British mountainbike downhill star Gee Atherton recently achieved a feat that England's footballers can only dream about – winning the World Cup with a series of consistently impressive displays – and we caught up with him to find out all about it...
So, Gee, how does it feel to be UCI World Cup Downhill Champion 2010?
It feels mega. Awesome. It’s been a goal of mine for a long time and it’s something that you’ve put so much effort and time into that when you eventually get it, apart from that initial feeling of how happy you are, there’s a lot of other emotions involved. Super-relieved and just to have achieved something that’s taken so much effort is incredible.
With [sister] Rachel winning in Windham too it must have been a special weekend for the Athertons?
Yes, it was an amazing weekend. Rach was on form; it was her first race back after her shoulder injury and to be honest seeing her win was a bit of a surprise. I was thinking that a podium would be good, but she managed to pull it out of the bag and it definitely boosted my confidence.
Sven Martin
You and Greg Minnaar were fairly close for most of the season – did that keep you focused on claiming the overall victory?
Yeah, it definitely did. It was amazing to have that battle all year, right from the first race every weekend it was Greg and I fighting and battling and I think we pushed each other on. We kind of helped each other improve and every race I knew that I would have to go as hard as I could and have everything perfect and I think he felt the same.
What was your favourite stop on this year’s World Cup calendar?
My favourite track was probably Maribor in Slovenia. It was the most fun for me because it’s a very fast track and quite technical, there’s a lot to it, it’s not too plain. I think I was second there, so it wasn’t the best result that I’d had, but for me that’s the course that I look forward to the most. It’s a massive challenge. I’ve had good results there in the past so it suits me but at the same time it’s a huge challenge to the riders. It’s very rocky and the weather changes a lot and you always feel like the track has the upper hand on you. You’re always getting your ass kicked and beaten about by it.
Sven Martin
How did it feel to ride and win in front of your ‘home’ crowd at Fort William, UK?
Out of all the victories this season, Fort William was definitely the highlight. It was incredible to win in front of a home crowd and all those people and that atmosphere – it was nuts. The crowd definitely spur you on. You can mainly hear them just on that bottom section, which is very physical at Fort William, and it gives you a real boost at the finish. When I came across the line in the lead it was incredible. I’ve never felt anything like that.
Do you think it’s tougher to win a series like the World Cup that requires a consistent level of performance rather than a one-off competition like the world championships?
Yeah, I think it’s much harder to win the overall World Cup. In some ways the world champs is tougher because everything has to be perfect in that individual race, that one run and that’s quite hard to do, but for the overall you have to have everything perfect on multiple occasions and you can’t slip up once all year. The way that the races are put together, it’s quite a short season so you can’t afford to have a bad race. It’s about the team around you as well. It’s not just you, it’s about who’s supporting you throughout the year and for me I think that’s what got me through this year.
Sven Martin
How difficult was it to go straight from winning the World Cup to the world championships in Quebec, Canada?
That was definitely a challenge. It was a tight schedule, as the race in Windham finished on the Sunday and so we were travelling all day Monday and the first day of training was on Tuesday, so physically it was tough. Mentally I was struggling a bit because once I had won the overall I kind of switched off. It was like I’d been waiting for that moment for so long that was me done almost and I found it really hard to get back into the race frame of mind and get fired up again when in my head I’d already done everything that I wanted to – even though the world champs were a massive goal for me.
Were you disappointed to finish fifth – is it fair to say you suffering a hangover from the euphoria of winning the World Cup?
Yes, definitely. Ideally you come into a big race feeling very neutral, not on a big high from a previous race or on a low, but in that middle ground and for me I went into Quebec still bouncing off the walls in celebration mode and it was very hard to just put it behind me and start focussing again that soon. The way that the world champs works is that from Tuesday through to Sunday, you have a small bit of training every day, so it was hard to keep myself in that frame of mind to peak on Sunday, so that was what I struggled with most in Quebec.
Check back into redbull.com soon for the second part of our exclusive interview with Gee Atherton or click here to watch the latest episode of The Atherton Project.
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