Martyn Ashton | |
Fullname: | Martyn Ashton |
Birth Date: | 2 December 1974 |
Discipline: | MTB (mountain biking) |
Role: | Rider |
Ridertype: | Trials |
Proyears1: | 1997 |
Proteam1: | Volvo–Cannondale |
Proyears2: | 2005 |
Proteam2: | Animal MBUK |
Proyears3: | 2008–2010 |
Proteam3: | Team Ashton Diamondback |
Proteam4: | Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN) |
Proyears4: | 2014–present |
Majorwins: | 39 world championships |
Martyn Ashton (born 2 December 1974)[1] is a former British and World Champion mountain bike trials rider, stunt rider and team manager.[2] He had been riding professional trials since 1993,[3] and has been described as a mountain biking legend,[4] [5] and credited with turning trials riding into one of the fast-growing areas of the sport of mountain biking.[6] Ashton was paralysed in an accident in 2013, during a bike trials demo at the British Moto GP.[7]
Martyn Ashton is a retired trials and stunt cyclist who started-out as a child motorcycle trials 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.[8] In 2008 he entered the Mountain Biking UK 'Hall of Fame'.
Besides riding trials, Ashton has also designed exhibition stages[9] and products for his own Ashton Bikes range.[4] 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 video “Road Bike Party”, he rode a road bicycle in stunts typical of trials.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]
Since his accident, Ashton has continued his pursuit of the outdoors with customized all-terrain wheelchairs.[13] He returned to mountain bike riding with a heavily customised bike, and in 2017 took part in the Crankworx Air DH in Whistler, British Columbia.[14]
Ashton currently lives in Port Talbot, Wales.