Full Name: Liam Killeen
Nickname: Killa
Date of Birth: 12 April 1982
Nationality: British
Hometown: Malvern, England
Height (cm): 173
Weight (kg): 66

Profession: XC Mountain Biking
Racing since: 1995
Professional since: 2003

Best part of racing: Winning!

Hardest part: Finding the balance between lots of long travel, training and diet.

Why do you ride: Love all kinds of bikes, enjoy competition and going fast.

What/who started you racing: I Have always been interested in bikes. After going to watch a local MTB I got hooked, bought a decent bike and started to race.

Weakness: Very short races, positioning on 1st lap.

Most important people in your life and career: Mum and Dad, Gary Foord and Simon Burney have helped me a great deal over the past few seasons.

Best moment in career: Winning the 2006 Commonwealth Games Gold.

Worst moment in career: Coming 2nd in the 2004 Under 23 World Championships.

General career goals: Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, and Elite World Championship title.

Favourite food: I am really into cooking and enjoy most food.

Favourite reading: Biographies especially of rock stars.

Favourite music: Rock and Blues.

Best idea of having good time: Going skiing, fun MTB ride with friends and riding my motocross bike.

Favourite place to travel to: I enjoy spending time in America. California and Colorado are great places to ride and race. I also really like to ski, especially in the Alps. I enjoyed my stay in Australia and would like to go back there sometime, maybe in their summertime-UK wintertime.

Most respected mountain bike riders: Ned Overend, Thomas Frischknecht.

Other most respected athletes: XC skiers, top motocross riders.

Favourite riding spots and courses: Courses, I like Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada and Fort William, Scotland. I also enjoy Colorado. There are great trails in Durango that are fun to ride.

Advice to beginners: Set realistic goals, work on your weaknesses and take a rest day before you get too tired.

Other sports: Skiing, gym, running.

Other interests: cooking, playing my guitar and music.

If I was not a professional mountain biker ... maybe I'd have been a musician like my Dad, who's a guitarist.

Training week: Mon: Recreation, Tues:2.5-3hrs tempo, Wed:3hrs hilly, Thursday off, Fri:1.5hrs fun off road, Sat: course inspection, Sun: race.

Training "Secret": treat a training ride a bit like a race i.e. prepare kit day before, have a fun ride if getting fed up with structured stuff.

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