Harriet ‘Hattie’ Harnden has competed – and usually won – at a world-class level in more cycling disciplines than any rider we can think of, from cyclocross (CX) to cross-country (XC), enduro (EDR) to downhill (DH).
How has this 24-year-old from Malvern, Worcestershire, managed so much in so little time? Tom Marvin and Rob Weaver caught up with the 2024 Enduro World Cup champion for the MBUK Podcast.
Here’s what we learned from one of the UK’s most decorated riders…
Hattie wasn’t always so good on a bike
“I didn’t really [get into mountain bikes] until I was 13, when I did my first race, one that Tracy [Moseley, multiple-time Downhill World Cup and Enduro World Series champ] put on, in Malvern, and I was awful.
“I turned up in my normal clothes – you know, a knitted jumper and all that – and it was just me and this one other girl in our race, and I came last.”
T-Mo was a huge help in the early days…
“She was like a second mum to me – she played a really big part. It was guidance I was lucky to have, because my parents weren’t big cyclists.
“She really opened the world of racing up for me. [Tracy] lent me my first bike, when I was 14 – she turned up two days before Christmas with this bike that was going to get chucked in a skip, a Trek frame that had been sat in a warehouse – I still actually have the bike – and was like, ‘Here you go, do whatever you want, this is yours for the next year’.
"I raced it for two years, had a go at some national races and had a great time riding bikes.”
It nudged her from CX and XC into trying enduro
“I feel almost like Tracy ‘tricked’ me into it!
"She didn’t trick me at all, but since I started riding for Tracy’s team [T-Mo Racing] in 2016, once or twice a year we’d do an enduro in the UK. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I got completely drenched and freezing cold.
“I never really had the best experience of it. Then, in 2019, she got me to an EWS [Enduro World Series race] in Les Orres [France].
“That was my first experience of European enduro at World Cup level, and that was eye-opening. It was the most amazing thing in the world.
"I just remember my arms hurting so much all day! No downhill training, no gym training, nothing.
"Tracy – classic – just kind of chucks me off the hill and goes, ‘You’ll be alright’.”
It can be tricky mixing fitness- and gravity-based sports
“It’s a little conflicting. The CX, I got rid of sooner, because I was big and bulky [from gym work for enduro], and that wasn’t helping me go round a muddy field fast.
"[As for XC], I raced in ’21 and was close to some World Cup podiums, but in ’22 I didn’t get it quite right.
"I won a couple of EDR World Cups and was like, ‘Okay, if I want to win the series I need to be more focused’.”
She still has an XC rider’s love of training
“XC became addictive. I got hooked on the sensation of giving it everything I had. It’s like intervals – DH riders don’t really like that sort of thing, but speak to XC riders and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I love doing intervals!’.
“It’s super-satisfying, and afterwards you’re wobbling around and you’re like, ‘Ooh, my legs really hurt, but that was good’.”
She was gutted about giving up XC
“I wanted to go to the Commonwealth Games, to the Olympics, to be a world champion, and to step away from that dream was really, really hard.
“It took a long time to accept. I qualified for the Commonwealth Games in 2022, but it clashed with the Whistler Enduro World Cup, and I was absolutely devastated, but I had to say no.
“In Whistler, I was sobbing, I wanted to be there so badly. But I ended up winning the World Cup, so I was like, ‘Okay, that evens it up!’.”
Hattie’s still trying to figure out enduro after four years
“I’m getting the hang of it, but it still seems quite new. A lot of the women have been around for quite a long time. Like Isabeau [Courdurier, above centre], she’s done it from day one – what was that, 2013? I first started riding a bike in 2013.”
She was baffled by downhillers, now she is one
“I started at the other end of things and had this feeling that downhill people were nuts… Then I ended up being one. I got a DH bike purely as a training tool.
“When I won the first national [I entered], I realised going to [the 2023] world champs in Fort William was a big goal of mine. It was very special.”
Don’t expect to see her sending it
“I hate jumps or anything that involves my wheels coming off the floor.
“But I’m learning. The boys remind me I’m not very good at it.
“There are some shocking videos of me 50/50ing some stuff, which are never seeing the light of day.”
Despite all her success, she still gets nervous
“You get the jitters on the [XC] start line or when you hear the whirling of the rollers, but I’ve done it so much, I know what I’m doing. Enduro, I find tricky, because every race is different.
“You might get on a bus or a gondola, or might have to pedal to the top. You almost need a different process for each one.
“I still get all the nerves, and that’s important, because it shows you care so much about it. I hope that never goes.”
