Jesse Cseh
Wellington-based New Zealander Jesse Cseh, 24, has been racing mountain bikes for over a decade. In 2022, after many years dominating his local racing scene, Jesse stepped up to the international stage racing the Enduro World Series in Whistler, British Colombia; Burke, Vermont, and Sugarloaf Mountain, Maine.
For 2023, Jesse will be contesting many more EWS races worldwide on a DVO equipped Claymore.
Jesse rode Crankworx Rotorua 2022….as one of the trail sweepers - tabard included!
My dad is Hungarian, and my mom is from New Zealand. But I was born here in Wellington. And yeah, always lived here. I can’t speak Hungarian though - I wish I could!
I only got into biking because my dad told me I was terrible at football - he basically told me to find something else to do! I chose bikes as I used to ride my bike around the neighbourhood, as kids do, and then more off road. So I started racing cross-country when I was about 15 or 16; downhill when I was about 17 or 18 and then more recently, enduro
If I spend too much time focusing on one thing, I can get a bit drained. So I’ve been doing quite a big mix for the last few years - I’ve been racing cyclocross, downhill, XC, enduro - the whole shebang really. I like keeping it diverse, because bikes are pretty much 100% my life, so I spread myself across different disciplines so I can keep it interesting.
There are lots of benefits to cross country and downhill that also feed into enduro racing. I like the fitness and mental determination that you get from racing XC and putting yourself in a tough place. And then the skill and split-second timing of downhill racing, where you've really got to put a lot on the line, hitting really technical features and executing them really well - I think both of those things come together in enduro for a really good mix.
That said, enduro is definitely at the heart of what I want to do. The other stuff, I just make work around that as best I can. So I'm doing a lot more specific training towards enduro, and the cyclocross and XC both take a back seat because of the kind of training that I'm doing.
It’s all about the competition for me - and my mates. I’ve always been into racing; I’m a very competitive person. My mates and I hosted a QR code race over this winter just gone - you scan a QR code at the beginning and end of a section on your phone to start and stop your time. So every ride becomes a race! We’re all really competitive - anytime we go out riding we’re always looking for a Strava segment, or we're doing a QR code race or something. They’re a great bunch of people to be surrounded with though; we’re all pretty like minded!
“Getting myself to a point where I felt like I was ready to race at an international level was a pretty big goal for last year”
I mostly ride from my doorstep. I got rid of my car because I was broke - I got back from racing EWS in 2022 with nothing to my name. I started doing a bunch of New Zealand races and I was living on nothing, but driving to the races. So when I got back from Crankworx in Rotorua, which was my last event for the year, I got rid of my car. I live close to my work; I live close to the trails; I don't need to drive - it's just a luxury. I've just been bike commuting and riding everywhere through Wellington, which has been really good. If I need to go anywhere further afield, I’d usually fly out to Rotorua, or down to the South Island for races, or whatever. I don’t need the car!
I work as a bike mechanic. I manage a workshop with four mechanics. I’ve only ever worked in a bike shop, to be honest: I started working in them when I was 14. I've worked in them for 10 years, doing everything you can imagine. It’s a good job - I love it.
I probably favour technical riding above anything else - we don’t have many jumps or big features here in Wellington. There’s one trail here, called Yeah Gnar, which is a grade six descent, which I actually Everested last year. It’s extremely technical, very steep and very short. I just like how you just drop straight into the track, and it's all go; there are no pauses or breaks. It doesn’t let up at all; you have to totally commit to everything. That's the kind of riding that I like.
Getting myself to a point where I felt like I was ready to race at an international level was a pretty big goal for last year. I aimed to place in the top 100 of the EWS rounds I raced - the first one, in Whistler, I got 67th, which I was pretty happy with - especially as my chainring fell off mid race! But I had a pretty good 2022 - as well as the EWS rounds I rode an Everest challenge last year; I took on a couple of A-grade cyclocross wins; I was XC club champ, a bunch of different stuff.
Most recently, I rode every open trail in the Whakarewarewa forest in Rotorua non-stop. This totalled over 230km of trails from the National Downhill line through to marathon XC trails, and over 8000m of total climbing. It took my riding buddy, Jaden Kaempfe, and I over 30 hours. It was pretty hot and humid, and physically and mentally incredibly challenging, but I only crashed once!
I was riding the Claymore, which was perfect. I didn’t make too many changes to it, mostly tweaks to lose some rotational inertia. I changed the tyres and removed the inserts, and I fitted a lighter cassette. Climbing on it felt direct and responsive, like an XC bike, and descending was perfect.
I first heard about Deviate through Jesse Patel, who is the New Zealand Deviate importer. He also brings in DVO suspension, and I've had a pretty long standing relationship with him - I’ve ridden DVO for a few years now. He approached me about Deviate, so I rode the Claymore, and I was impressed.
I'm a really big fan of the whole high pivot rear end. The way that the wheel tracks the ground and stays planted is really different to what I've noticed on any other bike. I've come from a completely different suspension platform - the suspension layout on the Claymore really suits my riding style. It's kind of a hard thing to put into words though!
Next year, I'm planning to race the full EWS season. Australia, Europe, and Canada. In fact, that’s the goal for the next few years. I’ve been aiming for the full season for quite some time, to get out there and to give it everything I have.
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