Liam Killeen has no difficulty identifiying the day when he fell in love with fat-tyred, bouncy-forked bikes: a visit to the Malvern Classic at Eastnor Castle, not far from his home in Worcestershire in the mid-1990s. “I’d always been interested in bikes, but that day got me hooked on cross-country.”
Liam rode mountain bikes after that, and didn’t get a conventional road-racing bike until 2000, to fill the gaps in his training. In August last year he finished seventh in the cross-country field in Beijing.
Many mountain bikers are drawn to the technical side: new widgets, better and faster shiny bits of kit. Liam was no exception. “I liked all the exciting equipment and gear.
It still appeals. There’s always something new coming out: suspension, disc brakes, lightweight stuff, companies competing for the lightest, strongest parts. Being a pro, I get to work on research and development, which is really exciting.”
There has always been a crossover between moto-cross and mountain biking – reading a trail calls for quick reaction speed, whether you are powered by two legs or a petrol engine – and Liam had been a moto-crosser in his youth: “I’d always liked going off-road, and letting rip on a mountain bike for an hour was right up my street.”
Mountain biking is, he notes, a different world to road or track racing. “Physically it’s harder doing a two-hour mountain bike ride than two hours on the road because of the terrain and the unpredictable gradients. It’s more relaxed as well – there are some fabulous trail centres dotted around the country, which are all-weather tracks where you can have a good blast with your mates. You can go there in mid-winter and have a great day out.”
Closer to home, a mountain bike offers a sense of challenge and discovery most of us felt with our first bikes. “You can go for a two or three-hour exploring ride and you will always find new trails. I’m pretty sure I’ve covered most of the more challenging routes where I live, but there could still be a few secret ones I’ve not come across. Usually you don’t need to go more than 20 miles from home as the crow flies, because on a mountain bike you are always cutting back and forth.”
On a mountain bike, you tune in to your surroundings: trails change season by season, week by week in a way that tarmac roads don’t. “If I’ve been away for a few months I come back and things look a bit different,” Liam says. “It may have been raining heavily, some roots might have become exposed, or the leaves may have fallen. Trails are constantly evolving, eroding, becoming more or less technical.”
And as for 2012? “I’m looking forward to the London games. It’s a real challenge for me. The games in Athens and Beijing were both memorable events but, on a personal level, I’m looking for redemption in 2012 and aiming for the podium.”
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