Between 1985 and 2005, Rider presented a variety of BBC Sport programmes including Sportsnight, Rally Report and the flagship show Grandstand.

Born in Dartford, Kent, Rider attended the John Roan Boys' Grammar School on Maze Hill in Blackheath.

[2][3][4] Early in his career he was a sports reporter for LBC and also covered motor racing for Anglia Television, who he joined full time in 1977.

[8][9] While anchoring World of Sport he was reprimanded for making a flippant remark about a wrestler, who had broken his collarbone, for not reading the script properly.

Rider joined BBC Sport in July 1985, and his first role was to replace Harry Carpenter on the network's Sportsnight programme, which he presented for six years.

In 2006 Rider said of the rumoured cancellation of Grandstand: It was always felt to be a fundamental gesture about (BBC) commitment to sport if Grandstand were to be abolished[14]Rider was also critical of the BBC's selection of Gary Lineker to present golf: For four years, the R&A and most other observers knew that Gary was the wrong man for the job.

[3]In March 2006 Rider made his coverage debut on ITV, appearing on a Formula One preview show for the new season.

At ITV, overall advertising revenue had taken a dive as the recession drew closer, and in terms of sports rights, the company had to prioritise its targets.

[23]With Adrian Chiles's arrival as the channel's main football anchor in May 2010, it was announced that Rider was leaving ITV.

[29] Rider set up Racing Past Media, and in 2022 agreed a deal with ITV to organise and make available significant volume of F1 coverage from the first 30 years of the sport.

On his style, he has said [I'm not] that bothered about the environment that should surround a presenter at the beginning of a programme, of the "if we get you in this location it will look as though you are close to the action" sort of thing.

The big news of the morning is that Ben Johnson's urine sample tasted positive[10]Rider’s other bloopers have included: If you don't want to know the result, look away now as we show you Tony Adams lifting the cup for Arsenal[37] Ballesteros felt much better today after a 69[38] Rider has twice won the Royal Television Society's 'Sports Presenter of the Year' award, in 1994 and 1996, as well as being nominated on numerous occasions.

[50] In 2007, a birthday party held by Rider for his son Jack at Wycombe Air Park was disturbed when a canister of CS gas was set off.

[2] In October 1985, Rider navigated for Pentti Airikkala at the final round of the Audi Sport National Rally, where they finished top of Class 4 in an Vauxhall Astra GTE.

[56] He is also Vice-President of United Response, a national charity that supports people with learning disabilities, physical and mental health needs.

In addition, Rider is Vice-President of the DEBRA Golf Society,[59] which raises funds for individuals and families affected by epidermolysis bullosa (EB) – a painful genetic skin blistering condition which, in the worst cases, can be fatal.

Rider has run the London Marathon on numerous occasions for charity, including Action Research and the Seve Ballesteros Foundation.