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How BMX athlete Matthias Dandois made good on fulfilling his promise
Life has moved pretty fast for the flatland star ever since he turned pro over 15 years ago. Get the lowdown on the evolution of the Frenchman's career from his beginnings to World Champion.
Matthias Dandois is one of the most charismatic BMX freestyle riders on the planet. The 33-year-old Frenchman is all about pure entertainment, whether it is competing at the highest level as a BMX flatland athlete, filming video parts, or even off the bike as a podcast host and part-time model.
A multiple World Champion and winner of some of the biggest flatland contests the sport has to offer, Dandois's motivation to continue to progress his riding skills, be creative and win contests marks him out as one of his sport's best ambassadors.
5 min
At Home with Matthias Dandois
Visit French BMXer, Matthias Dandois, at his home in Paris and find out how he became a pro rider.
Football was his first love
Dandois's journey to BMX stardom began like many involved in the pro ranks, whether flatland or the other freestyle disciplines, by watching someone perform on a BMX.
“I saw a guy doing a BMX flatland demo on a French TV talk show called C'est Mon Choix. It was very cool."
Before discovering BMX, Dandois oscillated between playing handball and football for his sporting endeavours in and out of school. Dandois grew up in Épinay-sur-Orge, a town south of the main Paris area.
“I loved football and every time I playe I imagined that a scout was in the stands to observe me and I would do trials at Paris Saint-Germain. The problem? I sucked. I remember in particular missing a penalty in a big tournament match. It was the end of my career!"
A young Dandois on a mountain bike
© Matthias Dandois
Everything changed for Dandois once he watched that guy perform on the TV show. He was captivated by the guy being able to be so free and agile in doing tricks on a bike. He was soon pestering his parents for a BMX to see if he could replicate those tricks. His friends were also pestering their parents for BMXs.
“We were also watching things like the X Games and people goofing around on TV shows like Jackass, and we found that these guys seemed to have a lot more fun than us when playing football. So, after my discovery of flatland, my parents gave me a bike for Christmas, and off we went…”
A parking lot was his playground
At the time there was nowhere really Dandois and his mates could ride. There was no skatepark nearby so they found a home in a parking lot of the tennis club in the town where they would gather and attempt to perform freestyle tricks and flatland moves they'd seen on TV and on videos. Dandois quickly discovered he had some talent.
"For the very first time in my life, I realised that I was more gifted than the others when doing tricks."
From 13 to 16, I would ride up to 10 hours a day if I didn't have class. People asked my dad why I spent so much time in the parking lot, because in their eyes it looked a bit weird."
Flatland is freedom as Dandois soon discovered
© Teddy Morellec/Red Bull Content Pool
BMX was becoming an “obsession". Dandois was also spending time practising and learning from a pro BMXer at this point, who happened to be a regular visitor to a neighbouring town.
"It was a crazy chance, because at the time, there were only two flatland clubs in France. Including one in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near my home. He gave me the basics, because we didn't really have YouTube videos and it was hard to invent or learn things.”
A fresh faced Dandois in those early years
© Matthias Dandois
Success in competition was not long in coming for Dandois, with him winning his first domestic competition in 2004, at the age of 15. From then the flatland obsession took an even bigger step.
“It was crazy. I hadn't won anything so far. The feeling of being on the podium was very pleasant and I told myself that I wanted to feel that way all my life."
When I was 16, my parents built me a flatland spot in the garden at our home to train because I spent so much time outside that they were starting to freak out. I even set up a light so I could ride at night. My mother sometimes came out to force me to go to bed. But I thank her and my dad so much for letting me do what I wanted at that age."
The backyard set-up at his parents has seen better days but is rideable
© Hadrien Picard
The importance of a mentor
An important person in Dandois's development in his teenage years is fellow Frenchman Alex Jumelin. Jumelin is an outstanding flatland athlete in his own right and he took Dandois under his wing somewhat, and that includes taking Dandois with him to participate in contests in France and the wider world under the Stereo Panda team of flatland athletes.
"I was only a teenager, but Alex was 25 when we met. It reassured my parents a lot to know that he was by my side. Without him and the members of the Stereo Panda team, I don't know what I would have done. Especially on the logistical side… With them, I let myself be carried away by the movement."
Dandois and Alex Jumelin remain close and continue to be good friends
© Hadrien Picard
A first pro win
Dandois was beginning to make waves in the flatland scene and breaking through by winning international contests. He was turning from amateur to pro very quickly. His first major win at Voodoo Jam in New Orleans in 2007 was a big moment for the now 17-year-old Dandois. He was very much the outsider.
"In 2007, I took part in Voodoo Jam for the first time, which was then a round of the BMX Flatland World Circuit. It felt crazy, I'd come all the way from Epinay-sur-Orge and here I am with all the pros I once saw in videos and magazines in the past… And what's more, I won!"
Matthias Dandois at Voodoo Jam 2013
© Fat Tony/Red Bull Media House
Following that first victory as pro, Dandois returned back to France within a matter of days to see if he had been successful at school with his final studies in the Baccalauréat [France's end of high school qualification] exams.
"The Sunday following the competition, I take the plane and return to France. I arrive on Monday morning, and my father immediately takes me to my school to look at the Baccalauréat results. The deal [from his parents] was that if I got it I could pursue riding. I passed.”
Leaving home
Dandois knew he had to leave home at this point to continue to train and pursue his dream of being a flatland pro. Paris beckoned and he was lucky enough to move in with another flatland athlete, Raphaël Chiquet. Life was pretty good, but money was scarce. With a lack of sponsors. Dandois was on the verge of abandoning his dream but then the stars aligned for him.
“I was starting to look at English universities to possibly become a translator… and then I met Red Bull France, which really came at the right time for me. It solved all my problems. As a sponsored athlete I could pay for my trips to competitions.“
Paris is where Dandois feels at home
© Vincent Perraud
Onwards and upwards
Once he signed with Red Bull, other sponsors soon followed, as did other professional wins as well as becoming World Champion for the first time after finishing top of the BMX Flatland World Circuit in 2008. The trophies continued to flow in thereafter, and with it Dandois was able to let his imagination flow for video projects with money behind him for his ideas from his sponsors.
"I had no pressure because I didn't feel as strong as the others and I was certainly a little naive. I arrived with a new, fluid style. I had taken the brakes off my bike. And since I was tall, I was visually very different from the others."
2 min
Matthias Dandois Raw 100
100 seconds of pure RAW riding from BMX Flatland star Matthias Dandois
A creative soul
By 2013, Dandois's passion for flatland was waning. He admits to training less and partying too much. Injuries become a regularity and he thinks of quitting as flatland is no longer a pleasure to do, more of a job. But he found a solution to reinvigorate his passion, start riding BMX street and branch out to other interests he had off the bike, like photography.
"Getting out of the small bubble of flatland did me a lot of good. It was the key for me not to run out of steam. The more I do besides BMX, the more creative I find I am with my bike. Sometimes, a trip or a meeting is enough. The idea is to have new perspectives."
Photography is a passion
© Jeff Zielinski/Red Bull Content Pool
His interests outside BMX are many – photography, modelling and even acting. In 2018, he appeared in a feature film from French director Axelle Laffont and has done a bit of presenting for Red Bull's podcast series, Decoding Athletes. He has also set up a media agency company with his agent Guillaume Valladeau called ASI Media which is involved in video production, brand media services and social media representation.
“I have been taking photos since the age of 16, and as I was one of the first flatland riders do video parts, both flatland and street, I have a very strong relationship with imagery and aesthetics. Even when I ride, I want how I perform to be beautiful. I don't want to do technical stuff just to do technical stuff. I want to show everyone how beautiful riding a BMX can be."
14 min
Matthias Dandois explores Paris
Model, actor, BMX flatland visionary... Matthias Dandois brings elegance and style to his Paris segment.
Flatland is constantly evolving as a discipline, younger athletes come into the sport and innovate. The need to keep on top of the sport becomes ever more demanding.
“In flatland, you have to ride a lot and have discipline to constantly invent new tricks. It can drive you crazy. Suddenly, all the work you do is not necessarily rewarded, and that does not help my mindset. Fortunately, I was able to reinvent myself and continue!"
A new phase in Dandois's career
In 2018, the UCI took BMX flatland as a bike discipline under its wing and so breathed new life into the flatland discipline. Under the UCI's guise, a World Cup series was introduced in 2018 and an official World Championship came into being in 2019 as part of the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships. This was new competitive motivation for Dandois with flatland getting a bigger profile in the wider world due to the UCI's involvement.
Dandios won the World Cup overall in 2018 and 2019 and won the World Championship in 2021 on home ground in Montpellier, France. There is even talk of flatland being an Olympic discipline possibly at the 2028 games and beyond.
“The situation is no longer the same at all. We're now entering a bit into a different star system [with flatland]."
Still going strong, Dandois at Red Bull Circle of Balance in December 2022
© Jeff Zielinski/Red Bull Content Pool
New approaches, new challenges
Now 33, Dandois has had to realign how he approaches flatland. He's no longer a young man so much of the work he puts in these days is less riding on the bike to train and practice but strength and fitness work off the bike. Dandois is a keen runner also.
"I'm lucky not to have to ride a lot to win today, because it's kind of in my DNA now. I work much more physically off the bike today. I'm less enduring than before."
There's no talk of retirement yet. Flatland being a possible Olympic discipline in the future is a strong carrot to dangle in front of him. Being a skills-based discipline leaves him a lot of leeway to continue competing and he's keen to take things 'step by step'. When he comes to stop it will be on his terms.
"I want to stop competing at the top, but will continue to ride BMX all my life. I need it."
