Steve Bate
Based
Hebden Bridge
From
Moray, Scotland
Date of birth
24/08/1977
Team
A double Paralympic champion and three-time world champion, Bate and his pilot, Adam Duggleby, are regular challengers for tandem honours on both track and road.
The pair was selected for the delayed Tokyo Paralympics, in the B category, to ride on the track in the individual pursuit and the road race and time trial on the road.
Bate was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in late 2011 and officially registered blind. A keen climber, in 2013 he achieved a long-held ambition to solo climb the legendary El Capitan rock in Yosemite, California, becoming the first visually-impaired person to complete the climb.
After being accepted onto the Great Britain Cycling Team Paralympic Podium Programme in 2013, Bate announced himself to the sporting world at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016 winning two gold medals and a bronze alongside Duggleby.
Career in numbers
3
4
2
Biography
Born in New Zealand, Bate moved to Scotland in adulthood and, after his climbing success, was seeking a new challenge.
Fortunately, he was encouraged to try para-cycling by friend and Great Britain Cycling Team rider Karen Darke and accepted onto British Cycling’s Paralympic Development Programme. In his first year riding with Duggleby, they became British national road and time trial champions as well as winning the Tandem Tour of Holland.
These early results were enough to see the pair selected for the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships where they finished sixth in the pursuit with a personal best of 4.27.299.
However, it was on the road where they really started to make an impact, finishing on the podium in the road race and the time trial at the first World Cup of the season in Maniago, Italy, in June 2015. They finished the year in fine fashion winning a gold medal in the time-trial at the final World Cup of the year in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa as well as picking up a bronze in the road race.
A golden 2016
With the best year of their career behind them, attention turned to gaining selection for the Paralympic Games in Rio. They began their season with the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Italy, knocking a huge chunk off their personal best time and just missing out on a medal with a time of 4.16.555.
They were then selected for the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Ostend in May where a bronze in the time-trial was enough to see the pair selected for their first Paralympic Games.
In Rio they dominated the tandem endurance events, setting a new world record in qualifying to win gold in the tandem pursuit on the track, winning gold in the time-trial on the road before rounding off a magnificent 10 days by picking up a bronze medal in the road race.
Steve finished 2016 with a month-long cycling expedition in Patagonia with his friend and fellow Paralympic gold medallist Darke.
BECOME AN OFFICIAL FAN
GREAT BRITAIN CYCLING TEAM KIT
On track for Tokyo
After some time off following their 2016 exploits, Bate and Duggleby returned to training with one goal for 2017 - become world champions for the first time.
First, however, Duggleby and Bate were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours list, for services to cycling.
They got their season off to a fantastic start, winning gold in the time trial at the 2017 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Maniago, Italy. The pair’s excellent form on the road continued at their second UCI Para-cycling Road Word Cup in Holland where they picked up bronze medals in the time trial and road race.
That earned the duo selection for the 2017 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Pietermaritzburg where they went in search of their first-ever world titles. The pair won silver in the time trial, just missing out on gold by 3.66 seconds - a bittersweet result given they lost 25 seconds in the opening lap due to a mechanical issue. In the road race, despite a brave solo attack, they missed out on the medals in a bunch sprint for silver and bronze, finishing seventh.
Their quest for rainbow stripes continued at the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships - and a return to Rio saw them crowned world champions for the first time. At the scene of their Paralympic triumphs, the duo won gold in the individual pursuit.
Moving to the road season, the pair started well, winning silver in the time trial at the opening round of the World Cup in Ostend, Belgium, before going one better at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, claiming gold by less than a second in the time trial in Italy.
Further medals have followed on both road and track, with the duo getting themselves back on to the pursuit podium at the World Championships in Milton, Canada in 2020, winning a silver medal behind Poland’s Marcin Polak, who took Bate and Duggleby's world record in the process.
There was some degree of consolation – and a sign that their form was heading in the right direction – in Cascais in June 2021, however, when Bate and Duggleby won the individual time trial at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships.
Palmarès
| 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Cascais (Portugal) | Time trial | Gold |
| 2020 | ||
| UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, Milton (Canada) | pursuit | Silver |
| 2019 | ||
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Emmen (Netherlands) | time trial | Silver |
| 2018 | ||
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Maniago (Italy) | time trial | Gold |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Ostend (Belgium) | time trial | Silver |
| UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | individual pursuit | Gold |
| 2017 | ||
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) | time trial | Silver |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Maniago (Italy) | Time trial | Gold |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Emmen (Holland) | Time trial | Bronze |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Emmen (Holland) | Road race | Bronze |
| 2016 | ||
| Paralympic Games, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | Individual pursuit | Gold |
| Paralympic Games, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | Time trial | Gold |
| Paralympic Games, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | Road race | Bronze |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Ostend (Belgium) | Time trial | Bronze |
| 2015 | ||
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) | Time trial | Gold |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) | Road race | Bronze |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Maniago (Italy) | Road race | Silver |
| UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, Maniago (Italy) | Time trial | Bronze |
