Atherton siblings determined to drive change in mountain biking

If British mountain biking had a royal family, it would be the Atherton siblings.

Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton, if you haven’t heard of them, it’s likely due to the combination of their low-key attitude, and the fact their chosen disciplines don’t feature on Olympic cycling programmes. Where Laura and Jason Kenny, Chris Hoy and Geraint Thomas are household names, the Athertons are decidedly less so.

But that is not to diminish their achievements, after all fame is not always the motivating factor for sporting excellence and the Atherton siblings have a trophy cabinet that would be the envy of many. However, for this trio of exceptional bike riders, what drives them, is the development their sport, and a desire to push the limits on and off the bike to ensure its long term future.

Speaking at the London Bike Show, Rachel, a five time world champion in downhill, strongly believes it ‘doesn’t need the Olympics to survive’.

‘We do the sport because we love it, and we don’t do it to get on TV or to get an Olympic medal, we do it because racing is what we love’ she told Yahoo Sport.

That being said, Gee knows their elevated profile comes with a self-imposed responsibility to develop and maintain the progression that keeps any sport alive.

‘It’s always been a passion of ours to not only push ourselves but also help the sport grow a bit.’

Now, as they plan what the future holds, it’s important to give something back and stay true to their vision for the sport. Challenging the status quo won’t be a problem according to Rachel.

‘When we started our race team back in 2003, we’ve always wanted to do things a bit differently, and do things our own way, be a bit unique.’

As a family they are certainly unique. In 2008, all three of them won gold at the World Cup in Andorra. Dan winning the 4X event, his brother and sister rounding out the hat trick with the men’s and women’s downhill event.

Later that year, Rachel and Gee became World Champions in Italy, the first time they would pull on the rainbow stripes, but not the last.

Rachel marked the 10 year anniversary of her first World Championship title by picking up another one in 2018, showing remarkable longevity in a brutal arena.

There’s no doubt, that the support they’ve given each other has been vital to their success.

‘I think what we’ve managed to achieve and what we’ve done over our careers is definitely because we’ve stayed together as three siblings’ says Gee.

‘I think that’s important because we support each other, we help each other.

He credits Dan, the eldest of the three, as the true motivator within their family, and says he’s shown his younger siblings the way.

In Dan’s words ‘the biggest thing with having the three of us was the energy levels.’

‘When you’re having a down day, the other two are probably up, and vice versa, and you can always feed off that.’

Often people cant get their head around the truth of being an elite athlete. People see glamour and success and not the long hours, exhausting travel and loneliness behind closed doors. For Rachel, their close family unit has undoubtedly been a blessing.

‘Having the support of your family, that unfaltering, unconditional support if you like, win or lose, you’ve got someone there to get your back.

‘One thing that’s helped us is having the same goal, having the same dream, the same passion, we all work towards the same thing.

‘And that’s really motivating, and helps in the days when you’re feeling down or a bit kind of, alone.’

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Without the structure of an Olympic pathway, promising athletes must chart their own journey through the layers of the sport, for the first family of MTB, they want to leave it in a better place than they found it.

They admit back in the beginning, they didn’t have a grand plan, but they’ve had the freedom to make their own choices, in part because in those early days they didn’t always see bikes as a career.

With a smile, Dan claims he was ‘never a great bike racer’ and seems happiest trying to work where mountain biking goes next.

‘I had to do something.’ he laughs.

‘I think when you’ve been in a sport so long, its aspirations and goals that drive you and motivate you because it’s easy to sit still, but inevitably you’re going to get bored.

‘I think to be able to always have a vision, and always have a goal, so you’re never quite there, you know you’re always going to be pushing for something else.

They’ve run their own team, built their own bike parks and now they’re building their own bikes. This year Rachel and Gee will have to prove that their own product can stand the rigours of World Cup racing. Many will be watching their results to see how the latest Atherton project performs.

‘When we first started the race team, it was quite a unique thing to do and meant we could follow our own path’ reflects Rachel.

‘With the bike park and the events the boys organised with Red Bull, pushing the sport, the hardest tracks, the biggest jumps.

‘And now with the bike company, new technology, trying to push the sport in to a new generation of making bikes and pushing all the time trying to improve the sport and make it go somewhere and not just stay in the same kind of mould you know.’

Gee and Rachel would love to pick up some World Cup wins on the machines that bear their name, but they seem to be looking at the bigger picture, with success not immediately tied to how many medals are hanging around their necks.

Gee comes back to them being siblings, and the fact they’ll never allow each other to rest on their laurels.

“It’s about taking ourselves out of our comfort zones, and making a bit more work for ourselves, but doing something we love at the same time.’

‘We wanted to do something that would change it, and make it a better place for riders coming through and give people the support and the knowledge that we’ve had from each other over the years’ adds Rachel.

‘Learning off each other, learning all the time how to be a better rider, how to be a better racer.

‘Giving that to the people coming through, giving that knowledge and that kind of expertise if you like, of all these years racing world cups, giving that to the next generation.

‘I think for us, that’s a huge kind of goal for us and something we really believe it. If we can do that, we’re all good.’