Huge congratulations to our Head Girl Sammie Maxwell who has recently won the Mountain Biking U19 Championship in the Czech Republic! Sammie, who is part of the MTB National Performance Hub and is the 2019 Under 19 XCO National Champion, has been competing in Europe for the past month.

From her coach Sam Thompson: “A few weeks ago as the Hub manager and coach I decided to throw the Hub riders a curve ball by letting them know we were going to race back to back UCI races on our last weekend in Europe. The races were 300km apart in different countries, with the last one being at altitude.

After a very late night packing and driving after the HC race on Saturday and with only 5 hours sleep, the Hub women arrived at Sunday’s Czech UCI Category 1 race only 2 hours before the start. With only ½ a lap as practice we weren’t expecting much as we were just chasing UCI points.

Not sure what it was but Sammie Maxwell showed she can back up the racing. After using the first lap as a warm up she got into her rhythm and started to pull back the riders one by one until she found herself at the front of the race. In the end blitzing the U19 field and half of the Elite field who started 1 minute ahead, to take her first win in Europe by over a minute!

Such a great performance when the odds were against her. To take a win in Europe is no mean feat and a perfect way to finish off a great Europe Campaign!”