Danny Hart, pulling a trademark giant whip off a jump |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Dirty Dan | ||
| Born | 20 September 1991 Middlesbrough |
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| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | Giant Factory Off-Road | ||
| Discipline | Downhill | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | All or nothing | ||
| Major wins | |||
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Danny Hart (born 20 September 1991, Redcar, England) is a English Downhill mountain biker who rides for the Giant Factory Off-Road Team. In 2011 he became the UCI Mountain Bike World Champion.[2]
Educated at Rye Hills School in Redcar, Danny is extremely proud of his Redcar roots,[3] and received financial support from the Redcar and Cleveland Young People's Trust as a Junior rider.[4] In October 2011, shortly after becoming world champion, Danny, together with ex-Olympic star Jonathan Edwards (athlete) and world paratriathlete Charlotte Ellis helped to launch a £31m project to build a new state of the art leisure centre in Redcar.[5]
As a Junior, Hart stood out as an astonishingly talented rider, winning the 2007 Youth National Championships at Rheola, Wales in conditions that he described as 'really terrible'.[6] In 2008 as a 16 year-old, Hart began competing the Elite class internationally, with a best DH World Cup result of 22nd at Vallnord, Andorra in June.[7] His results continued to improve in 2009, winning the Maxxis Cup in Vigo, Spain[8], coming 2nd at the Junior National Championships at Innerleithen, Scotland[9], 3rd at the Junior World Championships in Canberra, Australia[10] and 20th in the Elite class at the Fort William, Scotland[11] round of the World Cup in June of that year.