AFTER THE PODIUMS
Andy Lloyd catches up with Welsh downhiller Manon Carpenter and finds that retiring from World Cup racing has revived her love of bikes
Catching up with former downhill champ Manon Carpenter, we find out how she’s gone back to basics to rediscover her love of riding since retiring from the World Cup circuit in 2017.
Strolling through Cardiff University, our conversation turns to student life. For former professional downhill racer Manon Carpenter, the morning commute to lectures must seem pretty far removed from the jet-setting lifestyle and adrenalinefuelled pressure of being an Elitelevel racer. When the 2014 downhill world champ and World Cup series winner announced in 2017 that she’d be retiring from international competition, it came as a shock to many fans. A big injury sustained at Val di Sole in Italy the previous year was weighing heavily on Manon’s mind and she came to the difficult decision that she was no longer able to accept the risks involved. “Making the final call to quit was so hard,” she tells me, as we pass by the stately grandeur of Cardiff’s science department. “But I knew my heart wasn’t in it and with the World Champs coming up, I couldn’t bear the idea of going out to Australia and being miserable and scared all week. I hate letting people down, but knew that I just wasn’t up for the challenge any more.”
Get your rocks off
These days the 26-year-old is focusing her brain power on a master’s degree in geology. It’s a completely different mental challenge to getting in the zone for a finals run, but one that still requires plenty of focus. The change of pace has allowed Manon to enjoy the fresher antics she’d missed out on, joining in with the dubiously-named CUMT – Cardiff University Mountain Bike Team. “The initiation ritual of raw onions, rum punch and running about in a hula hoop gave me enough of the ‘uni’ experience!” she laughs. I soon find out that the absence of racing has done little to erode her raw speed on the bike though. As we leave the city behind, we head north into Manon’s more familiar territory – the Valleys. Once a hub of industry, these miningscarred hills are alive again, but now with mountain bikers. Old downhill tracks and hand-cut off-piste delights slice their way down nearly every valley and these are where Manon’s dad Jason taught her to ride, where she trained as a racer and where she still goes to escape the essays.
I don’t admit it at the time, but I’m secretly glad that when we roll into the Cwmcarn car park, Darrell from the Cwmdown uplift service is there too. He offers us a ride to the top of the hill, which means that not only do I not have to lug my camera kit up the hill, but also that I might have the slightest chance of keeping up with Manon. No such luck on the way down though. I’d be lying if I said that even unladen I wouldn’t be trailing way off the back. As Manon rails through a string of near-vertical corners and smashes into a catch berm it’s easy to see how she was such a successful racer. Now the weight of pressure has been lifted from her shoulders, you can see the joy of riding is back.
“I didn’t touch a bike for a while after I quit,” she confesses. “I was just waiting and dreading the announcement going out. But then I went to stay with my friend Emily Horridge, who lives in Les Arcs, and that was just what I needed. Following Emily down the kind of trails I like the most and riding what I wanted, how I wanted, helped me find the flow again.” Revitalised, Manon headed to Whistler the following year to compete at Crankworx. Even taking part in the infamous Official Whip-Off World Champs didn’t faze her because she was doing it on her own terms.
“I did break my collarbone shortly afterwards though. That quietened me down a bit!” recalls Manon, whose confidence on the bike has been unfairly affected by injury. I distinctly remember watching her at the 2015 Fort William World Cup taking a huge over-the-bars slam off the jump into the finish arena. And that wasn’t even her first big stack – she’d already collected some metalwork in her arm after a crash in 2010. When she
AS MANON RAILS THROUGH A STRING OF NEAR-VERTICAL CORNERS AND SMASHES INTO A CATCH BERM IT’S EASY TO SEE HOW SHE WAS SUCH A SUCCESSFUL RACER
needed surgery on her collarbone following 2016’s Val di Sole crash, Manon says she couldn’t shake the feeling of vulnerability: “I kept thinking that I might instantly go over the bars if I pushed it and it felt as though the consequences were getting bigger every year as the speeds increased.”
Balancing act
Lately, Manon has ventured back into two-wheeled competition, but this time in the most unprofessional of settings – Valleys mates’ races. These low-key gatherings, while superfriendly, are not for the faint-hearted, because they involve sending it blind down some of South Wales’s steepest tech. “It’s definitely a test of who’s the most ‘local’ or dedicated to finding the trails beforehand,” laughs Manon, “and who’s the least scared to go full speed, with only a vague description of that one corner you really don’t want to overshoot!” Manon tells me she takes it easy, but seeing the way she’s been throwing her Radon JAB around today, I suspect she may be being modest. Even after she stopped competing, the Welshwoman’s German bike sponsors stuck with her and they’ve given her the opportunity to get involved in projects that a full-time race schedule would never allow. “I’m not sure what I’d call my role now,” she muses, “but I’m really lucky that they let me go with the flow. It gives me the chance to get creative and better represent the women’s riding scene.”
Going with the flow is clearly something Manon is extremely good at. As we near the bottom of one particularly muddy trail, I eye up a sizeable lone tree drop in the midst of the deforestation. She takes one look and sends it into the slick, greasy lander, nearly taking my head off as I search for a camera angle. It’s a pleasure to watch someone with such obvious talent overcome their demons and ride in such a carefree way, flowing through turns and popping off features. I ask whether she could see herself racing professionally again.
“I like to think that I’d be in the mix if I put the effort in, but I wouldn’t be up there,” she answers, realistically. “To race at World Cup level, you have to be at your strongest, fittest and most confident, and I’m none of those right now.” Being so busy with her master’s degree, Manon is dealing with that all-too-familiar struggle we all face – trying to balance bike riding
with life commitments. With one year left of her studies, the nearly-qualified geologist says she’s torn between going down the ‘proper job’ route and trying to forge a living from riding bikes. “I’m not rushing into anything,” she explains. “Bike riding gives you a lot of opportunities, but there’s a lot of uncertainty too. I need to think about the future and where I want to be when I have a family.”
When I’ve left Manon and I’m driving home, I mull over the things she said. Perhaps she’s right and there is merit in keeping MTB as a hobby rather than a livelihood. It ensures that riding your bike always remains a stress-free escape from life’s other pressures. It’s easy to look at the lives of pro racers and see all the fortune and glory, but what you don’t see are the mental struggles, pressures and fears that most probably come with them. They may be fast on bikes, but they’re only human.
PERHAPS THERE IS MERIT IN KEEPING MTB AS A HOBBY RATHER THAN A LIVELIHOOD. IT ENSURES THAT RIDING REMAINS A STRESS-FREE ESCAPE FROM LIFE’S PRESSURES