Martyn Ashton (born 2 December 1974) is a former British and World Champion
mountain bike trials
Mountain bike trials, also known as observed trials, is a discipline of mountain biking in which the rider attempts to pass through an obstacle course without setting foot to ground. Derived from motorcycle trials, it originated in Catalonia, Sp ...
rider, stunt rider and team manager. He had been riding professional trials since 1993,
and has been described as a mountain biking legend,
and credited with turning trials riding into one of the fast-growing areas of the sport of mountain biking.
Ashton was paralysed in an accident in 2013, during a bike trials demo at the British Moto GP.
Biography
Martyn Ashton is a retired trials and stunt cyclist who started-out as a child
motorcycle trials
Motorcycle trials, also known as observed trials, often called simply trial/s (with or without the plural "s"), is a non-speed event on specialized motorcycles. The sport is most popular in the United Kingdom and Spain, though there are participan ...
rider but took-up mountain bike trials in the early 1990s. He is a four-time British Biketrial Champion and former World Expert Biketrial Champion, and the Guinness World Record Holder for the Mountain Bike High Jump. In 2008 he entered the
Mountain Biking UK 'Hall of Fame'.
Besides riding trials, Ashton has also designed exhibition stages and products for his own Ashton Bikes range.
He has had extensive media coverage, and published his own ''Hop Idol'' column in the
MBUK mountain biking magazine.
In Ashton's 2012 viral
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
video “Road Bike Party”, he rode a
road bicycle
The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle. Other sources specifically exclude racing bicycles from the definition, using the term to mean a ...
in stunts typical of trials. A sequel video entitled "Road Bike Party 2" was released the following year and proved even more successful.
Ashton first broke his back in 2003, when he compressed a vertebra and fractured it during a fall after misjudging a landing. He soon recovered and returned to riding. Ashton again broke his back on 1 September 2013 when he fell from a 3-metre high bar during a demo at Moto GP, causing serious injuries to his spinal cord which left him paralysed.
Since his accident, Ashton has continued his pursuit of the outdoors with customized all-terrain wheelchairs. He returned to mountain bike riding with a heavily customised bike, and in 2017 took part in the
Crankworx Crankworx is a four-stop tour of mountain biking competitions and races, the premier event of which is held each summer at Whistler-Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia at Whistler Mountain Bike Park.
The Crankworx core competitive events are ...
Air DH in
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Moun ...
.
Ashton currently lives in
Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
.
References
External links
2012 Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton, Martyn
1974 births
Living people
Welsh male cyclists
Mountain bike trials riders
Sportspeople from Port Talbot
People with paraplegia