No not really. I think that mainly I just feel bad if I don’t put in the effort that I know I should, to training or whatever, and then if it all goes terribly wrong I feel bad as well.
So you do feel a sense of responsibility?Yeah because if we don’t get the results then there’s not as much money coming in and Brownie’s got a family and kids and stuff.
So everyone at Atherton Racing is devoted to it? That’s just more motivation for you? It’s not scary or anything?No I don’t think so. Because it’s all happened so slowly and naturally, we’ve built it up so slowly and it’s just progressed with us. If you were coming into this and thinking ‘shit, everyone’s relying on me doing good’ then it might be a bit different.
Because of the good thing you have going on as a team, do you think your competitors look at that and find it intimidating?I don’t know, I think sometimes I should be way better than them considering what we’ve got. Particularly some of the French girls, they’re all studying at uni and stuff like that. And then there’s me just doing this full time, and we’re still pretty close you know. Like Emmeline Ragot, she smashes it and I know she studies and stuff. So massive respect to them, and how fast would they be if they all had this? But then on the other hand, all the teams have stepped it up in the last few years anyway, everyone’s got the managers and God knows what. So everyone’s doing pretty much the same thing as us, although they may not have everyone living together and everyone working 24/7. But doing it this way there is downsides as well. Sometimes I wonder how much faster I’d be if I wasn’t surrounded by Atherton Racing all the time (nervous laughter).
What do you think Tracy Moseley and Sabrina Jonnier had that put them ahead of others?I just think the same with anything: the more you do something, the more experience you get and the more comfortable you get doing it, the better you get. Definitely when I started racing World Cups I couldn’t beat them, they were the girls to beat, and they had that much more experience. Now I almost feel like I’m them and the younger girls are me – how I was a few years ago – which is quite cool, it happened all of a sudden. One minute I was chasing them and trying to catch them and thinking ‘what the hell can I do’, and then the next minute I was suddenly up there. Every athlete has their moment at the top and regardless of whether they’ve got a big team around them like this or they’re just good on their bike.
Maybe as a family we’re not quite as naturally talented on our bikes as other people who’ve been good in the past, but we do everything else good. Everyone has a reason why they’re good: Sabrina was really powerful and a really good racer, to me it seemed like you couldn’t get into her head, she was just like, “F–k you”. Tracy was almost the same, really strong and really sure of herself. But I know it took them both a while to get there.
Do you wish the World Cup season were longer?Yeah I think I do wish it was longer, definitely, I think it makes it more interesting because everyone kind of evens out a little bit. There are always people that start super strong and people that end super strong. I wish it was longer because I love it, I love racing and when it comes to the end of the season I think ‘what am I going to do now?’ Because it’s my whole life, it really is. I don’t just race, I absolutely love it and when I don’t race I’m not quite right, I don’t really feel like a whole person. Sometimes I feel like I race because… well not because I wouldn’t know what to do, but it does give you a purpose. But it is only mountain biking!
Do you ever think about not racing?Yeah definitely, when I was injured a lot I was like ‘what’s the point’, because as soon as you get injured your whole life goes on hold, you literally can’t do anything. And then you think ‘is it really worth it’. Definitely the older you get the more you think about what you’re going to do after racing, because you can’t race forever. A little part of me does think that I could race forever, just because I don’t know what else to do.
Steve Peat has got almost 15 years on you.Yeah and when I think about that I wonder how on earth he is still doing it. But then when you think about not racing… I guess that’s why it’s so important to have a break from it. A part of me feels like I don’t want to get to the end of my career and this is all I’ve done. But I haven’t done everything I want to do in mountain biking, and there’s only a certain amount of time in life to do things.
