At just 13 years of age Ben decided he wanted to go for a ride with Sid Taberlay. He borrowed a bike and they were off. Ben showed great climbing ability, so much so, Sid wanted to challenge him at a steep sandy climb, that Sid only makes it up 50% of the time. He challenged Ben, "Ok Ben, just put it in the granny ring, sit on the seat and keep pedalling" all the while not expecting him to make it. Ben not only made it but made it look easy! Three days later Ben wanted to challenge himself, lining up for the Mt Wellington challenge, a 1200m up hill road time trial. Sid's words of encouragement were, "remember you have only done two rides longer than 30minutes, so once you have had enough just turn around and roll back down". Not only did he make it all the way but did it in a respectable time of 1.5hrs (the race record is 55minutes). Ben was now addicted and is training more regularly. Six months on, at 13 years of age, he has shown he is competitive with guys more than 5 years older in the schools category at the Kellevie 24hr, Kellevie Solo 6hr and Winter Challenge races. He raced his first Tasmanian State MTB Series round in U15, not only winning U15 but beating home the U17 riders. In the second round of the Tasmanian State Series, Ben had been doing his homework. He worked out the series points and his chances of winning the U17 state series. He conclusion was, "If I win very U17 race from now to end of the season I can make up the points I lost by not entering U17 in the first round". So far the plan is paying off, Ben won the second state series round in the U17 category.