大象传媒

The national women's mountain biking champion, Jenny Copnall, is unsure if she'll be in a position to compete at the 2012 London Olympics, but she still wants to be involved in the Olympics in some way.

She says: "Weald Country Park in Brentwood is fairly local to me and the designers need feedback on the course and the way that it's going to go and the challenges it presents.

Weald Country Park was the location for some of Copnall's first mountain bike races back in 1993 and she says the course for biking has to be sustainable and not damage the wildlife living in the park.

The actual route the riders will face in 2012 has yet to be decided by the international governing body of cycling, the UCI, and the Olympic authorities. However, Jenny thinks it will be a challenge: "I think that the park has the capacity to be able to have a very interesting mountain biking course and a very spectator friendly course."

The fact that Essex is flat is not a problem, according to the British number one: "One of the best attended World Cups was one held in Madrid's centre park, with quite similar terrain to Weald Country Park, and they really made the most of what they had."

Promoting the sport

Jenny supported the Cycle Essex campaign in 2006 to encourage people in the county to get on their bikes and says it's an easy sport to get started in. She explains: "Mountain biking is a great way for youngsters to come into the sport of cycling and then perhaps decide where their strengths lay."听

"Our whole aim is to increase participation and to talk about how we got involved in our sport," Says Jenny, "And hopefully they'll get involved in a new sport that they hadn't thought about."听

World Championship challenges

In September, Jenny took part in the World Championships in a marathon event. But British Cycling hadn't planned to enter a women's team - even though it was the first time the event had been staged in the UK.

Jenny came 47th in the race and says: "It certainly was not ideal to have to fight a battle to get onto the start line. But it was worth it in the end for me as it made the difference between me getting there and taking part."

The mountain biking season has now finished for 2007, but Jenny is already lining up competitions for next year to retain her status as the British number one female rider.听