Meet the third year Enduro Off-Road Motorcycle champ racing towards global success

Third year Rhian George is the reigning Ladies British Off-Road Enduro Motorcycle Champion with her sights set firmly on securing the  world title next year.

It all sounds very impressive, but what exactly is Enduro racing?

“It’s a bit like rally car racing but on a bike instead,” Rhian told The Tab. “You race for between five and seven hours, non-stop across three laps of 30-50 miles with each lap getting tighter on time as you make checkpoints.

“It’s a bit different to normal sports.”

It’s fair to add that Rhian herself is a bit different to normal Sports and Exercise students.

The third year from Carmathenshire started riding at 11 and won the British Championship three times as well as the European Team Championship before her latest success.

Rhian told The Tab: “I had my first bike at 11 from my dad who is also a British Champion, but I started to properly compete at 13. I never had a real interest to do it until my dad bought me and my sister a bike and I fell in love with it.”

Rhian with her first bike aged 11

“I’m very competitive so after two years of learning I wanted to see how good I really was. I won my first major championship at 15 beating all the boys who I was competing against.

Since then Rhian hasn’t stopped reeling in the medals and continues to keep her sights set high for greater things.

She added: “Next year I’m hoping to win the European Championship in April and maybe even the World Championship in October.

“I was even asked by our governing body to represent the country in the world championships but unfortunately I’m injured. But I would love to represent Britain on the world stage – that’s the dream.”

Rhian said her support network was integral to her success

Rhian attributes her success to a strong support network, including her family and sponsors: “It’s not really a student sport to be honest, I can only really do it with help from my parents and sponsors, you need a good team of people behind you.

“From 15 I started getting sponsored by companies like Putoline and now I’m sponsored by Freestyle Hisqvarna but also big names like Michelin.”

Although opportunities in the sport are limited, Rhian added: “The best way I would recommend getting into the sport is to do a weekend experience with Yamaha for about £150 – that’s how I got into it. If you’re really good then you might get spotted and asked to compete. Scouting is the way in but it’ll still costs quite a lot of money anyway.”

Could you go off-road for seven hours?

Perhaps one of the biggest issues facing Rhian is juggling university studying, her social life and Enduro – a daunting task even for British champs.

“Time management is really difficult. The training and the competition is really intense and demanding so it doesn’t leave a lot of time for studying and socialising. However, I still have loads of friends here and all my lecturers have been really supportive of me doing the sport.

“The uni and my department have been really understanding and even gave me a Sports Scholarship which was a huge help – I’m really grateful to all of them, especially my mentor Simon who is a superstar.”

Rhian still has time for a social life

The extreme sports star added: “I don’t drink as a rule but I still go out for birthdays, cinema, bowling that sort of thing – most of my friends are really sporty people so they are absolutely fine with me not being a party animal because they know how important this sport is to me.”

“It may sound sad but I’d rather win a championship than get drunk.”

She’d rather win than drink

Even with all these impressive life achievements under her belt and a promising career ahead, Rhian said she came to university to keep her options open:

“The main reason I came to university is because I like Aber – I don’t want the big city nights with lots of drinking. But also you can’t make a lot of money from my sport, even world champions don’t get enough money to make a salary.

“I want to be a neurophysiotherapist so I’m applying to Southampton and Birmingham for my masters at the moment but of course I want to continuing doing Enduro even after university.”

In the meantime, Rhian hopes to continue her fine form and overcome the obstacles that threaten to temper her success.

Hardcore

She added: “The biggest obstacle in our sport is injury. There’s just such massive speeds at 60-70 mph off-road when you’re really tired. I’ve been injured so many times; I’ve broken ribs, fingers and even my pelvis. I’ve had some bad concussions and even temporarily lost my ability to see colour – which was probably the scariest moment that I’ve had.”

“You can’t go into this sport if you’re wimp. You have to be strong and you have to be confident. If you’re afraid of getting hurt then this isn’t the sport for you. But it’s all part of me now, and being injured now is like losing a sense of my identity.”