Where there’s a Will, there’s a way to stay ranked in enduro mountain-biking’s top ten
Borders enduro mountain-biking star Will Brodie might have slipped down his sport’s world rankings over the course of this year but he’s happy just to have retained his top-ten status despite injury woes repeatedly putting spokes in his wheels.
The 22-year-old is currently ranked seventh globally, on 1,450 points, trailing Polish front-runner Slawomir Lukasik by 942 points.
Given the injury challenges he’s faced, not to mention van mishaps, accommodation issues and language barriers he’s come up against competing with professional outfits such as Lukasik’s US-based Yeti/Fox Factory Racing Team, the Borderer, down from fifth last time round, is satisfied enough still to be rated among the best riders in the world, the next-highest-ranked Briton being Lancashire’s Henry Timewell, 31st on 795 points.
That’s not his only claim to fame either, as alongside possibly being Denholm’s best-known sporting export since late superbike champion Steve Hislop, he’s also now tagged as the fastest window-cleaner in Scotland.
Explaining that unique billing, earned via his friendship with former Hawick mountain-biker Corey Watson, currently ranked 36th in the world, he said: “I used to work with Corey, whose dad owned a window-cleaning business in Hawick.
“Corey has since left for New Zealand and the business was sold, but now that I’m seventh in the world, I am Scotland’s fastest window-cleaner!”
Brodie grew up in Denholm but later discovered Glentress and joined the Kids’ Innerleithen Cycling Club, even choosing to go to Jedburgh Grammar School rather than Hawick High so he could ride nearby forest trails with friends after classes were done for the day.
Guided by Scottish Borders Council sports development officer Chris Bryant and Jamie Birks, one of the now-defunct TweedLove cycling festival’s organisers, he was winning rounds of Scottish and British downhill events by the age of 13, regularly beating boys two or three years his senior.
At 17, he left school to join the Borders Academy of Sporting Excellence at the Borders College’s Galashiels campus, designed by former rugby coach Richie Gray and with Chris Ball, Kenny Johnstone and Andy Barlow involved to nurture international-standard mountain-biking talent.
The covid-19 pandemic wiped out a year of competition but he kept learning, qualifying for world cup junior races once back in action, necessitating journeys across Europe in an old van to compete alongside world champions and his idols Danny Hart, Loic Bruni and Greg Minnaar.
A switch to enduro, mountain-biking’s equivalent to rallying, involving cross-country and downhill stages, brought a British title in 2022, second spot in the International Cycling Union world cup in Italy in 2023, stage wins in 2024 and a fifth-placed finish overall in his first world cup elite series last year.
This year has seen the going get tough for Brodie, however.
He crashed in the opening round of the Scottish Downhill Series at Innerleithen, suffering broken ribs and pelvis and hip damage, as well as a popped shoulder, but still finished the race, and won it, before spending April on crutches.
Passed fit to start the world cup season in May, he claimed sixth place in France and tenth in Austria.
A quad haematoma then flared up but he made it through the next two rounds in Italy, thanks to help via the council’s athlete support programme, finishing 24th and 13th, ending up placing 16th, with top spot going to France’s Adrien Dailly.
“Because I’m in the Borders’ athlete support programme, I get physiotherapy support from Danny Pulman at Border Physio Clinic, and this year, that has come into its own,” he said.
“Danny has been brilliant at helping me understand the injuries and recover.
“I wouldn’t be here without the programme’s support.”
Brodie was back in the saddle to win the elite men’s title at 2026’s Ard Rock, the UK’s biggest mountain-biking event, held in North Yorkshire, before a crash forced him to settle for second place at this year’s British championships in July.
He finished 18th in the world cup in France last month after competing with heatstroke and he is now preparing for 2026’s Scottish championships at Fort William ahead of October’s world championships back at Finale Ligure in Italy.
“It’s been a challenging year for sure, but you can’t live your life in a glass cage – it’s part of riding your bike down a mountain,” he reflected.
“I love it, and it’s great to see the sport growing in Scotland – even Jedburgh has its own mountain-biking club now.”