My dad, Arne, was born and raised in Germany. He had been a ski instructor for 10 years before he came to New Zealand on a holiday. Then all of a sudden he met and married my mum, began an education to be a psychiatric nurse, and started a family within 1 year!

My mum, Susanne Mitchell, was born in Blenheim, New Zealand. After finishing school she defied the wishes of her parents (to become a house wife) and went to university in Dunedin.

I grew up, together with my big brother Isaac, in a large old wooden house surrounded by forest. It was a great place to ride my first BMX bike (#82), and I was always better then Isaac, so I loved doing it!

Once I rode of a bank and broke my arm. But I did a lot of stupid things when I was a kid, so that was nothing out of the ordinary!

I started mountain biking together with my best friend Callum. I borrowed his dad's bike, and we went out riding around down banks and over rocks. I was already quite a good runner, so I decided to race in some duathlon events on an old 10 speed. I did pretty well, and even won some cool prizes, so I kept doing it.  Somehow I managed to save up the money to buy a real road bike, and so I could join in with the local road club events. By the time I was 15 I was competing in local duathlons, running races, road events, mountainbike events and even triathlons (although I could hardly swim). I was doing well and I liked it!

I rode my first national level race when I was 16 years old, but I did not really travel at all until my first year in the junior class. I had read a book about training and was already racing quite a lot around Dunedin. But I was still very surprised when I finished 4th in our national series, and got selected to join the New Zealand team for the World Championships in Germany. It was perfect, because I could go and visit my dad's family and then go on to race the worlds. My dad promised me that I could go, but I would have to make the money myself!

I finished 23rd. The next best New Zealander was 52nd! I decided that I wanted to be a mountain biker!

My grades at school were still good enough that I could skip the final year, and gain entrance into University directly. I took the minimum number of papers, which allowed me plenty of time off for training and travelling.
I had also had enough of arguing with my dad, so I skipped home and moved into a flat with 4 other messy students. It was my second and final year in the junior category, so I raced in the Road, Mountainbike and Track national championships.  I also travelled to Australia for the road tour of Queensland (which  I won ahead of the NZ junior road squad who had rejected me earlier!) and the World MTB Championships in Cairns.

I was now convinced that I wanted to give it all up in the name of mountain biking. I managed 2nd overall in the NZ national series in my first year as a senior rider, and then took off over seas with another good NZ rider, Laurence Mote. We spent 6 months in Europe getting our arses kicked, but we learnt.