Profile: Gareth The Glorious

Gareth Cooper has got a thick Pomy accent and hilarious turn of phrase. He comes across like a 10-year-old who’s jacked up on Mountain Dew, hiding in a 30-year-old’s body. And his abject lack of preparation means drama is always close at hand. Gareth is a regular at Transmoto’s events and he’s forever busting his body or bike, or both. But at Stroud, we saw a different side to the man; the athletic Gareth. Initially, when we urged him to take part in the Ballard’s Uphill Battle (a Rafferty’s rules, dead-bike push in moto boots up a grassy incline), Gareth declined; explaining that he was eight beers into his afternoon’s festivities, and that he’d definitely puke if he were to exert himself like that. Two beers later, however, he’d signed up. True to his word, Gareth puked at the top of the hill after his heat.

And don’t think that didn’t get a laugh or three! But he also convincing won his heat, demonstrating a turn of speed that belied his portly build. Then in the final, up against the super-fit Jarrod Bewley, Gareth did it again – both the winning and the puking, that is. In fact, it was a dead-heat between Cooper and Bewley, but the former Aussie champ magnanimously granted Pomy-Cooper-Puker the gold! For the record, Gareth and his ‘Throttle Hogs’ teammate, Peter Layton, managed to destroy three bikes over the course of the weekend. As Gareth does!