Charlie Aldridge Explained

Charlie Aldridge
Birth Date:	3 April 2001
Birth Place:	Perth, Scotland
Discipline:	Cross-country
Role:	Rider
Majorwins:	Mountain Bike National XC Championships (2023)

Charlie Aldridge (born 3 April 2001) is a British mountain bike cross country cyclist from Scotland. He was the 2019 Junior World Champion, 2022 British national champion and 2023 U23 World Champion.

Personal life

Aldridge was born in Perth, Scotland and lives in Crieff. He was a student of mechanical engineering at the University of Edinburgh.^[1]

Career

Aldridge won gold at the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada in the junior cross country competition. At that championships he was also part of the relay team that finished sixth overall.^[2]

In May, 2022 he won the British National Mountain Biking Championships u23 title at Cannock Chase.^[3] It was raced on the same course that would be used for the 2022 Commonwealth Games where Aldridge was chosen to compete for Scotland. The familiarity of this gave him confidence to strive for a medal.^[4] However, at the Games Aldridge was looking on course for a bronze medal on the penultimate lap when he had a mechanical issue following a crash. His bike lost its rear derailleur and he ended up finishing sixteenth.^[5]

In June, 2022 he won the European Continental Championships XCO U23 race in Anadia, Portugal.^[6] In July, 2022 he won bronze at the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup u23 event in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.^[7] He was named in the Britain squad for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets, France in August 2022.^[8]

In June 2024, he was selected for the British team to compete in the Mountain Biking at the 2024 Paris Olympics.^[9]