ABOUT US

Based in Nagano prefecture, world famous for its mountains, Freeride Adventures is owned and operated by Mountain bike pioneer Paul Chetwynd.

Paul bought his first Mountain Bike, a Specialized Stumpjumper, back in 1982, he has been on his bike ever since.

As one of the original Deep Cove Boys, (recently inducted into the MTB hall of fame) Paul started racing around British Columbia, eventually spending more and more time in the USA racing on the NORBA circuit

Paul moved to Japan in 91, during this time Paul raced firstly for Rocky Mountain Bikes then Scott USA and finally 5 years with Trek racing a Klien bicycle. After spending the first few seasons based near Tokyo, traveling to races every weekend, Paul found the Yatsugatake Mountain range in Nagano, one of Japans driest areas with clean air and spring water he decided this was the place for him.

After moving to Nagano he was asked to join the Equipe Azumino road racing team, a team based in Nagano. This gave him the opportunity to race such races as the UCI ranked Tour of Hokkaido, Tour of Okinawa and the Japan Cup. Most of the time was spent supporting team leader Kazuo Oishi a 2 time national champion and Barcelona Olympic team member, Shinri Suzuki Japan’s Sydney Olympic road team member and winner of the 2007 7th stage of the Tour of Langkawi, Shinichi Fukushima (awesome). During this time he was able to race and train all over Japan.  Over the years many famous European pros have been to Japan for some races at the end of their season, naturally Paul was asked to take them training and he was happy to hear   their approval of the roads here, many asked why they were not racing these roads instead of the closed circuits races that are so common over here.  

Although no longer racing at the elite level, Paul still enjoys racing when his time allows for it.

In 2003 Paul was invited to Saipan to write an article for www.OutdoorJapan.com about competing in the XTERRA Saipan triathlon. Having enjoyed himself immensely doing this he has continued going back every year since, even becoming involved with the management of XTERRA Japan as its course director.

Race History