Blog
Arriving with a Bang
29th August 2025
Words: Richard Cunynghame
The grand start to the season on her new team has been somewhat delayed for Elise Empey. Despite not finishing her first race for Atherton Bikes, her passion, grit and determination has already shown she’s a good fit for the team.
Attempting to race Red Bull Hardline is a bold move full stop. Let alone for your first race on a new team and especially as a young rider when even the highest echelons of the women’s field are tentative to take on this event. Sadly the challenge of Hardline bit back, “Each day I seemed to get a bit more nervous because you had the bigger features to tick off,” Elise downplays, “I accidentally took a little bit of a dive and snapped my tricep tendon off and did some ligament damage so it took me out for a few months.” Again an understatement, make that five months.
Rachel Atherton certainly understands this situation, “I know how annoying injuries are when you’re so excited to get stuck in! I couldn’t believe it when she started hitting stuff at Hardline Tassie. She’s made a good recovery and is now learning lots and building her speed again which is awesome to see. It’s always been super important to have a women on the team and it felt really strange the last couple seasons not having a female rider when I stopped, it didn’t feel right”.
Elise is certainly appreciating the warm welcome, “With the injury, they were so sweet and understanding. I think Gee, Rachel and Dan, have had so many injuries that it was kind of just, take your time and recover properly. Not making it to the first race was a bit awkward but they were really lovely and supportive.”
This family support is clearly something important to Elise, “I grew up in a small town called Mansfield, down south in Australia. We're pretty spoiled for riding. Dad went and raced Crankworx in Rotorua one year. And he was like, oh, our tracks aren't good enough. So he came back and went on a mad grind and built us heaps of sick trail riding tracks. I'd like to say I helped, but I kind of just watched him and my brothers do the work. I grew up riding with my dad, his mates and my brothers There wasn't really anyone our age in town who rode but the sibling rivalry was always pretty high.”
Last year Elise raced the World Cup circuit as a privateer, “It was just my dad and I. We had a mate who was with us as well, who traveled around together with his mum. Then my dad went home and my brother was conveniently on holiday so he helped me out in the second block of the races. They were mechanics, emotional support… I don't know if we really did mechanicing. We didn't really have anything to fix it with so it's kind of just like, all right, run it, ignore the noises that it's making.”
Atherton Bikes Team Manager Tom Lloyd reached out after taking note of Elise’s results and talent. “Lloydy sent me a message over on Instagram. It was quite funny though because we were camping, my brothers and I, and we didn’t have phone service for a few days so I felt a bit bad, I didn't answer him for a little while. And I was like oh boy, ‘yeah yeah’. I was quite excited.”
The sixth round of the World Cup series in Andorra saw a tentative return to racing for Elise, having “only done a handful of rides before that but I couldn't really ride. It was a bit of a gamble.” She now has a British National win under her belt and more time on the bike, having spent a few weeks around the team HQ in Machynlleth, “I've been in a shared house with some good girls and a good crew in Mach. I’ve been trying to get in bulk laps at Dyfi Bike Park. Just trying to get some bike time.”
The forthcoming seventh World Cup in Les Gets is next up, “I liked the track in the dry. It's a bit spicy in the wet. I mean it's such a sick track isn't it. It looks like they've put a new feature in at the bottom, I think there's a new wall ride, someone was saying.”
“It's a pretty sick venue, it’s always a really good atmosphere there and good crowds. So I think it'll be a fun week. I'm just excited to get back into the racing and start trying to give it a proper crack again.”