As World Cup racing becomes more professional and more expensive, one of Britain’s top XC riders is carving out a different path as a privateer.
Ross Bell
2025 was one of Isla Short’s best seasons to date. Multiple top-15 finishes throughout the World Cup campaign were topped by a seventh-place finish in Leogang and the British national XCO title. What makes that season all the more remarkable is how close it came to never happening.
After a long period of struggling to find her place in the sport, balancing performance expectations with self-doubt, Short had decided that 2024 would be her final year on the World Cup circuit. That was until a breakthrough ADHD diagnosis forced the 29-year-old Scot to reframe how she approached both racing and herself and laid the foundation for some of her best results ever.
Even then, the path into 2025 wasn’t straightforward. Having joined Ghost Factory Racing in 2023, she found herself unexpectedly without a team for the following season. “I got dropped from my team quite unexpectedly at the end of the 2024 season,” she said.
After a two-year stint racing on the Ghost Factory Racing team, Short found herself pushed back towards privateering.
It wasn’t a move she had planned. But in returning to running her own programme, Short found herself happier and more fulfilled. Leaving her to actively turn down an offer to return to the factory ranks for this coming year.
Privateering at the highest level isn’t the easy path, nor one that makes the most financial sense for many. But for Short, the flexibility and freedom it offers have made the trade-offs worth it.
Finding her way into racing
Short’s pathway into racing isn’t all that dissimilar from that of her compatriot, Charlie Aldridge. Both fell into the sport through family bike rides, with racing arriving organically as interest in cycling grew. “My holidays when I was little were on the back of a tandem or a triplet,” she recalled. “We weren’t going to Disneyland or anything like that.”
The power of patience: Charlie Aldridge’s rise to XC’s highest level
Britain’s newest World Cup winner talks with Escape about his path from racing at school to beating the best.
It was ultimately her father’s interest in racing that pulled Short into the competitive side of the sport. At the time, Scotland had its own distinctive take on XC racing. Alongside traditional Olympic-distance events, endurance races were equally popular, typically lasting anywhere from six to 24 hours.
“My dad was racing SXC’s (Scotland’s mountain bike series) and also the endurance events,” she recalled. She shared many memories of travelling with him to offer support at races, until aged 11 she decided she wanted to trade support for participation, and the father-daughter pair entered an endurance race together.
“My dad did 12 laps, and I did three,” she said with a chuckle. “But we won that race, and it was enough for me to decide I was really good at it.”
Despite that early taste of success, the idea of pursuing a career in the sport remained far from Short’s mind. At the time, riding was simply an outlet from life at a boarding school for musicians, where opportunities for sport were limited. “We didn’t do a lot of sports or outdoor stuff,” she said. “Going away at the weekend with my dad to races was kind of an escape.”
Before long, Short began taking to the start line across the Scottish mountain bike scene, first racing local series events before progressing to national-level competitions. Eventually, those performances led to her being scouted by Scottish Cycling as a teenager.
But while that steady rise through the ranks might sound like the familiar trajectory of an athlete destined for the world stage, Short is quick to push back against that narrative. “I wasn’t winning anything,” she said. “I have no memories of standing on podiums when I was young.”
Yet that lack of early results never dampened her enthusiasm. “I just did it because I liked it,” she said. “I wasn’t that good.” In hindsight, that slower development, without the pressure to chase podiums or take racing too seriously, may have been an advantage rather than a limitation. “I think that’s actually served me very well,” she concluded.
The consistency that came from racing for the simple enjoyment of it soon propelled Short to higher and higher levels of competition, with her first taste of World Cup racing coming in 2013, when she lined up for her first Junior World Cup. From there, Short progressed to the U23 ranks, racing for Novus OMX Pro Team until 2019, when she began privateering in her first year as an elite rider. The following year, she achieved her current career-best result, claiming fifth place at the World Championships in Leogang.
However, even with this steady upward rise in results, her career didn’t continue to follow this trend. It wasn’t until 2023 that Short would get her opening on a factory team at an Elite level, having spent four years operating as a Privateer.
The diagnosis that changed everything
For much of her career, Short felt as though she was pushing constantly against an invisible barrier. There was no lack of effort or commitment, but the rewards often seemed just out of reach. That feeling culminated in early 2024, when Short decided that year would be her final season racing. “I had been at rock bottom for quite a long time, to be honest,” she said.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope