How does a 130kg rugby prop ride a mountain bike? Very fast, apparently. Pete Scullion reunites with Zander Fagerson, an old DH-racing rival who’s reinvented himself as a rugby international for Scotland.
Words: Pete Scullion. Photos: Pete Scullion and as credited.
Back when I raced downhill almost every weekend between April and September, and my hair wasn’t starting its inexorable reversal off the back of my head, there was a Scottish Downhill Champion who went by the name of Zander Fagerson. Despite my being in my early twenties, Zander had already outgrown me when he was in the Juvenile category. That might sound impressive, but at five foot three and around eight and a half stone, well… You set the bar low enough, you can always clear it, right?
Before long, I saw less and less of Zander, without really realising it until several years later, when he appeared behind me at our local bike shop. While I had changed little, Zander had what you might call a growth spurt. The guy’s a tree trunk! I would have as much luck trying to run through an oak tree as I would Zander. It reminds me of my favourite rugby commentary quote, by Austin Healey: “If you want to know what it’s like to tackle him, go outside and find a skip, then run at it as hard as you can.”
I would have as much luck trying to run through an oak tree as I would Zander.
Joining the Union
For as long as I can remember, I have loved Rugby Union. My Dad is a dedicated Ireland fan, and I think what attracted me to being a fan of the sport was that it is everything I am not. My Mum was terrified that I would get put in a scrum at PE in school… The sheer size of these humans, the physicality, the teamwork… It didn’t feel like anything I would achieve. My favourite players as a kid were two Irish front rowers – John ‘The Bull’ Hayes for his sheer size and Shane Byrne for his filthy mullet. Then there’s Adam ‘Bomb’ Jones. Again, an absolute monster of a tighthead prop who, hilariously, helped me out of an excess baggage charge in Edinburgh Airport back in 2009.
As I got to the FlyBe desk and placed my bag on the belt, I was informed that my bag was overweight. It wasn’t much and they could have just overlooked it, but no… I looked around for some support of my disbelief, only to see the giant that is Adam Jones standing behind me, along with the rest of the Ospreys rugby team. In a rare moment of saying the thing I should have said at the time, instead of wishing I had once I got home, I stepped aside and offered: “You’re trying to sting me for a kilo of excess baggage… this guy probably weighs three of me…” The man mountain took a half step back, looked me up and down and uttered, “Call it four…” I did not have to pay for my overweight bag.
At that point, Zander was a fixture of the Glasgow Warriors front row as tighthead prop, one of the key positions in rugby that requires both incredible skill and enormous strength. Size helps too. At a scrum, Zander lines up on the right-hand side of the front row, the hooker to his right and a lock behind him. His head slots in between the head of the opponent loosehead and the hooker, hence ‘tight’ head.
…requires both incredible skill and enormous strength. Size helps too.
If Zander does his job properly, it allows the hooker a much easier job of accessing the ball as it’s fed into the scrum. Many teams use attacking scrums (scrums where your scrum-half feeds the ball) as the starting point for pre-planned attacking plays. Dominating your opposite loosehead can either give a solid base for attack, or, if it doesn’t go to plan, the reward of a penalty or a yellow card and subsequent 10-minute sin bin. What a tighthead does at a scrum depends on whether it’s an attacking or defending scrum. In attack, the tighthead wants to get under the loosehead to anchor the scrum and provide stability. In defence, the goal is to drive the loosehead downwards to stop the hooker striking the ball back through the pack. Add to this the crucial work they do in line-outs, mauls and rucks.
Vital Statistics
| Zander | Pete | |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 6ft 2in (188cm) | 5ft 4in (165cm) |
| Weight | 20 stone 7 lbs (130kg) | 10 stone 2 lbs (65kg) |
| Age | 30 | 38 |
| Bench press | 190kg | 50kg (x5) |
| Squat | 240kg (x5) | 50kg (x10) |
| Weekly egg consumption | 40 | 4 |
Brothers Grimm Strong
How then does a promising cyclist go from needing good power-to-weight to a sport where power and weight is king? In order to answer that question, we must wind the clock back a touch. One of the few things Zander and I have in common is parents who were keen on their kids being outside. Both The Big Man and his younger brother Matt would take possession of 24in GT bikes, from Halfords no less, and spend every waking hour in the woods, scuffing out tracks to rally down.
It didn’t take long for downhill to catch Zander’s eye and we both laugh at the thought of just how terrible downhill bikes used to be. I offered that my Super T forks were too stiff for me, so we poured out the 15WT oil and put in 2.5, so I could actually move them – the joy of open bath forks… Zander counters this, saying that his last downhill bike was unique in that he managed to acquire a 1000lb spring from RockShox, which basically didn’t move.
Back when my brother Rob was busy going after his elite downhill licence, Zander recalls when he and his brother Matt went to a Scottish Downhill Association race at Killin. A push-up race (no shuttles here…) down a very steep and wet field strewn with big boulders. While Zander took to trying to take the track apart, Matt took a dive on the first corner, injuring his knee and shortly afterwards, his toys left the pram. Embarrassed, Zander urged his dad to take Matt off the hill… Siblings eh?
Nowadays, both brothers pack down in the same Warriors or Scotland pack, with Matt playing number 8 for both teams. When I ask Zander about how you get into the headspace of squaring up to 6 foot nine, 19-stone South Africans on the pitch, the answer is pretty simple. “I’m a confrontational player, so always up for a rumble, plus I hate bullies.”
“I’m a confrontational player, so always up for a rumble, plus I hate bullies.”
Some Good News
Zander went to Strathallan School and his time there was the crucial turning point. Having played school rugby up to this point as a number 8 (rear centre of the scrum), he was given a fairly brutal analysis of his chances of being a professional number 8. “You’re not fast, you can’t pass, not tall enough… but you ARE strong…” Crushing. They did, however, suggest tighthead prop as nobody wanted that position. A somewhat prophetic offer in hindsight. What sold it was, as Zander puts it: “You can eat whatever you want.”
What sold it was, as Zander puts it: “You can eat whatever you want.”
Power to weight went out the window. After joining Stirling County in the Scottish Premiership, Scotland’s top amateur league, Zander joined Glasgow Warriors and became the youngest player to reach 50 caps for the team. He got his first cap for Scotland against England in 2016, but says that one of his hardest days out was for Glasgow Hawks 2 against a particularly fearsome scrummager, the so-called Lindsay ‘Shagger’ Norman, who turned him inside out.
Zander can now claim starting tighthead for Glasgow Warriors, who are currently leading their pool in the United Rugby Championship, and holds that same position in Scotland’s national team. He also plays for the British & Irish Lions, but was unlucky to miss out on their 2024 tour because of a leg injury. Beyond a World Cup win, being starting prop for the Lions is about as good as it can get for a prop born on these shores.
Happily, though, despite being six foot two (188cm), tipping the scales at just over twenty stone (130kg), Zander has lost none of his ability to shred on a bike. Making full use of his Cube ebike to cruise up the climbs, you can almost hear the rear triangle groan as he shoves the bike into some bermed corners. Zander offers: “If I take the battery out, it feels like a normal bike.” I scoff: “I think we might live in two very different worlds, sir.” With the Six Nations just around the corner and Warriors at the sharp end of their current competition, I am wary of getting Zander into too much trouble on the notoriously tricky trails here in Aberfoyle.
The last thing I want to do is have Zander put a big old dent in the ground because I’d get a very angry call from either Gregor Townsend (Scotland coach) or Franco Smith (Glasgow Warriors coach). Video is off the cards too as The Big Man reckons he’ll get a stern talking-to for going sendy on the bike with big competitions approaching. “Want me to try tripling it?” follows immediately afterwards… As I suck air through my teeth, it’s fairly obvious that Zander has lost none of the skills that propelled him to that Scottish title some fifteen years ago.
A Bike-Riding Freight Train
The best way to describe Zander’s attack on a trail is like Brook Macdonald, but the ground does actually move. Weeks after we rode together, the mark where Zander left the trail remains. Had it been me doing the same thing, the leaf litter would barely have noticed my passing. It’s akin to watching one of those never-ending goods trains coming past when you’re standing inside the yellow line on the platform.
Even on my own trails, riding multiple times a week, I can’t seem to keep a decent amount of wind between us, despite Zander only riding four times a year. “I can’t wait for the twins to go to school…” We promise to make the most of that opportunity when it arrives. Arguably, the only time I have Zander covered is on the climbs, quite unsurprisingly. We’re both on 100Nm ebikes, but, together, my bike and I still weigh 40kg less than Zander does on his own. So I have a considerable overall system weight advantage here. Despite being several modes lower and with easier gears, I feel bad as I breeze up the climbs.
With a free pass for the morning, and having negotiated an extra hour out, you can see the kid in Zander wanting to bash out the laps but not do anything silly. We quickly assess the time remaining and how many of which trails we can do in the time left before he’s to go scoop his older two from school. If this is a quarter of his bike rides this year, we sure are going to make the most of it.
I am unsure as to whether I’d prefer to chase or be chased. The former has me eyeballing Zander’s bike to see how much it flexes and rebounds as he hammers it down the trail. He’s smooth, no doubt, but it’s rare to see someone so enormous on a mountain bike giving it the beans. If I am being chased, it feels like being aware of some apex predator behind me. In this case, a grizzly that’s become rather adept at shredding on a bike. I have fast friends who relish chasing me down steep and tech, but this is a different situation altogether.
Folk are all different shapes and sizes, and this might be the extreme that proves the point.
Diving out of the woods, having maybe gone a bit too fast and almost gone off down the hill, Zander’s eyes are popping, and we’re already planning more outings. The fizz is high. Folk are all different shapes and sizes, and this might be the extreme that proves the point. The crucial element is fun. Neither of us race bikes much anymore, but neither of us has lost the love of going fast on bikes.
As Zander loads his bike into his car, I realise the stark contrast of what our plans for the following day are. I plan to take some pictures of a bicycle, write some words, maybe go to the gym… The usual. Meanwhile, Zander is flying to Italy to play Zebre in the URC. Also, the usual. My usual competition is task paralysis, while Zander will be packing down against the 127kg, 187cm Argentinian Juan Pitinari…
