The inspiring motto which propelled a Tasmanian mountain bike riders career
Self described “hack” Mark Leis fell in love with mountain biking more than 30 years ago but he’s still winning world titles at the age of 51. He reveals his secrets to success either side of a marathon running stint.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
One of Hobart’s most decorated mount bike riders has added another gold medal to his wall after taking out the 2025 UCI Masters Mountain Bike World Championship in Cairns.
Mark Leis, 51, won the men’s 50-54 cross-country category at Smithfield in far North Queensland over the weekend.
With no signs of slowing down just yet, Leis said it was a bit of a surprise.
“I might have counted myself as a possible chance to win going in there but you never know who turns up and who comes internationally,” Leis said.
“As to if they are an absolute heavy hitter or in the World Cup elite from 30-years-ago.
“You just don’t know, there is probably two halves to a field because it's one of those sports where people can just turn up and do a lap and the other half are hoping to podium or better.
“I love the heat, I do a certain amount of my training in what I call a ‘hot box’ in the garage.
“So the indoor training, I use an app which connects with the smart trainer and you can race different people from all around the world at any time of the day.
“And it can heat up in the garage when you are going nuts and racing on that thing.”
Leis held a 30-second buffer over his rivals before an issue with a rider from a different age group slowed him down, allowing fellow Australian Luc Plowman to close the gap.
“I sort of hit a bit of traffic on the last lap, which increased the stress levels a bit,” Leis said.
“For most of the race I was 30 seconds ahead but on the last lap the second placed closed in on me and only won by eight seconds.
“Because we are in a five-year age category, the 65-69 age group go a bit slower than us and I came across one at the wrong point of the track.
“So I reckon I lost 10 seconds behind him trying to get around him.
“We started at 11am and were the first group off and then the other groups, they kind of stagger them a part to start usually.
“There is two halves to the field, there are those who are just here for the experience and I came across him sort of 40 to 50 minutes into the race.
“I had already come up to lap him, we had lapped quite a few others in the process but he might have been more towards the middle of his field and thought he had a chance or he might have been trying to race the bloke in front of him.
“But it can be quite hard to determine who is in your category and who isn’t but he certainly had the race side of things on and wasn’t going to yield for anyone coming past.”
It has been 31 years since some fun with friends at university led Leis down the path of being one of Tasmania’s best mountain bikers.
In 1994, a saying by a famous author helped him find his passion for the sport.
“In between uni, we would jump on a mountain bike and go for a rider around Waterworks Reserve when you could ride around it and then come back and have a few beers for the reward,” Leis said.
“But it wasn’t long after that we had Bryce Courtenay at Jane Franklin Hall and he encouraged us all to ‘have a dream’.
“So without knowing most cross-country mountain bike riders are like jockeys, about 60 kilos ringing wet, I sort of said that I want to go to the Olympics for mountain biking, as a total hack at it.
“That sort of kicked things off and in 2002 I raced in the World Championships, I put seven years into to be able to get to the World Championship and I finished just inside the top-50.
“Then I retired not long after that but picked it back up 12 years ago after doing some marathon running.”
Leis spent 15 years out of the circuit where he and his wife had two kids before returning to mountain biking while he was training for a marathon for his 40th birthday.
The soon to be 52-year-old has no plans to do an Ironman, calling himself a “brick in the pool” but has plenty left in the tank for future racing events.
“There is the Australian Cyclocross Championships on in August, that will be the next immediate goal,” Leis said.
“But I will have a few weeks off drinking beers and eating burgers, because you have to give them up while you do the training.
“So I will have a nice few weeks enjoying all of that before I get back into it and keep fit, especially with all these trails we have down here, they are better than in most cases than on the mainland.
“I do a six to seven weeks top up program which is just intense training, my biggest week was a 14 hour week either on the bike or strength training.
“The quietest week was the week before the race which is the rest week and that was only six hours.”
More Coverage
Originally published as The inspiring motto which propelled a Tasmanian mountain bike riders career
Live stream: Kingston bracing for ‘massive’ Hawks clash
While a win over the Hawks would extend Kingston’s lead in second-spot on the TNL ladder, the Blues are bracing for a ‘massive’ challenge on Saturday. Watch it LIVE here.
‘Start turning kids away’: Harsh reality for Hobart basketballers
As the battle for new courts goes on, one Hobart club has revealed it could be forced to turn away potential players due to “unprecedented growth”. How a new $25m facility could be the difference.