How did the opportunity with the
Athertons come about?
Last year I was on Intense and I was
getting some better results in my first
year of racing Elite World Cups and at
British National races. They approached
me near the end of the year by email
and we just chatted from there.
You guys went to California for two
weeks in January. What was that all
about?
Yeah, that was amazing, it was my first
trip to the US, but it was a real-hard two
weeks.
It didn’t really feel like it was happening
until this year though - it took till the
new year to meet everyone and ride
with them. It all feels really natural and
normal now! I was in the gym most days and we were
always doing something. We’d go to the
gym, do sprints on the road bike and ride
a lot of downhill. The riding was super
difficult actually - I’m used to roots and
slop, and the ground was so hard and
loose.
That must have felt like a hell of an
opportunity when they contacted
you? That was a really good trip. It makes it
easier when it’s nice and sunny and it’s
easy to get out of bed!
It was amazing really. I’ve always
wanted to be on a factory team, it’s the
best support that you can get. All you
have to do is concentrate on riding your
bike, which is the ultimate goal. Yeah, it
feels amazing. Do you spend a lot of time on bike
setup and testing?
What does a team like that offer you
as a rider?
Everything you can ever imagine. You
get bikes for every type of riding and all
the kit you’ll ever need. Anything you’d
need as a rider that you can think of
will help you is provided. There’s also
loads of support at World Cup with
mechanics.
I’ve never done much tuning or bike
setup before. I’ve always just run what
I brung.
The Athertons took me to San Remo (in
Italy) for a week early in the season and
I focussed on riding rather than testing
and setup, which is something I regret.
Suspension is such a mystery to me
because it’s not something I’ve ever
spent much time on.
The biggest thing though is the
knowledge that they give you. They’ve
built up so much experience over the
years and they just know what works
and what doesn’t. But now the season is underway I’m
picking stuff up from Gee and Rach and
the mechanics and starting to understand
it better. I’m learning everything really
quickly… When you get that right it
doesn’t feel like you’re going faster it just
gets easier because the suspension is
doing more of the work.
What’s changed since joining the
Athertons? And how about gym stuff? Do you do a
lot of fitness work?
Not that much actually! I still do the
same training and same warm up as
when I was a junior on my old team. Yeah, quite a bit. I train with Ben at
Strength Factory in Bristol. We normally
start training in October with a lot in the
gym time building strength. In January,
you start adding sprints and lower rep
weights with more power and explosive
stuff. The gym is usually two or three
times a week. I also do some longer XC
rides twice a week. And yeah, just as
much downhill riding as much as you
can. u
I’m definitely picking a few things up
though. The big one I’ve learnt is from
Gee. In practice, Gee goes flat out
on full runs. As a junior, I never did
that. I’ve learned to put down full runs
gradually over the weekend. I’ve learnt
to get up to speed early.
What are Gee and Rachel like?
He’s real funny, he’s a bit of a joker.
You wouldn’t really think that. You don’t
really see that at the races because
he’s focussed on racing. Like in Croatia
we hired a speedboat which was funny
as! Rachel is rad too. She’s just funny
and so normal. They’re literally just a
normal brother and sister. It’s pretty
funny to watch.