Neil Donoghue, it was on a course so he was more of the performing monkey for the day rather than riding shoulder to shoulder trying to out brake him into a berm or anything like that. His bike really was just an extension of his body, he clears doubles at about a quarter of the speed you think he'd need to do so with about as much difficulty as most people walk down the stairs.
Fastest Muggle rider was a Mate of some friends of mine, could ride anything on 2 wheels, anything. started as a kid on Trials Bikes (with Rob Warner) then raced Superbikes (not BSB, lower division, clubman stuff) and finally picked up MTBing in his mid-30s when the Motorbikes were going to bankrupt him. This was his 'learning curve'.
At 35 he sits on his first MTB, 30 seconds later he's bouncing on the back wheel, riding it like a pogo stick. It's taken him another 60 seconds or so to learn to wheelie/manual as far as he likes.
First ride, Whites Level at Afan, he's struggling with the gearing and climbing rocks, so he rides them like a trails rider, spends most of the climb either on the front wheel, or back, rarely both it seems.
Final Descent he follows me down, studying how I do it (I'm not great now, was worse then), chatting all the way whilst I try to hold onto my bike. He's on a HT from memory, I'm on a 150mm FS bike.
Fairly quickly buys a little 4" travel Kona Kikapu. He's now the fastest rider in our group by some margin.
3-4 months after he first sits on a MTB we go to Morzine for the first time, we've all got new DH bikes, he rents a horrible condition Kona Stinky from Alpine Elements. Takes it back 2 hours later because the bearings are so shagged the back we steers as much as the front, they tell him "they all do that" they don't, but he carries on anyway.
Day 2 and he's having a ball riding with our 'Guide' who it stupid fast compared to us. Guide tells him about the unofficial Pleney DH run competition between the Guides and shows him the board with the times on, he borrows and 'Tony Hawk Action Cam' (terrible pre-GoPro action cam) from another friend and sets a new record.
Lives in New Zealand now, hope he still rides.
Rob Jebb, many years ago when I was about 16 and he was a couple of years older.
I joined up with a chain gang whilst on my way home from work and thought i might as well get a few miles under my belt with them. The pace was crazy, i was going full gas just trying to stay in the middle of the group. I then started to realise that i was going to end up on the front with no legs left and embarrass myself hugely. About 4 miles in i was on the front, going full chat and seeing stars when up ahead the traffic lights turned to red and we all grouped up waiting. 2 riders along from me were the Brownlee brothers, Alistair then turned round to everyone and said ‘ ok warm up finished, the race starts from here to....where ever it was. I pretended to not be able to clip in and did a u turn when they had shot off. No way was i going to keep that pace up for more than about 30ft!
...from Lawnswood Cemetery?
Rob Jebb, many years ago
Does an hour and a half behind on 3 Peaks CX count? No? Ah well...
Geex, obviously!
Rode wi quite a few very good/world class riders but most enjoyable was (where i actually learned and picked up skills) a couple o' days riding wi Joe Barnes, Stu Thomson (mtbcut tv), Liam Moyniham and Steve Jones (dirt mag) round Kirroughtree and other areas in Galloway for a magazine feature/photoshoot back in 2007, It's only when you ride with such effortlessly skilled riders that you realise you are just average.
Ooh I remember! We were camped next to a lovely family at the PMBA event at gisburn a couple of years ago that the kid was racing, a 16 year old lass who, though had done a few XC races, was riding her first enduro (on a very XC focused KTM iirc) After staying up chatting the night before we rode round with her the next morning. She was wheelieing up most of the climbs and when she stopped to wait for us, regularly, she was doing no hand, no foot trackstands. After we got to the end, we were comparing times, and we were significantly slower than her on the stages, much to her amusement. ‘How are you so slow?!’ Etc. 😭😭
I dont mind regailing this story quite so much now, the lass was Martha Gill.
Fastest Muggle rider was a Mate of some friends of mine, could ride anything on 2 wheels, anything. started as a kid on Trials Bikes (with Rob Warner) then raced Superbikes (not BSB, lower division, clubman stuff) and finally picked up MTBing in his mid-30s when the Motorbikes were going to bankrupt him. This was his ‘learning curve’.
Ridden with a few guys who race motorbikes, a lot of them seem to do really well I suspect because they're coming from the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're used to hauling on the brakes at 150mph then 15mph at a trail center probably feels like quite a slow entry to a corner. Whereas the rest of us have to build up a bit at a time letting the bike off the brakes a bit more each run to pick up speed, they never touched the brakes in the first place.
Having said that I've also ridden with Weeksy and PP who both like their motorbikes but it doesn't seem to have transferred as well 😜
Ladies:
Showed the handsome Chantal Blaak the way to the finish of tour of flanders when she was a bit lost.
Had Andrea Tafi wait for me when I had rubbish legs one day out with some mates.
Turned down Tim Donn " man with the halo" as a training buddy(my then housemate though we would be a nice match)
Rubbed shoulders with Tom Boonen and blew my engine trying to keep up with Fabian Cancellara.
Hora, one Monday night though he claimed to be Binners 😂😂😂
On a mountain bike i guess Ryan, who used to be a guide with Freeride Spain many moons ago..he was phenominally quick even on his spindly arse-in-the-air XC hardtail.
Roadie - i guess Harry Tanfield, who rides with our local roadie club....though that might become a much rarer sight now he's been signed by Katusha!
I used to ride into work with Gethin Butler who held the LeJog record from 2001 - 2018
I once knocked Christophe Dupoeey (I may have spelt his name wrong) off into some nettles at RedBull 24hr in Sandwell...if that counts!
Fabian Barel probably. Certainly the best rider that's ever going to ask me about my line choice... my answer- "I'm just gonny kind of skid down the middle and see where I end up"
Rode out the school gates with Peter Keen a couple of times 😀 and foolishly tried to beat Max Chaya up a col in Corsica once - you'll prob have to Google them both anyway, but after playing tail end Charlie on a weeks tour of Corsica (and getting the nickname diesel dick) I thought I'd give it a go on the last ascent, just hadn't accounted for Max's over riding competitiveness and promptly "burst into flames" at the summit 😒
Does riding Pedalhounds stages with Brendog and his crew just in front or behind count? 😀
My mate Jelly.
Graeme obree
he had to wait for the rest of us😂😂
I've never ridden with anybody famous but my ambition is to bask in the glow that is Geex.
Wow, this got me thinking:
Njee - before we both got kids and riding time became rare
Atherton brothers - rode with them a few times back in Somerset. Actually got my arse kicked by them but ya know....
Anthony Kappes, Neil Fachie - piloted a tandem for them on various training camps. Rode with a load of other paralympians; I learnt a valuable lesson with these dudes!
Steve Bate - piloted a tandem when he was being tested for team GB worthiness. He was, I had a family (and so wasn't)
My Renvale RT team mates - we're friends and have really helped each other through some tough times.
Ben Greenwood - this kid was an amazing rider. If he had arrived a few years later than he did I would be amazed if he hadn't ended up in the Pro Tour.
There are peolpe on here who do the Leeds chain gang? It's a small world!.........
Ride with (actually with) Steve Peat once because he's a friend of a friend , but the friend didn't turn up so was a bit awkward.
(Needless to say, he was well impressed and went on to win the world chaps a few weeks later.)
Best riders technically I've ridden with are probably the more talented guys from my days at Southampton Uni and the friends of friends that became part of the annual Afan trip for many years after.
Wade Simmons
Scruff
Brett Tippie
I’ve lined up alongside Peaty in a local “mates race” dual. Wouldn’t be fair to say I raced him as he finished about 5 secs up on a 17 second course!
I have exactly the same experience with Martin Söderström. Otherwise, there are a couple of local riders who are beyond just ordinary good; raced DH at WC level bitd and another does well at national level in trials.
Marco ,(& young Mark) from Ciclomontana!
And Harris off of here, best fun at least. 🙂
I used to ride with a bloke called Steve.
He was awesome, he not only looked fast but he was fast. Yet we both rode to each other’s strengths and spent many thousands of Km’s rattling around the Eastern Dolomites' on some s****y roadies.
We also rode SS together (in a small group) and he was as popular there as when we were riding alone.
He has grace, pace and is ace.
And he’s a male model who does underwear adverts and you’ll have seen his torso on plenty of advertising media over the years.
#mancrush
Johnx2 - yes it was from the cemetary and i bailed out at the lights by the Dyneley Arms. I didnt have the legs that day but even so the pace was pretty full on.
The ghost from Jacques Anquetil joins us every week when I'am biking with my pals.
And he’s a male model who does underwear adverts
Jacques is not doing any underwear adverts.
Through racing and travelling I've had the luck to ride some bits with quite a few famous folk. The highlights were Tracy Moseley, Greg Minaar, Nico Vouilloz but the standout by far was Cedric Gracia. The way he rode was mind-blowing. So aggressive and stylish and he was just so enthusiastic about everything
Elliott heap, because his skill is off the charts, and Sam hill, because he's Sam hill!
Marcin Bialoblocki...ish. He raced our local 10 mile TT recently, and annihilated the field and the course record. I wasn't on course at the same time as him, but did get chance to watch before i started. He looked astonishgly fast, holding 32mph on a road surface that would make some gravel tracks look smooth. He caught his minute rider after half a mile, and put over 7 minutes on me...
I saw Chipps on a the same Polaris as me & my mate many years ago. The main thing I remember is he had overshoes on and the front was all ridden up like Aladdin shoes 😆
He wasn't riding at the time though, so I couldn't tell how talented he was 😉
Oh, and I ride all the time with my mate Rosie who won the Red Bull Fox Hunt a couple of years ago.
Paul Hopkins as an absolute XC machine Chris Smith as a free ride dude stand out locally. Crazy to think that the very best are another level all together on top of their already insane talents.
I was thinking it was a toss-up between Walleater (hi Will!) and Scruff. Although I once went down that odd mid-Wales downhill course (that crossed a road - Nennerch?) about 20 years ago with a young woman called Tracey Moseley who I'd never heard of.
It's all relative.
For me, it's my mate Steve. When it comes to XC, he can descend on rocks faster than I can on tarmac - he's simply immensely fast. I remember descending into Nidderdale in foul weather. He was on his "spare, spare" bike - an inexpensive hardtail - and I was on my exotic, carbon FS steed...and I could barely keep him in sight. Simply astonishing! The difference is probably even more pronounced when we start climbing - he's a machine!
On the other hand, last night, I rode home from work on the CX bike with a colleague and he repeatedly commented about how incredibly fast I was, and "how do you manage to keep your tyres stuck to the ground when riding rough stuff so fast?" We averaged around 9mph for the 15 miles before we split and I was easily able to up this to 16mph for the remaining 15 miles on my own, while he more or less collapsed through the front door.
Honestly, I'm no better than anyone else here, but from the perspective of a casual, commuter cyclist, I must have seemed almost godlike to him! I think I need another ride with Steve to remind me of just how shockingly average I actually am as a rider! 🙂
Ton, Martin Early lives round my way* I think, he takes photos of the junior road races. * Or comes over a lot. San Sebastian.
There's some talent come out of our youth club, Spanish u23 RR champions, CRI etc, ridden with some since they were 12 years old (when I could beat them!). We get current and ex pros on the Saturday chain gang , but you'd need to be brushed up on your Basque cycling history to remember most of them; Olano, Osa, Beloki, Astarloza etc. Still seriously quick in their 40s ( except Astarloza who got really fat after retirement).
Haven't actually ridden with anyone famous, but my mates and I were packing our bikes up in Glentress car park one winter's day when a lovely young lady wandered over to me. She was asking how long it would take to do the black loop as they didn't have lights (it was getting late in the day), and I said 2-3 hours depending on how quick she was. She reckoned that was do-able, so I looked over her shoulder and asked about her partner who was bent over his bike fitting his wheels on. I actually said something like, "What about your mate, is he fairly quick on a bike?" She replied that he was pretty good ( I saw him smile through his sideburns at this point), so I wished them the best of luck and turned around to see my two mates just standing there, gaping.
Apparently I'd just asked if Guy Martin was fast on a bike.
Having ridden DH for 25 years and visited Whistler a lot of times, my 'ridden with' list is quite long!
However, similar to others above, the most memorable and best have been the random invites at Whistler where we met a legend on the chair and asked if we wanted to ride with them; Tippie, Gracia, Peaty, Lopes, Smith, Hill and both Kovariks.
But the most memorable was meeting a grom called Jackson Goldstone when he was 5, he had no brakes on his bike 'coz his dad said he used them too much!!!
My lad was chatting to Jackson when we stopped before the last section of A-line a few years ago, said he was a really nice lad.
Ridden with Tracy Mosely and Scott Beamont years ago, and Geoff Gulevich in Leogang.
I ride these days with my 16 yr old lad and his friends who are all seriously good riders, keeps me young! This is him on 50:01 at Revs.
I did a charity day at Sherwood with Danny Hart about two weeks after he’d won his first rainbow jumper.
Considering he was on his DH bike, the way he went through the big set of trails there was pretty mind blowing. I bought him tea afterwards, proper sound lad
Tony Doyle aka Jedi
ride with him and our group at least twice a week, and just me and him most Mondays.
its great to ride with him doing exactly what he teaches, and with a casualness and confidence i will never have.
you wont take this away from one of his coaching courses, but he is super fast as well as technically brill.
also Zak Shaw champion Bmx er is pretty awesome too
Did a #JennRide back in 2015 and Rickie Cotter was there. Lovely person, really friendly, nice social pace. Then it came to the hills and she was chatting away whilst I was blowing out my arse to keep up with her, brilliant 🙂
I'm giggling to myself at the prospect of all the pro racers seeing this thread, but staying out of it, because they know in their heart of hearts the answer is Nico Vouilloz, Sam Hill or Greg Minnaar or for the ladies Anne Caroline Chausson, Rachel Atherton or Tracy Moseley, though of course when you start getting into the more freeride/freestyle side, things get a bit more complicated... I would mention XC, but to my shame I have to admit my ignorance in that field.
Anyhoo, a few weeks back it somehow ended up with just Greg Minnaar and I riding down the Pleney, though it doesn't really count, as we never exchanged a word (we weren't in the lift together, I just caught him up 😁), he was recovering from injury and I'd had 2 teeth out the day before. Nonetheless, his fluidity and speed were of course impeccable.
Riding with the RideIO team at the mega was great; Emyr Davies is a top guy and has mad skills to boot (he must be one of the top UK finishers of the mega, with an 8th the year before), and aside from being speedy buggers Louis Meade and Will Hart have top bantz.
I've also ridden with the Dudes of Hazzard, though due to unfortunate circumstance, some of those memories are a bit tarnished.