Former World Downhill Champion on embracing e-bikes as a key to keeping older people moving, balancing risk with the knowledge you only get one life and getting kids cycling not scrolling.
Watch the full interview with Tracy Moseley below:
Mountain-biking legend Tracy Moseley is showing no signs of slowing down. But she is embracing e-bikes. I caught up with her a couple of days after she’d returned from racing in the Riva Del Garda Festival in Italy, by the famous Lake Garda.
“For me, it’s another opportunity to extend my racing career in many ways. It’s been quite a new discipline,” Moseley told Sport and Life.
“I think being in the later years of my career, being a mum as well the time I get to go and ride my bike is quite short compared to the days where you used to have endless time to go and ride.
“And I think that’s where actually the e-bikes can really help. You can get so much done in an hour.”
Moseley, who lives near Malvern and has spent a lot of time training in The Forest of Dean has won distinction in a slew of mountain-biking events including being the World Downhill Champion in 2010 and a three-time World Enduro Champion. Enduro is a mix of downhill and cross country.
But now she’s spearheading the development of electric mountain-bike competition.
“I’ve been able to jump into and be there from the beginnings (of e-bike racing). I’ve been working with Bosch and they’ve been at the forefront of that trying to create a racing scene.
The challenge for developing this version of the sport is keeping it fair. And Moseley says the winners and losers must be decided by the skill and fitness of the human on the saddle – not the power of the motor on board.
“There is a seven hundred and fifty watt limit and 25K per hour speed limit. That’s in Europe. So your motor has to scrutinised to make sure they sit within those parameters.
“We need to make sure e-mountain bikes remain bicycles. They’re not seen as a motorbike. If that was to ever get blurred and changed we would potentially lose access to our off-road trails for bicycles.”
Of course, most of us won’t be competing whether we’re riding a regular push bike or an e-bike. And Moseley says the bigger picture is that e-bikes can help vast swathes of people keep active and healthy much longer in life.
“People are now taking e-bikes out who would potentially never have had the fitness or the time to go and do these big adventures but they’re now exposed to the chance to go cycling because that barrier has been lifted, which is the fear ‘I’m not fit enough.’
“It takes away that physical element when you get into your 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. Your engagement with your sport can be longer in life, which is really important.”
At the other end of the spectrum Moseley is keen to engage youngsters with the mental and physical benefits of cycling outdoors.
Her eight year-old son, Toby’s embracing of mountain-biking is a big sub plot of her new film ‘7 Stanes in 7 days.’ The film sees Moseley and her husband, James take Toby back to the bike centres in southern Scotland where she trained two decades ago.
“I wanted to show that a mountain bike adventure doesn’t have to be a crazy, gnarly expensive thing.
“And it was very much at the pace of Toby. He’s a great little rider because we do bikes, but there are opportunities for all levels of cycling at these places.”
We live in contradictory times when it comes to child raising. The idea of letting our kids cycle down a hill might seem scary, but so many kids are potentially exposed to far more dangerous experiences online.
Moseley sees mountain biking as potential avenue to getting kids off devices. But says they shouldn’t jump into high risk descents from the get go.
“We’re always comparing to a screen, that instantaneous hit of endorphins. But we can get those being outside.
“There’s a process of building that skill, getting the coaching, doing a small feature, then a medium feature, then a big feature. You don’t just chuck yourself at stuff.
“You can mitigate a lot of risk with good preparation and good planning.”
I grew up a couple of years behind Tracey Moseley in the 90s in Malvern. She was the most famous kid from our area and was an inspiration to all of us involved in sport. It remains inspiring to see her pushing new boundaries in middle age. And no doubt she’ll continue to inspire younger generations to get moving out in nature.
Watch 7 Stanes in 7 days here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p63u5h5iDsM
