Bike Tour - Team Building Adventure

July 15, 2013

A bit about the team behind our Mountain Biking Team Building Activities…

Escapegoat Adventures. Ian and Deborah Fehler have spent years living in Adelaide. And fell in love with travelling to different locations around the world. The couple tries to live an active lifestyle through mountain biking. The 20 years of work experience in promoting outdoor tourism have led them to venture in event management thus the creation of the Escapegoat Adventure program. The program centers in providing the best bike tour adventure experience different locations of South Australia.

Deborah, is considered to be the brains of the team. She is born and bred in Adelaide and is a qualified social worker. She was previously employed as a social worker and have enjoyed various social work roles. After years of work, Deborah decided to travel to Europe. She visited and worked as a chalet in The Alps where she met het partner Ian. After spending time in Colorado, Cyprus and in the Caribbean she decide that it's time for her to move back to Adelaide with Ian. She continued working for charitable team building activities as a Programme Coordinator. She mainly organized events with proceeds that helps children with cancer. Despite the busy schedule for her charity works, Deborah still managed to travel back to Europe for 16 months. While staying in Europe, she worked as a chalet manager. But her work did not stop her from being adventurous, she did a lot of mountain biking, hiking and even snowboarding there.

Today, Deborah is happily staying back in Adelaide. Making sure that her events management experience will benefit her, she organizes the trips and events on Escapegoat Adeventures.

Ian spent a lot of time travelling after finishing his degree in Oceanography at the University to avoid getting a proper job. Yet he is a qualified Scuba Dive Instructor, Snowboard Guide and even a Fraud Analyst.

It was in the year 2002 when Ian married Deborah, an Adelaide girl, and moved to the city of churches reignited his passion for all things about mountain biking. In 2006, Ian boarded off to the French Alps to try a new adventure. He worked for a British Adventure Company as Head MTB Guide for almost 2 years. During this precious experience, he was able to achieve the Mountain Bike Leaders Award, an award given by the British Cycling Organization. The MBL qualification alloowed Ian to serve as a guide for biking expeditions. With this award under his belt, Ian had lead and instructed many bike riders from different countries around the world.

Since 2008, Ian has became the head of Escapegoat in Adelaide. Having experienced the best biking tours in Adelaide, Ian have become more of a figure in the Adelaide biking scene. Hundreds of MTB riders have had the opportunity to improve their skills under his careful guidance. Mountain biking has become a growing hobby in South Australia and thousands more have tried mountain biking for the first time. Numerous Flinders Ranges expedition and annual mountain biking trips back to the French Alps have kept Ian busy over the years. He even lead biking group adventures in New Zealand.

Ian splits his time between Escapegoat and lots of other activities. He often contributes to the “Australian Mountain Bike” magazine through informative articles he personally writes. He is currently the bike maintenance instructor for BikeSA. He also functions as a committee member of the SA Mountain Bike Association (SAMBA). He also assists organizations like BikeSA and DEWNR with different biking trails projects. Ian is a man of many different talents. He is a qualified Private Investigator, an adventure racer, a mountain bike orienteer, the 2009 SA State Champion, and beer and wine drinker. Due to his passion and commitment for MTB Trail Advocacy, Escapegoat is the first (and currently, the only) MTB tour business to have a licence to operate tours in DEWNR conservation parks.  

Jase Rodley recently joined the team, after working in Whistler as an MTB guide. He rides a mix of cross country, downhill, all day epics and all the fun stuff in between. He was previously a mountain bike guide for the Whistler Bike Park in Canada. He always tells beginner bikers that there’s so much fun to be had within the sport, whether it’s through competition or just the enjoyment of it. Jase' passion for mountain biking has been born out of all the fun he'd experienced. He now works as a guide and coach to help others discover this great sport.

Jase is also an IT geek, and the man behind the Ridemorebikes blog.