LIFE BEGINS AT 40 (WINS)

MBUK's founding editor Tym Manley meets up with Rachel Atherton for the first time in years to find out about her plans for retirement - which are quickly ripped up!

- Tym Manley

When we first met in 2004, Rachel was struggling beside the track with arm pump as I walked down the Fort William World Cup course towards the end of practice. Aged just 16, she looked small and full of self-doubt amid those harsh mountains in the fading light. I almost felt sorry for her.

Although Rachel was, and still is, vulnerable in many ways, she is, fundamentally, a race-mad, musclebound hardcase who never takes a step backwards and can batter her way through dark matter to get what she wants. A few years later, I was feeling sorry for the mountains and the poor women who had to race against her!

Now, another decade on, she's mother to two-yearold Arna, so snapper Steve Behr and I met up with her at the Athertons' Dyfi Bike Park back in May to discuss her possible retirement from racing after such huge achievements. She wasn't finding it easy... 

Conflicted champion

"You won 10 World Cups in a row, something like that?" I say, flicking the words into the conversation casually. "Yeah, something like that!" Rach replies. "It was 13 I nearly had two full seasons perfect [we actually make it 14 - six in 2015, seven in 2016 and the first round in 2017! - ed]. Then in 2016, I won every single World Cup and the World Championships."

That was me told! So, I mention her idol, early rival and target, the legendary Anne-Caroline Chausson - just in passing, you understand. "She's got 42 wins and I've got 39," says Rach. [We make Anne-Caro's total 40, in DH ed.] "So, when are you going to get the others?" I ask. One day someone is going to kill me, but you have to move brutally towards the sort of questions that have been driving Rachel almost to despair while she's been out injured, locked down and locked in as the mother of Arna.