[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
I remember I sat there and wanting to dig myself a grave but...
-Oh, my God! -[LAUGHS]
ROB WARNER: Just pounding it.
one of the world's best female downhillers.
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ROB: I've come to North Wales, a remote but beautiful part of the UK
that boasts some of the world's most testing downhill tracks.
I'm here to meet a woman
that leads the new generation of female downhillers
with her speed, her style, and her flair.
Who's going to come on top here today?
What a day for Tahnée Seagrave?
Despite winning multiple World Cup races,
the overall title has proven elusive.
A real battle raging between these two British women.
Could this be the year everything comes together for Tahnée Seagrave?
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
[CAR HORN HONKS]
Good morning!
-Hi. ROB: How are you, Tahnée?
-Are you all right? -I'm good.
ROB: Nice to see you. TAHNÉE: Me, too.
ROB: It's out of the way over here, innit?
Let's go inside, grab a cuppa.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
This is the HQ, the home, your dad's the team manager,
very much a family affair over here.
You were, I would have said in one of the best places on Earth
to ride a downhill mountain bike in Morzine.
What made you move here to, you know...
-Middle of nowhere? -Quite bleak.
[BOTH LAUGH]
Morzine is perfect for riding, like you say, it's heaven,
but you could only ride for like two months in the summer
and then very snowy in the winter so no riding.
So, I heard that there was a good crew in the UK
and kind of travelled a bit and discovered this place.
Yeah, right. Oh, I mean it's great and a family followed you.
At this point in your career,
you decided that this is what you were going to do?
That you wanted to be a professional downhiller,
because I guess you probably still weren't like,
full-time making money at that point, right?
I think I never questioned it though.
I was just doing what I wanted to do, you know.
We started in a tent, like, it was just a hobby.
So, the early years of your World Cup career
were really dominated by Rachel Atherton
and I mean you were good 18 podiums,
12 of those podiums, Rachel actually had won.
Looking up at Rachel on those podiums, did it inspire you?
Because, you know, you two are the two big women in downhill,
the two big British women in downhill.
And there's a rivalry there as well--
I don't know for sure like the rivalry is so high
I don't think anyone would ever like understand.
We have a lot of respect for each other
and growing up, Rachel was my ultimate hero, you know.
ROB: She was? TAHNÉE: I strived to be like Rachel,
but the thing is when you are the one who's to beat,
you know, everything changes.
That transition for me was quite hard at the time,
but I kind of accepted it
and, you know, took it as a compliment and took it in a good way.
Your first World Cup, 2012
it was surprisingly a long time from then
until 2017 when you won your first World Cup.
It was hard. There was a point where I thought
I'm not sure this is gonna... Like this is it.
This is gonna happen.
Is there ever a period where social media got too much
because, you know, you've got nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Like, you follow everyone in the industry, and you don't realize,
but you know every post, "Oh, they've had a great day",
oh, "They've qualified first".
Or, "Yeah, they're feeling confident."
Oh, *** I fell like racing. That's not good--
It can get in your head.
And so, I have to, you know, the first time I turn my phone off
was the day I won my first World Cup.
Whatever. So, that's the happiest day.
-Oh, yeah. There we go. -Phone's down on them weekends.
That's right though, innit?
Just me focusing on what I needed to do.
I think you're gonna enjoy this. We're gonna have a look back.
Tahnée Seagrave gets into the zone.
TAHNÉE: I look so nervous.
Yeah, you were, weren't you?
This is a huge run then from Tahnée Seagrave,
remember Rachel Atherton is out with injury.
Massive opportunity for the rest of these riders.
And she extends 1.3 now
and Tahnée Seagrave wins her first ever World Cup.
It's been a long time coming.
[CROWD CHEERING]
But I walked away from that race
not very happy knowing that Rach wasn't there.
-Honestly? -That wasn't a win for me.
ROB: That wasn't a win for you? TAHNÉE: No, it was bittersweet.
ROB: It's incredible that you say that.
I mean that does massively highlight that intense rivalry between you two.
Oh, it's insane, yeah.
Then I was like right now here's the next girl which is, you know,
to beat everyone there fair and square so…
But you did.
Mont-Sainte-Anne, later that year.
It couldn't have been further away track wise really from Leogang.
Oh, and Seagrave's miles ahead.
This will be the new benchmark.
And Tahnée Seagrave takes the win here in Mont-Sainte-Anne.
This one for me is probably to this day
still one of my best wins, I think.
It wasn't just that I'd beaten Rachel,
I felt like I'd ridden how I knew I could ride.
I'd shown the world what I was capable of.
I kind of learned that the only thing that I need to focus on
is my riding and that clock
because I'm racing at the end of the day.
Probably a healthier way to look at it.
I didn't win for a long time
is because I was so focused on that one person
and not actually on my own riding.
Well, at this point then you'd got a real taste for winning.
-Yeah. It seems that way. -Yeah. Yeah.
Well, that's good because you kept winning.
So, here comes Tahnée Seagrave.
It's gonna be the fastest time of the day.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
Seagrave goes fastest.
Here come Tahnée Seagrave snatching away the lead from Atherton.
You don't often show emotion like that actually even though--
TAHNÉE: I forgot. ROB:... there was one rider left.
Oh, did you?
-I thought I'd won at this point. -[LAUGHS]
You're still pumping your... Yeah, minutes afterwards.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
TAHNÉE: And, yeah, I kind of sat down
and saw Monika's time come up that was faster than my top speed.
ROB: It was. TAHNÉE: Or it wasn't that far behind
and I remember I sat there
and wanting to dig myself a grave pretty much.
[LAUGHS]
ROB:
No. 1.6 back.
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And in 2019 you started, to me, as the favorite.
Like you're only getting better and better.
-And you proved it in Maribor. TAHNÉE: Yeah.
ROB: With your seventh win.
ANNOUNCER: Tahnée Seagrave!
ROB: That's the time you put the leader's jersey on and then left.
-What did that feel like? -It was a bit surreal.
It was a bit, like, "Oh, this is nice."
But you don't want to get attached to it too much
because, you know, like that it can be gone as we saw.
-[LAUGHS] -Yeah. Well, you said it.
It did get taken off you very quickly at the next round.
TAHNÉE: Very brutally. ROB: Very brutally.
-First run, wasn't it? TAHNÉE: Yeah.
The weather was really bad, like, sideways wind and stuff.
It would rain so much.
Front wheel dug into a hole
and I just went straight over the bars into the rock garden.
-It was like that? -Yeah, hit the shoulder
and I thought that's not right.
And I remember looking over and I saw Boris, the photographer.
And he kind of looks to me and looks at my shoulder and goes...
And goes, "Oh, no, no, no."
And I'm like, "Oh, wow!" I'm like, "Thanks."
ROB: Was it an option not to have surgery
and still try and go for the title or not really?
No.
ROB: You took your time out, getting over that injury
and then you came back to the World Championships and well...
Tahnée Seagrave in the start hut.
TAHNÉE: I was super scared.
I remember thinking I don't want to crash because if I crash, I'm done.
ROB:
It's gonna be close, but Nicole holds on.
Couldn't be disappointed with the silver medal, right?
TAHNÉE: No. Pompon deserved it.
She worked so hard towards that. It was insane.
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So, 2020... I feel like this is your time.
-Is that how you feel? -I wouldn't put it like that,
but I feel like I need to make the most out of every day now.
I've realized like I'm not bulletproof,
I could get injured again and obviously,
I've had the taste of winning,
so anything less than that for me is just not quite as satisfying.
ROB: Your dad, he's a bit of a visionary, right?
Because he had a T-shirt made for you, right?
Can you tell me about it? I've only heard the rumors.
Yeah, he made me this T-shirt.
I don't even remember being that much into biking at the time.
[BOTH LAUGH] Your dad was.
So he spun me this T-shirt and it says, "Tahnée, World Champ 2013."
-And you were. Do you? -And I was, yeah, which is mad.
-Mad. And where is it? -In the office.
-And is Tony in the office? -Yeah.
And is he wearing that T-shirt? That'd be a sight, wouldn't it?
-Too much. -[LAUGHS]
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ROB: Tony, knowing you I can see
why you've got your own office at the HQ here.
They keep you out of the house as much as possible.
Try and keep away from them. Wouldn't you?
But Tahnée, the last thing she sent me over was to find that T-shirt.
That premonition came true. That's mad.
TONY: Yeah, it was just a bit bizarre.
Tahnée was starting to, like, enjoy cycle a lot,
especially, as we moved out to Morzine.
And then the world champs was on at Les Gets so--
-What year was this? -2004.
-All the way back then. -Yeah.
So, she wanted something to get it signed, so we just made that up
and off she ran and got loads of signatures on it.
But, yeah, I don't know ever it worked out right
or when she could win, world champ…
Actually it should have been 2012, first year as a junior downhiller.
Yeah, but in actual fact, I got it wrong.
-You're a visionary-- -Whoa! Whoa!
Yeah.
She was just a kid really in Morzine riding about on bikes.
Did you see potential in her? Who made the decision to go racing?
She wanted to go racing.
ROB: She wanted to go racing? -Yes. She wanted it.
ROB: She lead that? -Yeah. Yes.
Can you remember then in France,
to go into the first race with Tahnée, what it was like?
Yeah, but it was all very French
and we didn't really know what was kind of going on.
I mean she struggled for a long time,
especially, as we were running the chalet.
I was flying back to London trying to get some work.
We were doing it all on a shoestring.
ROB: I mean it was four years that she was in elite.
-Yeah. -Before she won a World Cup.
-Well, exactly. -We're only saying it's a long time
because we know how good Tahnée was and is.
TONY: Yeah, no, totally.
You know, niggling injuries here there and everywhere
that we couldn't get sorted out.
-We didn't have the backing to do it. -No.
We didn't have the knowledge at the time to do it all, but I did see--
It's been a stressful experience.
Still a stressful experience. I got hair, normally.
[BOTH LAUGH]
ROB: I've seen you be incredibly emotional as any father would be,
but you're also the team manager.
Is it difficult to separate the roles,
to get rid of that father emotion when you need to be a team manager?
Yes, yeah. It is.
I'd lie if I was saying it's easy to go there and split but it's not.
You know, the smallest things as parent and child
-can turn into a massive deal. -Yeah.
-And it gets blown out of proportion. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I do find now, I tend to stay in the motor home
and stay out of everyone's way as well,
which is another thing that I've have learnt to do.
It's much better for me to do.
So it's been a learning process for you as well.
Massive one for me. Massive one for me.
-I thought, I knew everything. -Yeah.
But like, you know, anyone that turns up and thinks
they know everything is a fool if you ask me.
Yeah. No, you're right. That's right.
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Just point at the names. A little bit out there?
Yeah, so Tahnée was meant to be called Kaos.
My wife said to me, "There's not a chance in hell
that any child of mine is ever gonna be called chaos.
So, she was called Tahnée.
And then, when she was pregnant with Kaos.
I was like, yeah, "We've got this. We've got this in a bag.
Kaos all the way."
So, I was refusing to come up with any other names.
So, my wife didn't come up with any other name.
So, he didn't have a name and then she kind of gave in--
ROB: He stuck, yeah.
TONY: And for the first two years of his life,
my wife said his name quietly, everywhere.
What Kaos?
If Tahnée and him walked off at the supermarket,
-she'd be like Tahnée, Kaos. -[LAUGHS]
But I've got to admit, his name, I mean, you know him quite well now.
ROB: It fits. -And, yeah, it really does fit him.
Yeah, you've done well.
That's two premonitions that you've got right.
So, tomorrow Tahnée's taking me to one of...
I don't know if it's one of her favorite riding spots.
-Are they taking you to the bank? -The bank.
-Well, what's up? -Nothing, good luck.
-Why? -Put it this way,
it'll be a fun day if you survive.
-What? That bad? -Yes.
[LAUGHS]
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It's my second day here in Wales and, well, it is Wales.
It has been raining all night. It's still coming down.
Tahnée's a bit worried that the track she had in mind is so steep
that even throwing out an anchor won't stop us.
So, we're going to go somewhere else.
To be honest, I think it's probably the right move.
I'm quite relieved.
[CALM MUSIC PLAYING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
So, here we are then. Kaos has joined us, your brother.
All right, what's this one like, Tahnée?
Am I going to get down this one?
TAHNÉE: So it's nice and chilled.
It's one we come to when we're just on a nice easy day.
-Oh, good! -So I'm sure you'll love it.
ROB: I've been down a lot of nice and easy trails with athletes,
doesn't always work out.
Whoo!
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***. Whoo!
I can't *** see. I've got mud in my eyes.
[TAHNÉE SQUEALS, LAUGHS]
ROB: I'm calling a timeout. TAHNÉE: ***. Oh, ***.
ROB: I just pounded into one of the world's best female downhillers.
[UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
[BICYCLES THUDDING AND RATTLING]
ROB: Whoo!
[MUSIC STOPS PLAYING]
Oh, that's good, really. I enjoyed that.
Amazing trails around here.
You've come close to taking the overall twice before,
could this be the year you do it?
Oh, I hope so. I can only give it my best.
Competition's pretty tough this year.
Valley coming through and all that so.
Yeah, so I'll give it my best to every round and see what happens.
It's gonna be a fight. I look forward to seeing it.
Kaos as well. Thanks for having me.
Thanks very much for your hospitality. And good luck.
Thank, Rob.
A moment... What the *** was that? I don't know.
[TAHNÉE LAUGHS]
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ROB: Lovely trail.
[TAHNÉE LAUGHS]
ROB: Oh ***! Who's idea was this?
KAOS: I tried to avoid the puddle and I failed miserably.
ROB: I'm trapped, mother***.