Joey Gough has been so busy riding her bike that she’s flown under the commercial radar in an industry that’s just catching up.
Words & Photography Geoff Waugh
Joey Gough is riding the big new line at Twisted Oaks Bike Park in Suffolk. She deals deftly with the entry berms before launching off the whaletail and into the first of the three huge doubles that form the climax of the no-risk-no-reward trail. You can’t help but notice that riders on the adjacent path have stopped pushing up. They lean on their bars to watch. Joey styles over the last jump and hops off her bike to join them. It’s all laughs on the way back up to the start hill, like what they’ve just seen is an everyday experience. Mostly because it is.
Flatland racer
It’s pretty ironic that a woman from the lowest region in the country can fly her bike higher than most of us mortals can dream about, but decades of BMX riding have yielded an effortless style that puts her at the vanguard of female mountain bike riders in the UK and beyond. From the small wheels, through 4X and downhill, to YouTube content creator, Joey’s career progression hasn’t been particularly conventional, but the one constant is the desire to have fun in every situation – to the extent of eschewing gold medal opportunities.
“Racing got me to where I am now skills-wise but what I liked most was not the results but the event. Being there with a load of like-minded people out to have a good time,” she says.
Sometime rapid racer and full-time soul rider, Joey’s life on a bike literally began when the stabilisers came off. “It was at a track near Hemsby in Norfolk and I was watching my older brother racing. It looked so exciting I asked my dad to remove my stabilisers straightaway. Next thing I was racing. I remember it was on a dirt track at the Pontins holiday campsite. It had wooden slats for jumps with no transitions – they were triangular. I actually wasn’t super-competitive but I really enjoyed being in the pack of riders and the carnage that unfolded sometimes and definitely the jumping side of it. I enjoyed it most in later years when I was in my 20s and racing against the guys. Things have moved on a bit since then.”
And some… With events like Red Bull Formation and Hannah Bergemann’s HangTime jump jam, the current level of women’s mountain biking is, pun intended, hitting new highs – not that it surprises Joey.
“Every time women are introduced to new events such as the Audi Nines, festivals or park competitions, the progress skyrockets. In something like [Red Bull] Rampage there needs to be a women’s category, not a separate event. The riders want it and they are capable of putting on a show. It is a difficult event to run with stuff like the wind delays and everyone getting on the hill and building lines, but it can happen. In most other sports you have two categories, so why not?” she says. “Women’s sports can be just as entertaining without having the same physicality as the men. A great example of that was the 2015 BMX Worlds in Belgium when the rain and high winds meant the Elites all started from the small hill. The racing was so good. Bigger jumps weren’t a factor there.
Opening doors
“I think some doors may have been closed to me as a female rider but some of that could also have been barriers in my own head, almost not believing that I was good enough to do it. When I was racing BMX the prize money was always less than that of the men. I always said if you pay on entry numbers that’s fine, so if there are fewer women, then the payout is less. But the arguments that the women weren’t doing the same riding as the men, they are not as quick, or they are not jumping the same track didn’t wash,” she stressed.
“I was at a women riders gathering recently with the Gowaan Girls – Martha Gill and Bex Baraona – at Josh Bryceland’s jump spot – the youngest rider was eight and I was second oldest, which was a result! But my point is that the turnout was amazing and I could see that the girls had no barriers, they were: ‘I can ride like that.’ So good to witness. All of us riding together.
“I rode the Vanta Jam at Bike Park Wales this year – I know they want more women to enter and that will come. I reckon that a lot of the contenders are racers and that the risk of injury puts it down their list of priorities, Still, it’s a nice loose vibe with no pressure – it was great to be invited.”
Dirt-jumping desk jockey
Catching that all-important vibe is a constant in Joey’s riding life. For four days a week she works behind a desk at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. When the time to ride comes, is it the camaraderie of the scene that is more rewarding than the gate dropping or crossing a finish line first? Maybe because you’ve done so much of that, I offer.
“I kind of floated in and out of both BMX and mountain biking. It was when I was in the GB BMX squad for the 2008 Beijing Games that it hit home that I didn’t have the right personality for that kind of structured training. I remember I didn’t fit in with the rest of the riders, in that they all liked having Sunday off to have dinner then go to the gym and come back and watch TV. That wasn’t me – I just wanted to go riding at the weekend. Every weekend.
“The riding was everything, but also the socialising and fact that I could go and ride jumps when I wanted. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to work hard but I had a look inside myself and asked ‘Do I want to win the Olympics and would I enjoy it?’ All that media and attention at that level wasn’t for me. I had stopped riding trails, which I loved to do. I was in the points to go to the Games and in the end I didn’t make it, but I had made up my mind I didn’t want to go anyway. There was almost a sigh of relief because I had the decision made for me. People thought I would have been crazy but I wasn’t that happy. It made me realise why I ride a bike.
“What is interesting though is through the GB BMX programme we went to the UCI centre in Aigle in Switzerland to train on their Supercross BMX track. At that time I had no idea what fun there was to be had in Chatel, just over that mountain I could see from the BMX track! I was almost looking at my mountain biking future and I didn’t know it.”
Casual winner
But Joey had already dabbled a bit in the bigger wheels a few years before when she raced as a guest in Dan Jarvis’ BN3 team. In 2002 she rode the first-ever 4X World Cup at Fort William, Scotland. The good feelings must have buried themselves deep in her muscle memory because in 2011, with some encouragement from friends, she went back to the Fort and came second behind the series leader Anneke Beerten.
“Oh yeah, Anneke taught me how to ride flat corners,” she laughs. “Up until then, I was only used to berms, haha. I only went because I thought the road trip would be a good time, so I was well happy.” Joey crossed back into BMX the following year to snag the World Challenge title for World amateur champion. Casual. And just to show her versatility, in 2015 she scored victories at the Steel City DH in Greno Woods and two wins at the Downhill Freeride Championships at Penshurst in Kent.
Good times, good deal
The next phase of the Gough Show happened with a timely intervention by GT marketing honcho Clive Gosling who saw Joey out riding.
“I was on a DMR bike that Olly Wilkins had given me. I stacked on a 40ft jump – I went too deep and blew up on the landing. I was OK but the footage was pretty spectacular,” she recalls. “Next thing I know Clive is there saying ‘You need a bigger bike, give me a shout’!”
The liaison was a perfect match. Joey says she gets no pressure from GT to make a certain number of ‘edits’ a week, and this allows her to go and ride when and wherever she fancies.
“I don’t have any particular guidelines because it is not my full-time job and I like it best that way. There is no pressure to do certain things. I document my bike life and what you see is what you get. I see a lot of content is forced because people have to make a living from it. There aren’t too many women with full-time jobs creating the content in the same way as me. Vero Sandler may be one. She did some downhill comps and her career developed from the love of riding. She obviously wants to just ride the jumps and enjoy herself. I always liked making the videos when I was riding so it never seemed a chore to me. Most of my content is on my GoPro, and I get footage sent to me by friends.
“The deal has been great, to be honest. They sent me to Crankworx and to Brage Vestavik’s B-Rage jam in Norway. They said ‘Do you fancy going?’ and I’m like YEAH!”
From little acorns grow twisted oaks?
“Crankworx Whistler was one of the first places I had been where the number of women riding and racing was noticeably greater. I raced the Air DH there in 2017 and again in 2019, and the women were everywhere compared to home, but that has changed in the ensuing years. On uplift days here you see way more women now. I went to the Alps this summer and noticed the same thing – it’s great. You see more mixed groups of riders now too. A lot of riders are keen to get their other half involved! That rarely goes the other way to be honest, although I believe Manon Carpenter encouraged her fiancé to ride. He’d have to ride bloody fast! And I can totally relate to Manon’s decision to step away from racing but continue riding,” says Joey.
Building and digging at her local trails and making killer videos of her travels on the road is where Joey has found her calling, along with helping younger riders on their way. Riders like Beth Bishop.
“Beth is a teenager who lives biking distance from Twisted Oaks. I met her there and she was so stoked on jumping she just reminded me of my younger self. We became friends and rode together fairly often. I passed on my old GT Force enduro frame that I rode at Crankworx when I got a new one, as all she had was a dirt jump bike.
“All this was also supported by GT, who offered to fund her to join me at the Project Evolve Women’s Day at Revs last year. She loved it. I also introduced her to the G23 trails guys who took the shy young Beth under their wing; she got involved in the digging and the riding and became part of the crew. She said to me herself how all of this had made her a far more confident person, and you could tell. Great to see”, smiles Joey, “but I draw the line at coaching seriously, it just isn’t in my make-up. I am concentrating on staying in condition and strong enough to ride big jumps for as long as possible. To hit the really big jumps you need to be strong to stay upright on some landings.
“People say ‘Oh you’re really good’, but I reply ‘Yes I’ve been riding for 40-odd years now’, which sounds less impressive!”
But impressive is exactly what it is, because in the words of former team boss Dan: “Joey is the most naturally talented rider that I’ve ever had on a team, and also one of the most laid back and cool individuals that I’ve ever met.” Who’s gonna argue?
Down the Decades: Joey’s Off Road Résumé
- 2002 / First-ever 4X World Cup: Fort William
- 2005 / 4X World Cup: 2nd Schladming, Austria; 4th Vigo, Spain; 4th Pila, Italy. 5th 4X World Champs Livigno, Italy
- 2006 / 5th 4X World Champs Rotorua, New Zealand
- 2007-08 / Joins GB BMX squad
- 2009-10 / Stayed in the woods digging and riding trails with no interest in racing
- 2011 / 4X World Cup comeback: 2nd, Fort William
- 2012 / Amateur Women’s BMX World Champion
- 2016 / Joins GT Bicycles
- 2017 / Crankworx: Bronze in Pump Track
- 2019 / Crankworx: Bronze in first ever women’s Speed and Style
- 2021 / Audi Nines: The first time women were invited
- 2022-23 / B-Rage Sesh & Vanta Jam
