Family

On: 23 Apr 2012 @ 6:05 pm

Deciding to integrate a well established GT racer onto the team with us was a big decision, but it is already proving the right one.

Marc Beaumont is someone who we have grown up with. He’s a British downhill racer who has won a handful of World Cups, World Cups podiums and top 10s litter his CV and numerous nationals wins and national titles are displayed in his trophy cabinet.
Couple this with the fact that he lives a mere 40 minutes from our home in North Wales and then add in Marc’s personality, – he’s a dude who is always doing something – weather riding his Moto with friends, racing 7 day stage races in Europe, riding the length of the country for charity or training for his World Cup race season, let alone racing the World Cups whilst at the same time keeping it fun and enjoying every minute of it.

I think Marc Beaumont is going to be just what Atherton Racing needs, a non-family team mate, fresh blood, new passion, a competitor, another face, a new friend or just a different smile, its going to be awesome….

When I think of Marc, two things spring to mind: moto and xc. That’ s just what comes to mind when I think of him.
Here we are, at Atherton Racing Head Quarters and the whole team is here, after getting home from a morning’s road ride in the sun, I find everybody on the decking outside the Office playing table football and commenting how cute my Dog is

Gill, Dan Brown’s PA is chasing me for a new blog, so I decide to write about Marc and ask him some Questions:

The boys are all out in the Field riding the track and the jumps, so I schlep over and bombard him.

If someone said race either Motocross or Moto Enduro, which would you choose? why?
“Moto, because I am a superfan of professional moto and in my dreams I race at the top level, enduro seems to suck… I like the speed aspect of motocross and the competitive bar to bar action…”

This is true, Marc s one of the biggest moto fans I’ve ever met, when he arrived in California for the training camp, he nearly wet himself when we told him we were at San Diego Supercross in a private booth of ONE industries but we decided to leave just before the finals to drive home so we could ride early the next day hahahahaha

Gee then pipes up:
”If you could take one aspect of another sport, and add it to downhill , what would it be?”

“I would have professional female volleyball players at all races giving out refreshments…but seriously, i would love for the glamour and professionalism of F1 to be more apparent on the DH circuit..”

Did you think Gee would be this sketchy in the Field????!

” I’m way worse!!”

Did you think Affy would be this awesome in the Field??

“unreal…”

How old were you when you raced your first World Cup

“16 years old, in Leysine, 2001. I finished 46th.”

How old were you when you won your first world Cup?
22. Vigo, Spain.

What was your VERY first thought when you were thinking of joining GT Factory Racing / Atherton Racing?

“I didn’t think it was a very good idea to be honest, I thought ‘ what the hell am I letting myself in for?!’
I was certainly apprehensive but after doing our Team Training Camp it was really good fun and I enjoyed it. it is going to be a fun year with good people around, apart from you, who tells me my blogs are boring….”

Sorry Marc. I just think you need more emotion in them….

How often to your ride your road bike versus xc bike?

“After doing John O Groates to Lands-End, I took a severe dislike to my road bike, so it is probably road once a week and xc 2-3 times a week”

I remember Marc telling me about this ride at a race once and I thought ‘what a cool dude, he is doing this pretty major ride and he isn’t blabbering about it to media, he barely even told anyone, he just got on and did it. I liked that.

How long did it take to ride?

“About 10 days, we raised money for Motor Neurone Disease. Pretty enjoyable, used a huge amount of chamois cream!”

At this point, Gill, the PA, comes into the field and asks Marc ”what other good results did you have at the end of 2011 apart from Champery and La Bresse?”
To which Marc replies : “that was it…haha”

Yourself and Gee were rivals all through the Juniors and into Elite, from my side of things I can safely say that having you as a rival definitely pushed Gee on and helped develop him as a racer. What is it like now being team mates?

“I was apprehensive at first about joining Atherton Racing , especially with the fact that I knew how dedicated and competitive Gee is, and I wondered how much he would let me into his daily routine, riding habits and so on , but it turns out that he was completely open and involved me in his daily routine, which was pretty cool to see how another World Cup racer trains and deal with things. Hopefully we both learnt from it, I know I definitely did ”

As a team we have noticed a difference already having Marc on the team, I watched them together training in the gym in California and it was awesome seeing Marc showing Gee what to do here, and Gee showing Marc what to do there. Pretty cool seeing Gee working with somebody that he obviously respects and that is not his brother!

This is a direct quote from Gee from a while back: “Marc is literally the only World Cup racer that i could be team mates with, that doesn’t have boobs”

So Marc Beaumont is on the team, he brings with him his Mechanic, Mark Maurissen, they have worked together for the past 3 years and before that Mark worked with many top racers and world champions, so Mark brings with him his own passion and knowledge of the sport, as well as being a super fun person to be with, chilled out but dedicated – and a dog lover….something tells me next blog will be a Mark Maurissen Interview

Thanks for reading. Rach. x

Welcome back!

On: 23 Apr 2012 @ 6:01 pm

Tags: GT Factory Racing, One Industries

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Hello…
Welcome back! or Welcome for the first time!

So much has happened since I wrote my last blog, the 2 biggest changes to note are GT Bicycles and ONE industries clothing joining Atherton Racing. For me this feels like a fresh start, and since I had another surgery on my shoulder at the end of 2011, a fresh start is welcomed!

Once I got out of my sling I hit it HARD. Jamal (my physio) and I worked tirelessly for weeks pushing my shoulder to its limits to get the range of movement back so I could start with rehab and strength training. Now we are mid February and boy oh boy I could not be more stoked! Every day I wake up excited to train and to see which muscles may have grown over night!!

Arriving in America to start a 6 week training block was awesome, the first day went out on my brand new GT GTR carbon road bike, all shiny white and fast, was pretty surreal. For one thing I’ve never had a white road bike, and for another it was my first official ride on a GT bike! AND first ride out on the roads since my surgery. A win-win situation!

It’s all been pretty hectic since then, fitting in a couple of gym sessions a day, road riding, tanning, meeting sponsors, spotting supercross racers riding along the boardwalk, design meetings, arguments, playing Bocce on the beach with new teammates Strait and McCaul, circuits on the beach….blah blah blah…!

Changing 2 major sponsors is quite daunting to be honest, everything changes and you have to get to know the new guys, find your place within the company, not to mention getting used to the new bikes and kit, but I’m pleased to say its all going really well! GT seem to have merged with us seamlessly, and things are coming together for the new season nicely, bikes are looking sharp and ONE industries have surpassed themselves with the race kit: a completely new look for us and a fresh challenge is just what we needed I think!

Yesterday myself, Gee and Darren ”The Cone” Roberts (our coach) went out for a big road ride and it was awesome! We were up in the hills behind the Oakley factory and although Gee dropped me when we got to the hills, my can of Redbull and chocolate bar set me in good stead to leave Darren the Cone for dust…I was worried after all my hard work on the hills he would make up the time on the descents because he weighs ALOT, but I managed to keep the carbon GTR pinned all the way down! What a sick road bike she is!

When we got home we grabbed some lunch, had a sleep then headed out onto the beach for sunset circuit training! Its amazing to be on the beach working out, watching the dolphins swimming, people jogging up and down, and I feel SO LUCKY to have the opportunity to come away and train, but a part of me was thinking about the mountains, the dirt, trees and trails, rain, mud and crashing, tractors and trailers, and dogs, and then I thought ”you know what? that is all coming, soon, Its going to be AWESOME to be back on the mountain bike, but this time right now is what you have to do to make that time possible, so lets DO THIS!!

I’d like to say to everybody, Thank You for sticking by us. Your support means a lot to me. Stop by the Race Pits one day and say hello…. The thing that brings us all together is Bike Riding, and I think it is the most awesome thing in the world to do, so Have Fun and Stay Safe friends

DH…

On: 09 May 2011 @ 11:54 am

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Last weekend Gee and Daniel Atherton went to Lousa in Portugal to race and i stayed at home to ride because, lets face it, North Wales after 8 weeks of sunshine is pretty top notch! (and it was a 4 day weekend with the Royal Wedding!)

Our mates Powy (Rhys Evans) and his girlfriend Haz (Harriet Jones) had a load of their mates around so on the Friday, after i watched the Royal Wedding and shed a few tears for the happy couple, we all loaded up Powys trailer with 10 DH bikes and our Vito with bodies and set off.

First up was ‘Brownys’ track, i was sooooo excited to ride as i literally had ridden DH for 1 day at the moelfre national, and nothing else in about 2 months…

I probably dont even need to tell you guys how amazing it makes you feel when you are up the top of a hill, mates everywhere, sunshine smiling, tweeting birds and sandwiches safely in the van, about to do run after run down the hill!

The track was a gnarly mess after the winter snow and rain, huge rock gulleys now instead of a smooth bermed run, but we soldiered on thru it…i stopped to watch all the lads thru it, OMG, i couldnt believe how fast they hit that stuff, completely out of control, made me feel like a pusscat trying to find a new line around that stuff! haha…

I took the axe with me one run and cut a new line thru the trees but then crashed without fail every run trying to get onto the new line,perhaps ill leave the building to the lads!

After we smashed a load of runs out we changed sides of the valley to a track Powy built called ‘Trench’ or ‘The Gulley’, it doesnt get ridden much and i hadnt ridden it ever,but had heard tales about its steepness. I got the gist of how things were going to play out after Powy couldnt find the entrance to it off the fire road…uh ohh.

We found it and after bog hopping our way into the trees we could just make out the tunnel of cut branches that marked the track, but alot had grown back…what followed was about 2 minutes of such fun! We had to crouch so low to miss the branches and the track was covered in a thick blanket of old pine needles, making it ride like ice, seriously no stopping was possible at all, the track swooshed along this natural gulley using the banks as berms and jumps, its was kind of surreal, like riding in a sepia photo as the whole place was brown and dark orange.

We got to a mega steep section and Powy just flew down it out of control but held it somehow but everyone else shuffled various ways around and down it, i build a siiiiick turn into it from a different angle and peeled the pine needles back like a carpet to reveal such amazing dirt underneath it was like slipper gripper heaven! The next section had a 90 left into a rock drop and then a straight shoot all the way to the bottom, powy hit it, then i hit it, but it was way too fast a run out so we both just turned hard into the trees and made a new track using our bodies to smash branches down, Fester hit it next and didnt turn but hit a tree and slid the whole track on his tummy!

I know most people have every weekend like this riding with their mates, but it was so much fun and quite a rare occurance for me! It was real nice to be riding without the boys too, and i wasnt late in the mornings either! hahaha…

The next day we went up the crazy wobbler and holy dry savanna it was lush! There were also more people up their than ever in wobbler history…around 22 people riding, it was cool but dont get any ideas folks….!! After the wobbler we went to Powys house and assembled our various motorised vehicles…and what a crew! 1 TTR, 1 trike, 2 racing quads and 1 250 F, a massive enduro followed and at the end of it i learnt that Haz’s trike is the single most dangerous thing i have ever ridden, unreal. no wonder they are banned!

So there we have it, 2 days of riding that confirmed my suspicions that mountainbiking is the funnest most socilably brilliant thing to do! It also seemed to rid me of my grumpy moods, which have been frequent since i havent ridden much actaul DH this winter,what a cure!!

People should Ride.

here is a really sweaty gross butch picture of me and Haz, me and her trike and her on my ttr….