Rider Diary: Tracy Moseley 
Interview with Tracy Moseley - September 2009
Britain's most established female downhiller, Tracy Moseley has been racing at the highest level for 15 years and is one of the only gravity racers to have won a round of both the downhill and fourcross World Cup, alongside multiple national titles and the prestigeous UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup in 2006 and 2011. Finally the UCI Downhill World Champion in 2010, Moseley followed in the footsteps of Steve Peat, when pulling on a long-awaited Rainbow Jersey at Mont St. Anne. Read Tracy's feature-length interview here, before catching the latest in her rider diary.
December 14 2011
From winning the World Championships in September 2010, to taking my sixteenth World Cup win and my second World Cup Overall title – this year has been one when I achieved everything I set out to do in downhill mountain biking.
Somewhere between winning the rainbow jersey and handing it back, those twelve months had me race a cross country World Cup, the Cape Epic and the crazy Cabo Verde. It’s definitely a year that will go down as one of most memorable, successful and diverse times.
After winning the World Cup following a successful race in La Bresse – despite an unplanned trip through a bog that nearly ended my run – and keeping my 100% podium record when I claimed the title in Val di Sole, I faced the unpredictable nature Champery and the World Championships.
After winning the World Cup – something I’d chased all year – I was approaching the Worlds with the best form I have ever had and knew that I held a great chance of winning, but the nice thing for me was that I could enjoy it and be satisfied whatever the outcome. I also took the opportunity to represent Britain in the cross country team relay. Having ridden some XC events in 2011, the British Cycling Team felt that I could put down a good lap on the highly technical XC loop at the Worlds. I felt a great sense of pride to be asked to do it and put in some good time on the course making sure I would not disgrace myself!
Doing one lap flat out was by far the hardest thing I have ever done. The effort combined with the nerves and adrenaline produced a performance that I was personally a little disappointed with, but in terms of my time and team performance, I gave my best, helped the team finish in ninth spot and escaped being the slowest girl out there, so mission accomplished!
I also had the most amazing support from the whole downhill community who lined the track to support me and see me suffer a little and I really felt like I had brought XC and downhill a little closer once again which was good.
With XC done and the lungs having recovered it was time for downhill and after a week of sunshine it poured down for race day and turned to track into a mud chute. I underestimated the conditions and opted for cut mud tyres which was a mistake. I ended up crashing four times on my way to finish my World title defence in a disappointing ninth place, but in conditions like this I was happy to finish my most successful year to date in one piece and still able to enjoy riding my bike after the season has finished.
To finish off the year I stayed out in Europe and took in a variety of enduro racing over September and October. The first event was the Transprovence, a seven-day all mountain race in France from Gap to Monaco. An absolutely amazing trip taking in over 300km of trails, 10,000m of climbing and 24 timed stages which were predominantly downhill made this a true epic event which tested your entire range of bike skills, awesome fun. With only 50 riders taking part and everyone camping and eating together each night it was a great social event as well as a race. I took the women’s win ahead of Anka Martin after over four hours of timed stages!
Next stop was the massive cycling festival in the south of France, Roc d’Azur. With over 15,000 participants over the week it really was a massive event. I took part in the Enduro and XC race, taking the win in the enduro and 19th place in the XC race. Great weekend of racing and with the XC taking in one big 45km loop; it took me back to old school racing and was great fun !
My final two events of the year were enduro;, one mass start race in Flims, Switzerland with a 15 minute downhill starting out in the snow and finishing at a bar and then the final of the Superenduro series in Finale Ligure, Italy. This saw a 50km loop with five timed stages along the way, but you had to get to each stage at a certain time so you did not have time to chill on the linking stages.
That made for a tough six hours of riding, but it was worth it! Another two wins gave me the perfect end to the season and a great insight into the world of enduro racing. With the UCI looking to integrate enduro into the UCI calendar in 2013 I think this discipline of the sport is something will see more and more of in the future.
Now it’s time for my off season, some downtime and time to decide what lies ahead for me in 2012. Finally, thanks for your support through what has been an incredible year – it’s a great time to be a British mountain biker!
