Osprey Athletes: Tracy Moseley

Tracy Moseley is a Professional Downhill Mountain Biker racing for the Trek World Racing Team. She has been competing on the World Circuit for 11 years and in that time she has obtained 10 World Cup wins; she is the 2010 World Champion and 2006 World Cup DH Champion! 2011 is the first year that sees Osprey as one of Tracy’s official sponsors- having just become champion at the Urge Cabo Verde Race in February we are very excited at the prospect of this partnership.

Born in 1979, Tracy (nickname Mo) was a keen dog trainer before mountain biking really took off for her in 1993 when she entered her first xc race- although she suffered badly afterwards! Un-deterred, Tracy started downhill riding in 1994 and won the National Championship for her age category. However, not having a licence meant she couldn’t take the title. So in 1995 it was Helen Mortimer, the most successful female rider at the time, who spurred Tracy on by offering her a bike and kit that she had previously used and thus Tracy’s first sponsorship began.

1996 saw Tracy join the Volvo Cannondale UK team where she raced all Nationals as a junior; she was also selected to race at the French National. In 1997 Tracy won her first silver medal at the Junior World Championships- which she admits she should have won. 1998 brought about her first win in a Senior National Title whilst also juggling university. She even found the time to race in a couple of World Cups!

Fast forward to 2001, Tracy begun racing full time for Kona Ford Focus- her first opportunity to race all of the world cups. An amazing experience and gradually the results began to happen! After a string of 6th places and finish line crashes, she finally managed to get on the elusive world cup podium. 3rd at Vancouver and 2nd at Durango and Kaprun.

The next few years saw Tracy reaching 3^rd overall in the World Cup Series in 2003- her most successful year to date! Although in 2004 after another great year winning the Maxxis Series, Tracy crashed and dis-located her shoulder meaning she had to finish that year prematurely. It was a long winter of rehabilitation for her shoulder with hours spent at the physio, massage and gym to get it right. By February though, she was back on her downhill bike! One of the biggest highlights of 2005 had to be another victory at the home world cup in Fort William. She also found time to fit in some Maxxis cup races and managed to clinch the overall again and remain injury free!

In 2006 Tracy managed to take wins at the first 3 world cups! She managed to maintain form and finished in the top 3 all year and it eventually gave her enough points to win her first ever Overall World Cup Title. Having been so close over the past few seasons it was a great feeling to finally bring the title home to the UK! Once again the highlight of the year for Tracy was winning the Fort William World Cup in front of that amazing crowd. In 2007- nationally Tracy rode well, winning both rounds she entered and taking the British National Title for the 5th time. However her goal to win the World Championships in Fort William again was dashed after she had to settle for 4^th place- her biggest disappointment in her career so far.

In 2008 Tracy was the only downhill rider on the Kona team and it required a lot of planning and organisation to make it all come together. She was working with some new components, a new mechanic and no team mates to ride with so it took a while to get back into the groove! After a disappointing 7th place at the first World Cup she managed to claw some points back and took 2 wins along the way to take her World Cup win tally to 10. Tracy finished the year in 3rd overall and retained the National Title.

2009 was the start of a new era for Tracy. After 9 years with Kona she changed sponsors to ride for the new Trek World Racing Team. It was a dream start to the year, winning her first few races and winning the first World Cup of the year in South Africa, the first win for Trek. She finished the year with a win at the final World Cup at Schladming and ended up 2nd overall in the World Cup, 2nd at the World Champs and retained her National Title. After the 2009 season Tracy had some time out for an operation to repair an old hip injury, this meant starting the season off pretty slowly on the world cup front with some disappointing results. As the year progressed, however, her racing increased rapidly and she managed to finish the World Cup Series in 3rd place and then went on to win the title that she had been chasing her entire career- she won the World Championships and turned a poor 2010 season into a year she will never forget.

This success was replicated in 2011, with Tracy competing in the Cape Epic stage race, World Cup XC race, Pro Sprint race, a selection of Enduro races, and ending up clinching the World Cup Downhill title. With this success Tracy is using 2012 to branch further into Enduro and other areas of MTB. As part of this Tracy has created her own Racing team: T-Mo. 2012 looks set to be an incredibly busy year!