Sitting in the yurt at the Bike Park Wales Women’s Weekend, a group of women are gathered for a Q&A session with three pro riders: Tahnee Seagrave, Katy Curd, and Veronique Sandler. It seems that many in the audience are keen racers, and many questions relate to race preparation, training, and the drive to compete. Veronique – or Vero, or even Vee Tingz – sits quietly ripping shreds off her takeaway hot chocolate cup. Racing is just not her bag – though you only have to see her ride to know that it’s not skill that keeps her away from the race tape.
The poor paper cup takes a mauling until someone asks what advice the riders would give their younger selves. Vero is clear: ride dirt jumps. She says that this really accelerated her riding, plus, it’s “sick”. I feel a bit old to use the term, and as an emetophobic it’s not vocabulary I’d normally embrace, but Vero uses the term often and with such delight I’m tempted to see how it feels on the tongue. I’d certainly like to find myself riding in a manner that induced the feeling that I might be just a little bit ‘sick’.
The other moment where Vero comes alive and gives the cup a break is when she’s asked about motivation, learning and “getting in the zone. It’s so sick, so focussed, which I never had with racing.” She feels she’s more competitive against herself than against other people – she sees a trick or a jump that scares her and wants to push herself to do it, rather than race against a clock or other people. Even if the likes of Crankworx introduced a speed and style competition, she’s not sure it would really motivate her – she’s “just trying to learn stuff”.
This speaks to me much more than racing tips, so I arrange to sit down with her for a bit more of a chat. I’ll also confess to a bit of a niche self-interest here: I’ve recently become just a little bit obsessed with jumps and tricks, mostly as a result of buying a BMX, which may or may not be connected to the fact I will be 40 next year. Vero is one of the few female riders you see doing tricks so I’m pretty excited to be sitting down with her (Although Joey Gough, another jumping, tricking female who eschews racing in favour of fun, might make me feel just a little less old to talk to).
Vero is sponsored by Marin this year, so we start with a run down of her bikes. It’s probably not surprising that she loves her Alcatraz. “I’d never done much dirt jumping until I had this bike and it’s been insanely sick. I’ve really got into it and I’ve really got stoked on riding trails so I really want to do a lot more of that on it, yeah that bike’s been sick”. She’s also just taken delivery of a Hawkhill just a few days ago, which she’s not yet built up, but will be similar to the Attack Trail she’s brought to Bike Park Wales. “I’m really excited to get out on that and try it out. It’ll be a more playful bike that I can ride round stuff like this – smooth bike parky stuff, jumps.” She goes on: “Marin have been proper legends in helping me out. Because I’m from a Downhill background they’ve given me a Downhill bike for the year as well, even though they don’t make one – they’ve just painted a different brand bike black and allowed me to use that. Big up to them, that’s awesome.”
She admits that while she’d like one, she doesn’t have a Marin Four Corners – a gravel bike I’ve been eying up for a while – but she did ride one for a photoshoot, which she says was ‘so much fun’, ‘gnarly’, and ‘sick’. I’m learning that these are the things Vero looks for in a ride. Indeed, she doesn’t seem too fussed about the ins and outs of bike set up, she’s too busy having fun. I ask her about the Attack Trail she’s riding.
“Whoever I’m sponsored by, I’ve changed to parts from the stock stuff. I’ve got Vee Tires – the Flow Snaps which are my favourite, I run them on my downhill bike as well, they’re awesome. Deity Cockpit and seat. Hope brakes and cranks, and Crankbrothers pedals. A MarshGuard on as well, yeah, but everything else is stock, the suspension everything else, and it goes really good, I’m loving it.” When it comes to her suspension – how many tokens have you got, what pressures are you running – she draws a blank. “That’s really bad! I’m really bad at suspension, I’ve had this bike for almost a year and I’ve never done anything to the suspension, never serviced it…I’ve kind of slowly got used to it feeling worse and worse because it’s not been serviced! It’s definitely due for one now, I’m starting to see signs of oil on the shock and stuff, so that’s going to get services real soon. I find it really hard in between travelling to get it serviced.”
With such lack of care and attention, it seems unlikely that suspension brands are going to be queueing up to sponsor her, but it seems that bounce is not top of her list of needs anyway. Indeed, it’s one of the simplest bikes there is that she credits with having taken her riding up to this new level of tricks and jumps.
“I worked at a skatepark for six months – an indoor one over winter – tried riding some BMXs, and without even knowing my jumping skills just went. I didn’t even used to be able to jump really, I just plopped off stuff, and all of a sudden I was able to properly pop jumps and actually pull up for stuff and that kind of thing, which really helped with being confident on mountain bike jumps and stuff. The more I did bigger and bigger ones, I thought ‘this is actually fine because I’ve learnt those skills’ – so I can do bigger jumps. And then one time I was out in the woods with my friends and they were like ‘we should try and do no handers’ and I was like, ‘OMG that’s scary’. But then I gave it a go and it was actually not as bad as I thought it would be.”
While I’m encouraged by her BMX tale (maybe my midlife crisis might have a practical application or benefit), I’m surprised to hear she just went for it out on the trail – no foam pits or air bags.
“We were riding along and standing up, putting our arms behind us, and we wondered what it would be like to do it in the air so we gave it a go. Just hitting this one jump over and over and taking our hands off more and more each time and then ended up doing them – I wouldn’t call it legit now, but it was huge at the time! I was hooked from then on. I was like ‘wow, this is so much fun’. It’s such a cool feeling to start off learning something and get bigger and bigger – whatever, like no handers or whatever you’re doing, and then get the feeling of getting it dialled in and making it feel really safe in the air.”
It’s the ‘feeling safe’ bit I slightly struggle with, and I’m beginning to wonder whether there’s a safety catch somewhere that Vero manages to switch off, and I’ve yet to find. Or maybe, I’m just a bit older and things hurt more.
“What I figured out after a while is that no matter how far you take your hands off it’s basically the same – it doesn’t really take any more time [to take your hands off further] and it’s not any less sketchy. But once you learn to do it at the right time then it’s actually really easy. Also – it’s a hard one to get your head around – but the bigger jump, the easier it is, because you’ve got more time in the air. Definitely bigger consequences if you get it wrong, but the chances of getting it wrong are not very high I don’t think. You’ve got more time to think about it – if you think ‘oh no I can’t find my bars’, you’ve got more time to find them. If you get your jumping skills up so you’re confident on bigger jumps, then the trick thing is definitely a lot easier.”
Hmm…perhaps I need to spend six months working in a skatepark. It’s definitely the kind of thing that would qualify on a midlife crisis checklist. I’d like to be the kind of rider that thinks that more time in the air makes things safer and gives you more time to think (and to think about something other than your impending interface with the ground). But, I wonder, do tricks make you a better rider, or are they just cool?
“They’re just a lot of fun. If there’s a trail with step ups in or something I’ll do a trick over them and it’ll just add to my enjoyment of riding the trail. For reaction time and stuff like that, it probably helps…it gives you a better feel for the bike.”
To be honest, I don’t think I care if they make you a better rider – I’m sure I’m not the only person who has developed a keen interest in what might constitute ‘cool’ as they approach 40. Conscious that any progress I’m likely to make on this front is likely limited not just by my abilities but my lack of local dirt jump spots, I enquire whether Vero ever rides natural trails, or if it’s all bike parks and built stuff.
“Because from day one I’ve been riding Downhill, I really like riding technical stuff. Where I live now, all the stuff that’s closest to my house is super steep techy stuff, which I love. Super loamy, quite rooty and steep – it’s so sick.” I suggest she could come and ride around Singletrack Towers – we can do steep tech, though not so much loam. “Rocks are not my forte. I do like when rocks are grippy – that’s what’s good about Fort William, the rocks are grippy. I really love riding technical stuff. I like a mixture of both, and just naturally do anyway. I’ll go to ride that kind of [natural local] stuff, and then go to Black Mountains the next time I ride or something like that.”
It’s clear that Vero rides what she likes, and what she feels like. I wonder how (especially when you haven’t got the looming mortality of a big birthday to remind you that time might be running out) she motivates herself to improve and learn, rather than just drifting (or roosting) round favourite trails.
“When I was racing, I just had huge mental blocks every time I was in the start gate. I felt like I was competing against other people, not just racing the clock. What I do now is more like competition within myself, so I just really want to improve at what I’m doing – I want to hit a bigger jump or I want to do that bigger trick, and that’s proper satisfaction to me if I achieve something like that.”
I like the idea of this – riding for yourself. But it’s hard not to compare yourself to others – certainly I found myself looking round the yurt at all the women so keen on racing and wondering why I just don’t have enthusiasm for it. Would I if I thought I might win? Or would that just put me in a pecking order where it’s even harder not to compare your performance to everyone else’s? I wonder if Vero compares herself to other riders? “No, not at all. I just want to improve on what I’m doing. I think racing’s been around for so long that it’s kind of the first thing that people think of. People see me ride and think ‘she’s quite good’, and they’ll be like ‘what place did you come at the World Cup this year?’ And I’m like I don’t have to do the World Cup in order to be a good rider. If you’re not into racing it’s not something you have to do. I think a lot of people get sucked into the think where they do a race and they’re like ‘I wasn’t happy with my result’ so they just keep doing it – which is kind of what I did, I just kept going and going and going because I really wanted to improve, but I wasn’t really having a great time. They kind of just get addicted to really wanting to improve on their results but they don’t really enjoy the riding.”
“What I really like with riding with the guys I ride with is that everyone is genuinely so stoked on if someone else is improving. They’ll be like ‘yes, man, that so sick!’, just genuinely stoked on what they’re doing. It would be so sick to have more girls doing that kind of thing, just out supporting each other. If someone does something that’s better than what you’re doing, just be stoked for them and try to improve yourself to that level.”
Vero’s boyfriend, Max, is part of the 50:01 crew, and she spends a fair amount of time riding with them. I’d originally thought that they were all a bit ‘bro, dude’, but recently I’ve begun to think that maybe they’re just having fun and are in for the shits and giggles.
“They definitely are. All the stuff that they do is like so genuine. No vibe that they put online is not actually how it is in real life. I think they had a bit of a rep from years ago when they were ruthless party animals that were kind of dickheads to be fair. But yeah definitely [they’ve grown up]! They’re just so genuine now, they really are, they’re sick to see. It’s sick to hang out with people like that.”
Much as I might like to spend all my days hanging out in sick collectives of stoke and gnar, the reality is that I spend a fair amount of time at home. I wonder if there’s anything the housebound would-be-shredder could do to get better, at the same time as juggling the glamorous things in life like cooking tea and hanging up the laundry.
“It doesn’t work for everyone, but if there’s a trick I want to do I’ll watch a million tutorials on YouTube. Or it can be anything, like, how to corner better or something. Not just tutorials, but an edit of someone doing tricks, I’ll just watch that over and over and analyse what they’re doing.”
I can watch TV. This sounds achievable. Who should I be watching – who does she look to?
“So many people! So many! It depends what kind of riding it is. Tricks, Andreu Lacondeguy is insane, he’s unreal, his tricks are always so extended he holds them for so long. It’s just the sickest thing to see. And there’s an American guy called Ethan Nell, he’s quite young and new to the freeride scene, but he’s got some unreal looking riding. When it comes to more technical stuff like hitting turns and that kind of thing, Kade Edwards is amazing, obviously. He’s like the ultimate, I don’t even know how he does half the stuff he does. There’s so many cool riders, I can think of too many to mention really!”
“I had a tip from Martha Gill, who’s really good at manualling. She put her jump bike in a turbo trainer against the wall, leans back, and then whenever she hits the wall she’ll know she’s gone too far. She said she just did that a million times and then went out onto the road and she was instantly better at it. On my jump bike I can do it a lot better, but I really struggle to do it on trail bikes. It’s so hard, honestly, it’s so hard. Katy [Curd]’s good, and Martha’s good, they’re the only two girls I know that can actually manual properly. I really want to do it but it’s so hard to learn. Harder than any trick I’ve ever done, honestly, so hard.”
It’s so good to hear this. I might be supposed to be trying not to compare myself to others, but hearing your heroes find stuff hard definitely helps you feel a bit less of a loser.
We turn to the biggest trick-show there is: Red Bull Rampage. Casey Brown has been spotted out in Utah over the summer, training with the likes of Brett Rheeder, which has fuelled rumours that perhaps she is considering riding Rampage. Her name isn’t on the rider list for this year, so maybe it’s not on the cards, but it’s sparked a certain amount of chatter among the pros about how there might be a few more female riders out there who would welcome the chance to try out lines at the Rampage site. Would Vero consider Rampage?
“I definitely would. If that was an option I would take it. I would like to do what [Casey Brown] is doing where you get to go there and do some practice first. I’ve been to Rampage before and it’s insanely gnarly in real life, a lot more gnarly than it looks on camera as well. I’d definitely give it a crack.”
She’s not without doubts though, and while she’d like to see more women doing tricks, and opportunities to showcase that, she is concerned about how well the current female freeride field might compare to the men’s.
“It would be cool, but people watch it [Rampage] for that insanely gnarly factor, those huge tricks they’re doing on massive jumps, and I don’t know if any girls are really going to come anywhere close to that even, you know, impressive-wise. I’d be a little bit worried that it would drag girls’ names even further down, because I wouldn’t be doing a massive 360 off a huge stepdown, I’d probably just hit the step down normally and do a trick which for them is really easy on a normal jump rather than a huge drop. If it was just Casey going to Rampage then that’s going to kind of set the standard for women, whereas if they had a women’s category where there’s loads of girls that would be more like with BMX [the Vans Pro Tour], where there’s loads of guys and loads of girls, so they don’t compare them to each other really.”
“It’s a really tough one, because a lot of women want to show that they’re equal to the men, but then if you single them out too much, then in some ways they’re not really equal. Watching events – being ‘impressive’ – in my opinion they’re not really as exciting to watch. At racing they might be – Rachel and Tahnee are really tight and it’s super exciting to watch – but on the trick thing we’re definitely not anywhere near to the level that they [the men] are.”
We agree it’s a bit chicken and egg – you need the events to give people an outlet to show off their skills and make a living out of it, but you need the people to make the events. I’ve probably missed the boat on making up that field – though who knows, give me ten years and maybe I’ll have learnt enough to sneak into a Vet category. By which time, Vero still won’t be as old as I am now.
But, age is just a number. Vero eschews start gates and timing chips, in favour of the unquantifiable ‘stoke’, ‘fun’ and ‘sick’. Perhaps I should quit looking at the numbers (or rather that big round number), and chase similarly nebulous goals. I’m still not sure I can ever hit ‘sick’, but ‘fun’ and ‘stoke’ I think I can work towards. In fact, with her enthusiasm rubbing off on me, I might already be half way there.
Thanks for seeking out Vero.
So will I be seeing you up at Havok anytime soon, Hannah? As and when we can, the Calder Valley Shred Sisters (Shreddies for short ) get up there to session the DH lines, and stare at the Gap Jump that maybe one day I’ll send. Most of the time I’m the only woman there though, and a bit of a curiosity to the local ‘ard lads, I’m sure.
@cheekysprocket Amanda is far more at home up there than me. I’m working up to it. Would prefer drops/jumps or slither, not so much both at the same time!