We’re excited to reveal the first of our athlete signings for 2022 with the news that British XC MTB Champion Isla Short is joining our stellar crew of mountain bike athletes with Endura. We’ve followed our fellow Scot’s impressive progress over the years as she progressed from a highly talented young rider to a world class athlete, all whilst forging her own trail through the sport.
The twenty-five-year-old heads into the 2022 season with the aim of becoming a fixture in the top 10 in the season long UCI World Cup circuit and with podium finishes firmly in her sights after two years of pandemic driven disruption to the global race scene. It was during the first of these seasons that Isla made her mark on the world stage with a 5th at the 2020 UCI World Championships in Leogang and in 2021 added two national titles with wins in both the British XC Championships and British XC Marathon Championships.
With the 2022 British XC Championships heading to Glentress in July, Isla will be defending champion on (almost) home trails and ones she knows well after spending a number of years living in the Tweed Valley.
The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August offer the chance to represent Team Scotland at a multi-sport event and having claimed a top five result in the Gold Coast games in 2018, Isla will go into the race at Cannock Chase amongst the favourites for gold.
Not content with a season of XC racing, Isla will also be jumping into her Endura baggies and pads and taking on a couple of rounds of the Enduro World Series, which also hits the trails of the Tweed Valley this summer.
The Endura Custom team love making specials and are already hard at work designing and making Isla’s 2022 British Champion’s race kit at our factory in Scotland, look out for Isla revealing that design very soon.
We fired a few questions over to Isla whilst she was on a pre-season training camp in Madeira to find out more about her life on two wheels:
One bit of Endura kit that you’re always going to pack in your kit bag?
My MT500 Burner Pants have quickly become my favourite piece of kit! I only just got into wearing riding trousers and they’ve given me about 20% free speed because I think I look cool haha.
If you could take your bike to any stretch of road or trail in the world – where would you go?
Somewhere in Scotland because that’s where I fell in love with bike riding. Probably Hush Hush at Glentress when it’s rained just enough to provide maximum grip on a summer’s day when the sun’s actually come up!
Do you prefer to ride/train solo or in a group? Why?
It depends on the focus.
I train on my own for a lot because I like to optimize the session’s goals and often riding with others can disrupt this. On the flip side though, I prefer to ride technical stuff with fast riders because I push myself more and it’s much easier to absorb skills from better riders if you can follow their wheel.
What’s the worst weather you’ve ever ridden in?
I live in Scotland so I regularly ride in the worst weather, period.
If you only had one bike for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A 120mm XC bike would just about take me wherever I want to go. Light enough to enjoy the mega climbs but shreddy enough to rip techy descents!
What is the correct temperature to uncover your knees?
.. 13 degrees?! I don’t need much encouragement to get some Vit D!
Are you a pre-ride faffer or are you always good to go?
Well, I think I just have a lot of things to organize and get ready before I head out but everybody else seems to think I’m faffing…
Stop and search….what’s stashed in your (cycling) pockets?
Mostly snacks and probably a pump that doesn’t actually work but makes me look like I’m prepared.