Photo Epic: The Dirt Farmer - At Home with David Trummer
Just as the first rays of amber light skim above the cloud inversion and sparkle on the dew-soaked grass of Steirmark, East Austria, the peace is disturbed by the jarring bang of an old tractor engine springing to life. Daveboy, is up and about and on the move. The schedule for the day ahead is a classic example of the gruelling life of a professional downhill mountain biker in this rural part of the world. There's trail-clogging leaves to be blasted, moon-shot take-offs to be packed, berms to be shaped and a whole garage of chain-powered machines that won't ride themselves today. A quick trip to keep the skills sharp at Schladming or perhaps Maribor in order too so best get on it.
Dave Trummer is a low key type of fellow, reserved and unassuming; easy to overlook in a crowded room, but much less inconspicuous on the results sheet at a World Cup. Hammering out of start gates at the top level since 2014, it was 5 years before the man really 'arrived', bagging a season of convincing top 10s and a silver medal when it really counted at the Leogang Worlds. Now a headline act on team MS Mondraker alongside MacDonald, Ariki and Farina, Daveboy treads that apparently fine line between 'polished pro', pushing for milliseconds at the races and 'loose redneck' drifting old cars and launching motorbikes during the downtime. Certainly this curious Austrian deserves a bit of closer inspection to see exactly what makes him tick.
 | I'm David Trummer, known to some as 'Daveboy'. I'm from a small village in Eastern Austria called Gnas and I'm a professional DH World Cup rider with the MS Mondraker team. |
| I live in a house with my 2 dogs and my girlfriend. It's an old abandoned farm that we've been working on for a couple of years already. We moved in at the end of 2021, but there's still a lot to do. The land is actually where I started riding as a kid; we had some jumps and berms down in the woods here. |
| Here in my yard we have a jump line, 2 or 3 short sections of track, a pump-track and a couple of moto trials spots. It's a fair bit of work to maintain your own spot, but all the time invested with the shovel has been well worth it to get some nice jumps on the back doorstep. |
| It's pretty common to own a tractor in Austria. I like it to move dirt for jumps or cruise down to the woods and back with the DH bike and some tools. Mine is a real classic Austrian machine from the 1950s. My dad bought it something like 20 years ago. I learned to do wheelies and drift with it when I was just a kid. Vital skills haha. |
| I started riding and racing DH quite late, with 15 or 16 years I think. My first team was an Austrian team called RRP, with Ghost and Rose as bike sponsors. Next came the Propain team, then YT Racing Dudes, the YT Mob and for 2022 and beyond, MS Mondraker. |
Dave's woods make for an enviable private spot that's also shuttle-able. He has fair-size jumps, a few lovely berms, root nests, steep chutes and some unusual rocks and features scratched into the natural terrain. If he doesn't answer the phone, chances are he is busy lapping away on the e-bike or up to no good somewhere else on the plot with the trials machine.
| I had my kind of 'break-out' year in 2019. I think I was on the top pace already in the years before, I just couldn’t put the runs together. Then for that season, even though the budget was super low, we had a good team atmosphere and I felt very comfortable on the bike. That must have been what took me the last mile. |
| My dad used to compete in trials a bit back in the day so I started out with him at a young age and also went along to a couple of MX races when I was 6 until I was about 10 years old. When my dad finally stopped because of some injuries, I discovered MTB. An older friend from my home village got me into it, taking me to some bikeparks and occasional races. I found out quite fast that I'm not too bad at this. |
.
The garage has an array of interesting World Cup memorabilia from past seasons, trials trophies, a more than respectable quiver of bikes with and without motor, a rally simulator, a squat rack and if he gets bored enough; a work desk.
| I was super stoked about my silver medal at Worlds on home ground. To be fair I thought I had a quite an unspectacular run, even though the track was extreme that day with the deep mud. Reece's time was way too good to beat him so I was still happy with second. |
The man is clearly a skill-smith on any type of bike. Dave has that unwavering desire to spend as much of life behind bars as possible. It's an infectious level of passion that's taken him to the top of the game.
| There are a lot of chairlifts and also great tracks in Austria these days, but the problem here in the mountains is always the long winter. All fine if you like to ski, but to escape from the snow and train with two wheels somewhere else takes time and money. Despite that I think there are some really big talents coming out of Austria in the future; I see all these kids now filling the bikeparks, and that's sick! |
.
In Austria you're never more than a short drive away from some idyllic place to ride and explore.
| I've been working together with the same trainer for many years now. The program is always intense, but how demanding depends on the time of the year. I'm expecting this year to be quite a bit different because the off-season is so long. |
| I have to say I don’t like road cycling too much, I think it’s stupid with all the cars on the road. I do all my endurance training on an enduro bike. It’s way more fun as well when you have some nice downhills in between the pedaling haha. |
| Outside of my home spot I ride the most probably at Schöckl. It has many natural trails, and although they are super rough, steep, rocky and loose, you can somehow find a lot of flow. It's one of the closest lift to my house and it runs the whole year. So long as we have a light winter without much snow than we can go for some laps anytime. |
Schnapps for training purposes because; Austria.
Pumptracks make the training fun and Dave has his floodlit loop nestled just inside the woods below his jump spot. Predictably Dave knows how to take maximum speed of the features immediately with apparently minimal effort.
The jump spot and it's sizeable wooden start ramp emerge out of the turf and look like a damn good time. Dave went and proved it with an evening session, cruising stylishly through the various perfectly crafted line options.
| It's sick to be on the MS Mondraker team these days. We have sponsors that are super motivated and it’s handy to have Austrian management and the team base close to home, down the road in Innsbruck. |
| Long term plans are something for future Dave to worry about. For now I am stoked to do what I do and I'll keep up the hunt for success on the racetrack. |
| Cheers to my sponsors and supporters, see you for the new race season in some months! |
Casa Trummer takes some beating. Danke schön Daveboy!
Author Info:
Member since Jul 19, 2007
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
youtu.be/4LVounLZZJQ