Mindmap – it’s the Peaty effect and the fact that certainly until recently if you want to do uplifts in this country you had to race.
We also have some amazing series run by very dedicated people who make it very (expense excluded) accessible.
That and we ride all year and while other mountainous countries switch to snowsports for the winter, us Brits just get on with racing in the mud. This makes our skills better and means we do more competitive riding in any given year. Even if the runs are a bit short.
Oh and we’re a small country and racing in the series is relatively cheap compared to say France or the US where the travelling is much more onerous.
It’s just a perfect environment for it really as bizarre as that sounds given the geography.