Trail Towns TV show on SBS
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paul ven der ploeg and Dieter kahsnitz, the hosts of trail towns
There are plenty of Youtube videos and online reportage aimed at the already-enthusiastic cyclist. From GoPro trail shredding to Great Divide race reports and dissections of the latest Deore groupset. But there seems comparatively little content out there aimed at people who might be curious about cycling but are not yet dot-watching at 2am or scouring Wiggle for discounted Maxxis Ikons.
Trail Towns, a new show that recently aired on SBS, and is now available on SBS On Demand, is going some way to changing that. It’s a tourism travelogue show, kind of in the style of Getaway or The Great Outdoors, but with bicycle tourism as its primary focus. I was lucky enough to have a chat with the show's two hosts, Dieter Kahsnitz, who is also its producer, and Paul van der Ploeg, a former professional cyclist and mountain bike world champion. They are known on the show as ‘Deetz’ and ‘Vandy’ respectively.
“The working title of the show was ‘What do I do when you’re out riding?’” explains Deetz. “It’s aimed more at the partners, families and friends of the cycling enthusiast, to showcase what the whole experience of an active holiday has to offer.”
Many cyclists know the Goldfields Track, for example, but how many partners, families and friends know the delights of the Chocolate Mill just outside of Hepburn Springs? The Great Victorian Rail Trail is well known, but how many know that it’s a lovely little day trip from Tallarook to Trawool Estate winery and back?
“My wife and I have done that one,” adds Deetz. “And we want to do it again.”
Apart from the actual cycling, Trail Towns incorporates many of these kinds of experiences and provides exposure for many of the local people and business. In this way, the show is also helping to solve one of the cycling enthusiast’s primary dilemmas: how to bring the partner, family or friends along for the ride. Just tell them about the chocolate and the wine! It’s also gratifying for me, on a personal level, to see the kinds of rides and places I’ve been banging on about for years on this humble blog receive some mainstream attention.
“I just want to help people get out of their bubble and tell them about the amazing places out in the regions,” says Vandy. Vandy grew up in Mt Beauty in Victoria’s high country, and knows the area well. One episode of the show focuses on this region.
“It was a real privilege to be able to share that part of the world with people, to tell our origin story, so to speak. But even I was surprised by how much there was to explore. When I go home I usually just drive straight to mum and dad’s house in Mt Beauty, but on the show, for example, we spent some time in the King Valley and on the Prosecco Trail, which I hadn’t done before, and it was amazing.”
Whoever decided to put the words ‘prosecco’ and ‘trail’ together knows how to capture my attention, and having visited the King Valley a couple of times, I can confirm that it’s a hidden gem. Were there any other favourite riding locations he’d like to mention from the show?
“Not many people go up to Falls Creek in the summer, but being able to explore those high plains on your bike is really special. And for the audience of Adventure Cycling Victoria, there are a number of trails we did in our latest season in New Zealand that would appeal to them. We did the Haraki Rail Trail, the Alps to Ocean trail, the Wilderness Trail and the Twin Coast Cycle Trail. Each episode features some kind of adventure riding.” .
hauraki rail trail
wilderness trail
Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail
Deetz and Vandy were friends before the show's production, and it is the brainchild of their collaboration. They spend a lot of their on screen time riffing and joking, when they’re not riding in a beautiful location or eating something delicious. But it’s no amateur production. The show was produced by Deetz's production company here in Melbourne.
“Each season we spent about four months in pre-production,” says Deetz. “Then we were shooting for six weeks, followed by four months post post-production.”
The end result is a professional product that showcases the people and places we can reach by bicycle. What’s more, it’s home-grown, and presented by the real people behind the project who have a passion for sharing their love of bicycle travel with a wide audience.
Cycling can be an intimidating prospect for newbies, and to me the greatest strength of Trail Towns is the presentation of a welcoming on ramp to the ‘active holiday’ and cycling as a way to see the world. You don’t need to be a hardened adventurer, but most of us can step over a bike and go for a pedal (and eat chocolate and drink wine).
Season 1 and 2 of Trail Towns are currently available on SBS On Demand. Deetz and Vandy also have a regular radio show on SEN that airs at 9pm Monday nights across Australia and New Zealand, as well as on podcast services.
