Bermuda's National Mountain Bike Champion Robin Horsfield has had his first 'difficult' season of his career. Horsfield had planned a Canada Cup focus for the year, building upon his 7th place Canada Cup series national ranking in 2024. 2024 was also the year that he saw the podium at the Caribbean Mountain Bike Championships and was Ontario's Provincial Champion.
Unfortunately, after a strong start to the season in Costa Rica, Horsfield's Canada Cup ambitions were quashed.
After leading out the short track race in the national field at the first Canada Cup in Sherbrooke, Quebec Horsfield's race ended with a DNF as he felt immediately ill. "I called my coach - not knowing what was going on he suggested that I just stick with the race on Sunday (the cross country).
He had it chalked up to nerves as I was in the best condition of my career. Unfortunately, finishing that race on Sunday was potentially further damaging to my health - a 'perfect storm' of illnesses were attacking my body, resulting in a trip to the hospital on Monday."
Horsfield eventually made his way home to Ontario, where he had to wait six weeks, during the peak of the mountain bike season, on test results and specialists to rule out a condition that could be life threatening.
Upon being cleared to ride he returned to the bike, literally, one week prior to the Caribbean Championships in the Dominican Republic. "I knew that Bermuda takes great pride in the Caribbean Champs, and that we wanted to qualify for the CAC Games in 2026. After six weeks off the bike I did the best I could, given the circumstances. It appears as though my performance was strong enough for that qualification for the CAC Games in 2026".
Horsfield then made his way to Western Canada at Whistler, where he had a solid finish at the Canada Cup in July. "I wasn't back to where I was in May, but at least I had clawed back to 'competitive' in the field."
He competed early August at Dieppe, New Brunswick, where his performance was better still: "I had a good race but my stomach was again acting up. I put it out of my mind, thinking it was a ghost from earlier in the season. Unfortunately, that wasn't true and I had a parasite which eliminated my ambition for competing in Prince Edward Island the next week."
"I've never had a season where I missed even one race due to illness or injury. In that sense I guess I've been very lucky... this season was a tough one. I've seen other guys go through it... and I'm determined to come back stronger than ever."
Coach Mark Brown notes that Horsfield is extremely level headed and highlights what he contributed this year beyond the bike. "Robin has taken a very difficult season and made the best of it. When he was unable to hit our major target events of the year at Canmore he immediately 'signed on' to support me by looking after my son on site while I competed at the Ironman 70.3 in Quebec. He also took his time 'off the bike' to support young riders in Guelph near his home by running a weekly development camp for them. I understand he's coming home to Bermuda very soon where, as usual, he will be available to the mountain bike youth and adults there. He is a well known, well respected, and well liked competitor on the scene in Ontario, at the Caribbean Championships, and across Canada at the Canada Cups.
In this sense he remains an example of the best of Bermuda. He was capable of so much more this season - but it was taken away through no fault of his own. The road from here is one of recovery and building. I have no doubt that 2026 will be his best season yet."
Horsfield has set his target for 2026 squarely upon the CAC Games. Bermuda will see him compete, once again, at the March 2026 National Championships.
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