A University of Worcester student has been selected to represent her country at a major international competition.
Beth Crumpton, who is in the third year of a Sport Business Management degree, competes for Great Britain in the Elite Cyclo-Cross World Championships this weekend (February 2/3).
“I’m extremely excited and I am always so proud to represent Great Britain. It is the pinnacle event for cyclo-cross as it is a non-Olympic discipline,” said Beth, of Redditch.
Cyclo-cross involves, for women, a minimum 40-minute race, with a 6-9 minute lap incorporating a variety of surfaces, such as grass, wooded sections, road, sand, and challenges such as corners, steps, descents, hills and planks. It is done in all weather conditions, no race is the same and there is a pit lane twice-a-lap for either repairs or to replace the bike.
The 24-year-old goes to her second World Championships, held in Bogense, Denmark, on February 2 and February 3, following a successful season nationally and internationally.
Beth, who represented England at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, finishing ninth, won the Cyclo-Cross National Trophy in the 2018/19 season, retaining her title from the previous year. She is ranked in the top 50 cyclo-cross cyclists in the world. She finished fourth in the 2019 National Championships despite a mechanical issue, and hopes to build on last year’s Cyclo-Cross World Championships, where she finished 23rd.
“I feel I am in good shape at the moment and maintaining form,” said Beth. “The women’s field is fierce competition at the moment and one of about 15 on their day could win. I am unsure what the course is like so I am unsure whether it will suit my riding style yet but I will give it my best whatever it is like.”
Beth first started cycling as more than a hobby when she was 11, but got more serious about the sport after winning her first national race in cross-country mountain biking at 13, which led to her winning the British championships and national series that same year.
She was talent spotted by British Cycling and progressed through their Olympic pathways onto the full-time Olympic Academy Programme at 18, focusing on mountain biking, but has since changed disciplines.
Unlike some of her competitors who are full-time athletes, Beth fits her gruelling training around lectures and writing assignments, as well as part-time work.
She said the University’s sports scholarship programme had given her “incredible” support.
“I have had access to all support areas I need, from the gym, massage, lab support, nutrition and lifestyle support. I have access to everything that I used to have from a national governing body. It is helpful to have people support me who understand the demands of sport and can advise me how to monitor this with full time study too. As well as financial support to help me travel to Europe and back, which is where most of the racing is based, without this I wouldn’t have been able to race against the best in the world and develop my racing styles resulting in achieving a new team - my very first foreign team based in Belgium for the next season.”