I continued to race (and feature on the podium) in European DH race events throughout these years, using the event format as training for my mass start (Mega and Maxi Avalanche) campaigns. By the end of 2010, having won all major 24-hour race events and seen two of our riders claim World Champion titles in solo 24-hour, Extreme Endurance was finally wrapped up. Rob and I parted ways to pursue our own personal mountain bike goals, we both continued to set new standards in mountain bike endurance and my race career finally came to a close in 2012 after a 4th place result in the Master's category at the Enduro des Nations.
I'd been overlapping racing, coaching, media, and publishing work whilst working on mountain bike trails for a few years, it was time to pursue these other areas of mountain biking further. The racing years were simply amazing, I lived that dream, wore the tee shirt, and cleaned my bike with it! The many magazine features and publishing of The Mountain Bike Skills Manual with Bloomsburg Group really pushed me further down the coaching route.
MTBSkills grew organically from my teenage years; we used to trash talk about technique as kids, my close riding friends were all competent riders who featured high on results sheets in regional and national level competitions. They were great for bouncing ideas off, and like many groups of friends who ride together, we would rift off one another and coach each other on the trail and the race track. Things really took off when I made the move to 7stanes central in 2005. Having helped shape the CTC (now Cycling UK) skills instructor training course, I expanded the MTBSkills offer further by co-authoring the mountain bike Trail Inspection and Trail Maintenance Coordinator training courses.
As if my schedule wasn't busy enough, in 2007, I partnered with good friends, the Edwards family, and their company UCC (Mega Avalanche event organizer) to host the first-ever Enduro race event in the UK. The experience was one I will never forget; we ran events at Glentress, Kielder, and Ae Forest as well as scoping out a host of other locations across the country. We set the stage for others to follow and shine the light on this amazing race format, which would later become a whole sub-category within mountain biking.
I have ridden for many prestigious brands and still, to this day, enjoy support from Mavic, Renthal, Gore BikeWear, and Apidura. I've been privileged to see the sport grow in many ways and have loved every minute of enduring the ever-changing technology that we ride. My years of experience can help you get more from your mountain bike experience. Whether you are new to the sport or are a seasoned rider, we never stop learning and can all benefit from brushing up on our skills and techniques. if you'd like to benefit from a professional mountain biker's insight, then please get in touch.
