FROM RACER TO MANAGER

Nigel Page has been instrumental in taking the CRC Mavic team to the top

“This is my 12th year running the Chain Reaction Cycles team. I do a bit of everything – picking the roster, organising sponsors, looking after the riders and sometimes even racing! My racing career was cut short by a string of bad injuries between 2002 and 2004, and since retiring I’ve done a range of stuff, from coaching to MTB commentating for the BBC. I contacted Chain Reaction Cycles in 2007 and things went from there.”

“Being a racer myself, I know what sponsors expect and how hard it can be for riders, mentally and physically. Managers need people skills – no matter how well a rider performs, they’re just a person trying their best. It’s gone both ways so many times, like Sam [Hill] scorpion-ing over the bars in Hafjell, Norway, in 2014, while on-track for another DH world title. But it doesn’t get much better than last year, when Sam and Elliott [Heap] both became EWS champions.”

“I’m away for a lot of the year and it can put strain on my family life. There are long days involved too, whether I’m travelling or at the races. Off season is totally different, but it still involves a lot of emails! There’s a lot to do and when we’re building the team bikes we might still be waiting for parts a week before the first race, which can be frustrating.”

“In one of my first years running the team, we were flying back from South Africa with 135kg of excess baggage. The airline charged £4,000 and gave me a ticket to go and pay it, but I added a decimal point in to make it look like 13.5kg. The guy behind the desk was wearing a Liverpool FC tie, so I put on my best Scouse accent and he let us off the half kilo too! I had a panic on the plane, thinking it would be too heavy to take off! It was a stupid thing to do, but our budgets are always tight.”