same time. When he performs even a front flip over a ravine, it looks as though it’s the result of endless training, careful calculation and mental preparation. Far from it: his super-stunts are often quick, spontaneous decisions.
Ever since his appearance at the 2014 Red Bull Rampage, he has been among the top freeriders. Back then, he attempted a front flip over a distance of around 21 metres – a manoeuvre that is still regarded today as one of the most mind-blowing tricks in the history of the sport. In 2017, he introduced the Caveman Drop to the Rampage: the rider jumps onto his falling bike without touching the ground and hopes that both will be in the right position in time to absorb the impact of the landing.
A trick, then silence
The Rampage is not a mountain bike competition in the usual sense. There is no set route. The riders carve their own lines into the steep sandstone slopes of Utah, launch themselves off precipices and then have the judges assess how stylishly they have defied gravity. What’s more, the Red Bull Rampage is the most prestigious media spectacle in freeriding and, for many athletes, the only chance to make a name for themselves. As a result, many take greater risks than they should. One of them is TvS.
In 2021, van Steenbergen began his run with a front flip off a massive rock drop. The world had never seen anything like it before. Maximum risk. Extreme difficulty. Basically: absolutely mad. A kamikaze move that could quickly land the athlete in a wheelchair. But Tom lands the trick. A few seconds later, a ‘normal’ backflip goes wrong.
Irony of fate – perhaps TvS already saw himself as the Rampage winner after nailing that front flip.
Van Steenbergen crashes. Both hip sockets fracture in several places, along with the upper part of a thigh bone and several lower vertebrae. A ligament in his already injured shoulder tears. He is unable to walk for three months. At times, the doctors believe it is possible that he will never walk normally again.
The worst part, he says later, wasn’t just the injury. Just before the fall, he had achieved the greatest success of his career: that front flip he’d been working on for years. Then there they were, side by side – triumph and a stretcher.
Looking back, Van Steenbergen describes himself as a wreck, both physically and mentally. His rehabilitation therefore needs a goal. And because freeriders rarely start by taking a leisurely stroll when choosing their goals, he decides to go for the next Rampage.
Reason for Advanced Learners
It isn’t until 2022, when he returns to Utah, that he is able to get back to proper biking after a two-month break. His run isn’t good enough for a podium finish. Nevertheless, the other riders presented him with the McGazza Spirit Award. Just making it to the bottom this time was a sporting achievement in itself. Yet TvS is dissatisfied. He says: “That’s not me. My fans don’t expect me to play it safe.”
Even more remarkable than the start is a decision he makes at the top of the mountain: Van Steenbergen decides against a planned backflip. The bike doesn’t feel right; the risk-reward ratio isn’t right. For someone whose approach up to now has often been a case of ‘gritting his teeth and doing it anyway’, pulling out is almost a new trick in itself. He later says that cancelling the manoeuvre demanded more of him than simply going through with it.
That is the real change following the crash. Van Steenbergen doesn’t suddenly start riding cautiously. But he distinguishes more clearly between a risk that pays off and one that just looks reckless.
Back in the air
In 2023, he finished the Rampage in second place. His run began with the Caveman Drop and continued with the mix of styles he is known for: big-mountain lines combined with slopestyle tricks. Two years after the accident, he is back on the podium at the very same competition where it had become unclear whether he would ever be able to ride normally again.
In 2024, he won gold at the X Games Real MTB alongside filmmaker Calvin Huth. For the 90-second film, he rode three different bikes at several locations, combining street, slopestyle and big mountain. Unlike the previous year, the scene is unanimous: TvS deserves gold for his edit.
That same year, at the Rampage, he once again lands a front flip off his biggest drop and wins the Best Trick Award once more. Yet, despite pulling off the most incredible stunt ever seen in freeriding, he only finishes fourth. Many fans are baffled. Even Tom is surprised – what on earth is going on with the competition judges?
In 2025, he finished third in the Rampage. Van Steenbergen scored 94 points, falling just half a point short of second place. The man who once had to learn to walk again is now firmly established as one of the most impressive Rampage riders. However, he is yet to secure a victory.
A job that involves flying
Van Steenbergen talks calmly about things that make others’ palms sweat just watching them. Perhaps that’s the sort of level-headedness that’s needed. If you spend a long time talking about the abyss before you take the plunge, you’ll end up staying on top.
His career, therefore, speaks less of fearlessness than of a rather skilful way of dealing with fear. For him, courage does not mean having no doubts. Courage means letting doubt tag along – and occasionally listening to it.
Tom van Steenbergen has returned, without pretending that nothing has happened. The bones have healed, but the memory remains. It doesn’t hold him down. But it now plays a part in deciding when he leaves it behind.
Definitely worth a watch: his videos, in which he talks about doubts, fears and hopes, and in which his blue eyes shine.
Dimitri Lehner
Editor