MATT WALKER
meet the young brit who, aged just 21 and with his confidence rocked by a brutal crash, surprised everyone - including himself - by winning the world cup series title
We meet the young British downhill racer who, aged just 21 and with his confidence rocked by a brutal crash, surprised everyone – including himself – by winning the 2020 World Cup series title.
There are some riders who are just racers through and through. The instant you meet Matt Walker, you can tell he’s one of those. Not just lightning-fast on a bike, but attacking everything in his path with pinpoint precision and deadly execution. He possesses a Greg Minnaar-like sixth sense for judging exactly where the edge is and staying the tiniest fraction on the right side of it, rarely putting a wheel wrong and never getting out of shape, but always charging at full tilt. Add in a level of focused dedication that’s rare to see in a rider of his age, and perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised to see the third-year Elite punch out consistent podiums at every race of the short but intense 2020 downhill season and emerge at the end victorious – and all at such an early point in his career.
IN THE BLOOD
Matt has been surrounded by bikes and racing from a young age, growing up with a dad who rode superbikes, and early memories of weekends in motorhomes and race paddocks. In some ways not much has changed. “As a young lad your first role model is always your dad,” says Matt, remembering how he used to think watching his old man race motorbikes was “mega cool”. Emulating him as soon as it was allowed, Matt got his first 50cc minibike aged eight and not long after was lining up at the British Minibike kids’ championships.
“I was scared at first,” Matt confesses. “I rode this loud two-stroke thing that vibrated like hell and before a race I used to get so nervous!” Despite showing talent, Matt was too young to deal with the nerves and packed it in after 18 months. But he wasn’t put off bike riding entirely, so when his dad took up mountain biking to train for longer endurance races, the 10-year-old soon found himself going along. It was cross-country initially, around the Shropshire hills where he still lives, but as soon as Matt discovered downhill and went to watch a national round at the nearby Moelfre Hall, he was hooked. “I spent the whole drive home persuading my dad to let me put a triple-clamp fork on my hardtail so I could ride DH,” he laughs.
That winter of 2011, Matt got his first taste of racing at the Forest of Dean Mini DH series. By the time 2013 rolled around he was winning nearly everything going, prompting an email from exMBUK racer/team manager Will Longden asking if he wanted to be part of the new Madison Saracen development team. Needless to say the answer was yes, and the wide-eyed youth turned up at the initiation day at Antur Stiniog “like a kid at Christmas!”. Matt recalls: “The big gazebo was out, there was a mechanic building my bike and I got to meet Matt Simmonds, Sam Dale and Manon Carpenter for the first time.” He went on to enjoy two highly successful years. In 2015 he was only beaten to the win in his category once all season, with a lowly second place. The following year saw him graduate to World Cup racing and the Saracen Factory team, and he’s remained there since. In 2017 he did the double, winning both the Junior World Champs and the Junior World Cup series.
VICIOUS CYCLE
Chalking up his first Elite top 10s the next year, Matt’s progression looked unstoppable, but then his confidence took a massive hit in 2019 when he had a brutal crash at Fort William. “I got too confident and felt invincible,” says Matt. “I was up at the sharp end, winning races, and I was just riding flat-out the whole time. At Fort William I winded myself so badly that I passed out, and I remember waking up staring at the sky and in a lot of pain. I had to be stretchered off the hill, and in hospital they discovered that I’d crushed one of my vertebrae to a wedge.”
Of course, Matt says, he’s had loads of crashes, and has broken bones before, “but never one that’s properly sat me down like that”. Although it didn’t take him long to get back on the bike and return to racing, the blow to his invulnerability took much longer to recover from. “I was scared to be in that much pain again and I’d ride down a track feeling threatened by everything,” Matt explains. “That made me overanalyse everything and I just got
“I SPENT THE WHOLE DRIVE HOME PERSUADING MY DAD TO LET ME PUT A TRIPLE-CLAMP FORK ON MY HARDTAIL SO I COULD RIDE DH”
“I GOT TOO CONFIDENT AND FELT INVINCIBLE. I WAS RIDING FLAT-OUT ALL THE TIME. AT FORT WILLIAM I WINDED MYSELF SO BADLY I PASSED OUT”
slower and slower.” With each bad result Matt was ever more determined to turn it around, so would come home and train even harder, but when he went to the next race and did badly again it eroded his confidence yet more.
Silver linings
In many ways the COVID pandemic and extended off-season were a blessing in disguise for the young and hungry-to-prove-himself downhiller, providing a much-needed opportunity for Matt to reset his head and rebuild his psyche. “They say you should take confidence not from results, but from the process,” Matt says philosophically. “It’s easier said than done when you keep getting knocked back, but that’s how I saw my training last year – I invested the time and focused harder than ever before.”
Much of the way Matt approaches his racing can be attributed to his team manager Will Longden, who’s got decades of experience both in and outside the tape. “As he’ll often say, he runs a ‘no excuses’ programme,” Matt tells us. “He puts all the tools at our disposal, so there’s no saying, ‘Ah, I could’ve done better if only I’d had that’.” It’s instilled a work ethic in the Saracen rider where a missed training session will make him feel guilty he’s not doing his job. “I think Will sort of sees me as the son he never had,” laughs Matt. “He’s worked with me for so long and is invested in my progression. He’s very similar to my dad too, in that things are black and white – you can or you can’t, you’re fully in or you’re not.
“I’ve learnt tons from him over the years, but our relationship has changed. It used to be him telling me how to do things, but now I’m at a level where he’s made it clear I call the shots. Whether it’s changes with the bike or something at a race, he respects my judgment, and that puts more responsibility on my shoulders, but I can see there’s a lot of trust there.” This is likely to be even more the case in 2021, with Matt’s old teammate, the legendary Danny Hart, leaving Saracen for Cube, and Matt effectively stepping up as the lead rider on the team.
Living near Oswestry on the English/Welsh border, Matt is fortunate to have great trails he can ride to from the doorstep. Nesscliffe, where we are today, is just 5km along the back roads from Matt’s home, and if you venture a little further then the options are infinite: “Eastridge, Hopton, Bucknell, the Wrekin…” Matt reels them off. “And then you’ve got Llangollen and Revolution Bike Park both about 30 minutes up the road. It’s a pretty good spot to be a UK racer and there’s an awesome scene.”
Unfortunately, Matt says, his strict training programme means he doesn’t always manage to meet up with the other fast locals as much as he’d like – guys like Charlie Hatton, Joe Breeden and Joe Smith. But when he can, he gets out road riding with his friend James Anderson. “It can really help, just knowing there’s someone there, suffering as much as you!”
Throughout lockdown last summer Matt had his head down, putting in the hours in the gym and slowly building up his pace on the bike, meaning he came into the 2020 season with a much better understanding of how to control his raw speed. “I’d gone from overconfident to underconfident and saw that both had consequences,” Matt explains, “so my goal was just to relax and take each day as it came. I could tell I was riding fast, but I wasn’t half as ragged or dangerously on the limit as I used to be.” Some of that came from being fitter and not hanging onto the bike as much, he believes, and also just being more calculated.
Time to recalibrate
This cool-headedness is something you can see if you watch Matt’s race runs from last year. It’s not that he isn’t going flat-out, but he seems to know exactly how much grip there is in each turn and just how much to push it.
“Do you think motorbikes help with that?” we ask, because Matt has been getting back to his roots as a ‘relaxing’ break from downhill. “With speed perception for sure,” he replies. “On the superbike you’re making decisions at 100mph+ and looking to hit the same brake markers every time. You feel the grip, and when to get on the throttle, and it all helps that connection between your eyes, hands, feet and brain.” Matt’s quick to point out that he’s just an amateur on the tarmac, though, and tells us how humbling it is “when
With little showmanship and no YouTube channel or big-name sponsorship, he’s not garnered the media attention he deserves
a 14-year-old on a 125cc comes round the outside of you with his elbow on the floor!”.
Winning attitude
On a downhill track, however, Matt has proven himself to be one of the top contenders, although with little flamboyant showmanship and no YouTube channel or big-name sponsorship, he’s perhaps not garnered the media attention he deserves. His strong suit is his ability to focus where it counts, but surely, we ask him, the pressure must have been pretty overwhelming coming into the World Cup final in Lousã, Portugal, with the leader’s jersey on his back and a rain-slicked track to contend with?
“To be honest, even being there was already way above my expectations,” Matt admits. “The way I’ve felt in the last 12 months made me doubt I’d ever get to wear the leader’s jersey.” “It sounds cocky,” he continues, “but when I’m confident, it almost feels like all I have to do is just ride my bike down the hill. It’s not like I was doing anything much different to that time a year ago, but my head was just in a much better place.”
The big thing Matt believes played to his advantage in Lousã was his age. “All the guys I was up against have years’ more experience than me,” he says. “I knew how hungry they’d be to win, but I told myself I was young and it didn’t matter if I didn’t win this time. That took the pressure off me, whereas the rain maybe made others overthink things even more.”
While 2020 may have been a diminished race season in many ways, it was one hell of a year for the Brits, with Scotland’s Reece Wilson winning the World Champs and then Matt taking the World Cup overall. “I’m just really proud to have done justice to the people who believed in me,” smiles the rookie turned world-beater. “And hopefully it shows other young riders coming through what can be done with a bit of talent and a lot of hard work.” Matt’s still only at the start of his career, and if he keeps going on his current trajectory his trophy cabinet is going to have to get a whole lot bigger. As you’re reading this he’s probably at home grinding out one extra rep or pushing through the pain barrier, because you can bet that when the 2021 season kicks off in April (hopefully!) in Maribor, Slovenia, he’ll be in the start gate, absolutely sure he’s done everything he can to be the best.