Will Longden Interview

Interview by Joolze Dymond | pics by Joolze & Phil Ingham 

Sheffield's second most famous DH rider, 30 year old Will Longden has been there, seen it and done it so many times, the T-shirt is now used to clean his bike. His survival at the top of his trade for so many years underlines his commitment to the sport and his undoubted talent. His straight-talking no nonsense approach to riding keeps him up there with other legendary riders such as Steve Peat and Rob Warner, consistently bringing home the results, representing his country for 13 years, whilst helping nurture young talent and looking after his team mates Marc Beaumont and Neil Donoghue, along the way.

Joolze Dymond caught up with Will as he prepared to tackle the 2nd round of the NPS DH at Innerleithen.

So you've been around for a while, in some circles I think you're known as the old man of Downhilling?
Well that's no good! But I have been riding a while. In fact the first time I rode here (Innerleithen) was 1997. I've been messing around with bikes since I was about 6. I started with BMX racing back then, followed by Cyclo-Cross and road racing, then Cross-Country racing got really popular in the beginning of the 90's so I started doing that. My first downhill race was in 1993. So yeah I've been around quite a while, I guess.

Has DH racing as changed a lot since the early days?
Yeah, a lot of times, the fire roads you go up now in the uplift trucks, they would have been the actual downhills back in the early days. We used to have the Nemba series, and you'd see Steve Peat, Rob Warner, who've also been riding a while, well we'd have one bike, ride it with the seat right down for the trials, put the seat right up do the downhill, then the next day change the seat again, sort the gearing out and ride the Cross-Country. You'd struggle to do that these days!

It's been quite cool though being in the sport that long, as technology has progressed and things have moved along we've grown with it. In a way it's better than the youngsters coming into the sport now with the full travel suspension bikes, they miss some of the important steps of learning to riding a bike.

So you think it would be good for all the younger riders to ride hardtails first?
Yeah it would be good for them to learn the trade, before they get on a big 4 grand bike. You miss out on a lot for sure.

Talking of youngsters, who would you tip for future greatness?
A couple of years ago, before we started the Santa Cruz team, we used to have a Scott talent team, the idea of that was to bring young riders forward. It's funny a lot of the riders I picked back then have gone on to do really well. Matt Simmonds had a good ride on the first round of the NPS; I thought he had some real talent 3 - 4 years ago, so I was proved right. Little Danny Hart is a rider that everyone knows about these days. He's just gone from strength to strength. There are quite a few that have come and got on like that, it's good to be a part of it. It's funny, you laugh and joke with them, "you were crap when you were on my team! What happened? I obviously taught you too much!" and then you see guys like Matt beat you, it's nice to see and it's quite funny. I wont let it happen too often. Not just yet. But yeah there's a lot of talent out there right now, so it'd be hard to point one out.

You've been involved with the magazine MBUK for quite a while
Since 1997. Yeah the first time I came here, my first nationals they were my sponsors back then.

It's pretty unheard of to keep a major sponsor for so long isn't?
Yeah I guess so, but I've grown up with the magazine, I know the magazine really well. I guess I'm good at the promotional side, the marketing. I learnt that through the magazine which means I can be really effective at my job, where the newer guys coming through now are really fast on the bikes but don't really understand the rest of it. I think the promotional stuff is quite an important part of keeping your sponsor happy.

You're also the team manager of MBUK/Santa Cruz; do you find that hard as well as being a rider yourself?
It's not too bad, when we're on the road I look after the guys (Marc Beaumont and Neil Donoghue), sort out the travel and stuff and we've got a guy at home that sorts out the sponsorship for us. My job really is just to look after the riders when we're travelling and racing. Because I've been doing it for so long it's stuff I used to do for myself anyway, so I know how it works, it takes the pressure off the others and most of the time it's pretty painless.

I guess your sponsors get their money's worth out of you?
Yeah definitely. We do the photo shoots and things pre-season, but it's a fact, something every rider should be doing, it's just right in our faces as we're sponsored by the mag. Me, Steve and Rob Warner have been doing things in the mag for years, it's important for the sponsors as they like to see you in the mags. That's a big part of it.

How's the pre and early season gone for you so far?
It's been okay. I tend to start training properly after Christmas. I have a bit of a break in the winter as it's usually a long season with all the travelling and although I love the racing, by the end of September I'm ready for that break. Come to November and I want to get travelling again, so I play on my bike, ride my motocross, do some motorbike trials riding. My specific training starts in January, I get down the gym, do a lot of work down there and just get out on my road bike, do a lot of road miles. I leave my downhill bike alone until the beginning of Feb. Then I start doing a mix, some uplift days, probably once a week a few winter races. It usually takes until May June to get back into my racing.

The season's started quite early this year and I've been suffering from a chest infection, so I'm not really racing fit at the moment. I've had a lot of work on and been doing a lot of travelling this year and when we got to Vigo (first round of the world cup) it really hit me. I felt really ill, I was very disappointed with my result there, so I've come back rested for a week, hopefully I'm over it and I'll get a better ride here and at Fort William, as long as I get rid of this chest infection.

Looking forward to Fort William?
Oh yeah. It's a really good event, sponsors turn up for that one and everything. It is so good to race in front of a home crowd. When I was growing up I used to go to motorcross races with my dad and I'd see all my hero's racing in front of huge crowds it was a magical feeling and now I'm in that position of riding a huge event, so many people cheering you on it's pretty cool.

Plans for the rest of the season?
My first priority these days are to make sure the team is running smoothly, make sure Marc and Donny (Neil Donoghue) are happy. Especially Donny at the moment he's not getting the results he wants and I know he's capable of so he's a priority at the moment to get him happy. Then it's me. I just wanna get in the top 20 in all the world cups this year. I need to get back to be more consistent like I used to be.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in giving DH a go?
If they're already a bike rider, I'd suggest going to their local bike shop and asking for advice and then come to a couple of races and just watch. See what riders are doing, how they're riding the hills, what bikes they're buying come and talk to the pros too. You'll learn so much and you'll enjoy it more when you do ride. Otherwise, you might come into it, queue up too late for the uplift, spend all day queuing, spend all day getting in riders way on the hill and you just won't have any fun. If you come along watch a few races suss out all it all works, make sure you get the right bike and the right advice, start on regional races and move onto the nationals when you're ready and enjoy the ride.