Conti athlete Kenny Belaey looks back on 2013

It was not an easy season for Kenny Belaey: forced to stay away from behind the bars of his Trials bike until April 2013 due to an injury, the Trials-champion focused his energy towards sharing his enthusiasm for Trial mountain biking and raising the social awareness of the discipline.


Kenny Belaey is amongst the best Trial riders in the world. Starting off young, he won the Cadet Championships twice and was a triple Junior World Champion. His skills kept developing and Kenny went on to become four times Trial World champion, three times European champion and has taken the World Cup overall championship six times. Basically, Kenny is an athlete who has won everything you can win in the world of Trials. But a reoccurring injury after a wrist fracture sustained in June 2012 during the UCI World Cup in his hometown Aalter – kept him on the sidelines for the remaining competitions until August 2013. Sitting still and be patient is not Kenny’s way of doing things. Over the past several years he has evolved from an ambitious competitor, to a Trial-show-rider and now plays a role as a successful event organizer together with his wife and their joint company enter-bike.com. This progression has placed Kenny Belaey as an ambassador for the discipline, therefore his 2013 season has been heavily influenced by his mission: spreading his passion for trials biking throughout the media, the biking industry and the public.

For seven long months riding was out of the question for Kenny. In April 2013 the doctors finally gave him the “ok” to kit up and ride. At this point Kenny had a special trip in store: a tour through the US, starting in Seattle, heading down to San Francisco and Portland, ending in Bentonville, Arkansas. For such a keen rider like Kenny, being told you cannot ride is a difficult pill to swallow, so his attitude for this US tour was simple: “Just ride your bike every day like it’s the last one!” Naturally photo shootings and show appearances were in the schedule, including a very special honor of performing during the halftime break at NBA games. This is the second year that Kenny has been invited to perform in front of America’s enthusiastic basketball fans. Nicknamed “The Magician”, Kenny performed two times in front of 20.000 people: at the Golden State Warriors stadium as well as at the home of the Portland Trail Blazers. In order for Kenny to be able to ride his bike on the hallow basketball courts, Continental equipped him with special non-marking tires, designed specifically for indoor use. Thanks to his new set of rubber, Kenny could twist and turn, jump and slide as much as he liked – and not a single mark was left on the floor.


Demos and photo shoots are all great but Kenny was eager to really address the issue of promoting Trials as a discipline. So, his 2013 season also featured four video edit releases. At the beginning of the year the Trials-champion published the video „Kenny Belaey’s Cape Epic – South Africa“ in which he goes on a ride to discover to delights of Cape Town – from the Bo Kaap quarter with its colorful facades down to the rocks on the edge of the fierce Atlantic. Then, “Hope Technology – At Home with Kenny Belaey“, published in July 2013, takes a look at his home playground. Since September, a cool Volkswagen Spot has been airing on Belgian TV. The advert shows how diverse Trails biking can be. Last but certainly not least, located at the port in Antwerp, Kenny sets out to find the cargo container containing the first shipment of his own T-Shirt line. The clip “Cargo” is a dynamic video of him meandering across the port, up and over containers and other obstacles.


Later in the summer of 2013, thanks to intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation his wrist was strong enough to allow him to compete again. In August he made his way back into world’s Trial elite: he celebrated his comeback with a third place at the world championship in South Africa, his favorite bike spot. And like last year he came second at the world cup stop in Antwerp at the end of September – not bad end to such a short competitive season.

All in all, Kenny’s 2013 season showed determination, enthusiasm and passion towards his sport as well as skill and professionalism – so it should be no wonder that he was nominated for sportsmen of the year. Kenny has received tribute from the members of the Belgian sports journalists union for his sportive successes as well as for the commitment Kenny Belaey has demonstrated by promoting his sport, especially in Belgium. Plans for 2014 are already well underway: “I got some cool TV projects in the loop and I'm also working on a new competition format in cooperation with the UCI. But no matter how many side projects I have – I am still hungry for victories to keep the champion spirit alive”, says the Conti athlete.

Continental will keep on supporting Kenny with products such as the Conti Kaiser and the Mountain King, which have been developed with a special rubber blend, meeting the specific needs for Trial riding. But also with Kenny as an event organizer and Trials ambassador, Conti will continue to back his “mission” and wishes him all the best for his next season.