Bristol’s Boxing Day Steps Ride with Oli Young

The Boxing Day Steps Ride

Featuring Oli Young and the Orange RX9 Pro Plus.

Introducing Oli Young, the RX9 Ambassador.

Oli Young is a veteran Mountain Biker based in Bristol U.K and an ambassador for Orange Bikes.  He’s ridden and raced most disciplines over the years, but more recently has turned his attention towards gravel.  His riding style retains many of the playful tricks honed on a 90s hardtail and is widely known for organising the legendary Boxing Day Step Ride. 

After placing top 20 at Grinduro Wales this season, Oli has clearly taken well to racing gravel.  Oli's friend (and pro photographer) Fergus caught up with him in the Clifton area of Bristol where he guides us around some local trails and infamous steps. 

Fergus: What was it like to grow up in Bristol during Mountain Biking’s hay day?

Oli: In the early days riding was mainly in my local park, Redland Green. There’s a grassy bank we rode up and jumped, the groove made with our tyres can still be seen on Google Earth!  I took on as many paper rounds as possible to raise money for buying more bike parts, mostly brightly coloured anodised bits and copies of Mountain Bike UK.

As I grew up, we’d venture across the Suspension Bridge to Ashton Court which felt like an adventure back then. We would ride over Durdham Downs taking in as many trails as possible along the way. Ashton Court was placed firmly on the MTB map when MBUK filmed a section of the film ‘Getta Grip’ in Bristol.

We would spend most of the day riding up and down the ‘Z Track’, a twisty fire road that was great for carving trails straight down the middle, missing the corners.

Who were your influences back then?

Growing up reading MBUK meant following riders like, Jason McRoy, Martyn Ashton, Steve Peat, Jez Avery, Dave Hemming, Andrew Titley and Hans Rey! They were all having so much fun simply riding a bike for their job!

Any notable events/races?

Of all the races I took part in, the Cheddar Challenge stands out as the most memorable. With camping on-site in Cheddar it was a bit like a festival and included trade stands and the chance to see some celebrity riders. It offered DH and XC race courses, both using the famous ‘Devils Drop’ descent to the finish arena.

How did the Boxing Day Step Ride come about?

The Boxing Day Step Ride has its roots from way back in the 90s with the then Bristol Bombs MTB Club. The ride consisted of heading up to the Downs then making our way back to town taking in as many technical flights of steps as possible. Back then Boxing Day sales weren’t a thing, so we had the streets, and steps to ourselves!

You’d get a pat on the back if you managed to get down Quarry Steps; the first set after setting off from the Water Tower. They were horribly steep, slippy and uneven. All being well, we’d usually ended with a beer if we could find somewhere open!

At what point did you pick up the reigns?

I reckon I started organising things from about 2005 onwards, I still invite some of the die-hard step riders from the Bombs club, but they usually politely decline these days.

We’ve ridden BDSR in rain, hail, and snow but surprisingly never had a big accident. One year a Bristol Bombs riders went over the bars while riding down Christmas Steps. He somehow managed to grab hold of the hand rail and just clatter down the steps to the next flat section.

Some of the steps in Clifton are steep and also twist and turn so it needs some skill to get down without any issues. They aren’t the easiest to bail out of once you’ve committed and got going! However, once you’ve got the hang of them, most steps become rideable. I often find myself spotting new flights of steps to add to the BDSR route!

You rode 300km to the start of Walesduro, how did the journey add to your overall experience?

Walesduro runs from Bangor to Cardiff, right down the middle of Wales and is a bit of a monster ride on its own. It’s not the easiest place to get to by car or train from Bristol, so I figured I would ride it. After riding my local area during lockdown, I was itching to get across the bridge to Wales. At the last minute I decided to raise money for Mind Charity as it was looking like a 700+km ride in less than 3 days.

The ride up to Bangor started at 05:30 and it was hot and sunny. Rolling roads up to Welshpool and then it turned very hilly! Riding 300km from Bristol to Bangor, the day before a 300km event, probably wasn’t the smartest idea but it was a great warm up for the legs and I got to see some lovely new parts of Wales on the way. We rolled in to the camp site in Bangor at about 20:30 and pretty much went straight to bed.

For the event itself, the ‘un-paved’ sections were varied, from Llanberis slate mine not far after setting off, to gravel lanes around mid-Wales. I loved the off-road sections but had to remember I had 11kg of bags on the bike so it didn’t handle quite the same as I was used to. It ended up at about 165km for days 2 & 3 before I hit Cardiff, with about 30% of the riding being off road. 

Then back to Wales again for Grinduro - did the MTB background give you any advantage? 

Grinduro was ace and I really enjoyed the race format, a big day ride taking in timed sections where you can push as hard as you want. You get to ride with mates which keeps it fun, then totally bury yourself on the timed sections! There’s a great mix of tracks and MTB skills came in handy on many sections. I love riding the gravel bike on really steep technical trails as it reminds me of when I was younger on a rigid mountain bike with rim brakes, where your line choice was the difference between fast and smooth or coming un-stuck and crashing.

People often draw parallels between gravel and the early days of Mountain Biking, would you agree with this?

Gravel riding is certainly bang on trend these days. I can see the similarity between the cross-country mountain biking I started with years ago and the kind of rides I now use my gravel bike on. Drop bars and rigid carbon forks just add to the challenge of picking the smoothest line!

Where do you see your cycling going next?  Any events planned for the future?

I’m always plotting the next adventure/challenge and have loads on the list… I really want to ride more of Scotland after riding across the  Cairngorms in 2008 on Lands End to Jon O’Groats. 

Walesduro was my first bike packing trip and there’s something pretty cool about strapping overnight kit to your bike and heading off somewhere. I want to do more of that for sure! I’ve always wanted to do the Three Peaks by riding to the foot of each mountain, not fussed about the time limit but I think it would be a cool challenge.  

I’m keen to do some more racing after my recent experience at Grinduro. There is something totally different about knowing you’re against the clock, the opposite to the endurance type riding on Walesduro

You can follow Oli on Instagram at @oliveryoun9.

You can visit Fergus' website at https://www.ferguscoyle.com.

You can learn more about the Orange RX9 Pro Plus here on Orange Bikes.