There’s no doubting Gee Atherton’s skills on two wheels. The man’s a two-time Downhill World Champion who’s still going strong after more than 10 years competing at the top of his sport.
But when Gee’s not dominating the world’s downhill mountain bike runs, there’s one other sport that really gets his blood pumping: rally.
A lifelong love of rallying has recently developed into a passion that’s seen Gee gain his own competition license and begin competing in selected British Rally Championship rounds in between his downhill commitments. He even took a stage win in his class at the Mid-Wales Stages rally in March, so he’s clearly no slouch.
So to see just how good Gee is behind the wheel, RedBull.com sent him up to Cumbria for a very special training day with Elfyn Evans, current WRC2 driver for the M-Sport World Rally Team. See how Gee got on in the video above, and then read on to find out more about Gee’s not-so-secret passion.
So Gee, where did your love of rally come from?
Since I’ve been old enough to drive! We’ve always lived in the countryside and we were always driving cheap cars around the lanes, or around forest tracks or farms. But it’s only recently that I’ve got into the actual following of the rally scene.
What was the trigger for that?
I think it was probably watching Wales Rally GB and going to the rally’s media days. Then after taking a few passenger rides – with Elfyn, in fact – and looking around the cars and watching the guys drive them, I just thought, ‘I’m desperate to try this’.
Watch the GoPro footage from one of Gee's runs in the video below.
Living in Wales must help too.
Exactly. Wales Rally GB goes literally straight past my brother Dan’s house and there’s a lot of drivers who have come from around there. To live where those guys have grown up and learned to drive… it’s an incredible spot to be in.
Be honest: what do you make of your car-handling skills? Has the mountain biking helped at all?
I’m not a good driver yet, but I can see what I need to do to be a better driver. I was amazed how much crossed over from downhill mountain biking when I started driving cars specifically made to go on gravel. Like learning to read the road and the surface, the balance, the speed, the braking points and the exit speeds and all that kind of stuff.
When I started to drive and got used to listening to a co-driver, I was amazed at how I could read the roads
There are people who reckon that [nine-time World Rally Champion] Sébastien Loeb is so good because he was a gymnast before he became a rally driver…
Yeah, I've heard that, and I think it does work. Don’t get me wrong, when I got into a rally car, I was as far out of my depth as I possibly could be. But when I started to drive and got used to listening to a co-driver, I was amazed at how I could read the roads and how, before a rally, I could watch the DVD of the stages through, read the pace notes and how much I could remember. I’ve spent years teaching my mind to see things and store them and remember the speed I need to hit a jump at, or the danger points, or the areas I need to watch out for. And it does cross over quite well, which I was quite surprised about.
Mountain biking and rally do play off each other well
So where’s rally going to slot into your life, given your profile in the mountain biking world?
Mountain biking is still my massive passion and a huge goal for me at the moment, and racing in that is for sure what I’m going to do. But the driving is something I love so much that I do make time for it. It’s good to have something where you can forget about the bikes for a bit and lose yourself in the rallying. But it’s not going to be a detriment to the mountain biking because there’s a lot I can take from it and it’s still keeping me so alert and so focused. The two definitely do play off each other well.
Have you had any sticky moments in your rally career so far?
Yeah, of course. I’ve raced mountain bikes for so long and I’ve done quite well in the sport and it gives you a certain feeling of invincibility. Then you get in a car and it wasn’t long before I was on the roof, upside down, realising that I don’t know what I’m doing yet, and that rallying is something that’s going to bite back if you don’t treat it with respect. But I kind of knew that was going to be the case.
Those times when you are upside down are the times when you learn the most
I set off into the sport knowing that there were going to be a lot of things I had to learn as I go. But you know, those times when you are upside down and realising what you’ve done are the times you learn the most from, I think. And that’s what mountain biking’s definitely taught me.
And at least in the rally car you’ve got a roll cage...
Exactly! I do feel safer in a car.