The Devon mountain bike community came together recently to remember the life of Angus McIntosh.
Angus was a rider, one of MoreDirt’s staff and a much-loved face in the South West mountain bike scene.
Our friend Greg Berry wrote this piece to celebrate the good times he had with Angus.
Written by Angus’ good friend Greg Berry. The photos were taken at Angus’ memorial ride on his favourite trails in Devon.
On April 1st friends and family gathered at our local trails just outside of Exeter, Devon to celebrate the life of Angus McIntosh.
Angus suffered with cystic fibrosis and passed away peacefully at the age of 24 on the 4th of March. Angus was well known in the South West MTB scene and loved everything about bikes.
I first met Angus through mutual school friends on bikes. I can always remember seeing pictures on Bebo of him and friends creating crazy structures to ride on.
We became closer friends nearer to the end of secondary school and into six form, where we both started to take to riding proper downhill bikes. We travelled a lot together to races up and down the country, Angus would not often race but always came for either just the sheer fun of it or to further his skills with the camera.
These skills led the path into a job which allowed his creativity to really show, working for an online mountain bike magazine, MoreDirt. He was involved in writing product reviews, creating competitions and feature articles that were read nationwide.
Angus was involved in reporting on some high profile events, including the World Cup downhill at Fort William, the Red Bull Empire of Dirt in London and shooting with world class athlete Dan Atherton in Wales.
Following on from the mountain bikes and wanting to find an easier way to improve his fitness whilst at home and not have to travel to ride off road, a road bike became Angus’s next chapter.
We would regularly ride together on Saturday mornings, some rides would be slower than others, Angus had a habit of telling me after we had started that he had been locked in the Bishop Lacey the night before.
He became an avid fan of the Tour de France, watching every second of each stage and would always try to make it to the bike shop to watch the final moments of the days stage.
All of this was leading to what I believe Angus’s greatest achievement on the bike, completion of the Prudential Ride London 46 sportive. A 46 mile road ride across London alongside 30,000 others, a challenge for anyone let alone someone living with CF. A massive accomplishment considering this was a mere 8 months ago.
With his amazing support crew behind him and determination in his heart Angus finished the ride completely exhausted but without a doubt feeling on top of the world. A true showing of Angus’s character and grit, no matter what the circumstance he was going to finish the ride.
Some of my happiest memories with Angus, were from last summer. He had got himself an electric mountain bike which gave him that little bit of extra help on the climbs. He was loving it as for once he was beating us up the hills.
The best thing about it for him was the escapism, we could hang out, do some runs, chat whatever was on our minds and not worry about what was going on inside him. It was like old times when we first met, brought together for our love of riding bikes.
It was always a good time when riding with Angus never a bad time, he rode with many different people from different places and shared his incredible enthusiasm for the sport. Be it off road or on, race or fun, local or far, he was always stoked on bikes right till the end.
A little piece of him is left behind on his favourite trail and we will all cherish the good times we shared with him. Ride in Peace.
Thanks to Greg Berry for sharing his words with us and thanks to Angus for the good times. Ride on!
Thanks for the good times, Angus. Ride on!
