My mate Paul has a lot of KOMs, does that count?
I rode the best part of a Strathpuffer lap with Jason Miles a few years ago. To be fair to him it was about 8hrs in, he was solo and I was in a pair.
Thoroughly nice bloke 👍
Booked a heli-biking trip in New Zealand and turned up to find Chris Ball on the same trip. He spent the time at the back of the group chatting to his mate Pang* who was guiding the ride so didn't actually see him riding. He said he'd send me some photos as my camera batteries died but never did 🙁
* who I believe has second secret identity as the Huck Wizard so not exactly a shabby rider either.
of course when you start getting into the more freeride/freestyle side, things get a bit more complicated…
Walleater done a proper ledge - Wade Simmons!
Ton, Martin Early lives round my way* I think, he takes photos of the junior road races. * Or comes over a lot. San Sebastian.
Not unless he's moved recently. He lives near Stoke. although it's an easy mistake to make as Stoke looks just like San Sebastian.
Nigel Page showed me the cheeky trails at Rivi, that was fun, though I struggling to keep up.
Shared a BMX gate with Liam Phillips, bloody rapid. Liam not me.
Raced Craig Maclean on a BMX last Saturday. Track cyclist very handy on a small bike, left me for dead out of the gate.
Nick Craig on a North West Mountain Bike demo day. I was helping out and he went off to chase down a rogue ebiker. Awesome acceleration.
Shared startlines at the Mega with some great riders. Remy, Sam Hill etc..
What I will say is that they've all been great to chat to.
I keep bumping into Nigel and he must think who's this prat who seems to know me, but doesn't let on, last saw him at the end of the Mega with Elliot Heap.
I'm most impressed that most people on here actually ride!
Some awesome stories on here. Very cool to read
Robin Seymour - not a well recognised name (was sponsored by stw for a while) but makes everything look so easy whilst on a 80mm hardtail. Builds stuff like a trail fairy on speed and epo, incredibly polite when overtaking and all around good guy.
Took me down a trail with hairpins so tight the only way to get around was to lift the back end into the air and flick it around. In the shitty, wet mud at 20kmph. I crashed wondering what the **** I had just witnessed.
Current 3x world champion xco masters.
Njee when he was quick I guess
Crushing of inditement of Njee from Weeksy there!
Don't think I've ridden with anyone crazy good, execpt for a few yards when getting lapped in xc races
I yo-yo'd down Porcupine Rim in Moab with Rene Wildhaber. I'll leave it to you to decide who was doing the stopping and the overtaking! We had a chat and he had a go on my fatbike at the car park at the bottom.
People I've actually ridden with, though, probably Gez or Tym.
It depends a bit on how you define 'best', but I was fortunate enough to ride with the late Steve Worland a few times. He had this lovely knack of somehow floating effortlessly through the sort of flow-distrupting minor trail carnage that had everyone else reduced to spasmodic jerkiness. I've ridden with other people who were outright faster and more ostentatiously 'skilled', but he had a sort of zen-like fluency that you don't often see.
Reality is for me it's hard to pick out a best as everyone I ride with is better than me anyway.
I did a coaching day with Steve Jones (ex Dirt now GMBN) and Rob Breakwell (nickname was Bobby Dazzler, think he rode for the Dirt team back in the day) and they, especially Rob were very quick. Managed to get about 1/4 of a run down the Pleney with Sam Hill back when he was on an M1, was unbelievably fast!
Been lucky enough to ride with quite a lot of really good guys from when I was racing in Europe quite a lot 4/5 years ago. Got to know Manuel Ducci (2013 Superenduro champion) around 2012 and was always blown away by his technical capability and power. He's more or less retired now (but still in the industry) but still got skills and pace in abundance.
Karim Amour is another one - effortlessly fast and unbelievably creative with line choice. Practiced with him at Superenduro Tolfa back in 2013 and it was like he saw a totally different landscape to the rest of us. I used a couple of his lines and made some good time (even overtaking 2 riders using one of his lines!), but the large majority of his creative lines were simply unachievable to a mortal.
Without a shadow of a doubt though, the best is Nico. Was lucky enough to try and follow him in practice for one stage in Dolce Acqua 3 or 4 years ago. It wasn't just how fluid, fast and effortless he was that blew me away, it was the unbelievable pinpoint accuracy of his manoeuvres and his ability to completely change direction without slowing down that blew me away. I tried (and failed painfully) to follow some of his more ambitious lines (why oh why did I think I could do that?!?) and not only did I not have the skill to take them, I don't know how such a tiny man could generate the colossal amounts of grip required to take them. It's one of those things I will just have to chalk up as "beyond understanding".
I always think of it as an absolute privilege to ride with top guys & girls who are on a totally different level - you not only get an insight into how bloody amazing they are both as riders and as people, but always end up picking up some nice little tips or new ways of seeing the trail ahead.
Road cycling, but last week Geoffroy Lequatre, winner of the 2008 edition of the ToB came out on our training ride as he was staying in the area.
Also I have ridden with Stephen Roche, who came on a club ride when he was in town to promote a book at a literature festival. I don't suppose you can get much better than a triple crown winner, he's certainly up there with the great road men
Had a couple of days riding in the Portes du Soleil with Ffion Griffiths & Emmeline Ragot In 2011 (I think). Besides the fact they were utterly charming, friendly & totally grounded i was amazed at the finesse they had just riding trails.
I recall one their brakes failed halfway round a big loop and despite loads of faffing we couldn’t sort them. I can’t remember which DH course (I think it was La Conche, but not 100%) but they rode this without brakes, drifting into all the corners to scrub off speed. It was a lesson in bike control from them both. It was also funny that they took the piss out of my lack of finesse so mercilessly throughout the ride, telling me I should apologise to my bike regularly. Emmeline went on to win the world champs that year.
I do remember early morzine days for me seeing this bloke in a full on replica cannondale dh race bike and the sad bloke had got the kit on, oh no that was cedric..
Year or so later saw Rachel Atherton at the top of the pleny and set off to follow, she was putting about 1s on me per corner without looking like she was trying. Then she hopped off onto some off piste and was gone.
I once beat Ben Swift to the coffee counter, I may have pushed in when someone wanted to talk to him though.
Use to ride regulary with Elliot heap and his RIDEMTB partner. Elliot started riding for CRC about the time I became a dad. Not seen him for a while.
4/5 years ago, we drove past pagey and ‘his mate’ on our way to ride the (Secret at the time) special-k track up rivi that we had helped to build.
mate showed me a video a few days later of pagey and ‘his mate’ Sam Hill riding special-k.
Gutted 😕
I may have pushed in when someone wanted to talk to him though.
I pushed my way out of the end of the whistler track end last year, you know be a bit forceful... Sorry bulldog ..
I tried to race two posers with flash bikes and full kit along bury new road when coming back from work. then at the lights I spotted that they had their names on the bikes and it was the yates' (just before they signed for orica greenedge) so said hello and that. I have never seen road bikes accelerate so fast. ever.
Robert Miller came on one of our club rides once, the autumn after he won the mountains jersey, a bit of a superstar in my book.
Reading the post further up the page about Guy Martin ..I was marshalling at a Kielder Marathon event a few years back ( which Guy took part in ) and while there is no doubting he is quick on a motorbike ..that didn't transfer itself to a mountain bike ..
I have raced many times against Anton Cooper when he was a lot younger.
i still remember him huffing and puffing past me up a hill when he was a small 12year beginner. He started a minute behind us in sport class while I was riding expert. I remember thinking stupid kid going too fast at the beginning - he will blow and I will pass him soon. Never saw him again. He just kept improving until he now featured in a sprint finish this year with Nino for first place in a world cup! whereas I have now turned into a slow old codger who is getting interested in E bikes!
lucky to have ridden with a few great riders, Oli beck, Katy Crud, Sally Bigham,Nick Craig plus others at races on track, Rich Warner, Annie Last, Steve Peat + a few others.
Shame it's not who's bike you worked on. would have a few more lol
Two come to mind, 1st one was a guy called Farid Bourebrab who we followed on a guided day around Chamonix in 2009.
More lately it would be Brett Penfold who's one of my son's best mates & rides an Airdrop, interesting article here...
https://www.airdropbikes.com/blogs/news/race-winning-bitmap
Stuart ‘Pepe’ Winder. Didn’t know him very well but my neighbour rode with him all the time. Insane bike skills. RIP
Crawford carrick Anderson Scottish mountain bike chap
^^ Legend
I had a couple of beers the night before with the guy who won SSUK. Seeing as drinking is such an integral part of the event I think that counts. But that means my excuse of being hungover doesn't count!
rode with Kevin Schwantz on the Maratona for about 100m. I was in awe.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes in an adventure race, had a quick chat.
Raced in the same race as JMc as a kids, and against Alistair Brownlee at the Helvellyn triathlon when he was just 18...And he wiped the floor with everyone!
Rode with Chris McCormack (ITU World Champ and 2x Ironman World Champ) in Thailand on a course recce of the Phuket IronMan 70.3. He lapped me on the run though mainly due to my inability to swim 😀
Cheers, Rich
@reggiegasket - Jammy bugger ! Schwantz was (and still is ) my absolute hero back in the 500 days !
Same here Andy. He was even #34 on his Maratona number board. What a dude.