Martyn Ashton’s story is worthy of a movie: a mountain biker who does loads of crazy stuff, suffers an accident and then makes a comeback, as gnarly as ever and an inspirational role model for disabled sport.
His two Road Bike Party videos made him an internet sensation, receiving 14m views and earning him a loyal following – fans wanted to buy him rehabilitation equipment after his accident.
Ashton and his friends, Danny MacAskill and Chris Akrigg, bounced off rooftops, back flipped and bunny hopped in all sorts of places where bikes really shouldn’t be. Like Parkour on two wheels, it’s magic in motion, making impossible stunts look easy and while having huge amounts of fun.
Tragically, in September 2013, while performing a show at a Moto GP in Silverstone, Ashton crashed from a 3m height and damaged T9 and T10 vertebrae, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
Months lying in a hospital bed followed and when he was finally allowed to sit up, the lack of feeling below his naval meant sitting unsupported felt like sitting on a balancing ball, which makes it all the more incredible that he can now ride a bike down a mountain.
Ashton remained upbeat – he says practising positivity is as important as eating breakfast – and before long took up hand cycling, got in touch with Disability Sport Wales and tried other sports too.
A blog post written 13 months after his accident, however, showed how much he yearned to get back on a bike: “I love riding bicycles, so no amount of hand biking or swimming will change that desire for two wheels,” he wrote.
“The freedom of rolling through single track with sweeping turns between trees, or the sensation of dropping into a steep root-riddled downhill run. I don’t need to find new sports to replace bikes.
“I need to get back on a bike, I need to ride with my mates, enjoy the outdoors and the terrain that is out there for me to ride. I don’t know how I will do it, but I know I must – because that’s who I am, that is what I do. I ride.”
And that is exactly what he has done. In June last year, less than two years after he was paralysed, Ashton got the old team back together, plus Blake Samson, and went to Antur Stiniog trail centre in North Wales to film Back on Track.
It took about six months to bring the plan together. A bike was built using Mojo suspension and a Nicolai frame, with a Tempo sit-ski, designed for use in paralympic snowsports.
“I thought ‘wouldn’t it be funny if an ex-pro rider made a downhill mountain biking video?’,” says Ashton, laughing. “I just wanted to present something which looked easy and fun. We laughed for two days and in the evenings as well. I had done it – I was back on a bike and back with my friends.”
When asked if returning to the saddle was as good as it used to be Ashton says it is: “The first moment you do anything new on a bike, you think ‘Wow!’ and you just have to keep pushing things to get that same buzz again.
“A beginner can do something which can make them feel as elated as Chris Hoy winning a gold medal, it’s just that he’s had to go to that level to get the elation. You have to keep pushing and keep hunting for the feeling.
“For me, this was new so it felt just as crazy and bonkers as any other situation I’ve been in.”
Ashton is keen to use his breakthrough to inspire other disabled people into sport and he says what has been really gratifying is having videos sent to him of people doing the same thing.
“One guy had even gone to Mojo and got the same bike built! I was really chuffed about that because it feels like we’re cheating the world, we’re breaking the rules and defying the situation.”
After receiving six million views for Back on Track, Ashton is now incubating a plan for a second video, but also has a further ambition: to organise a downhill mountain biking competition for disabled people. He envisages riders being timed racing down a mountain, with an able-bodied partner who can assist them in any way necessary. “If I can get 10 people racing then it’s a sport,” he says. “Some people are already doing it, so my idea has now become their sport.”
To make his vision become reality, he is looking for a race organiser and sponsor to get on board: “I need a very bold sponsor to give it the feeling of this being important. It’s not my style to do something low key, I want to get the sort of exposure that a really good race would get.”
