Manon Carpenter has announced her retirement from downhill racing, claiming she’s “become more aware of the consequences of crashing”.
In 2014, Caerphilly-born Carpenter, 24, won the UCI Mountain Bike World Championship and the UCI World Cup Mountain Bike Downhill Series to be named Elite Cyclist of the Year at the USN Welsh Cycling Awards, but has decided to quit the sport after admitting she doesn’t want to take the risks involved with downhill racing.
In a statement released through Radon Bikes, the team she joined in January of this year, the former champion said: “The decision for me to withdraw from racing has come about quickly, but the reasons have been there for a while. Over the races this year I’ve been finding it harder to face up to difficult situations – high consequence sections or changing conditions – and during National Champs weekend I came to the conclusion that I just didn’t want to take the risks involved with racing at 100% anymore.
“Racing Downhill is gnarly and you have to have the confidence to commit to whatever is put in front of you, whereas I’ve become more aware of the consequences of crashing and, as much as I’ve tried to put this out of my head, it’s stopped me from enjoying racing as I would like to.
“I’ve had everything I needed to prepare myself as best I could for racing this year with a great bike, sponsors and support from Radon Factory DH Team. Everyone has put their best efforts into helping me and I wanted to finish the season with Radon, as I know I made commitments to them, but quickly realised that World Cup racing isn’t something I should force myself into if my head isn’t in it.
“Racing on the World Cup circuit has been an amazing and unexpected opportunity for me. After racing as a Junior years ago I set out to race in Elite for a year to see what I could do before starting university, but my first season showed promise and everything else went on hold.
“I wanted to race until I got as far as I could, or until I injured myself, so I’m happy to have made it this far relatively in one piece.
“There have been some huge highlights and I feel like I’ve given as much as I had, now I’m looking forward to having time to enjoy riding at home and to see what else there is for me to do. I’m very grateful to everyone who has followed, supported and believed in me over the years of racing and to those who have been supportive of this decision so far.”
Having won the Junior World Championship and World Cup series overall in 2011, Manon followed her dominant 2014 season with second-placed finishes behind Rachel Atherton in 2015 and 2016.
Radon Factory DH team manager Joost Wichman said: “You try to find solutions to change her mind-set, but in the end you can’t send a rider up the hill who is not confident to race, you have to respect this.
“Of course I am sad, as the whole team is, but we are also proud and blessed that we had the opportunity to work with Manon, and that we achieved several world cup podiums together. I would like to thank Manon and wish her all the best of luck in her career after racing”