Growing up in Cambridge, England, Steve’s first race at age 14 was a 10-mile time trial. Over the following years, as well as winning time trials against his peers, he progressed in road races, taking his first ever win at the Easter Festival event in Guernsey, Channel Islands, in April 1998. In the following months, he upgraded from Cat 4. to Cat. 2 with various podium placings at events around the UK, as well as racing in France and Belgium.
In July 1998, having lost 30kg in a month, he was diagnosed as Type-1 Diabetic and told (at the time) he would never race again. A period of recuperation and rebellion followed, where occasional rides were done whilst learning to skydive (true story). However, the opportunity to move to San Francisco, California, in the spring of 2002 encouraged him to concentrate on his health and training again.
Dabbling in triathlon in the early millennium, including a win at the New York City Triathlon in 2002 (and 2nd in 2003), Steve returned to road racing in 2003 and won his first race back at the renowned Cat’s Hill Criterium in Los Gatos, with its 23% climb featuring on every lap. Shortly thereafter, he joined Areté Racing, one of Northern California’s top teams, based in San Francisco.
Working his way up through the ranks while helping his team, he was asked to race for the fledgling (now Pro) Team Type 1, an all-diabetic 8-person team, at the 2006 Race Across America from Oceanside, CA to Atlantic City, NJ (5,000km). With the aim of promoting exercise and sport for diabetics, the team exceeded all expectations and won the event, setting a new World Record of 5 days, 11 hours and 16 mins in the process.
Steve upgraded to Pro-Elite in 2007 during his most successful season, featuring a win at the season-opening Snelling Spring Road Race, and podiums at such prestigious events as Copperopolis, Santa Cruz and the Sausalito Criterium, which was raced in snow and rain. He also competed in top US stage races such as the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico, and the Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. In October of the same year, he was invited to race as part of a US team at the Vuelta à Mallorca, a week-long challenge with two one-day races and a 4-day stage race, where he helped his team leader to overall victory.
In 2009 and 2010, Steve started mountain biking on Mt. Tamalpais, and training for long-distance endurance events. He competed in his first 8-hour race at Lake Tahoe against the likes of Tinker Juarez, enjoying the length and difficulty of the event.
In the spring of 2011, he moved to Bavaria in Germany to begin a new chapter in life, and to race in new places. Enjoying long-distance mountain bike events in Germany, Austria and Italy, he was part of the 5-person team which won the 24-hour Mountain Mayhem race in England in 2015, and finished 4th in the 12-hour European MTB Championships (2-person) with team mate Josef Brücklmeier, in 2017.
In the KitzAlpBike MTB race of 2018, he crashed and shattered both the inner and outer bones of his left ankle. After 3 surgeries and months of rehab, he returned to racing at the Gran Fondo Il Lombardia in Como, Italy, in October of the same year, enjoying the course and weather above all else.
In 2019, he competed in Gran Fondo events such as Strade Bianche, Michele Scarponi, St Tropez, Madone (Nice), La Fausto Coppi, Terre dei Varano and Il Lombardia, with the highlight being La Mercantour Bonette with 192km, 5,000m climbing and 8.5 hours in the saddle.
With his passion for long distances and climbs, combined with the new excitement of gravel riding, Steve continues to train hard and looks forward to new and exciting events and adventures in the coming years.
