Who is Tommy Mag?

So… Let me introduce myself!

My name is Tommy Magnenat, most commonly known as Tommy Mag, I am a Spanish mountain biker based in Northern Ireland.

The Beginnings:

Like everyone, I started riding bikes when I was pretty young, at the age of 3 to be more precise. When I was 5 I got into riding and racing BMX bikes for fun and eventually I started racing National Championships for a few years. At the same time I used to ride Motocross with my family, it was our “weekend” hobby after racing BMX.

In my opinion, the early influence of these two sports helped me develop my skills faster down the line when I got into Mountain Biking.

Getting into “the dark side of MTB”

That’s how people used to call Downhill Mountain Biking where I was raised! At the age of 12 I had a taster for Mountain Biking and I loved it! So much ground to cover, different disciplines, different trails…. Unlike at BMX racing where I was stuck to riding a designated track.

Downhill was a class time! My dad used to drive the van up and down the local track every Sunday so I could do a few laps and when I was a bit “older”, 15, I could go on my own with friends. At the time no other riders my age rode Downhill in my area, so I grew up riding with faster guys that were 20+ years older and helped me push myself to learn faster.

What is this “Enduro” thing?

I was 16 and a bit tired of riding the same track every Sunday, depending on the uplift van or paying for an expensive Bike Park to do a few laps, sudently buying an Enduro bike came across and it turned up to be a brilliant idea! From that point I could ride from home, explore different trails every time, have more “bike time” and meet a lot more people! I spent a year riding Enduro in Spain and it was gooood!

New country, new “life”

At the age of 17 I landed in Northern Ireland to do a 3 months work experience program and, of course, I brought my bike with me! I had the chance to race Enduro for first time and it was so much fun, so cool that I decided to stay 5 months instead of 3 to do a bit more racing. I have to say, this experience was a game changer, I learnt so many things, not just about riding bikes and I made so many good friends which down the line had an impact in my life.

After those 5 months I came back to Spain to take part in any Enduro race left in the calendar, I was so excited to get between the tape.

Do I want to race professionally?

At the time, racing bikes was a big buzz in my life, I thought that being a pro racer was my goal and I wanted to try as hard as I could. I spent the next 10 months on a hard 6 day a week training program, with a coach. I was stuck at the gym 4 days a week, and riding bikes 4/5 times a week on top of that, it was fun and hard work.

That year I raced some Spanish Cups, Enduro World Series Qualifiers and Enduro World Series rounds, it was a great time! Although all that hard work with very little “reward” and a very “far away” goal started taking away the love for riding bikes.

Moving to Northern Ireland

After having a great time travelling and racing bikes I arranged to start working in Northern Ireland in June, so I packed all my stuff and moved on my own.

A while after I realised that being so young and trying to “support” myself to train and race bikes at the same level as before wasn’t going to happen.

Realization

I took a step back and remembered how much I used to love riding bikes with friends, sectioning trails and riding when I want/where I want.

Going out to discover new trails, riding with my mates and learning new skills with no pressure was all I wanted to do at the time, and quickly I saw that this was the true “essence” of Mountain Biking.

From this point I focused on having fun, learning and racing when I can, when I want, with no pressure. It was a great decision.

As well, I got into MTB coaching, I got qualified and started working on breaking down skills, understanding how the body moves on the bike and consequently work on the trail. Something that caught my eye was bike set up, I found how much impact can a little tweak have on our body position or bike handling if we change our suspension or overall bike set up. From this point I have been a freak of bike set up, trying every set up on my bikes, changing things and figuring out what suits me.

Today

Nowadays I am set to coach Mountain Bikers at different skill levels and different disciplines, from BMX skills to Downhill or Cross Country. I race Mountain Bikes and work on social media to promote my sponsors.

If you are involved in the Irish race scene you may have heard of me as “Happy Tommy” or “Tommy Mag”, and you will know who I ride for and what I can do on a bike, if not, I invite you to check my social media pages and see what you think.

If you read this far, Thank You! I hope you enjoyed my little story, and if you are willing to learn more about bikes get in touch!

See you on the trails!