A blindingly fast 26 year old whipper-snapper from the North East of England, she has already taken the Northern Downhill Champion title in 2010 which she aims to retain for 2011. Thanks to a little persuasion from her brother James and a briefly loaned Mr Big bike to get to grips with she was soon found to be wrapping herself around the trees at Hamsterley Forest, face it, it’s the only way to learn. As she says, “Although I spent my early days crashing my brains out I was completely addicted from the word go!”.
A birthday trip to Fort William in September 2007 came about where she was planning to just take photos of her brother and friends. When they arrived her brother pulled a Kona Stab downhill bike out of the boot of his car and said “There you go, you’re coming riding with us too!”….. She was left dumbstruck, “At last I had my own bike” …. “the last bike I had was when I was 10, it was pink and called ‘Blossom’, so this was a slight improvement!”
Angela continues, … “I was spoilt at Christmas that year as James bought me a full entry to the Hamsterley Winter Series, this is where I cut my teeth. Hamsterley is part of my local area so I got some good practice under my belt and came 3rd overall. I couldn’t believe I was sharing the podium with Helen Gaskell, I really couldn’t believe it!”
“After that I was pretty hooked and Descend Hamsterley sponsored me for a while, it is a brilliant training ground there and has pretty much everything for all disciplines of riding. All the time I was improving and a year later I was hooked up with Fox Racing and have now been with them for 3 years. Aaron does an amazing job in making sure I’m head to foot in Fox, I feel so proud! Big thanks to those guys.
I have moved into the Elite category for 2011, and am really happy with how the training has been going; it’s been stepped up, spending more time on my cross-country bike over the winter months. I’ve been hitting the weights and working on my upper body and have just sorted out a road bike to strengthen my legs and improve on my power. Which will help me immensely on the ‘motorway’ section at Fort William!
For 2011 I’m racing the British Downhill Series, Scottish Downhill Series, Northern Downhill Series and some other endurance type events. So far it has been going well, my times have improved since last year and I feel a lot fitter. I will be doing the World Cup at Fort William as part of Team GB. It's such an honour and I can’t wait! There's an immense feeling racing with the world’s fastest riders, totally unreal!
When I’m not working and racing, I work for Berghaus which is also really cool, over the winter months I do fell running and generally getting covered in muck! Last year I did a 28 mile event with my dad and we got the 2nd mixed team back, completely over the moon! (Although I had to go up the stairs on my bum the next day, ouch!)
I’ve been asked about my favourite rider and have to say it’s my brother James. It’s brilliant watching him rail turns and doing massive whips! He’s such an inspiration for me. Fave pro? Brendan Fairclough, man does he look cool on a bike or what?! Hmmm, fave female pro? Might get told off for not supporting a British rider here but Emmeline Ragot, so loose! And oh yeah, gotta love Sabrina Jonnier too for the sheer fact she wears flowers in her hair!.....”
This season she’ll be riding alongside Nick Turner and raising the bar at the British Downhill Series, Scottish Downhill Series, Northern Downhill Series and selected rounds of the Megavalanche, iXS Series and the penultimate UCi World Cup where she has been chosen to represent Team GB. You can’t get much better than that now can you?
Yowzers!
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