Riding to Victory: Why This Motorcycle Dealership Sponsors One of Canada's National Snowboarders on the Road to Olympic Glory
He looks familiar but out of place as he walks confidently into Trev Deeley Motorcycles, right past the row of brand-new Street Glides, smiling and friendly, and then right up to where we’re standing.
“Hi, I’m Evan Bichon,” he says, and it all falls into place.
It’s not every day that a Canadian Snowboard Cross National Team Member walks into a Harley dealership. You may have seen him on our Instagram page recently in a couple of different locations in Europe, on his quest for an Olympic run, but to meet him in person is truly special.
Bichon, green bib, at Montafon, 2023
But let’s back up a bit and explain how Evan Bichon is connected to TDMC and why he’s in the store.
Through the Deeley Foundation, TDMC owner and motorcycle racer Darren James has sponsored snow sports and other athletes in the past – Carle Brenneman, Zoe Bergermann, and Tess Critchlow from the Canadian Women’s Snowboard Cross Team, and professional mountain bike racer Brett Tippie, to mention a couple – so it is no surprise that he chose to sponsor Evan Bichon for this season’s run to the Olympic qualifiers.
Bichon met James at their mutual training facility, Level 10 Fitness, in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
“I've been training at Level 10 Fitness on the North Shore for the last six, seven years,” says Bichon. “A lot of the people who've been on the team before me have trained there, too, and I'm sure that's how they met Darren.”
Darren James also trains at Level 10 and met Bichon a couple of years ago while he was training for supermoto and the MotoGP. Both James and Bichon are racers at heart, strong and competitive, and while motorcycles and snowboards have their differences, the mentality of racing is linked.
“It's the same idea,” says Bichon, “you're in competition against your peers and other people, so there's a similar mindset. Darren and I have discussed tactics or headspace stuff… a lot of it's the same thing. And he supported the women on the team who came before me.”
In typical Darren James fashion, he knows how to spot a true competitor.
“A few years ago, he (James) said ‘come talk to me when you make the national team, and we'll sort something out’ and I love that because it pushed me a little bit to make me want to get there,” says Bichon.
Bichon, right, and teammates in Spain at the FIS World Cup
Originally from McKenzie in northern British Columbia, Bichon is one of three dedicated athletes who grew up together in the sport. Attending the same high school, they now train and compete together in a quest for future Olympic gold.
At 25 years old, Bichon has been snowboarding for 20 years of his life.
“I grew up in McKenzie and there's a well-known ski hill there called Little Mac… single run with an old-school t-bar. And it costs $2 to ride. You go to the Rec Center, pay a toonie (Canadian two-dollar coin) and get a little paper ticket,” says Bichon, remembering fondly.
“My dad, when I was growing up there, he taught himself how to snowboard. And then taught my sister and I on that little hill. Then the first time I rode an actual chairlift, I was eight at Power King.”
Bichon also made it clear that his mom was instrumental in later helping bring grass roots competitions in snowboarding to the north, sparking his -- and many others -- love for the competitive side of the sport, and from there he would fall in love with snowboarding and eventually find his place in the sport of Snowboard Cross, where four competitors race simultaneously down a mountain course that requires speed, strength, and a calculating mind. It’s the snow-equivalent of a motorcross race.
“The difference compared to motorsports is there's no acceleration in and out of corners. You know, throttle, it’s whatever you can build with gravity and pressure through a corner, and it gets pretty wild. You’re doing 100-foot jumps going 75 kilometers an hour with four people wide and you’re so close that you can feel the breath of your competitors,” says Bichon.
Built sturdy with an excellent centre of gravity, Bichon takes his training for the sport very seriously.
“Physically, you want to be as strong as possible. Your body is your shocks and acceleration. We usually have benchmarks like to be able to squat twice our bodyweight or be able to do a ton of pull ups. And it's like certain forces that would be equivalent to impacts of what we have in our sport because I can overshoot 100-foot jump, and if your legs aren't strong enough to absorb that you're going to crash and get hurt, says Bichon.
Out in front, Bichon in the blue bib, in Georgia
While it’s not encouraged in snowboard cross, as demonstrated with the recent introduction of a yellow and red card system similar to soccer in competitions, sometimes, the athletes clash.
“Ideally, there is no contact,” says Bichon, “you can take your line compared to somebody else's to try and defend, and it's just like motorcycle or auto racing, you don't want contact. You want position, so you have to take different lines to gain you different positions. You can come from the outside of a corner to the inside. Or, say somebody's a little wider, you can take the inside line and close the distance to get in front.”
When he’s not snowboarding or in the gym, Bichon works a physical job maintaining yachts. The reality of a run to the Olympics is that athletes like Bichon face the very real challenge of supporting their efforts themselves, with the need for multiple professional race snowboards that cost upwards of $1000 CAD a piece in addition to other key equipment and of course the travel and lodging to events around the globe.
This is where Darren James recognizes the need to support Canadian athletes where he can so they can take some of the financial challenge out of their heads and allow them to focus on being the best athlete possible to represent our country.
When asked about motorcycles, Bichon says he’s never even ridden one, but would love to get his license soon and wants to do the skills course through TDMC.
“It’s always been a dream, to get on a motorcycle,” says Bichon. Well, we can certainly help him with part!
Photo Credits
- Spain – Miha Matavz/FIS and Cetursa Sierra Nevada
- All other mountain photos – Miha Matavz/FIS
- Evan Bichon with a 2024 Low Rider S in Billiard Gray – Geoff Gauthier/TDMC