Meet the 13-year-old on her way to becoming a star of MTB trials riding – and our Newcomer of the Year

We drop in on Daisy Craig, crowned Newcomer of the Year for 2025 in our annual Rider of the Year awards, to find out how this 13-year-old from Derbyshire is on track to become one of the world's best trials riders.

---

Daisy Craig is a world champion. And boy, can she ride a bike – she makes it look easy. She’s an exceptional rider and deserved winner of our MTB Newcomer of the Year award for 2025.

Daisy's favoured discipline is trials, although she also enjoys hitting the trails at Cannock Chase on her mountain bike. And we’re not talking the recreational ‘street trials’ side of the sport, as showcased by the likes of Danny MacAskill, but the super-technical competition scene.

For the uninitiated, ‘observed trials’ – to give it its full name – is a test of bike-handling skills where the rider has to navigate a course filled with natural or manmade obstacles. Using a series of hops, lunges and trackstands, the aim is to get through each section with the fewest ‘dabs’ (putting a foot down to steady yourself).

Daisy is the reigning UCI world champion in her age group. But how did she get into the sport and what’s next for this super-talented teenager? We headed to Derbyshire to find out.

In the genes

Daisy isn’t the first Craig to grace the pages of MBUK. Her dad, Billy, appeared in a feature about the short-lived discipline of ‘speed trials’ in the mid-90s. He’s been riding trials (both motorcycle and MTB) since the early 80s, when he was six years old. His dad rode, too, so it’s hardly surprising that both Daisy and her younger brother Harry, 10, are wild about trials.

Billy still rides, but his main focus these days is Daisy and Harry, and getting them sorted at trials competitions. Their mum, Jen, used to ride too, and won the British Elite women’s division twice before retiring. “Daisy gets her competitiveness from her mum, not from me,” laughs Billy.

We catch up with Daisy, Harry and Billy at the Derbyshire Biketrial Centre near Wirksworth, not too far from their home in Derby.

Daisy is trained by Oli Weightman, whose family own and run the centre, based in and around a barn on their farm. Oli and his brother, Eddie, are exceptional riders themselves – Oli took the bronze medal in the 26in category at the UCI Trials World Championships in November.

They’re already putting Daisy and Harry through their paces when we turn up. Daisy is riding her 20in-wheeled Clean K1 – a sleek carbon fibre machine.

“We do one-to-one sessions once a week for two hours, focusing on techniques and sections to get used to competitions,” Oli tells us. “She’s had a massive improvement in confidence on the bike – she’s more strategic getting around a competition arena, there’s a huge difference. She’s already a more powerful rider than her peers, now we’re focusing on more technical aspects.”

Competitive bike trials have always been fairly niche. Even during the MTB trials boom of the early 2000s, most of the riders who took up the discipline didn’t cross over to the competition side, which had its roots in motorcycle trials and felt more a part of that world than mountain biking.

The sport is overseen by two governing bodies – the UCI (International Cycling Union) and BIU (BikeTrial International Union) – each with their own competition rules. The UCI doesn’t allow a rider to rest on their bashplate or pedals without incurring a penalty, whereas the BIU runs things more in line with motorcycle trials and allows those moves.

Oli says: “The BIU competitions have more natural, wheels-on-ground, hopping-up-banks type sections. The UCI is more of a show – the style of riding is very different and the sections are always manmade. It’s impressive for crowds to watch, more of a performance.”

Most British riders compete in both formats, because each provides a different experience.

• Read more from Rider of the Year: How Louise Ferguson became the first woman to conquer Red Bull Hardline – and what the MTB trailblazer is planning for 2026

Podium contender

Internationally, the UCI run a Trials World Cup series and a one-off World Championships event, which since 2017 has been part of the Urban Cycling World Championships, together with freestyle BMX. In addition, there’s the UCI Trials World Youth Games, for riders under 16.

This is where Daisy comes in. Last year, in Spain (the birthplace of bike trials), she won the gold medal in the U13 girls category, becoming the first British female title winner at the Games. Oli reckons if she continues on the same trajectory, she’ll be on course for a podium at the Worlds in the next age group up.

Daisy has only competed on 20in wheels so far. While the men have separate classes for 20 and 26in, there’s only one women’s category, covering both sizes. No female riders in international competition are currently riding 26in, so the course sections are set accordingly.

Oli says there are advantages and disadvantages of each size, depending on the sections to be ridden and the strength of the rider. For Daisy, the choice ultimately comes down to style and preference, but he says: “It’s more important to learn base techniques on a 20in, then transfer to 26in when you have them 100% dialled.”

Daisy's 26in-wheel Clean bike looks very different from a modern trail or enduro rig, with its rigid carbon fork, super-low top tube, stretched-out stem and forward-swept bar.

Daisy takes to it like the proverbial duck to water and is soon cleaning sections that Billy didn’t expect her to, enjoying the challenge of riding obstacles she’s familiar with on the bigger-wheeled bike. “Looks like I’ll be riding the 20in while she’s on that,” her dad jokes. She certainly looks at home on it – a sign of things to come, maybe?

Support act

We head to the barn, where Oli and Eddie have a setup that enables them to train in all weather and light – perfect for those winter months when riding outdoors is less than ideal. Billy explains Daisy visits every Wednesday evening, and Oli pushes her more than her dad would.

“They’ve had a few battles, but he knows her level and how far to push her,” says Billy. “He’s coached her in how to ride and how to analyse a section. And she’s learning all the competition craft from Oli – how to look ahead, good posture on the bike and proper stance.”

“I prefer to watch Oli ride [than top street riders],” says Daisy, who’s much more focused on competition than riding for its own sake. “I also like watching people I ride against."

Oli and Eddie’s mum, Sarah, was the one who spotted Daisy's talent and suggested she go to the Youth Games. The Derbyshire BikeTrial Centre is part of the family home, created after the boys’ dad, Carl, added in obstacles for them to ride over the course of a decade.

They now host the National Championships at the farm, which is also open to the public on summer evenings and weekends. With supportive parents like that, it’s easy to see how the Weightman brothers have progressed so far, and Daisy is similarly benefitting from unwavering parental support.

Front and forward

Trials riding has changed a lot over the past decade. Bikes are much lighter and the geometry is different – the bars have moved forward to cater for the increased emphasis on front-wheel moves. “Riders are using the whole bike a lot more – you can use the front wheel to go further,” says Oli.

‘The Hook’ is a new-school move, where the front wheel is first hooked over the obstacle and then the rider shifts their weight forward dramatically and lifts the rear wheel up onto the top. Gaps are now landed on the front wheel rather than the rear, which means bigger distances can be covered, and sidehops onto obstacles are done similarly.

Most of these techniques derive from motorcycle trials, but have been adapted for bike use and popularised by world-champion riders such as the UK’s Jack Carthy and, more recently, Charlie Rolls.

Daisy has a quick ride around on her trials motorcycle before we leave the farm for a more natural riding location. “I like both equally, moto and bike,” she says. “Strength on the moto helps on the bike, it keeps me fit and competitive through the winter.”

A short drive away is Black Rocks, a scenic outcrop perched on the side of a hill. It’s great to watch Daisy riding the natural sections and to see the reactions of visiting walkers to this young girl’s undeniable skills on a bike.

So, what’s next? Daisy has three more years at Junior level to come. “I’d like to win the world champs again,” she says confidently. She’s training three times a week and competing either at moto or bike trials at the weekends. Already an eight-times British champion across bike and moto, and with a world title to her name at the age of 13, you wouldn’t bet against this driven, determined and talented young rider achieving that aim.