Mountain bike: Champion rider leaves injuries behind

Benjamin Watkins will compete at the UCI Downhill World Championships in Norway later this year. Photo/Bevan Conley

Where some of us would ask why a 14-year-old with fractured vertebrae and a punctured lung would get back on to his mountain bike, Wanganui's Benjamin Watkins just asked, why not?

Now 18, the mountain biker is taking a world of confidence with him to Europe in July as he has been selected in the New Zealand Junior team which will compete at the 2014 UCI Downhill World Championships, being held in Hafjell, Norway.

Joining him will be Wanganui's Sam Blenkinsop in the Elite Men's division.

Before entering the September 4-7 event, Watkins and his family have been fundraising to compete at three of the UCI World Cup Series events in North America and then Europe.

"We're going to Paris, going everywhere," the teenager said.

"I've got the flight schedule but it's pretty big to remember. We'll be travelling all over Europe for two months, racing every weekend. I've got tunnel vision now, just for the world champs."

Each world cup event will have around 50 of the best in the sport for the Under-19 grade, usually the largest group due to being predominantly amateurs.

"It will be gnarly. It will be rocks everywhere, 50-foot jumps, the tracks will be rounded in four minutes," Watkins said. "High intensity, give 100 per cent, the whole time."

Encouraged into the sport by his father, Watkins took only a brief pause after a major accident four years ago when he struck a tree at high speed at the Lismore Jump Park.

Despite serious internal injuries, Watkins wanted back into down hill racing and wanted to improve.

"It was just more motivation to do better. You can't get better until you fail."

Having had a quicker maturation process than others his age, in 2012 he became the Under-17 national secondary schools champion and went on to top placings at the National Downhill Series.

In the 2014 national series, Watkins finished second overall in points for the Under-19s, behind Dunedin's Josh McCombie, after the three rounds in Christchurch, Nelson and Auckland.

However, he rebounded to beat McCombie and the rest of the field in the downhill discipline at March's Oceania Mountain Bike Championships.

Racing on the Mt Hutt Skifield, Watkins finished the course in 3m 50.2s to claim the U19 title, making it a Wanganui double as Blenkinsop won the Elite Men's grade.

The victory and his automatic selection for the New Zealand team boosted his confidence ahead of this European trip, as did picking up sponsorship agreements with Norco Racing NZ and Backflip Clothing to supply him with bikes, equipment and gear.

Watkins also wanted to thank district councillor David Cotton and his family for all their assistance.

Long term, the teenager hopes the limelight in Europe will allow him to fulfil his dream of becoming a full-time professional rider, while also inspiring other local youngsters to follow that pathway.

"It's sort of dying in Wanganui so I want to get it back on the map."