College student Ethan wins downhill mountain biking Junior World Cup title

Ethan Craik celebrates his world title win. Picture: @maddogboris

Ethan Craik, 17, has lifted the Junior World Cup in downhill mountain biking following a truncated 2020 series.

Prior to the pandemic, he was due to have once race each in Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Scotland, Andorra, Canada, Italy and France.

Due to Covid, though, the series was shoehorned into two races in mid-October in Maribor, Slovenia, followed by two in Lousa, Portugal, at the end of the month and the beginning of November.

Ethan Craik on his way to downhill mountain bike world championship success. Picture: @maddogboris

Ethan, who attends Itchen College, qualified for all four finals and finished 4th and 7th in Slovenia and 1st and 3rd in Portugal. Once all his scores had been added together, he was declared the overall champion.

The races - Ethan’s only competitive rides of a pandemic-dominated year - comprised around 1,500m of downhill elevation, and each one took around four minutes to complete.

‘This was Ethan’s first year competing in the Junior section so we had no idea what to expect,’ said his mum Hazel.

‘We thought anything could happen, so to actually win the title was amazing, unbelievable - we are all so proud of Ethan.’

Winner Ethan Craik on the podium. Picture: @maddogboris

Due to the travelling involved, downhill mountain biking is an expensive sport.

Fortunately for Ethan (and his family) he is being sponsored for the two years he is competing in the Junior category by American-based company GT Factory Racing

‘We are very lucky that Ethan was spotted by GT,’ Hazel added.

‘Though they are an American company, they sponsor riders from all over the world and have teams for enduro, downhill mountain biking and BMX.

‘Ethan’s team-mates are from New Zealand, Israel and Belgium.’

Ethan is aiming to make a career out of downhill mountain biking. Once he finishes his two years in the Junior category in 2021, he will aim to enter the elite men’s series.

There are two ways he can do this - either via a sponsorship or by privately funding his campaign himself.

Ethan has only been downhill mountain biking since 2017. Prior to that, he had been BMX riding since the age of four - winning Southern, National and British championships.