Kerr-Boom?

We Catch Up With the Explosive Talent That Is Bernard Kerr, at Home in the Surrey Hills

Bernard pulls up at the services in his matt black Range Rover and is straight into Subway. Before I’ve even had a chance to glance at the menu he’s ordered his sandwich, picked up a few other bits and pieces, and is queueing to pay. It’s not that he’s a regular here, it’s just that he doesn’t hang about. By the time I get out he’s back in the car and posting on Instagram. “I hate unnecessary time-wasting,” he grins. “If you’re wasting time on your phone, that’s fine, but don’t be slow at getting dressed!”

Bernard Kerr is fast. Very fast. He talks fast. I suspect he even sleeps fast. But in particular, he rides fast. Fast, smooth and with style. All the ingredients required to look great on a bike and win races. Although he’s only 26, it seems like he’s been on the scene forever. That’s probably because he started racing mountain bikes when he was just 12 years old.

“I loved playing on bikes as a kid,” he recalls. “My cousin raced mountain bikes, and we’d had motocross bikes before that. In my family, if you do something, you do it competitively!” So he threw himself into racing, and started doing well pretty much straight away. “My first event was a 4X race, and I either won it or came second!”

It wasn’t long before Bernard found his way to the legendary Milford dirt jumps, and started riding with Brendan Fairclough, Olly Wilkins and their mates. “I must have been 13 when I turned up there,” he says. “They were learning how to do backflips and I wanted to do it too! I remember getting it just as I turned 14. The better I got, the more fun it was!”