Ewen Turner catches up with the Atherton brothers to chat racing, life after racing and digging trails. From playing in the woods to world-class riders, they are still both at the top of their respective game with no plans to take their foot off the gas.

Ewen Turner sits down with two legends of the sport, Dan and Gee Atherton at the Kendal Mountain Festival.

When Dan and Gee come to town, the opportunity to catch up for a chat cannot be missed. With the Kendal Mountain Festival in full swing, I grabbed them both before going on stage for the sell-out Bike Night. Having spent a lifetime together riding bikes, they now use their time on the bike differently. I wanted to find out how things had changed between them over the years since the good old days of World Cup racing as a family. 

You guys go back a long way, there was a time when you did the same things, but these days things have diverged. How has that relationship evolved over the years?

Gee - To be honest very little has changed between us you know, it's funny, from when we were kids at school, going through to turning professional and racing with each other all over the world to going our separate ways and Dan doing more of his thing. Like, nothing has changed we still spend pretty much every other day riding bikes together and dicking around on motorbikes, going out on whatever new thing he's built and testing it out and that's still the same today as it was 25 years ago.

Dan - I think that initial draw to pushing the limits that got us into mountain biking in the first place is still exactly the same now and you know we have diversified into not just racing, but doing projects as well. It's still about pushing the limits of what we love doing which is riding, you know, whether it's building a bike park or racing or whatever it is, it's all about pushing those limits.

So what is Dan's thing then?

Gee - Laughs

Dan - It's surprising how many people message me asking me what I actually do.

Gee - Me and Rach normally! 'What the hell do you actually do?'

Dan - I guess it is hard to say really. I mean for all these projects we do there are so many years of prep behind the scenes that go into them. Red Bull Hardline and now with the bike park, it's those years of prep that people don't see. Obviously, they are documented because of social media, but I try not to document them as much as you can as it can dilute the hype if you like. So yeah there are big years of my life missing (in the media) where people are asking what the hell is going on? I think it's just when you come from racing your every move is documented, and it's so public when you step away from racing it's surprising how quickly you drop off the map as soon as you're not racing.

Do you miss the racing side of bikes?

Dan - No, I love this side of it (the quiet side), to be honest, I was never an 'in front of the camera' kind of guy, I loved just being at home and digging and being behind the scenes but I guess that's what happens growing up with Gee and Rach!

Gee - But Dan's day-to-day lifestyle would blow peoples minds if they were to see it. I'll get up early in the morning, and I'll text him to find out what he's up to, and he's already been out for three hours already on the hill. He spends literally dawn to dusk every day creating this bike park. Him and a group of lads turning this entire forest on the side of a mountain into this mountain bike heaven. I've been there seeing it every week and popping in to see what they are doing, and it blows my mind to see what they are creating, carving this bike park from scratch into the mountain.

Dan - I think that comes from the racing mentality. When you're a racer, it's about applying that race mentality to your work. Nobody ever lives up to expectation at races, when you race it's everything from the moment you wake, thinking how was my sleep, what can I eat to get the most out of my body and everything you do is all about going fast. When you stop racing you can't just turn that side of your brain off, you just apply it to something else. For me, I've applied it to digging and building, so it's hard for the other guys (dig crew) to keep up because it's so intense, but it achieves what you want to achieve, and when you're racing that's winning.

Once a racer always a racer then?

Dan - It's easy to say it, but when you've actually been a racer and been at the top of your game, it rings true for sure.

Was it hard when you were no longer racing world cups together?

Gee - I missed him for sure because us riding together was what got me to where I was. I just turned up for a race and took it for granted that I just do what Affy (Dan) did and follow him and do what he does. In my head, there was no greater mentor and no greater person to follow through world cups. Sure enough, it worked really well for me and my first world cup win I got I just literally spent the weekend following Dan down the hill and tried to do the same when the race run came. I was as shocked as the next man but all my life that's what I've been doing, and that's what I've always done. When he went a different way with the racing and doing more enduro stuff, it was a shame, but I kept doing what I was doing.  We’re still riding together so it's not like I miss him, just look at him you couldn't miss that.

Dan - I definitely miss that. Pushing Gee on at a world cup was amazing, that feeling of practising together, it almost took the stress out of it and took the tension out of the racing. Just riding together, I miss that massively and the structure of a race weekend is hard to fill.

What makes success? Is it luck, or is it in the genes or just a bunch of hard work?

Gee - I think whether we knew it or not, we spent our younger lives preparing for world cups but with no intention too. Just in the woods asking who can ride this faster, watching him and thinking that's sick, but I'm going to try that line there. Without realising it, we spent ten years preparing ourselves for world cup racing. I think people do look at it and think it's the genes, or mum and dad must have trained you up as these cyclist kids when you were like four years old. But it wasn't at all and was down to Affy getting us bikes taking us out in the woods and just enjoying ourselves and having a good craic with it. We just got into that mindset of wanting to go fast on bikes, and when it boils down to it, that's all it needs.

Dan - I remember when we both started riding BMX, and Gee was like not really into the riding, one of my mates had a bike for sale, a Raleigh Burner, and I remember calling him saying 'do you want it?' and him saying 'Nah not really', so I said I would buy it anyway because I need someone to ride with.

Gee - I remember you telling me he wants a tenner for this bike and I remember thinking I dunno if its worth it as I'm not really bothered and Dan was like, I'm buying it and came home with this bike.

How much help has it been to be a family all racing World Cups?

Dan - As we progressed racing I was like s**t, Gee's getting close to me but then after about three weeks it was like how can I catch him up.

Gee - It's always easier when someone else has done something for you and shown you how to do it. Affy spent years working out that formula of how to race and how to do well and how to be successful and then told me in a way. What he'd done in three years, he told me, showed me, and I could do in a few world cups.

Dan - Yeah but to be a world cup winner, there are so few world cup winners, it doesn't matter what anyone says there are only a few people in the world who can win a world cup. It doesn't matter how good a rider you are how much you've got your shit together, there is just something there. To be a world cup winner it just takes everything, no matter what you do, some people will never have it, and I never had it. It's not talent, it's not work ethic; it's just something else you know?

Gee - To a certain extent I agree, you just have to look at how many people have won a world cup to know the answer. I think there is definitely a little extra that it takes to be a good racer, Affy has won a world cup before, he's apparently forgotten that he's very hard on himself and the success he had as a racer is what many people would have dreamt of. He was always hard on himself and wanted more and more which is what made him the racer he was, and what has washed onto Rach and me as a work ethic.

Dan - I think that came from you and Rach as well, it's so hard to step up to that mark, when you and Rach were winning every weekend it's a big ask, and it was amazing as every weekend was so intense, if it wasn't one of them winning it was the other. For that to go on for years and years and to still be there now at the top is wow... I need to change disciplines or my life every few years to stay excited, to stay stoked on the sport but Gee manages to just carry on like a train, it's mental to see it.

Would you be successful is you were an only child?

Dan - I wouldn't have been, no.

Gee - No, definitely not, Affy wouldn't even be alive now. The number of stupid things I've talked him out of trying. 'You won't make it' or 'you need a bigger run-up', things like that. Nah 100 per cent not, none of us, we'd be screwed.

How do you guys measure success? World Cup podiums make it pretty easy, but what if they're not there anymore. Is there anything else?

Gee - Yeah for me it's def down to the racing. It has to be you can't fathom the amount of effort required to go into a world cup season, and you can't go into that unprepared. People tell you they're chilled or just there for a good time, but that's rubbish. Anyone who’s having any kind of success at a world cup has put an enormous amount of effort, time and hardship in, and no one does that without looking for a result or expecting something. I prepare for months, risk a lot and put a lot on the line you know racing downhill at world cup speed you're putting a lot on the line there and putting a lot at risk, and I want a lot from it. I'm not happy to just qualify and chill and have fun. It's definitely race results for me, for sure.

Dan - I think it's impossible to fill that void of a race win, it's so measurable, and you're constantly searching for it. You do amazing things once you step away from racing, but you see so many racers go off the rails when they finish racing as it's so hard to fill that life structure that's missing.

Gee - I find it really interesting watching Affy and still seeing that effort in his work with a goal and asking 'have I succeeded, yes or no?' Could I have done better, and it's still that exact mentality and that same process, and it follows that path you do for a competition. He's still very hard on himself and still asks if he has succeeded.

Dan - I think when you step away from racing it's the highs and the lows just get dumbed down a little bit. You do get success, and you do get hard times, but compared to how high you get when you win a race and how low you get when you're injured, the edges are just blurred a little bit.

So how about Hardline 2018, a great success for both of you? How do you guys still support each other on an event like Hardline?

Dan - That was the best year for me because Gee won it, with racing it's very personal when you win, it's you, you've got a good team behind you, and you wouldn't win without them but it's you on the podium and with everything else you achieve its more of a project and there's a lot of people involved, but it's never quite as personal as racing.

Gee - Hardline this year was a mix for me, there are two different types of outcomes I look for in a successful weekend. One is literally survival, and two is the result, with Affy riding as well then it's twice the risk. The big thing about Hardline for us is testing the jumps. We've got a big crew building the jumps, but at that final call when the tracks ready and Affy and I are up there with our mate who's a paramedic and two lads with shovels, it's an eerie feeling. No glitz and glamour or people watching, it's just a small group on a wild track to see if the jumps are safe, or even doable. This year we had to test the new finish straight which was ridiculous, we did it though...

Dan - You did it! I didn't do it!

Gee - I hit this jump and no joke I made the landing by about 3 inches, and this jump is 70ft. so they decided they had to make it smaller, so this version everyone saw for Hardline finals was the smaller version. It's a horrible time in your life when you know you have to test Red Bull Hardline (laughs). Red Bull won't let us put the event on, not knowing if anyone has hit the jumps yet. We just took it in turns to test them.

Dan - I've tested Hardline before without Gee and it went pretty bad just because it's so easy to gauge with him and we feed off each other, and Gee is really good at saying yes or no about a jump, where I'd be a bit more yes.

Gee - Affy will hit whatever is in front of him, whereas I'm the sensible one.

Successful year all round for the family, 100 world cups for Gee and the Hardline success, what else have you been up to?

Dan - This bike park really, I've been pretty busy with that and no it's not Hardline, it's a lot mellower than that, the bike park is not any one thing that pushes the limits and the sport. It’s the general concept of a big resort style canvas in the UK, so young riders can get used to those long 5/6 min tracks, and we can have somewhere with 50 or 60 tabletops in a row. Everyone goes to Whistler and loves it, and we're never going to create Whistler in the UK but I think the UK mountain bike scene is so strong and we've got places like Revolution, Bike Park Wales and Antur Stiniog. They are really pushing the boundaries of the sport, and we've been there since they started, and it's been inspirational for me to see those bike parks grow and come up. Like racing, you see what they've done and try and do it better, and that's all racing is.

Gee - The thing with the bike park that's really interesting is people turning up with a nervous look on their face heading down looking terrified then come out the bottom surprised. They expected Affy to have created this monster an actually there are really fun jump lines you can ride on a short travel bike. We spent days chilling and riding, and it's amazing fun. I've tried to build stuff that people will enjoy, no gaps jumps and nothing that you have to clear.

What's left to achieve?

Gee - We do have another project next year, which is the most exciting project we've done to date but we can't really talk about it, but it's getting very close to a point where you'll hear about it. It's a terrifying project but really exciting, so that's going to be a big thing for us.

Of course, it is now public knowledge that the Atherton’s have launched their own bike brand. We’re really excited to hear about this since the interview was conducted last year and will be looking forward to checking out the bikes they produce soon!

And racing next year?

Gee - 100 per cent yes, that's a big goal of mine, the end of this season showed that, not just I still felt fast and strong, but that I still loved it and was still super passionate about it. 

Thanks To Dan and Gee, Gill Harris and The Kendal Mountain Festival team

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By Ewen Turner
Ewen Turner is a self-confessed bike geek from Kendal in the Lake District of England. He runs a coaching and guiding business up there and has a plethora of knowledge about bikes with an analytical approach to testing. His passion for bicycles is infectious, and he’s a ripper on the trails who prefers to fit his working life around his time on the bike.

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