Mountain bike rider Manon Carpenter wins September's Sportswoman of the Month

Manon Carpenter says being named Sportswoman of the Month for September is the icing on the cake of the best year of her career to date.

The Caerphilly mountain bike rider won the World Championship in Norway in the elite downhill class, either side of claiming the World Cup overall title and the British Downhill Series.

Speaking live on Tuesday’s Sportswomen show, Carpenter said: “I’m really pleased to have won Sportswoman of the Month. That’s really cool and September has been really amazing for me, really top stuff.

“It’s been such a good year. I just the won the World Cup overall and then in the first week of September I just managed to win the World Championship in Norway. I finished off with the National Series Overall the week after the worlds, so September has been a really good month for me.

“The whole of the UK did so well at the World Championship in the women’s and the men’s racing and the juniors as well.

“All three of us on the women’s podium were from Britain and it was really nice to share the podium with Tahnee (Seagrave) and Rachel (Atherton), so it was a good weekend.

“I‘m having a little bit of time off now because we just finished racing but we start training again soon and we’ve got quite a lot of ideas.

“Last winter, I stayed at home to train but I think we might try to go abroad a little bit more. We’re changing a few things up from last year.

“Obviously last winter went really well for me because I’ve had the best season I’ve ever had, but there are still things we want to work on to move on again. So it should be good next year.”