The Composure King: B&M
Sam Hill. Do I need to say more? He’s been at it for a long time and there’s no doubt that he is still one of the best. Very few have the same composure as he does when they’re riding.
When I was growing up mountain biking Sam Hill was my idol. Back in the Ironhorse days, I would spend hours trying to replicate his riding. Many a day was spent blasting down the local footpaths on a 24 inch hardtail ‘training’ for when I would finally race him (something which I am still waiting to happen).
You can imagine the excitement then when I upgraded from the mighty hardtail to an Ironhorse Sunday. It was about 10 times to big for me and the rear had a lot more movement than would be deemed safe, but in my head it pretty much made me Sam Hill. Add to that a set of 5.10 impacts like the big man himself (a shoe that he is still running in the video above, maybe even the same ones as in the Ironhorse days?) and I was good to go.
The Ironhose has unfortunately been surpassed these days and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will probably never race Sam Hill, but that doesn’t mean I stilll don’t head out to the local woods, blasting trails and ‘training’ on the off chance I get the call up.
HG
