MTB Flashbacks! | Steve Peat’s 2001 #1 jersey

August 3rd, 2015

Tales from the Factory Jackson crypt…

Mountain biking has come a hell of a long way in a relatively short time, and has seen bike development boom and the race scene grow exponentially.

With the help from some of our industry friends we’ll be delving in to our crypt of cool and will be picking out some stand out items that have a cool story behind them. That might be a component that influenced product development; something that’s frankly laughable by todays standards – or something personal telling a story of an event.

One of the biggest names in MTB racing ever – Peaty has been there and earnt the t-shirt on his journey to the top.

Kicking off this new series on Factory Jackson is Steve Peat’s 2001 #1 jersey from Team GT. It was cut off him, following a bad crash at Grouse Mountain, Canada that saw him lose his #1 plate. Here’s what the big man had to say when we spoke to him…

“Damn, this one brings back some very painful and not so great memories! It was our first trip to Grouse Mtn in Vancouver and it was the 3rd stop on the World Cup tour that year.

I was coming in with a healthy lead in points as I had won the first 2 races of the season – I guess you could say I was on a roll… ha ha!”

Steve Peat was proudly wearing the number 1 plate when an unfortunate crash held him back. Earning the title of World Cup Champion is no easy feat – perhaps Steve’s set backs in 2001 helped fire him up for 2002…

“While cruising down in an early practice run my front wheel got sucked into a hole on the fresh track and I got spat out the front door. Unfortunately there was a tree straight in front of me and I tried to take it down with my shoulder. Needless to say the tree won – and my points lead was out of the window”

Words from the MTB legend himself.

“The crash resulted in a 3rd degree shoulder separation and some badly bruised ribs under my scapular.

It took a while to recover…”

You know it’s not a good sign when clothes have to be cut off for treatment.

Although Peaty had a couple of great results prior to the injury, the rest of the year was largely recovery for him – but he still managed to bag a 4th place at Kaprun, Austria; and a 2nd place at the World Championships in Vail, Colorado. It definitely helped fire him up for the 2002 season where he took the overall title as World Cup Champion.

We found this old video which mentions Peaty’s crash though the quality is pretty dire. Worth a watch though.

For some better quality footage from the 2001 season, check out Sprung 5. Grouse Mountain features at 7.05.

If you’ve not already seen Steve Peat’s amazing film ‘Won’t Back Down’, then you can get it at the iTunes store from this link or on Amazon here. It documents Steve’s story from when he started riding bikes, to his career high light of winning the World Championships.