Kenny Belaey on 9 trials World Championships and life after competitive cycling

Kenny Belaey started riding professionally at age 9 when he and his brother began doing trial biking shows in their native Belgium. Since then, he’s racked up nine UCI world championship titles in the discipline, more than any other rider. But even during the peak of his racing career, Kenny kept up with the performance circuit, using the shows as a training ground for the next competition. In 2007, for example, he did 170 shows in 17 countries on four continents while maintaining a full schedule of racing. Since 2012, he’s been a regular act during NBA halftime shows. Now living in Bentonville, he runs the Bentonville Bike Fest, an ever-expanding three-day event featuring nearly every style of cycling. 

Payson caught up with Kenny in Bentonville this week to talk about his more than two decades as a Red Bull athlete, landing an Adidas commercial alongside David Beckham, and the grueling training regimen he maintained during his competitive career. He also talks about his many trips to the Middle East for Red Bull in the early 2000s and his unique artistic side hustle in which he uses his trial biking skills to paint large canvases. 

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