DH Racer, EWS star and video creator Ludo May is a man of many talents. Especially making entertaining videos and riding incredible technical terrain. We had a chat to see how he got where he is, and where he wants to go.

With the boom of YouTube, there has been a growing amount of pro riders not just competing in races, but also enjoying the art of making good video edits. With videos from Fabio Widmer and Danny Macaskill going viral and reaching millions of viewers, brands and riders alike discovered a new way to work together. 

Swiss rider Ludo May has been a regular contributor with some of the funniest and most creative video edits out there. From riding up and down the glaciers of the Petit Combin to recreating his own version of Dumb and Dumber the EWS racer based just outside of Verbier has some wild creations to his name.

We checked in with him to see what makes him tick and what cool things we can expect from him in 2021.

Ludo! Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do?

I am Ludovic May, 32 years old and was born and raised in the Swiss Alps close to Verbier.

I have been passionate about mountain biking all my life.  I have been racing for over 15 years, first in DH and then in enduro. I now realize I am getting older because I can already use the expression “20 years ago” talking about my first years competing. Hahaha! 

After school, I learned to be a bricklayer. I love to be outside and to feel kind of free. While doing my apprenticeship I was lucky enough to have more time to train and race at my best. And now, I have been a professional rider for 10 years. 

Growing up in the Swiss Alps is basically any mountain biker's dream. What was it like for you? 

It took me a lot of travels and a long time to understand that where I was born is one of the best places on earth, either for mountain biking or for skiing. When you are born here, you often don’t realize how lucky you are to see the mountains every morning when you wake up. It's been normal to be around these mountains for a long time, but as I grow older I am slowly realizing how lucky I am to live in this place. I am very thankful to be born and raised in such an environment. Today I can say, home is where I feel super good and that I can do what I love the most, biking, skiing and much more. Although I like travelling, I can say for sure that I will never move from the Valais. 

When did you first start riding mountain bikes?

I remember when I was at school I already had so much fun riding my bike around and trying new stuff at a very young age around 4 or 5. I got a lot of interest in biking at 8.  As I was living near Verbier, when I first saw people riding down the mountain, I just wanted to do the same. I bought some magazines and watched some videos and that was it! I got the virus.

Was racing always important to you? When did you start racing and in which disciplines? 

Racing has always been important to me, I am a racer somehow inside me. I started with a few cross country races at the age of 12 and I was already waiting to start DH racing. At the age of 15, I started DH racing and at 16 I started racing enduro too. 

Many people dream to become a pro, but not everyone makes it. Did you have a plan b? Like a profession that you would like to do?

It's funny when I was young, I was dreaming to become professional but sometimes it felt like a dream so it felt almost impossible. I am not really talented I think, but I am a hard worker. I spent a lot of time training and worked hard to become a professional. 

I was not sure if I would make it as a pro, so after highschool, I started an apprenticeship as a bricklayer. I don’t know if it will still be my job today if I wasn’t just riding but what I know I will not be able to do a job inside. With time, I realized that this apprenticeship helped me a lot to become a professional rider. It forced me to go out to work outside no matter what type of weather. So now for training, I still enjoy the riding, even if it is snowing or raining. 

You started out racing DH I believe, tell me about that period. Who were you riding for, where were you racing and how were your results?

DH was so good, at the Swiss Cup we were always a good crew of people, playing like kids when we had to wait for our race run or more. I did around 4 or 5 seasons on the World Cup circuit. Just before I started to race only in enduro I was riding for the Norco Factory Racing Team and my best result was 18th in Elite at the World Champs in Champery in 2011. 

Oh wow, a top 20 in the World Champs. That’s an amazing result! I also know you were at the very beginning of the EWS, and already back then you were really fast. I saw you had a 14th spot in Punta Ala in 2013. How did you enjoy this new format of racing, and what was it like to finish in the top 15 in that first race? 

After a few good results at the Megavalanche and at the French Enduro Series, I realized that I just love enduro racing more than DH racing because there is more feeling involved, less calculating because the days are so long, so you can make some mistakes and it’s normal. So when the first EWS happened in Punta Ala, I felt a lot of pressure because all the big DH names were there, but when I saw the results and had this great day I realized I love this new format. It was some good time spent with the other riders too. From that moment I knew I wanted to race all the Enduro races I could find.  

Your good results did not go unnoticed and you signed with Canyon soon after. How did you enjoy being part of a big team like that with Barel, Barnes, Thoma etc? 

Yes, it was a new chapter for me. I remember when I got a message from the manager on my phone saying I call you on Monday to be in the team. What a moment in my life. I spent 3 awesome years with the team, learning a lot and at the same time enjoying some good time living with them. 

In 2014 you started with your video series, Ludo et son velo (Ludo and his bike). Where did you get the idea to make a video part? 

Back in 2006, when I was 17 years old I participated at a video contest event with Nico Falquet (professional skier and video producer). After that, we always keep shooting a few times a year together and later on in 2013, Nico came back to me with this idea and told me we should do this project. It was a perfect way to express myself and show who I am and what I like in mountain biking. We had a lot of good fun days shooting these episodes and I think we show mountain biking in another perspective with some crazy ideas. 

Then in 2015 you had a bad crash in New Zealand at the EWS practice, putting you out of action for the first part of the season. How was that for you mentally? 

It was a hard time, because you train during the whole winter and suddenly you are out. Looking back, I will say that this was the best injury that ever happened to me. 

Although I trained hard physically, I realize I should have spent more time training on the mental side of it.

When I came back from New Zealand, I knew the work I needed to do. 4 days later I was in France doing a short meditation retreat to learn to stay and enjoy the present moment. That changed a lot of things for my future. 

You were out for more than two months, but managed to return in time for the Trans Provence where you managed an incredible sixth spot overall. How did you do that?

Sometimes you need an injury to come back with a fresher mind and often when your mind is fresher, you body too, and I had good results after that. Being able to do such an incredible adventure, like Trans Provence just made me super happy. I was feeling really relaxed and my body was well rested, then the result came naturally.

In 2016 you seemed to have a different approach to racing speaking from a mental point of view. You mentioned focussing more on what the result felt to you and compared to your progression, and comparing yourself less to the other races. Can you tell me more about that?

I realized that I should focus more on doing things with the most fun possible. Not having the results in mind lets you be free and you automatically do what you know best. It helps me to be more creative too. When I started to focus more on creating video’s, I felt I could use my creativity more. A race result is soon forgotten, but a good video sticks around for a long time. 

You have travelled the world a lot to ride bikes. Can you tell me which destination made the biggest impression on you?

I would not be able to choose one if you forced me to. Every destination there is something special and you share it with different people. I loved our time in Chilli, drifting in the sandy trails. I loved spending time in Canada where all the trails are made for Mountain bikers. I felt in Costa Rica somewhere wild and great too. I was impressed by Oaxaca in Mexico too. As I say, it's just impossible to choose. I love riding my bike too much and sharing it with local people. Every trip has been special and I am thankful to have been able to travel so much with my bike.  

Is there a place you haven’t been yet, but really would like to travel to? 

Yes, maybe at high altitude, close to Nepal. I have plans to go to Peru one day too, I can’t wait!

Then in 2017 you signed with the Swiss bike brand BMC. Is it an advantage for you to ride for a Swiss brand? 

Oh you can’t even imagine how good it is to collaborate with a brand based two hours away from home. It makes the collaboration so good and easy, you know so many people who share the same vibes and the motivation is at the highest. Today, I feel like working with a big family. 

Does BMC support you in making the video edits, or do they prefer you chase race results? 

When BMC signed me, they were looking for ambassadors with good exposure and video projects. Racing wasn’t really important for them but more an additional thing. So yes they are fully motivated and supporting my video projects. 

I see on your instagram, you ride their EMTB’s a lot too. What is your opinion on E-bikes?

I love them, it’s an awesome tool. I don’t use the same way as my normal bike but I love the feeling of going up steep singletrails. I use it when I am tired or when I do not have much time to train. 

You’ve been riding in the Swiss Valais for a lot of years now. Did the improvement of the bikes open up a lot of new trails that were previously not possible? 

Probably yes. I would like to believe it was just me who was improving hahaha!  But for sure, the material helped a lot. Having bigger wheels and better geometry helped for some of our techy steep trails. What I realize with years too, it’s that we could go up some trails which wasn’t possible back in the days. And with e-bikes, we can explore higher, further and longer. 

Where do you think mountain bikes and E-bikes can still improve in the future? 

To be fair, I have no idea, because 10 years ago I was already thinking that everything had been done. For sure e-bikes will improve a lot with the battery, the weight and more. 

For your latest edit you climbed the Petit Combin with an E-bike. For those that don’t know, the Petit Combin is a 3660m high mountain bike surrounded by glacier terrain. And it took 2 days to reach the summit. How did you come up with this idea? 

Back in 2015, I met a friend and mountain guide up in the mountains and we were looking at the Petit Combin. He told me we should do it by bike. From then, the project was always in my mind. I skinned up with skis in 2016 to see how feasible it was. Every year I tried to organise the shooting, most of the time we had to cancel due to snow conditions or schedules. And last year with the Covid situation, I finally had the time to organise it. We first thought to do it with our normal bikes and get a shuttle. With the progressions of EMTB’s however we thought we could start from my front door which is at only 800m altitude. 

Was it harder than you expected? Or did you do the route before and knew what to expect? 

No it wasn’t that hard, the hardest was that we slept only 2h before starting the climb at 12 pm so from time to time you feel very tired. And to push the bike for a few hours when the wheels are 20 cm deep in the snow can be tiring but when you are excited you almost forget it. 

The descent back to the valley must have been really really long. But was it good? 

The top was in perfect conditions, going at 90km/h was an incredible feeling with this landscape and finishing with small tight switchbacks later on was exactly what I love about MTBiking. So yes, just one word, Amazing! 

Recently you also started working as a MTB guide with your company Pure Biking Verbier. 

How did that come about?

In 2017, I did my MTB Swiss Cycling Guide course to become a professional MTB guide and after that I realized some people were asking me to guide them so we put together with 3 friends this company. At the moment, I am still really busy with my other projects and don’t get to guide as often. But I really enjoy it, and I think I will definitely guide more in the future. 

I can imagine it’s not the easiest of times to work in tourism. Did you manage to get some clients last summer? 

For sure, we have lost some clients from foreign countries, but we also could find new clients from Switzerland. So it was actually a pretty good season in the end. I really hope we can have open borders again this summer, so I can show a lot of people around in our beautiful backyard! 

What are your plans for 2021? Can we expect more creative videos to entertain us? Will you be racing EWS again?

No more EWS for me, I am too old 😉 but definitely some video projects. Hopefully people will like it.  

One of the things I want to do more is give back a bit. Together with Silvain Haederli I started to be more involved in the Verbier bike club. Help to train the young riders from around the valley, and getting more things organized. 

I am also getting more involved with the EntreTrail organization, our local trail maintenance and advocacy group. We organize volunteer days to help maintain the singletracks around Verbier, and make sure we give back to the community. Mountain biking is very accepted in this area, but I feel you always need to keep working on having a good image as mountain bikers. 

Is there any advice you have for our readers that want to be able to ride mega tech steep trails like you? 

Training is key, you need to feel confident on the bike and you only get there through experience. Also realize that some days you’re not in your best form. Then it is better to give up and walk. It’s important to stay in control, and enjoy the present moment. It’s about the journey, not the destination!

Videos

Ludo et son vélo - Episode 10 "Petit Combin"
By Jarno Hoogland
Jarno's life has revolved around two wheels ever since he swung a leg over his first BMX at age 4. After a BMX and DH racing career, he moved on to work for bike shops, distributors and brands before ending up in the editors seat at IMB. Based in the ultimate testing ground in the Swiss mountains, he runs his guiding operation and makes sure every IMB issue is filled with top notch content.

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