On and off the record with Katy Curd
We chat with professional MTB coach, Katy Curd, to learn what it takes to coach World Champions.
[Words by Steve Thomas - Photography by Mike Fox]
Former World Four Cross MTB Champion turned line and skills supremo, Katy Curd has a deeply respected place in our sport when it comes to polishing rider skills and priming leading lines. She has also played an often-unseen key role in many a great racer’s careers and performances over recent years – and even more so when it comes to getting us mere mortals and weekend shredders dialed and on track. We spoke to Katy about her role with Team GB and more besides.
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ORCC: You have coached a lot of both Elite (and regular) racers over the years – what generally are their aims?
Katy Curd: They always have a reason why they want to come to us; we’ve had a couple of riders who are scared of features in World Cups and want to be able to get there and tackle them almost straight away, without the build-up of energy and nerves. Others have noticed, seen, or been told that their position isn’t quite right and they want to be able to adjust that – they’re all individual.
Katy Curd Industry Insider , by Katy Curd
We’ve coached Evie Richards, and the first time she came to us she really wanted to do this drop-off in the forest, that was her goal. Within two hours we’d ticked that off and, she said “Oh, this was a six-month goal for me.” But she was showing the skills, and so we could progress really quickly, and then there is other stuff we’ve looked at that will take her six months to develop – as the features are the easy part, but she has inbuilt habits that are a bit harder to take away.
We also have some Elite male riders who are consistently two to three seconds off where they want to be and don’t have a clue how to get that time, so then we watch them and analyse things – that’s harder to figure out, as we’re then looking at fractions of a second over lots of sections.
ORCC: You met Evie when she was starting out, what involvement have you had in her career progression?
KC: I’ve been “working” with Evie for about four years, and before that, I knew her through Tracy Moseley, who had helped her since she was younger. Being good friends with Tracey, we’d go and ride all together – Hattie Harnden, Evie, and a few others.
Technically, I think in the last four years, that’s when Evie realised, she was fit and knew what she was doing, but her skills were lacking at World Cups, so she’s been working on it from there. I’d like to be involved a whole lot more, to be able to go to World Cups with her, but it’s a matter of trying to get a team or somebody to finance it.
ORCC: What’s your involvement with British Cycling and Team GB?
KC: It’s just on a self-employed basis. I’d love to do more, but sadly they don’t have funds. We did a couple of team camps in the summer, with the whole squad, working with 20 riders in a weekend, which is hard to do.
Through Evie, and with her being an Olympic medal contender British Cycling were trying to work out who would be the best person to give the riders the most support, so they asked me to go. We did a couple of test events in Paris before that, and then we could go back and figure out what we needed to work on to hit the race fully confident.
2024 katy curd 2.jpg, by Liam Mercer
Hopefully, they’ll pave more of a pathway from skills sessions with the riders in the future, but it’s all about funding, as there isn’t a crazy amount of funding for the XC riders, and it costs a lot to support them for a full season.
ORCC: Is it purely XC racers you work with?
KC: Pretty much so. I did go to the Downhill World Champs in Fort William last year and worked with the team, which was cool – being at a World Champs and on the other side of the tapes.
We had all of the Elite and junior riders, and mostly it was about spotting lines on track, timing sections, and track walking. The downhill lot are very different, as you can’t ride with them. With the XC riders, you can ride along and are on track all of the time, which is so much more helpful.
ORCC: With downhill racers being very individual line and style approaches, especially with Fort William and the rain twists, how much notice do they take of you and others?
KC: You can help a fair bit. When I was racing there was nobody there to support me, so I’d just ride down and see different lines and figure out where the hell to go. Even just having somebody there to chat with would have been great, it takes the thought process away.
Generally what we do is give the riders all of the information on a section, such as – here are the three lines and the times of each, so they know all of the options, and then it's up to them to make the decision based on their style and ability to ride them.
In Fort William, I saw Loic Bruni do an amazing line that nobody else was doing, and I filmed it. Then Charlie Hatton came down and was looking for lines – I showed him the clip, and he pushed up and did it – perfect. Stuff like that, from being in the right place at the right time – it helps the rider.
2024 katy curd 3.jpg, by Liam Mercer
The same at the National Champs; Charlie stopped and asked me the lines on a section, I showed him the options and off he went. He didn’t want to put too much thought in, just know the options, and when somebody is there for half an hour and can show you the better options – for what takes just a couple of seconds on the bike, it definitely helps.
ORCC: The Olympic XC course was not too technical, and with Tom Pidcock being part of that and having amazing skills and his own team around him – what was your role?
KC: Tom’s such a nice guy, and he’s got where he is from putting the work in, and rightly so he has his own team around that he trusts. His team was with him, but he was also with us. It was a big team effort – his team helped us, and we helped them.
My job was working individually with each rider, knowing what they wanted. I knew Evie really well and knew what she wanted and needed, so it was taking her through those features and ticking them off early on. Then we had four to five days on track and would be working through different sections – working out where to sprint and where to recover.
That last wooded section where Pidcock made his move, we all knew that was so important. If someone was in front and you had to make a move, we worked out how to do it depending on the rider’s strengths. There are lots of little tactical components in putting the strategy together through the week.
Katy Curd Industry Insider , by Katy Curd
Knowing puncture spots is a massive thing in XC, so we would find risky areas and look at the best ways through. One evening I was going through this with Charlie (Aldridge) and Evie, Tom came past, and I asked if he wanted to join the meeting, but he was wiped out and so missed it. I should have sent him the info and the puncture spot pictures, as funnily enough that was where he punctured. I was kicking myself to know we could have maybe avoided that.
ORCC: Where were you when Pidcock made his move in the race final?
KC: I saw it live on my phone; I was at the top of the last long climb. I was feeding info on a whiteboard with laps, times, etc. There were three to four Frenchies around also letting me watch on their screens, I then ran down after that to be with the team.
The move was fully Tom, I’d discussed it with the others. There were two to three options, but nobody ever expected him to be in the position of fighting for it, but because of the flat he was pushed into that, and with being a racer he had to take whatever chance he could. Looking back, it was totally fair – we were almost expecting the French to appeal, but everybody said it was fair game, and Koretzky would have done the same.
