Dee Tidwell has used his experience and expertise to create a company which helps mountain bikers achieve their riding goals as efficiently as possible.

DEE TIDWELL started mountain biking when he was in college and it wasn’t long before he was racing around northern California in places like Mammoth at the ‘Kamizake’ downhill course.

After a 15-year absence from racing he began to sponsor the Big Mountain Endruo race events in Colorado and in 2014 took first place overall.  He took second in the event last year but what makes these achievements all the more remarkable is that he is 47 years old.

Having worked as a trainer and coach to athletes throughout his life in 2014 Dee started up Enduro MTB training which is the official training and soft tissue therapist provider for Yeti Cycles and the Big Mountain Enduro Series.

His knowledge of the industry and personal determination have seen him work with the back-to-back champion of the Big Mountain Enduro series, Nate Hills, as well as other extremely successful athletes.

In this exclusive interview Dee talked to us about what drives him to keep pushing for success in his own sporting career as well his work developing Enduro MTB Training to become a company which will continue to be taken seriously around the globe.

When did you first get involved in mountain biking and what were any early achievements you had in the sport?

Oh wow, we have to go way back! I started mountain biking when I was in college at Chico State in northern California in 1989. I put in a lot of rode miles as well as learning how to mountain bike. Soon enough, I began competing in local cross-country races and quickly realised that uphill wasn’t my forte due to my muscular build. At 195 pounds, I was typically back of the pack on the uphills, but would end up top ten because I passed most racers on the downhill sections of the course! And since racing mountain bikes uphill is WAY less fun than downhill, the ‘downhill racing bug’ dug itself deep into my soul!

I started racing around northern California and, of course, places like Mammoth, California at the legendary, ‘Kamikaze’ downhill course. Within the next ten years I moved to Colorado and eventually competed as a semi-pro downhiller with a few wins and many top five finishes, including fifth at the NORBA finals in Vermont in 1999.

After a 15-year absence from racing, I began to sponsor the Big Mountain Enduro race events here in Colorado as well as race in the 40+ division. I was very excited to win the overall in 2014, especially considering I had a torn meniscus at the finals in beautiful Moab.

This year, 2015, I took second overall mostly because I had two mechanicals at the Keystone event, but came back strong and was able to win the final race, take third at the Vail Outlier event and to pull a season-ending win at the inaugural Monarch Crest Enduro.

As much as I love to compete and prove that my training systems work, I’m really just stoked to be able to take my family with me and hang around a bunch of people who love to mountain bike, especially as a 47-year-old athlete again!

When did you start work as a personal trainer and could you tell us about some of the successes you’ve had in this career?

I started working as a ‘personal trainer’ (I despise that description of what I do!) again, in Chico at college in 1990. I actually changed my major from the ‘stand by’ Communications major, to Exercise Kinesiology because I loved training and especially couldn’t see myself wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk everyday! I soon discovered I wanted to empower people to be fit, strong, and enjoy life because they had the athletic ability to.

I think one of my biggest successes is being able to have been the owner of my own business for the last 20 years. When I moved to Denver back in 1993, I began as a trainer at a downtown club. After three years I decided it was time to start my own in-home personal training business. That began my entrepreneurial journey into owning my own gig. So from 1996-2001 I served people up a steady diet of fitness in their homes. During this time period was when I also started my studies under Paul Chek at the Chek Institute (www.chekinstitute.com), which essentially shaped how I trained with clients even to today. I also took the first-ever certification to become a Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist (www.muscleactivation.com) which really opened my eyes to soft tissue therapy and the power that it had to help clients heal from pain and injury.

About the same time I began seeking to become Colorado’s premier golf fitness trainer and to this day, still serve the golf fitness market here in Colorado. In fact, while working with my PGA Tour pros, I was introduced to Dr Greg Rose at the Titleist Performance Institute (www.mytpi.com) and became certified through all education tracks they have to offer. The combination of all of my educational pursuits have really led to a unique approach to treating and training clients with a personal approach designed exactly around what each person NEEDS and wants.

Dee shows there’s always time for a laugh despite his outstanding work ethic in everything he does.

Tell us more about your experiences as a coach and some of the athletes you have worked with?

I think I’ve been blessed as a coach. For about a decade I had doors open in different sports and found myself at the forefront of coaching in four separate sports that weren’t presently using coaches or trainers much; mountain biking, super cross, snowboarding and PGA tour golf.

I’d say, though, that my career as a coach began when I met downhill pro racer, Missy Giove at a race in Hawaii on the big island back in 2001. While talking, she indicated she didn’t have a coach and eventually I sold her on my services. While her coach, she introduced me to her agent who also represented pro super cross and motocross athletes. It was around that time that I started working with one of the best of all time, #7- Mike Larocco.

Over the next few years I was blessed to have worked with some of the best, Nick Wey, Heath Voss, Jeremy McGrath and others. And like before, I was introduced to yet another agent who represented both MX and snowboarding athletes. At that point, the door was thrown open and I was lucky enough to work with some of the best snowboarders in the world, Kelly Clark, Gretchen Blieler, Torah Bright, Ross Powers, Andy Finch and others.

I loved working with ‘extreme’ athletes. The super cross and snow sports community was very a very family like environment filled with athletes who were able to make a great living doing exactly what they loved to do!

About that time, 2006, I began to work with PGA Tour golfers. Yes, it was another agent introduction that opened that door! I was able to take advantage of the ‘Tiger Woods effect’ regarding fitness, and landed some great goflers like Aaron Oberholser and Joe Durant both of whom won while I was their conditioning coach… it was a great treat!

I also was fortunate to have worked with Brad Faxon, Dennis Paulson, Skip Kendall and Robert Gamez.

When did you start up Enduro MTB Training and could you tell us more about the company?

I began Enduro MTB Training in January of 2014 as I saw the quick rise of enduro mountain bike racing through local races like the Big Mountain Enduro series here in Colorado and the inaugural season of the Enduro World Series. It was also evident of the size of this thing called ‘enduro’ that was hitting the mountain bike industry in the face, because Yeti Cycles (who I work with as their soft-tissue therapist and performance coach), dropped their presence at all downhill world cup events and put all their duckets into the creation of the best enduro bikes in the world. It worked for them, by the way, as they’ve taken a second and two first place overall finishes in the last three years of a worldwide sport that has only been around for three years! It is our goal to help all mountain bikers be the best cycling athletes they can be.

We offer two online, downloadable programmes, (with a ‘full season’ training system being released now! Check the Most comprehensive mtb training program around!) designed to help mountain bikers learn that training for mountain biking is VERY different than just laying down tons of road miles like roadies need to do. All of our training solutions address the athletic needs of our sport.

Things like: achieving optimal movement ability in all seven Primal Movement Patterns – squat, lunge, bend, push, pull, twist, gait; joint mobility; optimal stability; muscle flexibility; posture; breathing mechanics; fascial stretching; nutrition and warm up; teaching the importance of rest through periodization plans.

Like most athletic coaches, we also offer local and long distance coaching so we can help riders across the world, except our approach is unique because we see mountain biking not just like ‘roadies on trails’, rather as mountain bikers. We believe the uniqueness of our sport requires the athletic necessities in the above list, and more. The ‘magic’ happens when all of the elements of the programme are combined. The end result is a strength-endurance that allows a mountain biker to handle the stress and intensity of trail riding over long periods of time all while being capable of producing powerful bursts both uphill and downhill. This is especially true for Enduro racing, and it’s why we say, #trainlikeamountainbiker!

Dee has had the pleasure of recently working with Nate Hills – the back-to-back champion of the Big Mountain Enduro series.

How far as the business progressed and who are some of the people you are currently working with?

Thanks for asking! Well, excitedly we doubled sales from 2014 to 2015 and hope to do the same again in 2016. We’re doing something right and we are thankful to say we’ve been able to help hundreds of riders be the best cycling athletes they can be.

At the moment, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the back-to-back champion of the Big Mountain Enduro series, Nate Hills; his girlfriend and industry powerhouse, Sarah Rawley, who took third in the Big Mountain Enduro series; and Enduro World Series pro, Marco Osborne of the Cannondale, All Mountain team.

Of course, I’m grateful for so many of the amateur male and female athletes across the globe who not only stood on podiums in their local race events, but for all those who bought our products just because they wanted to simply be better mountain bike athletes!

A Devon Balet shot in the woods.

What are your visions for Enduro MTB Training and do you have any exciting projects planned for this year and beyond?

Yes, we are expanding our ‘Personal Coaching’ this year, taking on more one-on-one clients both locally and across the globe. Like I mentioned above, we are featuring our brand new program, ‘The Mountain Bike Athlete Training System’ is to be launched in early January 2016. It’s the most comprehensive plan I’ve created so far with eight programmes designed to last ten months, taking each athletes from pre-season training to season end, keeping them strong, fresh, and resistant to injury.

We also have plans to serve the Big Mountain Enduro race series this year with our ‘athlete warm-up’ area and free soft-tissue therapy as well as competing in the 40+ division once again.

At 47, my goal is to take top five at the co-branded Big Mountain Enduro and Enduro World Series stop in Snowmass Colorado. It’s a huge stage for business promotion, personal accomplishment and representing my partners, Yeti Cycles, Shimano, Maxxis, Stans No Tubes and Ion Bike wear.

We also have a distinct 2016 goal of building our local brand along the front range of Colorado with cycling businesses and brands so we can work together to support the mountain bike community.

As far as the future… hmm… not sure yet! I do have ideas about a membership programme, a cycling studio and other partnerships that will allow us to serve as many clients as possible!

Dee smiles for the camera as he performs a massage on a client.

To find out more about Enduro MTB Training visit enduromtbtraining.com.