Kind of could see her heart wasn’t in it

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/manon-carpetner-retires-from-dh-racing-2017.html

Hmm, she’s been doing it forever, maybe just needs a break. Best of luck to her

Hmm, she’s been doing it forever, maybe just needs a break. Best of luck to her

Must be an age thing, Peaty had been doing it forever, Manon still seemed like an up and coming Junior and the Athertons are the kids who got dumped my Muddyfox!

Much as Rach has been great for the women’s side of the sport, watching her limp through season after season of being permanently broken must be hard if you’re in 2nd/3rd and thinking that’s how hard you have to push to win!

Even the pros seem to be struggling with the risks involved, these days. (Also see other thread about the demise of DH)

Best of luck to her, a brave decision.

She has raced a few rounds of the welsh cx league so I wonder if she’ll adopt a less high risk bike racing discipline 😆

Feels like a wise decision – I think that big crash when she sent it at Fort Bill gave her a different perspective and not one you need when racing. Can’t complain retiring at that age, still mostly in one piece, having been World Champion and World Cup Champion!

Respect for making a difficult decision and good luck for whatever the future holds.

Hope we still get to see you racing bikes somehow Manon.

🙂

She’s at uni now isn’t she? Best of luck to her, she gave us some great moments in her short career, I’m sure she’ll be back racing enduro or something else in a few years.

Sad for us, happy for her.

The writing was on the wall all year, I think a few of us talked about it on the last couple of WC threads. My explain her non-start at MSA?

She seems to have more than DH going on in her life, hopefully she’ll stay ‘on the scene’ but I’d guess she’ll concentrate on her studies and peruse a ‘real world’ career.

Sad to see her go, she showed real commitment in her racing. Good to see she has the self-awareness to step back when she can’t give that 100% anymore.

A brave decision and good on her for explaining her reasons. I wish her every success in the future.

Speaking as someone who deliberately never gives 100%, I can only imagine the pressure of knowing you need to ride at the limit. It must be mentally exhausting and something you can never escape from.

Helluva career

https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider425/manon-carpenter/results/filters/page1/

In the top 3 in 70% of the races she did, including 68 wins. Phenomenal record.

Wish her the best of luck. That 2014 season was just superb to follow. Thanks Manon 🙂

Difficult to imagine really what it must be like to be top of the world at 21 and where you go from that. And the depth of work and commitment that went into achieving that. And then how you keep motivating yourself to try and repeat that in the face of the risks associated with the sport.

Gutted, but good for her doing what she feels is best.

It must be retiring day because Becky James ahs also announcd retierment according to WalesOnline.

In the top 3 in 70% of the races she did, including 68 wins. Phenomenal record.

That is crazy!

Difficult to imagine really what it must be like to be top of the world at 21 and where you go from that. And the depth of work and commitment that went into achieving that. And then how you keep motivating yourself to try and repeat that in the face of the risks associated with the sport.

Bit like Wiggins’ explanation for his performance after his TDF win. He just couldn’t face another year with that level of preparation and pressure.

Really sad to see Manon retire. Watched her progress from the days she used to sign you in at the Dragon Downhill uplifts from her dad’s van and come up for a few cheeky runs to a phenomenal career at the top level.

Awesome rider and person. She’ll be very much missed up there in the mix. Have to pick a new favourite now!

She has been good for the sport that’s a fantastic set of stats. You have wonder how many broken and battered riders will cope in years to come.go out at the top with all your teeth and working knees

Really sad to see Manon retire.

I get where you’re coming from, personally I find it quite heartening to see her make what’s clearly the right decision.

Realising she’s not cut out for it any more and that there’s more to life.

Still want to see her have a crack at enduro when she’s finished uni though.

Sad announcement, but those stats are bloody impressive! On her day one of the few riders who could give Rachel a run for her money.

She always comes across a thinking rider who probably had way more strings to her bow than most of us know her for. I’ve never reached elite level in any sport, so I might be talking out of my arse, but I reckon it must feel much more dangerous if you’re not 100% in the moment. The development in bikes has also been amazing, but probably makes the price of failure higher as sections that would have been ‘ridden’ ten years ago are now smashed through balls out.

She’s being sensible….unless you’re brand Atherton how much do these girls really make?

If she’s made enough to go through uni debt free then she should do it, have a useful qualification to fall back on…isn’t that what a lot of the French girls do?

Ominous if she’s dabbling in CX, she’ll have monster fitness and I can see her coming back into Enduro once the uni is done.

She could do like Sam Hill and be a multidiscipline champion….assuming nothing disastrous happens to the rest of Hill’s season it’s pretty much a formality.

Good on Manon, she’s young and the world is her oyster.

I hope she has took enough £ for her skills and training time.

Also sad to see her go. Last year’s crash at the world champs looked bloody sore. As mentioned above I hope she comes back in something like Enduro.

Raced in the same race as her at BUCS downhill this April at Inners (to win for I think the third year in a row), she was phenomenally fast. Thrashed the rest of the female field by about 20 seconds on a 3 1/2 minute course. Fantastic to watch and well over 40 seconds faster than me!

Hope this isn’t the end of her riding bikes competitively in the future!

Like many, sad to see her retire because she had a lot of riding left in her yet and I think she has the pace to take it to Rach.

The whole making a living out if riding started from having fun on bikes and once that starts to fade, it’s probably time to call it a day and try to find that spark again.

Hope she still stays connected to the industry somehow because I reckon she’s got s litvyo offer still coaching etc.