Tahnée Seagrave talks about her goals, progression in women’s MTB, how pushing herself in events like Hardline is beneficial to her as a racer.
Interview and photos by Sven Martin
Tahnée.
Oh, we’re back.
Big day. Big day.
You only used to do this when I won World Cups, haha!
Big day for you and all the women.
Yeah. Huge.
Huge. That’s the best way to describe it.
Yeah. It’s pretty cool.
And you guys are kind of all taking turns to open features too.
Yeah, I think this is why originally I got this group of girls together, because I know that we’ve all got different strengths. When someone sends it, especially between girls, you’re more likely to do it too. All the drops are different, they require different skills. So I just knew for a fact that everyone would take it in turns to open features, and it would be in a positive way that we’d all end up just training each other.
And you chose the biggest one of the day?
Yeah.
So the biggest for last.
I think my competitiveness might have shown through.
You did it before three-quarters of the guys.
Yeah. I was stoked. I didn’t realise I was just hyped. Ever since I got here, I was like, fuck, I want to do container drop so much. I feel like it’s definitely one I can tick off, and it’s an impressive one to do, so I just want to push myself a bit more these days. So yeah, I feel good.
Saying that pushing yourself, you’ve had some injuries. Some people would say, oh, it’s not the smartest thing to do right. Before a World Cup season. What do you reckon about that?
Well, they said that about Hardline last season and then I went and had a massive crash at Worlds at my actual job.
So if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.
I got the confidence from Hardline. The confidence that I got from Hardline going into Worlds, and then all of a sudden, I was on pace. In the first three World Cups, I was off the pace. I got to Worlds, and I was second with that crash.
So, there are many ways to unlock the speed.
I think people have always said to me because I did my ankle dirt jumping. My shoulder was at a race, but I’ve had loads of injuries just riding bikes.
Doing a Thibaut, I heard.
Yeah, I just stamped my foot, and it was disgusting. But at the end of the day, I’ve tried narrowing it down to just racing, and I’ve been really unhappy. So I love progressing myself. I like pushing myself, and this sort of stuff just keeps me alive. So the World Cups are fun, but it’s been so long now. Now I’ve been there since I was 16.
There’s more to it.
There’s only so much you can do whilst going fast. It’s fucking scary. And you don’t really push yourself in different ways. And the World Cup tracks, we return to the same track every year now. So stuff like this gives me that feeling I got when I was a young ripper on Pleney being towed over, step down, step up.
Or opening Champery World Cup.
Exactly. Don’t get me wrong, I love racing, and it’s not just because I’m not winning. I’m still trying to get to that point, but I like pushing myself, and this sort of shit gives me that.
Yeah, I mean, as you said, doing this allows the speed to come easier on the race track.
I just think if I’ve got the opportunity to push the sport, why wouldn’t I take it and try and inspire some youngins, and eventually there’ll be loads of girls ripping this, and we’ve got the world’s best together here. But hopefully, more and more girls will see us and be like, fuck yeah, I want to do that when I’m older.
Yeah, it’s no longer a men’s event. You’ve proved, you’ve proved that.
Yeah, today, we did it at the same pace as everyone else. There’s just one drop that I didn’t tick off, but I was fucking hungry. But the other girls did. So we’ve ticked off every single feature. Same as the boys. We were on pace, but I’m fucking tired. That was a big day.
Yeah. Alright. Sleep well.
Thanks.
