Interview: Gee Atherton on his Return to Racing at Red Bull Hardline 2022

Gee was back and racing once again at Hardline and we managed to get 5 minutes of his time between signing autographs to check in with him.

First off, welcome back to racing. It was a big call to make to Hardline your first race back, was it a tough decision?

Yeah, coming back for Hardline was a tough decision. I mean, it was only the later part of the summer I started to think, you know, it might be on. It was probably six weeks ago. I knew I wasn't strong, but I knew if I could give myself a block of training to get to a good point, I would be strong enough to race but I'm not strong enough to crash, and I'm not in a position where I can start having big crashes and rag dolling again, so I had to be careful. I had to just keep it smooth and stay within my comfort zone.

When I saw you riding this weekend it looked like the same old Gee, has there been any changes to how you ride? Other than being more cautious?

I mean, I'm not riding as aggressively as I'd like, you know, I wish I was stronger. At the moment, the strength in the legs is not there because I've not had a block of three or four months of hard training. I've been doing physio for months on white bands and that doesn't prepare you for a big downhill race like Hardline. But you've got to be so strong to take those hits and aggressive so I was riding okay, but I was cautious.

Have you changed anything on your bike as a result of the crash?

No, the bike setup is pretty similar to how I left it. But set up when you've not been riding for a year, you're kind of vague with it. When you're racing World Cups every week, you know exactly what to do, but I've had a year and a half off, so yesterday was my first full run so it was pretty, you know. I was just with the mechanics saying, let's just get it to a good point and we'll leave it there. I'll just wrestle it down the hill.

The track's seen some big changes this year. Have you been part of that process?

Yeah, we've been super involved. Yeah, me and Athey and the whole dig crew here. We wanted some big changes. You know, it was time to put in something that was absolutely enormous. The riders are so good we wanted to make something that was gonna push the riders to the very edge and I think we managed that, there were some nervous faces on that first day.

Yeah, I spoke to Phil Atwill at Val di Sole and he was genuinely scared of coming here.

And that's what we want, we want nervous faces. We want boys scared. We want boys, you know, they don't want to be the first to hit things and that's the way Hardline should be.

What's been the hardest feature for you this week?

For me, it was the drops that didn't have a steep landing. I could hit something big if I had a nice landing, but there were a few flat jobs, probably some of the smallest stuff. That heavy impact on my leg is still so painful. I was deep in the painkillers all week and I just had to be as smooth as I could. But the big stuff was pretty chill. I was fine.

What's the feature you've enjoyed the most this year at hardline?

Probably the On-off into the new section, just because it works so well. It was so fast like you were literally going as fast as you can. When you've got something in the track, you know you've got it as fast as you can, it's cool because you don't hold back. You just go at it, no brakes full charge.

A lot has been going on for you this year. Becoming an uncle, the Atherton bike brand, and Dyfi bike park growing so much. How's it all been?

I mean, it's a good year. You know, the difficult thing on top of everything that's going on has been rehabbing so many injuries and trying to get back to a point where I'm fit and strong. So it's been a balance. It's been a juggling act, but I think it's going well and to be riding again is kind of, you know, that's what we're doing all this for.

You did a bit of commentating at Fort Bill - how was that? Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's cool to be there and do a bit on the microphone but I'm a racer at heart, I want to be on the bike not talking about it.

Big question that everyone wants to know - are you going to be back racing World Cups next year?

Yes, I'm keen. What next season looks like I'm not sure yet because we've got some big filming projects planned as well. But, you know, this weekend shows I love racing and Hardline especially since it's such a sick event. So yeah, I'm keen for this, I'm keen for some World Cups, and yeah, we'll see.

Last thing, great to see you back racing, any thank yous to people?

Yeah, I mean, just the fact that I'm here racing and being able to get down Hardline is, you know, it's a big effort from me but an even bigger effort from the team, from all the physios, from Red Bull for helping me get back from such wild injuries. You don't return from injuries of that scale without a lot of help and help from the best people as well. So, you know, Red Bull teed all that up for me, and you know, I can't thank them enough.