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Copnall To Retire From Professional Racing
Posted January 6 2010

Five time British XC Champion and ambassador Jenny Copnall is to retire from professional racing following a career spanning 17 years and featuring appearances in the cross country World Cup and World Championships.

Here's the official press release:

The five times British Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion, Jenny Copnall, has announced her retirement from professional racing. After seventeen years of dedication to cycling she is certain that now is the time to move her focus to other areas of her life. Since discovering cycling in 1993, Jenny has enjoyed considerable success, including 14 National Championship medals across Cross Country and Marathon disciplines, five Cross Country and one Marathon National Championship win, five National Cross Country Series titles and numerous Great Britain Cycling Team caps. Jenny remains the only senior British racer (male or female) to have won the National Cross Country Series, National Cross Country Championship and National Marathon Championship titles in a single year (2006). Jenny has represented a host of top level sponsors over the years and, since 2002, has been a member of top UCI trade teams Motorex-Bianchi (2002-2003) and Subaru-Gary Fisher (2004-2008). Such teams enabled her to compete on the World Cup circuit, top international performances including 30th place in the 2002 World Cup Series and 18th place in the 2007 World Marathon Championship. In 2009 Jenny returned to a purely domestic schedule, representing Look Racing Team, and, despite encountering some untimely misfortune and some strong competition, she managed to battle back from two punctures to take silver in the British Cross Country Championship and added a surprise silver in the British Marathon Championship to this. While Jenny has enjoyed this past season as much as any other, she acknowledges that to remain competitive at this level requires absolute dedication and, after careful consideration of a number of personal and professional factors, has decided that now is the time to step back.

Jenny says:

"This is a decision that has been in my mind for a couple of years now, but I have always delayed making a firm decision and, every December, have found myself clicking back into gear for another year. The same began to happen this year and, before I knew it, I was knocking out 20 hour weeks all over again despite knowing deep down that it was time for a change of direction. So, while I feel I could train like this forever, and still love getting out for hours whatever the weather, I also know that, in order to make the transition from athlete to normal life, I cannot continue to do this. From here on I will be limiting my riding to a few hours per week, and the odd local fair weather race, and will be directing my time and energy instead to developing my coaching of riders and to a number of other projects related to cycling. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone (so many people but you know who you are) who has helped and supported me over the years. Undoubtedly the end of any athletic career has its difficulties, especially when it is the athlete that has to call time on it (injuries have fortunately never been an issue for me), but it is also a very exciting time and I cannot wait to see what is possible when I transfer all my energy and dedication to other endeavours."