Helen Wyman retires from professional cyclo-cross

Britain's Helen Wyman has announced her retirement from professional racing, ending her 15-year cyclo-cross and road racing career but promising to stay in the sport and help promote women's and grassroots participation.

36-year-old Wyman won 10 British national titles, two European titles and finished third in the 2014 world championships in Hoogerheide, in the Netherlands. Her palmarès includes 77 victories, including four in the Koppenberg cross race and a number of major road races.

In her retirement announcement, Wyman modestly suggested she had "taken the sprinkling of talent I had and made the most of it". She admitted that she had decided to retire after recently lacking "the fight you need to compete with the very best".

ADVERTISEMENT

"In an increasingly competitive sport you cannot achieve what you are capable of without huge desire. If I continued, I feel I would not be doing myself justice; that's not how I would ever want to be remembered," Wyman wrote.

"The last 15 years of my life have been off the scale amazing. I could never have imagined this epic journey and I wouldn't change a single thing. When you are training in the brutal side winds that Belgium does so well, with freezing rain lashing at your face, you will question your life choices. However, I promise you the day you stand on a world championship podium you will only ever remember the sunshine drenched rides that made your heart glow.

"Although times haven't always been rosy, as the sun sets on my racing career, I know I've taken every opportunity I could and more. I've taken the sprinkling of talent I had and made the most of it. I've wrung out every drop of determination to achieve what I have. I have tried, failed and tried all over again from the first day of my career to the last and I know I will take this attitude with me into my next roles, whatever they may be. Packed around 77 race wins, I've been to 16 World Cyclo-cross Championships and three World Road Championships. That's not too bad in my book."

The Helen100 fund

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com