38 - AMB
‘Trials is such a horrible sport to train for because
competitions last two hours, so you’ve got to have
the endurance to last two hours, but you ride in
sections that last two minutes 30 seconds max,
and within that you’re doing repeated, explosive
moves. It’s horrible for your body. (See box
Competing in Trials for more on how horrible
trials riding is.)
All this strength training makes sense, too, when
you consider that in Australia, where there are
no other women at her level, Janine competes
against the top men in a sport that depends
largely on strength and power.
‘I have to ride against the guys,’ she laughs.
Spare a thought for those guys. In 2011 and
2013 Janine beat all of them to claim the overall
National Championship title, and came second
in 2014. And her achievements go much further
than that. She’s placed at nearly every World Cup
she’s ever attended, and won the Jayco Cyclist of
the Year award three times in the last five years,
as well as winning Female Mountain Biker of the
Year in 2014. With all this to her name, Janine
remains one of the humblest, most gracious
athletes I’ve ever interviewed.
The ClANdeSTINe SporT
Janine practises her riding at home, in built-up
places, on natural features like rock formations
and in creek beds in the bush and on the coast.‘To my mum’s horror I’ve got some pallets and
logs and stuff that I use in the backyard. every
now and then I’ll drag something home and say
“check out what I’ve got” and she’s like “oh no,
not another thing.”’‘I’ve also got Karawatha Forest and Toohey Forest
close by, then down the coast, and a lot of creeks
I’ve found nearby. Those are the regular spots, so
there’s a fair bit of variety,’ she says.‘Brisbane and Melbourne have probably got the
biggest trials scenes – which aren’t very big –
but that’s the nature of the sport,’ says Janine.
‘There’s actually a good little group in Brisbane
and the Gold Coast now. We’ve probably got 10 to
20 riders and on a group ride a good turnout is
five to 10 riders.’Venturing into the built environment is risky
though, for a style of riding that can be seen, by
security guards and sometimes even the public,
as delinquency at worst, and punk at best.