Mountain Bike Icons – the Gee Atherton story

British downhill ace Gee Atherton has been at the top of the sport for more than two decades - this is his story

off.road.cc staff

Jun 2 2023

[Words by Steve Thomas]

The trio of Atherton siblings - Dan, Gee, and Rachel - arguably make up the most successful family mountain biking dynasty of all time and are now also heading their own Dyfi Bike Park and Atherton Bikes brand. Things have always been a family affair and Dan has long since been at the crazy helm of their adventures and career, as Gee explains.

“It was Dan that got us all into riding. I remember the day he phoned me – he was at a mate’s house, and I must have been about eight years old. He said his friend had a BMX for sale for GB10, and did I want him to buy it for me and bring it home? I said no, I’m not that fussed really. But he did buy it and bring it back to me, and pretty much from that moment on we were all hooked, and our lives were focussed on two wheels.”

Early on it was all about pure fun.

“We spent years just riding without knowing that there was this whole race and ride scene out there. Living in a small village and during the pre-internet era, we were pretty cut off; it was just us riding for the fun of it. We built tracks and jumps and didn’t realise there was this racing and stuff out there, and this bigger world – it took us years to discover it.”

Initially, it was small wheels that lured them into competition.

“Then we discovered the BMX world and racing and it held us there for a couple of years until we discovered mountain biking. It took us a while to commit, as we didn’t know what we were doing. We were quite good at BMX but once we moved into the mountain bike world it was very much a case of learning as we went. There was nobody to teach or coach us through it, we’d just roll up on our chunky old bikes that our dad had taken us to the races with and then throw ourselves down the hills. It took us a couple of years to get our heads around it, and then results started coming in and it picked up from there.”

The family team

There have been many siblings riding together at a high level in mountain biking over the years but few, if any, have managed to keep the band together and under their own management for long, although with the Athertons it’s always been a case of all for one, one for all.

“We started the team, with all of us on it, it was just our own little outfit. As we got better and the results started coming in, I started getting on World Cup podiums and Dan did the same. That fired us into the limelight a little bit but it was still our own little team, just travelling to races with a mechanic. It put us into the public eye and people started to make offers to pull us apart a bit – to different teams, and the money was a bit higher if that was the way we were going to go.”

“But, that wasn’t the way we wanted to go. We realised early on that we wanted to stay together as a unit, not for any financial plan we had for the future – we just enjoyed riding together, and travelling together. People would ask me why (we did it this way) – but, if we could put out own thing together and put the sponsors to make it happen. It wasn’t about making huge sums of money; if we could pull enough money together to keep going to the races and to travel the world to where we needed to be we were quite happy.”

Moving to Wales

Early in their careers, the Athertons realised that they need to put a little more mountain into their mountain biking, and duly headed north.

“It was quite an important step. We grew up in Devon and then moved up to Somerset. We were always riding, and the riding was great, but we knew that we needed to step it up a level. We were very ambitious, all about the racing, and everything we did was to make us faster and to get better results. We knew that we needed to be in big mountains and be building tracks, and that was what we loved, too. The move up to mid-north Wales was all just about chasing better riding.”

Gee’s greatest hits

With more hard-earned gold and silver bling in the family cabinet than the royal family, what stands out as Gee’s personal career highlight?

“Obviously the World Championships (twice) and winning the World Cup overall were highlights, I think it was Minnaar I was battling with that year. Although, my podiums at Redbull Rampage also (stand out), it was just a bit different to the racing. I used to love that switch from the very closed format of the racing to Rampage. To have such freedom to go into the desert and build what you want and to have quite a relaxed schedule. Just to build as big as you dared, and then to finish on the podium, that was incredible.”

“Winning Redbull Hardline - that took four years of trying to manage that, with injuries and mechanicals. And then there are other achievements away from the racing – like managing to keep the race team so successful for such a long time and starting Atherton Bikes. That’s been a huge thing as a family – all these things, away from the World Cup podiums, they stand out, too.”

The lows and regrets

Gee has had more scary spills and near misses than a trainee cocktail waiter on ice skates but which most grinds his gears?

“It varies – certain results stick in your mind. I remember multiple times losing World Championships by fractions of a second and they just sit there for a long time. I can still remember my entire race run from the Leogang World Champs a few years ago where I finished 0.4 seconds behind Greg Minnaar. I can remember all the mistakes I made, and think what could have happened if I hadn’t done that, but at the end of the day I’ve never let them get to me that much.”

“Injuries, obviously another enormous one but that’s not something you can dwell on too much. It’s part and parcel of what we do and if you let them really drive and get to you, to beat you down then it’s hard to keep that long career going. I’ve been racing since the early 2000s, which is a long time – I’ve learned that you just have to take these things in your stride and be as pragmatic as you can about them.”

The future

At 38 years of age, Gee is no spring chicken in downhill mountain biking terms, and with helping run the family business life is moving on – what can we expect of him from here on?

“I think I’m in a good spot and am fortunate with being able to decide which way I want to take it now. Racing is still very important to me and a passion of mine but that love I’ve always had for the big mountain and being creative, that’s still an area I want to explore more. But it’s hard to do both; you can’t be getting World Cup podiums and then going out on big filming and building projects and exploring things – the racing takes 100% of your time.

"I think I do want to go out and do those big mountains and filming projects and with those ridgelines. I started them and really enjoyed them, and I was on to a good thing. But of course, the injury slowed things down a bit, and I’m getting to the end of that (recovery) now, and filming and racing Hardline last year showed me that I’m pretty much over it, and definitely want to explore that a bit more.

“I can’t tell you what the next 2-3 years will be like for me. I think it will find its own balance as we go. I’ve spoken to the sponsors and they’ve all said how excited they are about the filming and the racing, and as ever it’s going to be a case of picking what works best.”

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