Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th January saw the first team camp of 2023 within the women’s platform and our first ever mtb specific training camp. A fantastic opportunity to get all four riders together, socialising, riding bikes, testing out new products, meeting staff and just having plenty of laughs!

The team were treated to a stunning apartment at the St Michael’s Resort, Falmouth. The penthouse views stretched from Gylly beach right across the bay to Pendennis point, perfect for lunch on the balcony or just relaxing after training! St Michael’s Resort boasts a luxurious spa as well as leisure facilities and pool. Our weekend was jam packed, meaning a visit to the spa wasn’t possible but we did make use of the pool following our social ride which was a great pre-race treat! We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all at St Michael’s Resort, we were made to feel incredibly welcome, the food and drink was delicious and we were very well looked after!

Our mtb camp began on the Thursday evening with a social dinner, a relaxed atmosphere and a great opportunity to learn more about our teammates.

Friday morning began with breakfast in the restaurant, distributing of some of our 2023 partners products before heading to Bike Chain Bissoe for lunch, from here we headed to the home of Cornwall BMX track for a skills session with Martin from Your Ride. Martin has worked with some of our riders in the past and is our ‘go to’ skills coach! The session he delivered was spot on, covering a range of techniques to both boost confidence and develop our skill set. By the end we were all buzzing, feeling confident having conquered new challenges and going away with plenty to practice. A huge thank you to Martin. Friday was rounded off with dinner whilst cheering on our teammates in Saint Piran WRT who were busy racing at the National Track Championships.

We had organised a social ride for Saturday morning, an opportunity for the team to spin their legs and enjoy some of the local trails from the Bissoe valley, around Poldice and up to the top of Carn Marth. Three hours of riding, chatting and enjoying some of the areas stunning views as well as the extensive mining history that surrounds us. We were accompanied all day by our team photographer, Martyn from Global Vision 3D, who was able to use a drone at key locations to get some fantastic images and footage followed by an afternoon of photo shoots back at the apartment. The day was rounded off with race prep, a dip in the pool and dinner in the restaurant.

Sunday morning, the final day of our camp and it was an early start! We feel very strongly about supporting local races and having the opportunity to get all four members of the team at the first SW XC race of 2023 just couldn’t be missed! Newnham Winter Wakeup, a 3 hour mtb event at a very well known SW location Newnham Park and organised by Steve Hodgson, was always going to be a leg tester! We all went into it with eyes open and no plan other than to have some fun and enjoy the experience of a longer format race. However, all four managed to podium! In the Elite category Christina came in 2nd and Sharn 3rd, both behind previous world champ Evie Richards whilst in the Expert category, Charlotte took the win with Jenny 2nd. A great day out for all, plenty of opportunity to practice what we’d learnt with Martin on the Friday and all finished with happy faces!

The team now has a few weeks until racing resumes with the start of the SW series at Grammarcombe on Feb 19th and the start of the National XC series at Tong on March 25th/26th. Everyone has some skills homework to work on whilst also building the fitness required to race.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all who contributed to our training camp, everyone left having gained new friends, new experiences and plenty of goodies from our teams partners!

Saint Piran Women’s MTB team put the glamour into mtb!