Becky James

awavey

Pross wrote:

Hopefully she'll be the sprinter of choice for Rio now there's only one qualified and no team sprint. She's the only one of the current crop of British women sprinters who has been able to demonstrate performance (in solo events) against the world's best and with another 5-6 months of racing in her legs will only get better.

no we should still have qualified for two in the individual sprint, as Katy & Jess should both still be within the top 9 group of sprinters who havent qualified team sprint. but which one youd choose to go alongside Becky, who youd have to assume is a certain pick after getting that bronze, Im still not sure, the problem is its not a medal pick anymore

Pross

I'd take Marchant out of those two, she's shown greater potential although lacking the experience. The whole qualification process is ridiculous though.

RichN95.

...

dish_dash

Just seen that Becky James is retiring and setting up a baking business. @bakedbybecks

Thanks for the racing and Good Luck to her!

imatfaal

Good luck and those cakes look delicious.

Great haul - 2 Olympic, 7 Worlds, 1 Euros, 2 Commonwealth medals.

Richmond Racer 2

All the best to Becky, Saddles

Becky's medals last year were two of my fav three from the Rio velodrome

daniel_b

Good luck indeed, big loss to track cycling though :-(

Women's track cycling has taken a bit of a pounding in recent months :?

Rowsell retires, now James, think Shanaize Reed retired also........
Trott out for a bit at least.

Dani King riding road, Varnish out of favour - unless she now gets a recall.

I know they still have a volume of endurance riders, including Katie Archibald of course, but those are still some big guns to lose.
Hope there is a queue behind to fill the void.

Pross

Didn't see that coming. I assumed 2020 would be her peak and time to bow out. She seems to be some baker though!

bompington

All the best to Becky James.

BTW, has Jason Kenny hit the press for the wrong reasons yet?

daniel_b

bompington wrote:

All the best to Becky James.

BTW, has Jason Kenny hit the press for the wrong reasons yet?

LOL, yes he's put Laura Kenny out of action hasn't he!
Naughty boy.

Pross

It's all about the next generation now. Ffion is still riding well despite giving up a BC place to go to Uni and Meg, who has some of the best bike handling skills I've seen, was setting the world of downhill alight before a bad crash last month.

https://dirtmountainbike.com/racing-events/downhill/bulletproof-talent-meg-james.html

No_Ta_Doctor

Good luck to Becky in her new career. Impressive courage and commitment to get to Rio, and it was a joy to see her deliver there.

stagehopper

Sad to see Becky go - thought she'd nail it for Wales next year and for GB in Tokyo. Was great to be in the velodrome to see her comeback medal in the keiren in the Worlds in 2016. One of my favourite memories is post-Minsk where she went to Japan and absolutely nailed the pro keirin circuit wining every race.

About an hour after Becky's announcement another female Welsh world champion retired - Manon Carpenter from DH MTB at age of 24.

Hope someone is checking on Elinor Barker now!

awavey

well I dont think they need to parachute people in from other disciplines just yet, Sophie Capewell and Megan Barker both represented Team GB at the recent Euro U23 track championships in sprint events and have plenty of improvement to come and Vicky Williamson is still I assume getting back to form after her bad injury last year, so its not quite the cupboard is empty.

Id have loved to see Becky get a proper tilt at Tokyo 2020 as Id have bet my house on her winning gold fully fit and recovered from injuries, but I respect her choice to retire now, she does appear to make exceedingly good cakes

Lanterne_Rogue

Guess there comes a time when you just say "bugger it" and get off the treadmill - good luck to her.

lostboysaint

Manon was brave to take on those courses but beyond brave to face up to her newly-found demons and say that she can't do it anymore. Chapeau very skilled, very fast Welsh wonder woman!

ddraver

lostboysaint wrote:

Manon was brave to take on those courses but beyond brave to face up to her newly-found demons and say that she can't do it anymore. Chapeau very skilled, very fast Welsh wonder woman!

+1, Always had a lot of time for Manon. She's a geologist* too!!

(*albeit in training, but at my alma mata** so...)

((**i don't know why I went all faux-latin american then))

DeVlaeminck

Always a shame to lose a top rider while they could still compete but good luck to her with the business.

daniel_b

Quite a substantial change of direction after this interview from 3 weeks prior.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/wales/40721975

Pross

I wonder if the media led witch hunt at BC helped make her decide to knock it on the head early?

daniel_b

Pross wrote:

I wonder if the media led witch hunt at BC helped make her decide to knock it on the head early?

A valid point to raise.

Also she was a big supporter of Shane Sutton, so perhaps his absence could also be contributory.

blazing_saddles

Now this is in the public domain, I'm posting this to clarify a couple of the comments made by Pross and myself in the yellow jersey thread.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rug ... y-16384685

No mention of the England rugby captain being there. Maybe he was hiding under a hat!
AWJ too.
Curiously, no mention at all of any of the cyclists present.

DeVlaeminck

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Now this is in the public domain, I'm posting this to clarify a couple of the comments made by Pross and myself in the yellow jersey thread.

t.

Genuine apoligues if I've got this wrong Blazing but Becky is your daughter ?

If so congratulations to you all.

iainf72

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Now this is in the public domain, I'm posting this to clarify a couple of the comments made by Pross and myself in the yellow jersey thread.

t.

Genuine apoligues if I've got this wrong Blazing but Becky is your daughter ?

If so congratulations to you all.

Niece I believe.

But yes, congrats to all.

Pross

Should say I was there in a tradesman role only and not a guest

ridgerider

Surely this deserved a spoiler thread BS?

blazing_saddles

Going to stick this here and in another thread in general road, as it's about here mum's run in with a car, This happened in the week, although it's not quite the full story in respect of the driver:-

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/driver-arrested-after-hitting-becky-james-sister-ffion-in-wales-495379

Pross

blazing_saddles said:

Going to stick this here and in another thread in general road, as it's about here mum's run in with a car, This happened in the week, although it's not quite the full story in respect of the driver:-

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/driver-arrested-after-hitting-becky-james-sister-ffion-in-wales-495379

?? Thought it was more misfortune for mum having only just managed to get back on her bike.

Glad they're both relatively unscathed, two very good cyclo-cross talents there.

Pross

BTW how is Megan doing these days? Haven't heard anything about her since that big DH crash. Is she back racing?

blazing_saddles

Pross said:

BTW how is Megan doing these days? Haven't heard anything about her since that big DH crash. Is she back racing?

Riding her bike, but the short answer is no.
The advice after that crash was that it wasn't a good idea to return to DH competition.
At Uni in London.