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Isla Short

@isla_short

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Bike racer ☄️🧚🏼‍♀️
@hunt.mountain x @cullenkilshaw
🍒 @torqfitness fuelled
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 aggressive Scottish package
When nothing goes right, go left

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This day will stay with me ❤️

I won the 3 Peaks and beat the long standing record set by the incredible Louise Robinson in 2003.

Entering a new era in my bike racing career here in Yorkshire after a whirlwind of a year is very special - I’m so fiercely Scottish so not many people know that half of my genes, the ones from my Mama, make me a Yorkshire lass too. I loved connecting to my northern roots out there today 🥰

I played cat and mouse with Bryony Halcrow all race long, and in the end we both went faster than any woman has before.

3:36:30 // the new @3peakscx Women’s Record 🥹🤩

📸 @cadence_images taken in Yorkshire Dales National Park by @isla_short

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20 days ago

It’s time to say goodbye to the XCO World Cup circuit. I have deliberated for so long on what, when and how to share my news - which version of Isla do I want to leave the XCO world with? Some versions make me feel strong and powerful and other versions make me feel small and vulnerable.

In the end, I decided that to share my story in full is the most empowering thing of all. If you would like to read it, I’ve shared it on my Substack. The link is in my bio and on my story.

I’m truly happy with my decision and I recognise how rare my situation is for professional athletes. My XCO quest is complete 🥰

Ps, I’ll crush some rumours here - I’m not pregnant and I’m not retiring from professional cycling. Let’s call it a pivot!

📷 @piperalbrecht by @isla_short

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2 months ago

An interview about my ADHD diagnosis is fresh up on @pinkbike 💭

This is the first time I’ve spoken so openly about my mental health, likely because I understand it more fully now. It’s a little bit scary to share it with the world!

My diagnosis was the best thing that ever happened to me. Thank you Alicia Legget and Pinkbike for giving me the opportunity to express the way I exist in the world, it was a very cathartic process to reflect on this journey this way and it makes me feel really proud. I hope it can be part of somebody else’s journey of self discovery too ❤️

I chose a @twentyonepilots song for this post because that band has helped me through the darkest times in my life by offering me the possibility that my experiences were not singular. Thank you 🙏

Link in bio, 📷 @petescullion 🤗 by @isla_short

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5 months ago

GBR 🇬🇧

A World Record holder and 2x XCO Champion….Yes you heard that right 💥 by @isla_short

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2 days ago

Six years with Hunt Wheels.
More than 100 start lines, a few stripy jerseys and one watt bomb off the front of a World Cup 🤪

2027 is going to take us to some excellent new territory to chase fresh goals and find more great stories to tell!

Continuing with the best through my career metamorphosis ❤️❤️❤️

@hunt.mountain
@hunt.road
@hunt.beyond by @isla_short

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2 days ago

🚨OUT NOW🚨

(Link in stories)

Isla Short — 3 Peaks, World Cup Racing & The Other Side of Professional Cycling

This week on Spill The Watts, I’m joined by Isla Short — British XCO Champion, World Championship top-five finisher and one of Britain’s leading mountain bikers.

Most recently, Isla took on the iconic 3 Peaks Cyclocross for the first time — winning the race, taking all three summit primes and breaking a women’s course record that had stood since 2003.

We go deep into exactly what went into that performance: the research, specific training, running and hiking, carrying the bike, equipment choices, course recce, fuelling, pacing and how she executed it all on race day.

But this episode goes much further than 3 Peaks.

We go right back to Isla’s unusual route into professional cycling — growing up in a cycling family, attending a specialist music school, and eventually choosing bikes over a potential career in music.

We talk through the highs and lows of her career, racing at the highest level of XCO, finishing fifth at the World Championships, becoming British Champion, finally cracking the Elite World Cup top 10, and why achieving those things ultimately changed what she wanted from the sport.

Isla also speaks incredibly openly about a much more serious experience within professional cycling that she specifically wanted to use this podcast to talk about.

This ended up being one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking conversations I’ve had on Spill The Watts. Isla is incredibly open, self-aware and willing to question her own experiences and feelings, and I came away from this one thinking about quite a few things differently.

🎙️ Spill The Watts with Isla Short. by @isla_short

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10 days ago

I’ve been reflecting on the ways in which the @3peakscx has captured my imagination so much. I think it’s because there is something quite primordial about the event that I haven’t come across before in bike racing. The simplicity of it is so refreshing and rare; even the data I had on my garmin only showed time elapsed and distance covered. My pacing strategy was done purely on instinct and I only ever thought about the next summit or the next transition.

I’m currently reading South by Ernest Shackleton, and whilst I’m not suggesting that racing our bikes around the Yorkshire Dales is comparable to navigating the Antarctic Circle in the early 20th century 🤪, the 3 Peaks is a micro-expedition itself, allowing us to turn back time and to get lost in the unknown, adventure and risk of peril that’s required to complete our mission.

What a great thing ❤️‍🔥

📸 Clare Smallwood by @isla_short

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12 days ago

A huge congratulations to Cullen Kilshaw-sponsored rider Isla Short, who has won the legendary 3 Peaks Cyclo-Cross and set a new women’s course record in the process.

Taking on the event for the first time, Isla headed to the Yorkshire Dales with two ambitious goals: to win the race and to break the women’s course record, which had stood since 2003.

She achieved both.

Isla completed the famously demanding 61km course in 3:36:30, writing her name into the history of an event widely regarded as Britain’s toughest cyclo-cross challenge.

It’s an especially impressive result given Isla’s limited experience of senior cyclo-cross racing. As she described it afterwards, the event felt less like a traditional cyclo-cross race and more like a “big adventure” – and one that saw her step firmly outside her comfort zone.

We’re very proud to support Isla and to see the commitment, experience and determination she brings to whatever challenge comes next. Congratulations, Isla, from everyone at Cullen Kilshaw.

(Image Credit: Andy Jones) by @isla_short

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19 days ago

“I had two goals going into the race,” Isla Short told Cycling Weekly, the day after winning the 3-Peaks Cyclo-cross challenge, justifiably deemed as Britain’s toughest event of its kind. “They were kind of pipe dreamy goals because it was my first time and I really didn't know what would happen. And I achieved both of them.”

Her first goal was to win the race. The second was to set a new course record. Not a bad Sunday’s work really, especially for someone who has barely ever competed in a senior cyclo-cross event in her adult life.

Having announced her retirement from elite-level World Cup mountain bike racing at the end of last month, four-time British national MTB champion Isla Short emerged victorious from the 3-Peaks Cyclo-cross challenge on Sunday, in her debut appearance at the infamously tough event in the Yorkshire Dales.

The 30-year-old Scot beat three-time 3-Peaks winner, Bryony Halcrow, and also set a new women’s record for the legendary 61km (38-mile) course, finishing in 03:36:30, despite her lack of experience with dropbars.

“When I was younger, I raced a lot of the Scottish Cycle Cross series, and then I raced a couple of national trophies,” she explained to CW. “And I've done one race in Belgium, three or four years ago. But I would say this is quite different. It didn't feel like a cyclo-cross race as such. It just felt like big adventure.

Read the full story on the Cycling Weekly website.

📷 Andy Jones by @isla_short

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19 days ago

Isla Short wins the @3peakscx and breaks the course record while she’s at it. Not long after stepping away from the XC World Cup circuit, she’s found a different kind of racing that suits her perfectly.

A smart shoe choice too. With so much running and hike-a-bike on the course, she went for Gran Tourer III and its more flexible outsole.

Congratulations, @isla_short taken in Yorkshire Dales National Park by @isla_short

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19 days ago

Yesterday was an excellent day! The motivation and focus I had for @3peakscx was effortless and I haven’t felt that for quite some time. It was a feeling of pure love and joy for our special sport ❤️

My body hates me today, but what’s new. We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again 😝

I’ve written a breakdown of my race over on my substack for everyone wishing they had been able to see more of the action between me and Bryony as it unfolded across the hills. Link in bio!

📷 @cadence_images by @isla_short

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19 days ago

HUNT athlete and overall badass @isla_short wins the legendary @3peakscx, conquering one of the toughest and most iconic races in British cycling on her very first attempt.

A huge performance across the Yorkshire Dales. 🔥

#3PeaksCyclocross #HUNTWheels #Cyclocross by @isla_short

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19 days ago