A Moutainbiking Masterclass with Tracy Moseley

Foreign.

I'm charlie redding. And I'm laura sidall and this is the tribathlon podcast.

I'll do the Cape Epic when I've won the World Championships. This was like a few years before I won, so obviously that day in 2010, Anka was there in Canada and she came up to me, said, right, next year we're doing the Cape Epic. And I was like, oh no, that was Tracey Moseley.

And this episode is a mountain biking masterclass. Welcome back to the Tribathlon Podcast. Sadly, I'm without my co host Laura Siddall Sid as we know her at the moment because she is currently in Tokyo as reserve guide for the Paralympic team. Lucky her. Certainly if you follow her on Instagram, you'll see that she's taking some amazing photos whilst exploring the Japanese countryside, something I'm very jealous about. It looks incredible and Japan is probably the top of my bucket list. So I really like the idea of exploring that on a bike and that's exactly what she's doing whilst prepping for the Paralympics should she be needed. So we're all looking forward to seeing the Paralympics unveil. Actually it goes live today recording, albeit you'll, you'll get this recording as of Friday I assume. But I'm really looking forward to having seen such an incredible Olympics in Tokyo, the Paralympics. I'm really looking forward to and see seeing, you know, people like Claire Cashmore who we've had on the podcast competing. I think it's just going to be an incredible spectacle and I've no doubt that Tokyo will do it fantastic justice in the same way that they did with the Olympics. So really looking forward to getting into that and also looking forward to getting my co host back. So just a sort of fairly brief intro before we go into the main interview of this podcast, a few things I just thought I would pick up on the that link to previous podcasts or other things that are going on. So the first one is we've just had an announcement from Krista Cullen's charity to Fauti, which is a Kenya based charity and it's about a project that our initiative they're doing which is called Together for Water. And the challenge is inviting individuals, teams of up to six people and corporate groups to shake off lockdown and be part of a movement to travel a distance through any means possible, which is walking, wheel running, cycling, rowing, swimming and bring awareness and fundraising to create water security in rural communities in Africa. They're aiming to clock up 6,000 miles collectively, which is the distance between the UK and Kenya. And the reason that they're doing this is because they're trying to build resilience, not reliance among Africa's communities and wildlife and, and whatever your activity or accumulative movement, you can join the event. Krista grew up in Kenya and lives back there now. If you listen to the podcast, if you haven't listened to the podcast interview of Christa Cullen, you must. It's one of my favorites. So if you want to find out more about that, then you should definitely listen to that episode. But she's massively passionate about Kenya as a country, the community and the wildlife. And I'm massively passionate about Africa having I've not been to Kenya, but I've spent a lot of time in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania. So yeah, I couldn't, you know, want to endorse this charity more. And in fact, it may well be our charity of the year next year for our business. So if you want to find out more about that, go to togetherforwater.org togetherforwater.org and you can find out all about that amazing project that you can join up and you can contribute towards those miles and you can help the African communities build resilience rather than reliance, which is the key to improving the communities out there and the, the wildlife and how the two interact. So please do check out TogetherForWater.org Another thing that links to a previous podcast is Ali Dixon on her podcast interview recommended Charlie Spedding's book From Last to First. I love this book. I thought this is absolutely brilliant. I think it's the first book I've ever read, Track Runner. So it gave me a really good insight into what it, what it's like to be a 1500 meter runner or 5000 meter runner or progressing onto the 10,000 meters and then as Charlie did, progressing from there onto the marathon. Very similar actually to next the next interview that you will hear in a couple of weeks time because by the way, we've gone down to Fortnightly podcast. It was just becoming too onerous on both Sid and myself. So that these episodes will now be released fortnightly. Going forward. Forward. But anyway, so next episode will be Elise McColgan who was in the Olympics. Actually she's been in the last three Olympics, but she's progressed from steeplechase to 5,000 meters to 10,000 meters and hopes to progress to Paris as the marathon. So Charlie Spedding's book From Last to First is absolutely brilliant. I really love this book. It's brilliant in terms of the psychology around and goal setting that he took to being a successful runner and winning a silver medal, no, a bronze medal in the Olympics in the marathon. I particularly like the chapter which is called Beer Drinkers Guide to Sports Psychology. That for me sums up everything I love about this book in that it's got some quality narrative about drinking a good pint of English ale. And it's got a whole load of sports psychology in there too. Really, really good. I can't recommend that highly enough. I suggest you check it out. A couple of last things. If you follow the sort of triathlon world, you'll know that this weekend is the Collins cup, which is essentially like the Ryder cup for triathlon. It's going to be Europe versus America versus the rest of the world. Got some amazing British athletes in there. So that looks to me like it's going to be absolutely fantastic. So it's definitely worth checking out. My understanding is you can watch it in the UK on either Euro sport, you can watch highlights on BT Sport or also I think you can watch it on the Collins cup app. So check that out if you can. Sadly, the Ironman World Championships in October in Kona, Hawaii has been postponed. Must be massively frustrating if you spent, if you built your year around that event because of course with doing Iron Mans, you know, as a, as a professional you can't do more than, you know, two, three a year, something like that. Maybe the odd Joe Skipper crazy character can do a few more, but generally speaking they won't do more than two or three. So to then lose your kind of a race, it's been moved to February. So let's just keep everything crossed that it happens in February. But yeah, so that is a shame. But at least hopefully it will happen in February. And then the final thing is please can you, if you enjoy these podcasts please can you review them on Apple and also share them as well. Share them with your friends, share them on social media, anything would be just appreciated because the more people that we can spread the word to, the more, you know, the more the podcast will continue and the better the guests that we can get on as well. So it's a self fulfilling prophecy. So let's move on to today's interview. So today our I'm interviewing the incredible Tracey Moseley who is a British professional racing cyclist specializing in downhill mountain bike racing. She grew up on the farm with a bmx actually very similar to me. And following her brother into mountain bike competition, she went on to become world Downhill champion. She was Three times world Enduro champion, she was two times World cup downhill overall champion, to name just a few of her incred incredible successes. So being being the first mountain biker that we've got on the podcast, I really wanted to get to grips. It's not a sport or part of the sport that I know very well. So I really wanted to get to grips with the different types of off road racing that are out there, the impact of E bikes, because they just seem to be coming more and more prominent both in people's normal lives, but also in the mountain bike racing world they're starting to feature as well. And, and also I wanted to get an understanding of the best places in the UK abroad to explore the trails, you know, just eat. That can either be as a, just as a sort of family ride to explore or it can be a multi day race like the Cape Epic. So Tracy has just had phenomenal success in the world of mountain biking and now is sharing that success by mentoring others in the sport. So I know you're going to love the interview with Tracey Moseley. So Tracey, welcome to the Tribe Athlon podcast. Thank you so much for joining me. Looking forward to chatting all things mountain biking. I am, I'm not going to proclaim to be any expert on mountain biking. In fact, really quite the opposite. You're the first mountain biker we've had on the podcast. So I'm keen to learn more and to kind of find out more about the world that you have had such phenomenal success in. So let's kick things off. Do you want to tell people a bit about your story? Because I also grew up on a farm. I know you grew up on a farm. So tell us a little bit about how growing up on the farm influenced your cycling and how you ended up getting into mountain biking and the successes that you had along the way.

Yeah. So first, yeah, thanks for having me on. It's always good to be on something new. And I don't know anything much about triathlon and road racing so we could learn something. But yes, I mean, I certainly grew up just as any normal kid, playing lots of sports at school. And it was probably, I guess when I was about 12 or 13, my family went to some friends down in Suffolk who had a bike hire shop and we ended up coming home with two kind of @ the time, probably quite good mountain bikes. But looking back now, they were really horrible things. But at the time they were kind of. Mountain biking was really starting to kind of take off as a sport. And so we Took these mountain bikes back home and my brother then started riding more. We live quite close to the Malvern Hills, so we've got quite a good off road range of hills to start mountain biking on. He joined the local cycling club, joined a few local lads from our village and started just riding on the hills. And then that quickly progressed to them doing some local racing. And as the younger sister, I kind of just ended up going along with the family and always was very competitive in general with my brother, whatever we did. So even growing up on the farm, we used to have little old BMXs and old road bikes and we always used to make ramps and what you would call North Shore now, like raised planks of wood that we used to try and balance along, like little beams and stuff. So I guess there was lots of cycling that went on in my early childhood years, just as kids on farms playing with bits of wooden bricks. So lots of skill stuff that developed before I even realized that. When I started going along to the races, it kind of was a natural progression really at that point it actually reminds.

Me. So I spent a lot of my. I had a BMX rather than mountain bike, but I spent a lot of my youth are building ramps and the like with pallets and all that sort of stuff on the farm. If I remember one, you just reminded me of one story where I set up a race down the farm drive with a mate of mine and we used Baylor twine as the finish line, which caught. Caught me straight across the neck. Really was not a very good idea. The burn mark around my neck took a bit of explaining to the headmistress at school the following. The following day. But yeah, so, so how did you. So how did that kind of emerge, kind take or progress into becoming a professional mountain biker and having the successes that you.

Had? Yeah, so I think, I mean those early years was very much me kind of 14, 15 going on to the races. My brother was the one that was really encouraging me because I used to ride at home and with his friends in our, again, stories of dangerous things in our woods. We've got a few steep, really quite steep chutes and again on a bike that was probably three sizes too big, no helmet. We used to use crazy stuff. I look back now and think, my word, what were we thinking? So, yeah, lots of, lots of crazy stuff that happened. But he, yeah, he was one that really encouraged me to go. So I started just doing some local race. We actually had a race here on the farm in 93 or 94, I think. Um, that was probably my first ever mountain bike race, but that was a cross country race, which is the Olympic discipline of mountain biking, where it's the, a multi lap race that's up and downhill. Um, and I was always much more excited by going downhill on my bike. The thought of climbing up hills and the effort that got put in was not something that really appealed to me. I was much more of like a, a sprinter type sport person and I enjoyed that adrenaline buzz from going down. So that first experience around our farm and on some bumpy fields wasn't the most exciting for me. I quickly realized that and started then choosing races that were mainly gravity fed. And there was a few slalom races, so like dual slalom, like the skiing option, that kind of thing was, was quite popular in the UK at the time. And there was a big race at the Malvern, actually on the Malvern Hills East Nor Estate. And I did the slalom race there and ended up getting into the final amongst some of the best girls in the UK at the time. This was when I was like 15 and then people said to me, you really should give this sport a go. You're pretty good. And I was like, nah, not really that fast. So it was another year before we had that same bike festival in Malvern. I went back and did the same thing and ended up winning. And that was then kind of made me realize, oh, maybe I really should, should give this a go. So I then quickly started doing nationals, but just racing downhill. So the cross country thing had gone and it was just push your bike to the top and race as fast as you could down that, down the hill. And that was the thing that I really found that I enjoyed the most. And I had success that straight away as a, as a junior then started, got the opportunity to race the World Championships in 97 in Switzerland and a few European championships as a junior. So age 16, 17 and from there still was very much like, this is just a bit of fun. And I was wanting to go to university, did my A levels, went to Sheffield University and studied human biology. And it was kind of during my time at university that things started to get a little bit more serious and I started to race more internationally and won my first ever World cup just as I finished university. So it was kind of that transition from finishing university, say, right, this is the time to really give the mountain biking a go. So in 2000 I left, left Sheffield and had my first chance to do the full World cup circuit and give the professional sport a go with some sponsorship from a team in the UK at that time. That was called Kona, it's a Canadian mountain bike, but it was a UK importer of the bikes that basically had a small UK based team that I was then with for nine years, I think after that. So it was, yeah, that was the start of it. And it kind of just grew year on year. The more I did, the more I got chance to travel, race more of the World cup series. And yes, just went from.

There. And so when was your first big win, do you think? What would you class your first.

Big. Well, my first international real big win would have been the first World Cup I ever won, which was in Fort William in 2002. And that was actually the first downhill mountain bike World cup that we ever hosted in Great Britain. So it was a big event for the UK to have. And I also became the first British woman to ever win a downhill World Cup. So that was the start of what's been an absolute kind of torrent of success in British downhill really since then. But yeah, it was quite a cool thing to actually be that first female to win one. And then now, 20 years later, it's been an incredible kind of story of the sport in this country.

Really. And so you progressed and that must have been amazing to be the first Brit to do that. And then that kind of culminated in a World cup win in 2010, didn't it? In.

Downhill? Yeah. So with mountain biking we've got like downhill, there's no Olympics, so that we've got that kind of pinnacle of sport. We've got World Championships, which is a one day race that happens every year where you can win the coveted rainbow stripes that are the same across all cycling disciplines. The white jersey with the rainbow bands. But that's a one day race and only happens obviously once a year. The World Cup Series is a series by its name and there's normally between six or eight different events throughout the year, throughout the world, and you basically score points at those and the person with the best points at the end of the year becomes the World cup champion. So there's kind of two big things to win in downhill mountain biking and that one day. World Championships have been something that eluded me for a very long time. I started off in 97, getting second as a junior and I think that was a real kind of fire for me. I'd led all the way, but then I crashed like literally the finish line and lost and got second. So I had this like little, little thing that was like chipping away at me that one day I really wanted to become World Champion as an elite female. But so there from 97 until 2010 was, was quite a while for me to finally get that. But along the way I did win the World cup series in 2006. So I kind of was. I was a lot more consistent generally doing well at World Cups, but never really winning. That important one off race was always the thing that kind of alluded me and I think that was just the essence of a one day race. The pressure, a bit of luck, you know, just getting everything to fall right on that one day is always, I think, a tough thing to win. Whereas the series, I was much more of a consistent all round, always there and thereabouts, but never always, you know, winning each week. So the series seemed to suit me more, but it wasn't the same achievement. I guess in some ways becoming World Champion and saying you're world champion is something that never. It'll be with you forever. So that was always like the one thing that I was still trying to chase and yeah, chased it for a good, a good few.

Years. And am I right in saying that these sorts of runs only take a few minutes, don't they? And you've got one crack of the whip, so you could.

Be.

Exactly. You've got huge amounts of training, huge amounts of prep. What does that prep look like in terms of getting ready for that one, you know, one shot at your. You know, the.

Title? Yes. So a downhill race course can varies between kind of three to five minutes and kind of more. So now they're probably on the shorter end of that spectrum, whereas back in the day it tends to be more like five or six minutes, sometimes for long ones. So you would arrive first thing we do is walk the course. So you basically spend, you know, a good few hours walking every part of it, looking at all the roots and rocks and the lines. You then have generally two days of practice where you could do as many runs as you wanted on course. And then you often might also walk the course again at the end of the first day of practice because things change a lot. Weather conditions obviously change, people riding it can create ruts, can change the move the rocks, you know, wear away the soil, so you get lots more bare roots coming through. So lots and lots of things can change from the first day that you walk it to actually when you finally come and race it. Um, so then two days of practice, you then have a qualifying where you do one run that basically then seeds you for that final race run. And then the fastest person always would go last to kind of build the climax of the event and then you get your one race run and everything counts on that one race run. So you can have had the best practice ever and you could have won qualifying. But if you don't win the final, then no one cares. So it's a huge amount of pressure and built for that one race run. And it is, it's you against the clock individually, a minute or two minute gaps between each person. So you should never have another person to pass or pass you unless there's an incident. So it very much is just like downhill skiing. It's just the fastest person from A to B down the course and it's huge amounts of mental prep and getting yourself in that place to be able to go 100%. You've learned the course, every single rock, root line and you have to just go as fast as you can. So it's pretty.

Cool. And obviously that means that there's a huge amount of pressure on that one run. Is there anything that you learned over the years that you thought really helped you eventually get the best out of that single opportunity? Because it's not like a bike race that might take three, four, five, six hours where you've got opportunities to change things. It's all in that one moment, isn't.

It? One mistake, and that's pretty much your race to run over. So it has to be perfection, really. So I think lots of the things that we used to do is lots of visualization. So being able to completely run through the course in your mind, you know, multiple times before the race. But certainly for me, my main kind of way was almost a distraction theory. So rather than thinking about what you're doing too much at the start of the, of the race is trying to like just focus on me riding the course perfectly, hitting every line and just running through that in my head and having music on. Taking yourself away, not overthinking the whole situation and kind of ended up trying to be in your. No one talks about being in the zone or being in this place. And it's. I think everyone's different, but it's finding that place where you're just totally focused on what you're doing, but not overthinking the crowd or the crashes you've had. You've got to take away all of those things and just keep it quite simple and just focus on A to B. Like this corner to this corner, change gear here, pedal. And that's the thing, even when I was racing during the race run, if you can keep that flow of thought process and not be distracted by noise. Or you make one mistake and then think, oh, shit, I made a mistake. I need to. You know, you get frantic. You've almost got to just be able to go through that process of linking up this turn to this turn. Okay. Breathing this, you know, just. It's really quite clinical. And if you can be able to keep that mindset and not allow external stuff that come in, then it's. It is almost like it kind of happens without you realizing. You get to the bottom, you're like, ah, there we go, done. It's like a weird zone that you do get in for sure, because that. It's.

It's. It strikes me that that's sort of your. It's a balance between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, isn't.

It?

Definitely. I think, you know, all the stuff I've read about people that have choked in. In big sporting moments, they suddenly become very conscious. They're playing the. The most famous one I can remember, not particularly famous one, but the one that I. That stands out in my mind was Matthew Syed when he was in the Olympics playing table tennis. And suddenly he. He was just playing like an amateur because he was thinking about every.

Shot. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And it must be really similar to that in the sense that you. You've learned the course, you know that there's a route there. There's a rock there that you've got to. But you've got to kind of not maybe get too analytical in that sort of. In those.

Split. You have to go with a bit of, like, instinct almost, and just allow, like you said, that subconscious needs to be. You've rehearsed it so many times. You just got to let it happen and not be, like, thinking, oh, well, last time I crashed on this jump because I did this, or whatever. You just got to go with that positive way of, this is the outcome, this is how it happens. And just linking and focusing. For me, it was like being able to channel into exactly what you're doing and not be kind of taken off course by, you know, a hole that's appeared or you recognize a voice in the crowd or someone shouts something that, you know, all those kinds of things. You always need to be able to just zone out from that and have pure focus on you executing your best run that you.

Can. Fantastic. And so you've obviously, at this stage, been embracing mountain biking for a good few years. You've worked really hard to become that world downhill champion, and that's been your big goal. How was it when you Hit that.

Goal.

What? I'm a big, big fan of goal setting, but it can often be challenging when you hit that big single goal. What was that like for.

You? A huge amount of. Everyone says it should be the most amazing, ecstatic feeling. And actually, for sure, I mean, I probably have enjoyed that moment more in years after than actually at that time, which sounds crazy. I think you look back and you can cherish it more than ever. At the time it was more huge sense of relief. Like it was like, thank God, just finally got there. And yes, the moment on the podium, putting on the jersey was absolutely incredible. But there was this quite quick, this feeling of like, what now? Like, what's next? And this kind of hold of like, this has been my goal for like over 10 years of winning this. And it was a bit like, wow, what do I do now? Like, what's the next stage? So it's kind of an odd feeling. And thankfully I think I had already started to kind of get to the point where I was at the point where am I ever going to win this world Championships as well. So I'd started to almost prepare myself in some ways for not achieving that as well. And I was realizing that I was enjoying other aspects of my mountain biking and not just the downhill. Racing was becoming not boring. But you do go to often the same venues. And I'd done 10 plus years of going to the same venues. Often the tracks were very similar as well. So you'd done this process of learning everything and it was like you go, you fly across the world somewhere to ride your bike for maybe 10, 12, 15 minutes in total, maybe if you think of the race runs you put together. And I was realizing that these places went to the mountains that we were on, had amazing other trails, not just this one racetrack. And I think it was partly. I met my husband is now James, and he was much more into kind of the cross country adventure trail riding. So he'd be off exploring the mountain and I'd be just focusing on this one downhill track. And I suddenly realized there's more than just this, just this one trail. And I started to enjoy my biking more and my kind of the all around side of mountain biking in terms of even the uphill, to be fair, I was starting to actually see the benefits of riding uphill physically and mentally and just getting you to access new places. So I'd already start having this little inkling of like, I want to do other stuff with the sport. So I also had that in the back of my mind I was like, okay, I've ticked this huge box of winning World Champs, going to do one more year and wear that jersey and have the pride of wearing a World Champs jersey for a year in competition and then that's me done. I'm going to move on to what at the time was an evolving discipline that's now a world level enduro. But it wasn't really even a World Series at that point. It was just more adventure style mountain biking, which was kind of happening in Europe at the time. So I wanted to kind of explore that. So I spent 2011 then racing the World cup wearing my jersey, actually won the World Cup Series again. I think it was just that, you know, a high and finally achieving your goals. I had such an amazing season and it was again amazing time to then to finish and hang up the hang up your boots kind of thing. But the end of a dominant year in a World Champs jersey and then say, right, thanks very much, let's move on. And that was also one of my things in my mind I always want to retire from the sport. One, still healthy, two, still enjoying it and not have been there too long, that it's become kind of sour or I'm broken from it. So those are my kind of two things. That, and that was a good time to.

Transition. So you came into the enduro world when it was sort of emerging as a sport really, didn't you? And you had pretty phenomenal success right from the off, didn't.

You? Yeah, So I spent 2012 then was the year where I basically kind of of moved away from downhill and said, right, I'm going to go and explore what is enduro. And enduro is a discipline that's like a multi stage Downhill, I guess is the best way of describing it. So in the, in the early days it was much more of a kind of big adventure day. It'd be like a 50 kilometer loop that you'd have to pedal and then you'd have four or five time stages throughout that. A little bit like car rally where they drive to a stage and they get timed on a stage. Same thing with the mountain bike. And I loved it. It was like a full day out on the bike. You weren't having to ride the climbs flat out. So that worked for me. He was never going to be the fittest uphill climber because it wasn't my thing. And I still got to get timed on the bits that I was good at and I enjoyed, which were the downhill bits. So it was this amazing combination and this has been going on in France actually for probably four or five years at this point. And it wasn't until the following year, 2013, that the Enduro World Series started. So I spent 2012 kind of exploring the French series, the Italian series, and just getting in there an idea of what it was and is it something I wanted to do? And it really did feel like it was just the timing was so perfect. But then they said, right, okay, this World Series is starting in 2013. And I was like, I guess I should go give this a go. You know, I hadn't planned to. It wasn't even an option a few years back. So I found myself at the start line of the first one in 2013. And it was really cool because there was a mixture of current downhill races, current cross country races, some people that have been racing enduro in France for many years. So it was like this mix of mountain bikers from many different disciplines all coming together to do this new discipline. And no one really knew who would kind of be the best at it, I guess. And I managed to come out on top that first weekend and win the first ever Enduro World Series race, which was, which was amazing. And it kind of just, it stemmed from there. I had an. I really felt like I'd found the discipline that fully suited my, my skills. Um, like I said previously, I wasn't always good at that perfect one race run, that pressure. So Enduro for me, I had 5, 5 chances to get it right throughout the day. There wasn't the pressure on each, each one. Um, and I also quite enjoyed riding a bit with instinct. You only got to practice the stages maybe once or twice because obviously you would be peddled around to practice. You couldn't just multiple nap the same one. So you had to ride, you weren't riding at a hundred percent. You're having to ride it maybe, you know, 85, 90% because you didn't remember exactly what was around every corner. And for whatever reason, I just, I loved it. It was just like, this is the sport for me. And had three incredible years of really quite dominating and winning the World Series for those first three years that the sport existed. But sadly, at this point, I was already getting nearly 40 and I'd been supposed to be retiring a few years previous. So I was like, I felt like I could have just kept going because I was loving it. But at the same time, the old body clock was ticking and if we wanted to have a family, then I needed to start thinking about that. So after three years of the ews I really decided I should start to try and retire again for the second.

Time. Fantastic. But yeah, so what an incredible three years. So how did your training change when you started switching across to.

Endurance? It was quite a big change, really. And what I felt that the thing I needed was the endurance was the aerobic fitness. I certainly had plenty of years of the skill and the speed and the strength from downhill, from that short explosiveness, but I needed to be able to pedal for 50km and do multiple downhills. So I was really fortunate at the time that I pretty much just joined in with the British cycling cross country team because I had friends there, my coach was working with them and I'd also done a little bit of work as a skills coach for the cross country program. So I basically spent a couple of years kind of riding with them, going on training camps, even doing some cross country racing myself, some World Cups even, which was something that was definitely out of my comfort zone. But I did them and that was, yeah, I basically trained like a cross country rider. So lots of long road rides, lots of mountain biking up and downhill, some intervals, barely any gym, but lots more kind of Pilates and yoga. So just really good functional stretching and strength and just working on my fitness. And for me, it was the best combination ever. I remember getting to. It was a second year, so 2014, the Commonwealth Games were in Glasgow and I had this crazy idea that I would try and qualify a spot for the cross country. I mean, it was highly unlikely, but just the idea of me trying to do it meant that I was pushing myself to kind of ride and be a level with some of the girls that were going to go. And I remember I didn't get selected, but I then had an amazing enduro season because I was the fittest I'd ever been and enduro just felt easy. I was just riding around and wanting to do more at the end of the day, having hurt myself all winter trying to keep up with the cross country girls. So that training was, yeah, was certainly a great thing. And I totally believe now that fitness is such an important part of, well, of any sport, for sure. But even enduro, that you would say is just timed on the technical downhill aspect. You still have to be fit to deliver multiple fast downhill runs, even just if there's not much pedaling involved. It still requires a huge amount of fitness to get through a week of practice, the travel, everything that involves with it. And I still think fitness is key for success in the.

Sport. So you mastered downhill, then you definitely mastered enduro. What other types of mountain biking opportunities are there out there? What other disciplines are there that are available to.

People? So you've got a few more. So on the downhill side, there's this thing called four cross, which is almost like a bit like bmx really. You could say it's in between the two. So it's rather than eight riders like bmx, it's four riders at a time on mountain bikes on a downhill BMX course, really with jumps and berms and that's something that's been slowly kind of getting less and less popular. But it does still exist. There's still a few tracks and there still is a world championships. So it's still a, you know, a small kind of fringe side of the sport. And then you've also got the winter discipline of. They said originally it used to be of road racing. So cyclocross, which is basically an off road race on a road bike pretty much with knobbly tires. So it's generally around a grassy field. There's not a lot of climbing. You'd have to get off and run with your bike up muddy banks, running over hurdles. And it's quite a short loop. But you do up to an hour's race for the elite men's and that's something that is just a winter sport in the uk, but it's amazing, amazing training, good bike handling skills and quite a few of the mountain bikers will cross over and do that in the winter as well as a way of training in the winter weather. And then what else you'd have, you've got cross country marathon, which is basically long distance cross country racing. So like a three, four hour could be one big, big loop or it could be more, you know, multiples of a shorter loop. But that's just like a marathon distance, a long course, I guess in yours of the mountain biking discipline. So there's lots of different things you can do to kind of find your niche, I guess, within mountain biking. And there's obviously now the advent of E bikes too. So we've got a.

Lecture. Well, I'm going to come back to E bikes because I think that that's a fascinating. Well, no, let's talk about E bikes now. So you raced in the E bike in an E bike competition last year, I think, is that.

Right? Yes. So the. Again, I think I feel like I'm always at the beginning of these things, which is actually quite cool place to be. But so obviously the E bikes have been around for a few years now and within mountain biking They've become more and more popular and we've seen them evolve from just commuting to actually now being full blown like race ready enduro bikes. So very, very capable off road mountain bikes. And in 20, so it was last year, it was the first year that they had the first E bike enduro World series which I competed in. And that's again the first year into the second year. Now it's actually not starting those races until September. There's three in September into October this year. And that's been a really interesting kind of evolution of our sport I guess, because what those bikes are capable of doing is incredible. Not so much in terms of range, but even so, you know, you've got modes that you can, you can have as much assist as you want or as little as assist as you want. And if you have little assist, you can actually do a very, very big ride with still, with the help of the motor and the batteries, technology is getting better year on year. So where you can go and what you can do. I've been racing this last few weeks out in Europe and done some big days. Two day race, 100 kilometers each day with 5,000 meters of climbing each day. And you can do that on. We had two batteries. So one in the bike, one in your bat on, you carry on your back and then you go to a change halfway through the day and get two fresh batteries. So on four batteries on full turbo mode, which gives you a huge amount of power. We basically covered that 5,000 meters of elevation on ridiculously steep technical terrain. It wasn't just like on a road, it was pretty much all off road. So it's quite incredible. It's almost like a new challenge in itself. Being able to climb technically on a bike with the assistance, it's like climbing up downhill tracks almost. It's crazy what you can.

Do. I was going to ask what is the place for them, but I think you've just explained it really well. I can see. I suppose it just gives you the opportunity to do well, race uphill as well as downhill, but in a very different.

Way. Yeah. And I think racing is just one very, very small aspect of what E bikes can bring. I think, and I think for me we're always going to have racing because we're humans, we like competition, we like to race. But I think there's a bigger application for E bikes and that's in terms of getting more people on bikes that maybe wouldn't have done it previously or have health conditions that don't allow them to but. But with an E bike allows them to actually get out there and be outside like the rest of us all really enjoy. It also allows someone of less fitness to ride with someone who is fitter. It brings some of that gap from even couples that have a really sporty one and a not so sporty partner to be able to ride together. I can ride with my granddad, he can ride with his grandson on the front of my bike and we can have like a three generational family bike ride. And what I've seen is that for me is the most incredible thing. And there's also a huge environmental push, I guess, for us to become less dependent upon cars and even public transport in some ways. And if people can ride to work, if you can ride to school, if you can ride places on a bike, then that also helps. And just to get people actually going. Sometimes once you've been on an E bike and you realize it's possible and you get a little bit fitter, then you might actually still go back to a normal bike too. So it's. There's so many avenues and I think that's one of the really cool things about kind of being involved in this evolution of E bikes is just seeing what they can do and where they go. And I think it's like anything, it's just being they need to be used responsibly. And the racing aspect of going fast everywhere, some people kind of frown upon it. But I think if you're doing it in a sensible manner and it's in a racing environment and you're conscious of the speed you're riding and where you're riding, then I think it's all easy to be able to kind of manage and keep it.

Evolving. Yeah, there is a much wider. When I first sort of started hearing about them, I couldn't quite get my head around. I could see like if my parents wanted to cycle an E bike seemed like a perfect opportunity. I ended up buying one for my wife because she has health conditions that kind of mean that she can't cycle for very long distances. So it kind of allows us to cycle together, which has worked really, really well. But I've just come back from, as I mentioned before we started recording, just come back from Tallinn, having done the Ironman there. And the guy that I was out there with who also did the Iron man, had just bought himself an E bike. And I was like, what have you bought that for? And he said, well, I've bought it because there's a. As a trail between my house and the pub. So I can then use that to go back to the forge of the pub on, you know, off.

Road.

And. And I thought, you know, what? There is actually. And then we spend a lot of time down in Cornwall and it's in St Agnes, which has got some really steep climbs back from the beach and one of our neighbors has got one to shuttle the kids backwards and forwards to the beach on. And it's like this because I suppose it just opens up so many more opportunities for people and it keeps them out of a car, doesn't.

It? Exactly. And even things that people that are really into their climbing, you know, they might. They might do their approach to the mountain or the crag they're going to climb. It might take them two hours to walk sometimes, but with an E bike they could get there within half an hour. So they probably would go climbing more often or they might go out and do things more often. So there's so many kind of ways and means of using them. And even the cargo thing of taking. I've seen kids, they've got little cargo bikes with two seats in the front. I've seen a few kids that come to the gymnastics, I take my son to that. They ride their bike there rather than get in the car. And I just think it is amazing. I think we're going to see so much evolution of these as well in terms of the battery power technology, the smaller they're getting. I mean, I'm working with. Bosch is one of the big companies that makes E bikes and they're constantly pushing the evolution of what we can do to make the batteries lighter, last longer and the sustainability of it and having charging points out places and being able to just make journeys that are more sustainable rather than people having to jump in cars and drive places. And it is really cool to see and I think it's really important right now that we are all getting out and being active and trying to reduce our impact in many ways.

Yeah. And in fact, actually just coming back to Tallinn, they've got these electric scooters that you could hire around the city, just dotted around like we have in Cambridge in than some other cities in the uk. They are fantastic as well. I was just kind of looking for an excuse as to why I need to buy one because they were just brilliant, fun whizzing around. But I think. I think you're right. I think it's just another good way of getting more cars off the roads. So obviously we've just come to the end of the Olympics, which has Been absolutely incredible. So, you know, I think every Olympics that comes by, I get into it more and more. So now, firstly, what did you make of the Olympics, but particularly what did you make of the mountain biking in the Olympics? And how has mountain biking being introduced to the Olympics changed your.

Sport? Yeah, well, I mean, I'm a huge Olympics fan. I think anyone that loves sport just looks forward to that chance to sit down and watch telly without feeling guilty for a good few hours each time. And I was actually out in Europe for pretty much the whole time as well. So I was desperately trying to find some BBC or some English speaking coverage. So I definitely don't think I got the best of best, but we got to watch most of it. And yeah, for me, obviously the mountain biking was a huge highlight. I think in many ways when it first got introduced back in whenever it would have been 90 buzz it past 96, Atlanta maybe, I can't remember, but it's been a good few years now. It's been that there was always this kind of feeling of like many of these kind of cool extreme sports, like what's it going to do to the sport and how's it going to change it? And in some ways, initially it definitely did. There was and it still does, actually, if I'm honest. The Olympics is amazing, but it's also a huge, big animal that creates some divide between sports because cross country is a discipline that is an Olympic sport. Downhill, enduro, all these others aren't Olympic sports. The funding that we get from the UK is all driven by Olympic sports, by the funding that comes from our lottery and Sport England. And a lot of that funding only funds Olympic sports. So it does create, and it always will I think if the system continues like it is, this disparity between disciplines, which is a huge shame because we've had some of the best downhillers in the world for the last 10 years or more and we've had no funding from our national federation, in fact, very little help from British cycling very often for anything that's not Olympic. So there's always there's a negative side. But then there's also this amazing chance for us to highlight mountain biking as a sport on the world stage, which we struggle to get in any other way because mountain biking is not a staple of our UK sport. It's not football, it's not cricket, it's not rugby, so we never get to see it. So there's also the benefit, I think, of our sport being seen by millions, certainly in our country, to realize that it does exist. So I think just having it there is that kind of showcase enables then kids to aspire to it and actually take part and they could end up doing downhill or enduro or whatever they wanted. It's just the fact that we get to see mountain biking as a collective on the world stage, I think is the most important thing. And also we love seeing British success. So for us to have two athletes with Tom Pidcock and Evie Richards, who were both first time Olympians, both under the age of 25, taking part in the mountain biking was also amazing because that shows that we've got talent and there's a future there. Tom's obviously, I think there was some press that said that he was kind of new to it and was jammy to win. I think I read something in the press which I thought was the most ridiculous comment ever, because if anyone follows cycling, they'll know that he's been around the sport for quite a while, even though he is only 21 or 22 and he's a huge talent in whatever he turns his hand to. So certainly for him to turn up and just win like he did was incredible. But it wasn't also a complete shock because he's an incredibly talented athlete and you wouldn't ever put your money, not on him if he turns up and he's in good form. So it was just for us. For me, it was amazing to see that success for mountain biking because we've never had that at the Olympics. And my own bias is obviously Evie's from Malvern, my hometown, and she's one of the kids that grew up in our cycling club. She was very much kind of, I was one of the people that certainly helped her out initially getting bikes and of kind of her pathway to now ride for Trek. The same team that I've ridden for and worked for the last 10 years was quite a cool journey. To have seen that evolve from this little 15 year old local kid riding on the hills to then being on the Olympic stage and seeing her progress as an incredible athlete as well was really, really cool. And for her to go to the Olympics and be disappointed with seventh just was really actually quite encouraging to know that what else she's got in store in the future and you know, the next time, three years time in Paris, I think we'll see even more from both of them, really. And it will only inspire more kids to look up what is mountain biking. Hey Mum, can I go have a go at this? And I just hope that, you know, we can support that with our network of clubs and the infrastructure which is maybe still has work to do and facilities. It certainly does. But, you know, it's all good, it's all progress, I think, in helping the sport grow and become more mainstream. Really?

Yeah. Brilliant. I mean, I think you're right in that one of the most magical things about the Olympics is you end up watching sport that you would have never watched. You know, mountain biking, I was keen to watch it because, you know, it's not that far from what I, what I enjoy as my sports. But you do sit there watching, you know, whether it's diving or My daughter, literally, as I came up here, she was having her breakfast, watching, watching on Catch up, the synchronized swimming. Like, when else would you sit there and watch synchronized swimming if it wasn't for the.

Olympics? You don't get to see the things. That's the crazy, that's the sad thing that these sports don't ever get to be. They're still happening. People are training and committing their lives to it, but we don't even get a chance to watch, even if you wanted to. That's. That's the crazy thing.

Really. It is. So what about one thing we haven't touched on is multi day races. Now I think you've done a few of those. I've got a love for South Africa and we actually work quite closely with a firm that's based in South Africa and he's a key mountain bike biker and he said to me, well, you need to come out and do the Cape Epic at some point. Now I believe you've done the Cape.

Epic. I did.

Yeah. What did you make of the Cape Epic and. And multi day races in.

General? Well, that was actually quite a good story as to how I ended up at the Cape Epic. And that was one of my good friends is South African Anka Martin and she raced downhill for many years and she said to me about doing the Cape Epic. And I said, I'll do the Cape Epic when I've won the world championships. This was like a few years before I won. So obviously that day in 2010, Anka was there in Canada and she came up to me, said, right, next year we're doing the Cape Epic. And I was like, oh. So it was actually 2011. Then in March, we rocked up and did the Cape Ethic. And at this point this was pre Tracy changing and training with the cross country team and becoming a fitter athlete. I won't even say fit, but certainly a much more of an aerobic endurance based Athlete. So this was massive for me to do at that point. It was seven days, I think the longest day was 140km, maybe averaging around 80 or 90 kilometres a day. So we were definitely not in there for winning, that's for sure. We were just there for completing it and we did complete it and it was the most incredible experience to do that many days back to back. I've never had such a sore bottom than sitting on a saddle for that many hours each day. I even remembered trying to put two pairs of chamois on on one of the days towards the end to see if it would help but it didn't. So that's definitely not one to try. But yeah, just a sense of achievement that what your body can do when you put your mind to it. And it was just that process and actually it gets quite addictive the day to day process of getting up, getting your stuff ready, riding your bike all day, coming back, recovering, eating, sleeping, next day, next day and it's almost like you miss it when that week finishes. It sounds ridiculous even though you're ready for a break but just the camaraderie, the it is the sense of achievement that you've completed. Something that I would never have thought I was able of doing before we did that. And as an event it's cool. Everyone is camping, everyone's in a big huge food tent. The camp kind of moves most days so you move in location. The scenery you get to ride through is incredible. And just for me the multi day thing is also it's more about the atmosphere and the event and the people that you get to meet along the way then it is almost about the actual race in itself. Obviously there's racing going on and if you're at the front of that race, I think it's a very different experience as well because you've got the campervan and your soigneur and you've got someone to cook your food and it's quite serious at the front end of the race. But if you're just there as a mid pack participant, it's an incredible all encompassing experience where you just get to meet, meet like minded people from all over the world. And one thing that I've done that's similar from more of my style of discipline is the Trans Provence which is a multi day Enduro event which starts in Gap kind of Brienzon area of France and finishes down on the Mediterranean coast down near Monaco and Menton. And that's again an incredible journey through amazing scenery. It's again it's only time for downhill stages so you kind of can relax a bit more throughout the day, stop at the cafe, have a beer and it's an incredible event. And those have been my best memories of racing. And that's probably the one thing that really appealed to me about the Enduro in some ways because they originally were kind of multi day races and it was a little bit more of a kind of journey than just a super serious race. But obviously they, there's a race still going on and certainly with Trans Provence it's one of those things I desperately want to win and it's not happening every year either. So when they do put them on, it's like a special event to try and get a place and go and take part in. So yeah, I love those events. They're just incredible experiences all.

Around. I think that they sound, that sounds to me like the thing that would drag me into mountain biking. Those multi day events and the, I mean there's something quite magical about cycling. From not just, you know, we're all used to cycling loops on our, on our day to day training, aren't we? There's something lovely about cycling from A to B and the.

Journey.

Yeah. And in fact I was supposed to do Lands End to John o' Groats this year. Obviously didn't end up happening but. But that's definitely a. You know, each day we're going to get from here to here and we want to get over the course of a week from, from Lands End to John.

O'.

Grace. And I just think that would.

Be. You think, wow, I've done that on the power of my leg. Like that's the cool thing when you realize that the kind of journeys and the things you can do and.

It is amazing how far you can travel on a bike, isn't it? And the power of your legs. It never ceases to amaze me that you know, we can go off and do. Well. I've got a mate of mine has just done a ultra race which was I think 1,200 miles non stop. Kind of had a few, few hours sleep here and there. But you think, I mean that's just incredible to be doing that in four days and it is amazing. So what about one of the best places you think or favorite places to cycle other than the Malvern Hills? Because I'm guessing that's going to be maybe up there. I mean I've got very little experience of this but a friend of mine actually runs a company called Paul cyc. He dragged us over to Thetford Forest and we did some mountain biking there. He brought some very lovely expensive mountain bikes which were great to try and it was a really good setup there. So are there sort of similar places and what would your favorites be around the.

Uk? Yeah, I mean, I think we're super lucky actually. Obviously we don't have the Alps, we don't have the incredible network of cycle paths like Europe does, but. But we do have our own little gems and I think our kind of Forestry Commission sites throughout the UK are really the most. They're great places to start mountain biking, I think. So for me, my local ones would either be Cannock Chase, which is kind of just north of Birmingham, or Forest of Dean, which is down towards Gloucester and just on the Welsh border. And those two are. They've got great purpose built mountain bike trails all signed, so you don't even have to get the map out. So certainly for beginners wise, you literally just follow the arrows. They're generally graded, so beginner stuff would be green, blue's a little bit harder, red gets harder and black is harder Again, again, that grading varies a lot from where you go, but that's the idea. And a lot of them also now have bike shops on site where you can hire bikes and helmets and equipment and actually go and do that. And also now a lot of them have coaching available so you can actually almost like skiing, go and hire an instructor for the day and go and experience mountain biking. So the sport is growing and evolving and these facilities are amazing. And there's forests and Forest Commission sites throughout the UK where you can do that all over. I think one of the kind of most famous ones a few years back was the Seven Staines in Scotland. Throughout the border Scotland, seven sites and one of the biggest kind of areas now is the Peebles in Aleath and on the borders of Scotland, that's a whole valley base. It's dedicated to cycling and you've got tons of cycling routes throughout there. But this is happening everywhere. South Wales has got loads. North Wales, everywhere in the UK where there's some woodland, generally you'll find bike trails and not far away a shop or somewhere to go and rent the bike. So it really isn't a hard thing. It's pretty accessible now in many ways for a lot of people. And the Waymark trails definitely helps. And if you're more of an adventure Y type, then get out your OS map. We have that amazing footpath and bridleway network. Obviously we're not supposed to ride bikes on footpaths but the Bridleway network is still, is still quite a cool thing. That's quite an original concept that we have here and don't have in other places in Europe really. So there's lots of places you can just go out and do big adventures in some more wild places if you don't want to be on the kind of purpose built trails in the forest that everyone else will be at as well. So you can pick and choose to what suits.

You. Fantastic. And around the world, obviously we've talked about South Africa and about France, but are there any other places that you think would be your, you know, what were your favorite if you're going to go on a mountain biking holiday, let's say. I don't know whether you do.

That. You can, you can. There's some amazing place destinations from outfit Holidays, French Alps, Swiss Alps, even the Pyrenees. There's a holiday company based in the Pyrenees and we did an amazing, actually first ever proper holiday I've done on a bike. Basque MTB was amazing down there, but my personal favorite is Swiss Alps in the kind of Martini Verbier AOS Valley area. Just because I love the kind of extreme tiny hiking paths that are like, you don't get many people, you don't get many bikes. There's an extreme technical element, loads of exposure and it's a very unique kind of style of riding. But it's something that I really enjoy that challenge. But equally in all these places you've also got incredible areas of bike parks. So this ski area, so for example Port du Soleil in France, Leger, Morzine, Avorias is a huge big ski area in the winter that then becomes a huge mountain bike destination this summer with lifts that can access venue to venue to go from different places. New Zealand's got an amazing biking community, some great trails in the forest and then Whistler in Canada is again a huge destination for mountain biking. They probably have as much tourism and trade in the summer as they do in the winter there. And that's like would say the mecca of kind of mountain biking as a mountain bike holiday to go to Whistler. But everywhere in the world you'd be amazed, has got incredible places to go and have a holiday and ride your bike. And for me the cool thing is that every place you go changes your experience. The terrain changes. Whether it's slick rock in the US that you can ride up and down. You would never imagine rock could be so grippy or the loamy forests of Canada or the crazy rocky alpine exposure of the Alps. You can experience such a different bike ride, just different places in the world, which is one thing. I think that's cool. It's not like the same swimming pool or the same road. The sport changes dramatically depending on the terrain and where you go, which keeps it really.

Interesting. Well, that sounds like a pretty cool bucket list you just listed there. There's some amazing places to explore there. And, yeah, whether it's on a mountain bike or an E bike or whatever, I think that would. That sounds awesome. Now, you've mentioned you've got a son now, haven't you, Toby? Is that right? So how are you going to get him into cycling in the future? You know, have you got. Is there a.

Plan? Is it a. Yeah, and I don't want there ever to be a plan. Like, I don't want it to be a forced pathway. I want him to love riding his bike for riding his bike's sake, not just because that's what Mum and Dad do, which is a hard, hard analogy to make when actually our life revolves around cycling. So, for me, more than anything, I've just been really conscious that, yes, he's definitely immersed in cycling and he's not fussed and watching it, but he does love riding his bike. And it's more because we've made his bike become a mode of transport. We don't take him to the BMX track or the pump track. He just comes out and walks with us on his bike. And that's been, like, from when he just first started on his balance bike. We'd take it with us, carry it on the backpack and anywhere where he could scoot along or ride downhill, he would jump on his bike and it meant we could walk further in the first initial stages of doing family walks. And now he just. He loves it. He's now playing in the skate park on it. It's just. It's part of what we do. But it's definitely not going to be like a forced activity. We're not taking him to bike club. He's not going to go and, you know, have to go and ride the Blue Trail every weekend with us. I really want him to just enjoy it and it'd be fun. And it's. It's now just part of him zooming around the farm. It's what we just. If he wants it, it's there. If it's not, he doesn't. And I really am conscious that I see too many young kids getting, like, not forced into sport, but it becomes such a big thing at an early age. And then they just lose the love later in life. And I want him to be the same age as me, in his 40s, still getting excited by going for a bike ride or going for a run or going climbing, whatever it is like just enjoying being sporty in some.

Way. Brilliant. And you know, it strikes me that, you know, there was no clear path that you wanted to create a career in mountain biking, was there? Looking back how, you know, it is quite incredible. You've created a whole, you know, a whole career out of cycling so far. How did that sort of, you know, what did you think that you could make it into a long term career or was it always just a year on year.

Thing? Never. I've never had a plan and I still don't. I'm 42 and I keep thinking what am I going to do in a few years time? Because I mean it still is very much the world of sponsorship and jobs within this industry is very much kind of, you know, year by year contract based stuff. It's not like you haven't got a career within a company that, you know, is guaranteed. And certainly even the role that I'm at now with with Trek, working with their race teams, their race teams only have, you know, two or three contracts with the sponsors that allow that team to work. So it's, it's, there's no kind of like guarantee in career. And certainly when I went to university, I went to university because I wanted to go and, and do that because I felt like it was the thing to do at the time. I didn't expect my cycling to have been able to have sustained me to the point where I'm at now. And even when I left university I started racing, I thought, well, I'll give it a go for a few years. It looks like like I'm going to have the chance to do it for a few years. And every two or three years it's almost been a little bit like that. And then even when I finished from downs and it was like, I wonder what I'm going to do now. Then the Enduro thing kind of happened and then I finished with that and then the opportunity now to work with the team with Trek, who were my sponsor now working in a kind of like a mentor capacity and management with the teams and doing logistics and that's something that I never expected to be doing. So I think it's just being open to those things. I think trying to do what you do to the best that you can, being an approachable person that is happy to kind of get involved and have a love for the sport too. That's been my biggest thing that's helped. I think I've just, there's no reason for it. I've loved cycling, I've loved the career that I've had and all I want to do is is help other young kids have that same opportunity and get the same pleasure that I have had from the sport. And that's kind of how I've got involved in so much, kind of the mentoring and the coaching and helping young kids to grow in the sport. And it's something that I hope I'll be able to do forever. And if it's where it takes me, who knows? We'll wait and.

See. And that's your role at Trek nowadays, is it? It's helping the teams and mentoring and athletes, is that.

Right? Yeah, I mean it started off very much when I was, when I was pregnant. I couldn't obviously carry on kind of doing my racing or even the ambassador work I was doing. And they said, hey, can you help? We're going to be kind of starting bringing all three teams together. So enduro, downhill and cross country are now all run in house by Trek. And I started doing some of the planning and logistics for the enduro team because it was obviously home based and kind of office work. And then it's just evolved that I'm now helping out more and more with those planning and logistics also. So now being able to travel and get back to the races, some of my racer knowledge, my technical ability, I'm able to be on course with some of the athletes and help with the technical side of cross country and just being, I'm more of a kind of a buffer I guess between the athletes and Trek as a management company. So like there's always a bit of what an athlete wants and what a sponsor wants. There's always a gray area in the middle and I'm that kind of buffer in the middle that's trying to keep both sides of the party happy. Having had experience from both sides now. So it's, it's an interesting role but it's one that I really feel it's really important if you want to get the best out of your athletes and you want to get the most out of them. As from a company's perspective, you've got to have some kind of appreciation for what each other needs. So yeah, that amongst all sorts of other things that I end up doing, it's a fairly kind of all encompassing role. I'm still trying to ride a Little bit myself, but that's definitely gets the least of any of my time these.

Days. And one of the other companies that you work with is our podcast sponsor, which is Precision Hydration. Now, for long, long distance cycling, like the Ironman, I can see a huge need for precision hydration. They help me get through Tallinn for.

Sure.

But how have they helped you in a mountain biking world, which is.

Often much shorter races, it's much shorter. But in the day, if you want the best performance, any distance, you need to be in the best possible state, let's say body state. And if you're dehydrated, you're pretty much not going to perform. Whether it's for one minute or 10 hours, you know, it doesn't actually matter. Um, so certainly in terms of training, all the training that happens to get you to that one race run that needs, that needs nutrition, you're looking after your hydration, your everything you're fueling. So just because the event's not very long doesn't need, doesn't really need mean there's no need for that input. Um, certainly for enduro, it was a huge part of my enduro learning how to manage, you know, multiple days of training. You can be out for four or five hours of training and you're also having to carry your water with you on your backpack. So having your hydration tabs that you can just put into water, you can fill up a fountain and add some hydration is really important. And one of the things that I really liked with Precision Hydration was learning I'm really, really sweaty. And I just presumed that I would be a really, like a salty sweater. But so it's actually knowing what you actually need, is it just fluid or is it electrolytes that you need with that fluid? And that was something that people often I'd overlooked or no one's given me the opportunity to actually find out, like, is that sweat I'm producing really sweaty or just water? And I was actually just a very sweaty person, but not super, super salty. So you kind of, you can balance your, what you need to give your body as well, rather than giving it incorrect what it needs. So that was a huge help. And I've put loads of athletes that I've known now onto those guys to be able to help with the hydration. I mean, some of our teams are sponsored by competitors, so it's not something that, you know, we can work with, but individuals that aren't. And if you even just home training, if it's something that works for you then it's been. It's been a really cool addition, I think, to certainly my career. It was.

Brilliant. And winding this up, one of the questions I always ask people is about books that have inspired them. Now, I haven't read any books about mountain biking except. And I read a lot of books, but one book did catch me out because it did feature mountain biking, which I really didn't expect it to. And that is. I don't know if you remember the bass guitarist from Guns n roses, Duff McKagan. So, I mean, Guns N Roses, obviously very famous rock band Duff, very famously had a big drink problem. I mean, in his book, he was at one stage, he was drinking six bottles of wine a day, so proper. And in fact, from the Simpsons, they. They named Duff beer after Duff McKagan. So anyway, but he. He became teetotal, I think maybe in his 40s, and then found mountain biking. And there's a. There's a whole couple of chapters on how he got into the mountain biking scene in the States. And it actually was. It was brilliant. And in fact, somebody I, in due course would love to get on the podcast. But what books are there any books that you've read and you find yourself recommending maybe to some of the younger athletes or you've found that really helped you on your.

Journey? I think I'm not terrible with finding time to read, I'll admit that straight away. But I think one of the things I always have enjoyed is sports, people's autobiographies and again, that kind of fascination of what other people have done, their journeys, their commitment, their ups and downs. And I think one of the ones that stands out, I don't know, this is a long time ago, was when Ellen MacArthur sailed around the world. And I remember reading that and just being hugely inspired by that. Well, so many things about the kind of. The undertaking of something like that. But again, it was just. For me, it's always that ability to be able to. Just when you put your mind to something, it's incredible what you can achieve. And I think that's always. It's inspiring to read it in other people's lives in very, very different circumstances as well. But you can apply so much of that to anything in sport particularly. And then I think I've also enjoyed reading. I mean, most, most recently, I think I've been reading baby. Baby books. But like children's. Children's psychology and bringing up children has been interesting. But I also think the whole psychology side of things and looking into how the mind Works, how the body works. That's a really also fascinating topic. I think having a little bit of understanding of that is really interesting. One that springs to mind is the chimp paradox, which was Dr. Steve Peters and I think there's lots of stuff there. I think that it's really an interesting read and even one even talking about sleep and how sleep is important. I think so lots of my reading is very much interests of mine and how to better my own performance. And I think there's so many things we can take from lots of people. But certainly, yeah, the psychology side and, and the inspiration of just like people going through ups and downs and that's just normal. I think that's the thing we also need to appreciate as well. Everyone has ups and downs in life and it's, it's what you. How you grow in those tough times. And reading that from other people's experiences is also interesting as.

Well. Brilliant. Yeah, no, I agree. I love the chimp paradox and a few people have mentioned that it's a, it's a brilliant book. But all of this, all of the sports psychology or psychology around children and their development is fascinating too, but nobody actually I think somebody did mention the other MacArthur book at some point a while ago on the podcast, but it's not one I've read, so it'll be one I'll be adding to the.

Reading. It was good few years ago now that it just springs to mind when we talk about it. And recently the one I've started and I haven't read for ages because I'm just terrible with time. It's called the.

Rage. Tell me about that. I don't know anything about the.

Range. Yeah, it's, it's really, it's looking at again it's talking about sport and diversification into, you know, like the Tiger woods for example of being channeled into a sport at a really young age and versus someone who's done loads and loads of different sports in that young, young age and then still come out at the best of one at the end of it. So like that multi discipline thing is something I'm a big believer in and pushing all the young kids that I've been involved with is like don't specialize too soon. And it's a book, it's lots about that and I've only just begun reading about it, but it's quite an interesting way of comparing actually it was Roger Federer and Tiger woods because Federer apparently his family really didn't make him specialize in tennis too soon. He had lots of other stuff versus the Tiger woods of you will do this, this, this, this from a young age. So it's gonna be interesting. I think that one. Cause that fascinates.

Me. Me. That does sound really interesting. And actually I remember hearing Sharon Davies speak and she said, you know, I loved. She was very much, you know, from a young age, swimming camp, you know, swim training every day. But she said, I would never put my children through the same thing. And, you know, I have every confidence that if they do a wide range of things, they could still end up being a top swimmer if they wanted to.

Be. And I always think for life beyond that. Like, in terms of physical development, if your body hasn't had chance to bounce on a trampoline, do gymnastics, play table tennis, do all these other movements, like your body's missing out on some development there. That's actually, you know, your sports career isn't going to last forever like some people. Sports careers are pretty damn short and you've got a lot of rest of life to deal with. And if you've got some really weird, like, adaptations from your sport that you then have to spend the rest of your life dealing with, like, I think as a kids need to grow up with just a good general sporting.

Background. Well, it's interesting that you say that because I remember hearing an interview of one of the gymnasts during the Olympics, and apparently it's scientifically proven that if two identical twins. You've got two identical twins, one does gymnastics and one doesn't. The one that does gymnastics will end up about 6 inches shorter. It stunts their growth because of all of the impact from the.

Gymnastics. Yeah. And the amount of time and pressure and strain on the body probably at such a young age.

Yeah. So really, really interesting. So last question. What are you most excited about? When you look forward, what are you most excited.

About? I think for me, I'm excited. And again, this is a personal thing with, like, just seeing Toby grow up and being able to experience and share our passion for outdoors with him. And I'm just excited to see where that takes us. Whether it is mountain biking, whether it's going to be some other crazy discipline, but being really looking forward to spending the next few summers, like, doing so many different cool things, almost actually things that I didn't get chance to do because even though my mountain biking, I started late in life, you could say, in terms of 15, 16 instead of sporting, but it definitely took over the next kind of 20 years of my life. And I didn't really get a chance to do much climbing or much water sports stuff, and I really want to do those things with him. So I'm super excited to explore new sports that I've not had a chance to do as well over the next 10, 15 years.

Hopefully. Brilliant. Well, that sounds amazing. So, Tracy, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you. You've had a phenomenal career. It's been a pleasure doing the research, finding out all about you, but it's been brilliant. And there's been so many good subjects that we've talked about here and some really good advice for people. So thank you so.

Much. You're welcome. Thanks for having.

Me. So you can find out more about tracy@tracymosley.com and that's Tracy without an E and Mosley with two E's. There's also Tracy Mosley, traceymosley@instagram and her Facebook page. Tracy Mosley UK I don't know about you, but I thought that was absolutely fascinating. I know very little about mountain biking, as was probably apparent from the interview, but it was just so good to listen to somebody that has mastered it in such an incredible way. I mean, I obviously can empathize with her growing up on the farm and having a BMX and because I used to do the same and making ramps and kind of doing stupid things like making baler twine finish lines. Don't do that, guys. That was a really bad idea, particularly when it's neck height. But, you know, getting those 10,000 hours in that they talk about in outliers, but with purposeful practice, you know, kind of not just spending time on the bike, but spending time on the bike, mastering different skills, going along planks, going up ramps, obviously set her in amazingly good stead when it then came to switching to downhill mountain biking and later on enduro mountain biking. So really, really interesting. I really enjoyed hearing more about the different types of mountain biking that's out there, but also the E bikes. The introduction of E bikes to the world in general and the idea of racing them as well. I totally get the fact that, you know, if downhill is your thing, then having an E bike to get you to the top of the hill so you can go downhill more times is absolutely brilliant. So I think that that's a really interesting side of the sport. It's only going to just develop and developers, as she says, with the technology improving and batteries becoming lighter. I thought it was also really interesting thinking about how the Olympics has impacted the sport. And, you know, in some ways there's downsides to it because it means that, you know, British cycling only fund certain types of the sport but then equally the, the eyes that it pulls onto mountain biking in general, really, really interesting. And, and I think that the things that made me really want to go out and try more mountain biking were kind of the clearly we have, we live in a great part of the world to explore. So just going out and exploring the trails around the UK seems like a really obvious thing to do. And I definitely, definitely need to do more of that and just go and rent a mountain bike for now and just kind of get out and explore it the world in a different way. But the multi day races, that really does excite me. The idea of something like the Cape Epic and going kind of like day after day across country. I mean I love cycling the roads of countries, but in some parts of the world that's less safe than we're used to in the uk. So actually doing something like the Cape Epic on a multi day experience just sounds fantastic. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Tracy Mosley. I certainly did. I learned loads and it certainly sparked enthusiasm to go check out some mountain biking. Also thought it was interesting what she said about how precision hydration had helped her. And remember that if you want to use precision hydration, if you use Tribath15 the discount code, you'll get 15 off your first purchase, whether that's electrolytes, gels or whatever. They've also got some really cool caps. I like their caps. Anyway, moving on. I hope you enjoyed that interview and until the next episode, keep on training. But also if you enjoyed this episode or other episodes, please remember to review it and share it. Ideally a 5 star review clearly, but review it in whatever, honestly what you think. But if you like it, please do share it. And the best place to review, I believe is Apple. We really appreciate that. It just helps more people find the podcast that will also enjoy it. So anyway, until next time, keep on training. If you've enjoyed this Tribathlon podcast, please do go to Apple Podcast and rate it and review it. It massively helps us to deliver a better podcast. It helps people find it as well. So yeah, go to Apple Podcasts, give us some feedback, give us a rating and a review and please share it with your friends because ultimately that's what allows us to keep delivering more and more of these podcasts. And don't forget to download the Tribathlon app for more amazing podcasts, but also to help you train, compete and to build your tribe.