2008, what a year – not so long ago is it that you and Gee were World Champions? You were totally unbeatable that season. Will we see a return to that form?
Rach: I think it’s easy enough to have a year like that but to keep doing it when you have got a target on your back, everyone sees what you are doing and you are sort of forging the way, you need to keep changing and bettering yourself and it is hard to do. It’s not out of the question to do it again.
It’s nice here in North Wales isn’t it, you must enjoy the off–season?Rach: It’s interesting to see what another rider does during the off–season, it will be interesting for the team to have another angle to it with Marc on board.
GT, quite a history?Gee: The time when we were getting into downhill Peaty and all those boys were storming it. And I remember looking at it and thinking that is the coolest thing.
Rach: I think we are all thinking it would be good to bring back the glory days because certainly before I started racing it was all about them, all the iconic photos you look at nowadays are all about them.
Gee: It was good for GT to want to do it as well as us. It’s rare you get the sponsor with as much motivation as the team.
But it’s been a thin decade for GTMarc: I’ve been there since ‘09 and I think that the team has come a long way, I mean I’m not talking massive steps here at becoming a huge team again, but it’s fair to say we have come a long way as far as presence at races. And now this opportunity with Athertons is the next step to be above and beyond everyone else.
Must be so hard at the top, Gwin and Hart have brought yet another layer.Gee: No it’s not because it’s the same every year, you have two or three smashing it to pieces and every single rider in the race has to step their game up a huge amount for the following year to match that.
Marc: At the end of each year you know what areas you’ve sucked at and what areas you know you need to go and work on, and then you maintain and improve everything else. If you don’t have that at the end of September it wouldn’t be much fun would it? That’s the drive.
Good that Marc has done some tweaking Gee? This year your bike was unproven.Gee: Yeah I think this year I was slightly uncomfortable where we had got to with the development of that bike.
Not like you were going slow at the beginning of the year.Gee: No, and I wasn’t going slow at any part of the year, but like you were saying, it’s one thing getting close to the win but another thing getting the win, and that’s where I have been struggling this year. It’s not a case whether the bike was right or wrong but if your not comfortable on it then…
How’s it all going to work in 2012? You four will be off around the World and Dan will be up the woods cutting trees and building tracks.Dan Brown: That’s pretty much what it is now. They’re rarely in the same place, maybe at a few races and back here, but that’s what Atherton Racing does behind the scenes.
Atherton racing will be bringing an enduro event into the picture too, but what about bringing new young racers in?
Dan Brown: We are working on something, nothing we can let out of the bag yet, but we are working with one of our sponsors about a development programme.
Animal Atherton was a big thing? That’s come to an end?Dan Brown: Those guys have got different avenues they want to go down. Time to go to a more global brand I guess, and it just happened that One Industries merged with Six Six One, and then One wanted to develop a bike range and then…well it came together at the right time.
Finally words to Dan Atherton…chainsaws, lawnmowers, what shall we talk about?Don’t ask me about the John Deere. No idea, I haven’t said anything I can get in trouble with so I’m happy!
And, like all GT riders before them they head out to sunny California for part of the winter. I mean, who’s gonna feed the cat and dog?
