Sport-heute: Sailing - The Atherton Three

07. Januar 2010, 11:26

The Atherton Three

By John Gibson

The email came through early in the morning. It read: ‘Red Bull Rampage: October 2-5, 2008’. The rest of the message said that British downhill racer Gee Atherton was up for a New World Disorder (NWD) segment for the ninth movie and Red Bull was shipping Gee along with his younger sister Rachel and older brother Dan off to Utah during the second week of April. It was on and we were all heading back to the desert. Straight to the new Rampage site and the motherland of freeride mountain biking.

Brüttisellen, 7.1.2010 (mk) The Red Bull Rampage was dreamt up by two visionaries in the sporting world - Paul Crandell of Red Bull and Todd Barber of H5 Events. In 2000 Barber spotted a mountain bike magazine with a photo of Josh Bender on the cover and it was like a lightning bolt hit him. Both men had been scheming to organize a freeride mountain bike event and the answer seemed to be right there on the magazine rack.

Barber tracked down Bender who quickly showed him his back yard of Virgin, Utah. A year later the first Rampage event rocked the industry and continued for three years after that. The freeride revolution was shot into orbit. Since the last Rampage in 2004, Barber has searched the four corners of this planet looking for a new Rampage site, but has always ended up back in Utah. This year’s event will feature a new site, but it’s that same red dirt.

The Rampage was the first organized competition that featured freeride mountain bikers and downhill racers competing in the same contest. Wade Simmons won the first Rampage, Tyler Klassen the second, followed by Cedric Gracia in 2003 and Kyle Strait in 2004 ahead of Gee Atherton.

And that’s why this spring the Atherton Three, the NWD film crew and Todd Barber went back to this special place in the desert.

The Athertons are a family of gravity racers from Wales. Rachel and her brother Gee are the current downhill World Champions while Dan is also a top 4X rider, winning his first World Cup event this year in Andorra. Other than their stellar results, they have managed to promote themselves and their sponsors to new levels with their unique promotional web videos. And the old fashioned way - by just being nice.

Back in Wales, they live in a house made of stone wedged between two hills with a BMX track right off the front deck. They’ve got a six-minute long downhill trail nearby that goes through their orchard and finishes near the garage. Their home has become the hub for Welsh mountain bike scene.

They have numerous downhill tracks they’ve created near their house on the property of ‘Farmer Jack’ made famous this year in one of their web videos. In real life Farmer Jack shuttles riders on race weekends with his tractor and trailer combination and has adopted the Atherton Three as his own after losing his own son to a drunk driver a few years ago.

On Jack’s property the Athertons organize races and film shoots. Now other farmers have jumped in and are building their own courses and competing against each other for a piece of the action. The big winners are the bikers and it’s no wonder why the Athertons now are at the top of their sport.

At an early age Dan took charge of his two younger siblings. He got them involved in BMX and soon after all the kids in their community followed along. Dan has always been the leader that everybody wants to follow.

While Gee and Rachel have enjoyed the best results and a higher profile, Dan, or ‘Affy’, has never been far behind. He puts his energy into promoting the family race team along with building jumps and downhill tracks, but still regularly appears in the upper echelon of the results list. Insiders know why and how the Athertons have got to where they are today.

Now in Springdale, Utah, the Athertons pull into the hotel parking lot in a big, white rental van. Out spill the trio along with their manager Dan Brown, mechanic Steve Bell and trainer Darren Roberts. The back of their van has their brand new Commencal downhill and dirt jump bikes lined up nicely in a row.

This was already their second trip to America this year. Earlier this spring they spent 10 weeks in Orange County slaughtering local downhill trails with Kyle Strait and his crew. Then of course there were the countless ‘beasting’ sessions with their personal trainer in the gym and on their stationary bikes. They all have the look of professional athletes and it’s obvious they’ve spent a more than a few hours pushing weights and getting strong.

We were thrown into a weeklong photo mission that has us first filming at the old Rampage site then exploring, building and shooting on the new Rampage site across the valley.

The desert is a harsh environment. It’s hot and dusty but the Athertons love it. They build faster and ride more than anybody we’ve seen. Their manager and mechanic jump right in and help out.

The whole lot of them are fun and cheerful at all times. Even after one long, 14-hour day of building and filming in the hot sun, it was straight back to the hotel for another bicycle interval ‘beasting session’.

Gee was doing strange, one-legged exercises, pushing up against the wall of the hotel while Dan was pedaling his guts out on the stationary bike, during which Roberts was yelling, “Quality, quality!” It was nine o’clock at night! Then dinner. How many other riders could, or would, put in this kind of effort? However, all three insist that this film trip feels like a holiday.

Later that week at the Bit and Spur restaurant, Dan was cutting away a roll of athletic tape wrapped around his wonky ankle. Our waitress seems struck with both of the Atherton boys sitting at the end of the table still wearing their matching jerseys and shorts. They are both covered in a layer of sweat and dirt from the Utah desert.

After she leaves with our dinner order Gee gives his best Ron Burgundy impression and says, “I don’t know how to put this but I’m a kind of a big deal.” He looks for his reflection in the window and pretends to check himself out as we all burst into laughter.

Rachel had a go in the desert and blew minds within the ranks of the NWD film crew. She hit numerous sizable drops, gaps and gnarly lines. She admits sometimes she’s too confident. But that tends to happen if you’ve followed your two brothers all your life on a bicycle or motorbike.

As a young girl she would ride her bike to the BMX track with her pet rabbit in her basket. All she knew was to follow her brothers around. Out here in the desert as she hit 20-foot gaps she pushes female riding to the limits. She waits though for Dan’s approval on any big jumps and he goes first sometimes to check the proper speed.

“Our mom sacrificed her quiet life in the country for a house filled with bikes and mud and cooking for God knows how many people,” Rachel remembers. “We were outdoor kids, we got into BMX but never saw a magazine or a video or even knew a race scene existed.”

“Gee will ride it …he’s got no sense that child.” Dan says while standing with his bike at the top of a sizeable drop on the new Rampage site. This latest course faces West and features a wide variety of options for the riders. There are big lines and several locations for big jumps the organizers will build for the competitors later on this year.

Out on the new Rampage course the Atherton boys charge the big line they’ve created time and time again. There’s no hesitation or much braking going on, just flat-out pedaling. With four cameras in position we are making the best of this final afternoon of filming and squeeze every single minute out of this last day. We are all getting it done.

Even though Gee made it onto Brian Lopes’ infamous revenge list for their crash during the finals in the Red Bull Down Metro in November 2006, the former 4X World Champion still speaks highly of the Atherton Family.

“Out of all the people on the race circuit I think those three have their sh*t dialed the most. They’ve got good marketing …they’ve got their cool little videos and Gee is killing it. They are all well-rounded riders and they’ve got good people around them.

“Gee goes for it and pushes the limits. He has pretty gnarly crashes that make you shake your head and wonder why he’s doing it. If your goal is to be a world champion you shouldn’t be back flipping twenty-foot cliffs. Maybe he wants to be a great all round rider, which he is.”

Two weeks with the Athertons is a filmmaker’s dream. There was a whole lot of getting up early, digging jumps and riding. They display shockingly good manners. But just when you think they couldn’t be any nicer one will accuse the other of behaving like a ‘stuttering gypsy’ and the other will retort with a ‘sod off you w**ker!’

After Utah we all headed off to the Sea Otter Classic where the Atherton Three took their work ethic to the racetrack. On a bright, sunny morning during the first day of downhill training there was a long procession of riders practicing on the course. On the upper section a young teenage boy yells, “I love you Rachel!” as she rides by.

Beside me is a boy with braces on his teeth and a Canon Sure Shot camera in his hands. He’s been shooting photos of every rider that went past throughout the morning. “That’s the Athertons - it’s pretty cool they all ride together like that huh?” We both watch them round the corner and disappear from view, the dust still hanging in air.

This October Gee Atherton will bring his Rainbow Jersey to the new Rampage course for the first time. His brother Dan will be by his side as usual and Rachel won’t be far off either. They are a family first and a team second. They are the Athertons. And they want it all.

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The Atherton Three

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