‘That was the best time in our lives’: BMX Racing Nationals an opportunity to celebrate a Shepparton giant

The 2023 AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships in Shepparton are destined to be a week of high-class BMX racing, culminating in the crowning of national champions and the right to wear the green and gold jersey for 2024.

But it will also be an opportunity to celebrate the roots of the sport in Australia. Shepparton has a proud history of BMX racing, having hosted the Nationals previously in 2010, 2014, and 2019.

It is also the birthplace of Australia’s first ever BMX racing open men's world champion and open men's triple national champion, Leigh Egan.

Egan first took up BMX racing at age 13 after the local council built a track alongside the velodrome in Shepparton in the late 1970s. With a background in athletics and an ultra-competitive mindset, it wasn’t long until Egan was making a name for himself, a time he remembers as the best in his life.

“You’d sit in the pits there and there’d just be bloody kids everywhere, with ice cream lid number plates, and anodised handlebars, all different colour chains – it was just the best time ever,” Egan recalls.

“It was just amazing, like, just the colours. I can still smell the smells and see the colours now.”

Just a few years later, Egan would effectively become Australia’s first BMX racing open men's world champion, winning the Open Men and 17 Boys championship at the 1984 World Titles in Japan.

“I had one kit, one top, met the team at the airport in Sydney, we flew to Japan into 45-degree heat, and yeah, we did the best we could.

“We come up against some pretty good Euros. It wasn't supported very well by the Americans, but back then, like the Euros and Pommy guys were pretty good anyway. So yeah, it was an awesome World Title.”

Welcomed with open arms by the Shepparton community on his return, Egan’s reception from the BMX community was somewhat frostier. Racing at Metro West in Sydney shortly after his return, Egan was brought down to earth by some of the BMX fraternity who felt the GT Factory rider hadn’t earned his stripes, as he was still yet to win an Australian title.

“So, I get back from the Worlds, my sponsor picks me up, everyone's happy, and I go to Metro West and get absolutely hosed. Dean Crisp gave me an absolute donkey licking.

“And so, everyone’s saying straight away, ‘How good, the Worlds must have been easy! This guy has come from nowhere and won the Worlds.’ But me and Dean started a bit of a rivalry from that race meeting onwards then for the next two or three years.”

Standing 6’3” tall, Egan cut an imposing figure on the track, and was able to fulfil his potential by employing a rigorous training regime, putting in hours of pole sprints on the bike and eventually earning the respect of the BMX fraternity by claiming three straight Australian open men's titles from 1985-1987.

“Technically I was okay, but my strength was, ‘Okay, this race is 40 seconds long, 45 seconds, maybe 50 – you’ve got to be able to go to the line.’ So, a lot of my stuff was coming from behind, and passing guys on the last straight.”

The 2016 Australian BMX Hall of Fame Inductee would love to see more overtaking and less clip-in pedals in current day BMX – believing they contribute to head and neck injuries – and says he hopes to get along to the Nationals when it arrives in town later this year, but also admits he misses elements of the sport that have been lost through time.

“When I was racing the Australian Titles, the finals were Sunday, everyone had booked for three days, and everyone was there. So, when the big dogs got on the gate for the Pro Final and the Open Final, everybody was there, everyone knew who their guy was. Ten deep mate, ten deep, the fans.”

Egan eventually transformed his passion for BMX into a business, establishing Leading Edge Cycles in Shepparton, turning a trade in his hometown over the last 33 years. However, the 59-year-old readily admits to confronting his own mental demons as the years have passed.

“I went through a little bit of mental health [issues] there a few years ago. Had a young fella that was working for me who I was coaching at the time who was killed. Yeah, he got run over at training. And obviously with that, you know, business stress, a lot of general life living … and I mentor now, so if I go and give a talk, I do 15 minutes on mental health, which is good.

“I was never in a situation where I was going to hurt myself, but I was unwell for a while ... If someone had of come to me 10 years ago and put their hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Listen, we've got this, I've got you back,’ right, I'd have been a lot better off. And that's all we need.”

Egan is adamant that the people in the sport have got him through the tough times, and stay with him even to this day.

“As I said in [my Hall of Fame] speech, ‘When times are tough, when I'm struggling, it's you people I think of. All you people here, it's you that I think of, because that was the best time in our lives’.

“In the end, it's the memories that I've left in people's minds about those days that are important, so that when I do see them, the acknowledge me and I acknowledge them. That’s the most important thing. I don't care about anything else.”

2023 AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships

• Location: Shepparton, Victoria
• Dates: 30 October - 5 November 2023
• More information: 2023 AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships.
• Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube/TikTok/LinkedIn: @auscycling

The 2023 AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships are proudly supported by the Greater Shepparton City Council.

Images: Leigh Egan