Annie's Profile

A multi-discipline rider throughout her lengthy career, while Annie Last began racing on the road and cyclo-cross field, it is in mountain bike where she found her true calling. She has achieved strong results over a variety of distances throughout her career, is 10-time elite British champion, and is aiming for selection to her second Olympic Games in 2024, to represent Great Britain in Paris.

Kicking off her competitive cycling with the Hadleigh Mountain Bike Club in her hometown of Bakewell in Derbyshire, Last deferred a degree in medicine to join British Cycling’s Olympic Academy Programme in 2009. She announced her presence on the cyclo-cross circuit with third place in the elite women’s race at the British National Championships in 2011, at the age of just 21. She repeated the feat the following year, in addition to completing a fuller cyclo-cross programme in Europe which resulted in two top 10 finishes: fifth in Baal and eighth in Diegem. Another third place in the 2015 nationals called time on Last’s cyclo-cross career for a few years as she switched her focus to mountain bike.

Following a promising start to her mountain bike career in which Last came second in the women’s under-23 world championships in back-to-back years – 2010 and 2011 – several seasons followed on the UCI world cup circuit where Last built her experience and form and was rewarded with selection to the British squad for the London 2012 Olympics, becoming the first British woman to qualify for Olympic mountain biking for 12 years. She finished eighth on her Olympic debut.

Last finally notched up her first elite victory in 2017, in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in the cross-country event. Her excellent form continued in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns, Australia, where she finished second behind Jolanda Neff, and ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.

Commonwealth Games glory followed for Last in 2018, when she was selected to represent England in Gold Coast, Australia, and rode to victory ahead of her England teammate Evie Richards. 

2019 was another stand-out year for Last’s palmares, as she rode to five top 10 finishes in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Series, including two podiums, a seconds place in short track in Nové Mesto, Czech Republic, and third in cross-country in Snowshoe, USA.

Following the covid-interrupted 2020 season, Last returned to the tracks to log another consistent season in 2021, kicking off with third place in short track at Albstadt, Germany, and narrowly missing out on the podium in Nové Mesto. That winter, Last returned to the cyclo-cross field for the first time in seven years, achieving three top 10s in the British National Series, and concluding with her best ever result at the national championships, a silver medal.

After another solid mountain biking season in 2022 concluded with two top 10 finishes in the short track and cross-country events at the world championships in Les Gets, Last increased her distance and rode to second place in the mountain bike marathon world championships in Haderslev, Denmark. At home, she rode to her ninth and 10th national championship titles, in cross-country and short track, respectively.

Last’s appetite for cyclo-cross saw her take on a full cross season once again, with a win and two second places in the domestic national trophy series and a series of creditable results in Europe, including 10th place in Gullegem. Last began 2023 with her second consecutive second-place finish at the national championships.

While 2024 has not yet produced the kind of results Last would have hoped for, as she races for the Lapierre Mavic Unity Team on the MTB world series circuit, Last will hope she has done enough to be selected for her second Olympic Games in Paris.

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