AN AIRPORT fireman has started training for a national cycling championship after overcoming a serious crash last year.

Adrian Dent, 51, was training for the World Masters Track Cycling Championships earlier this year, when he was left with three broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung after an accident in May.

Despite this, he managed to recover enough to win the national championships in summer, and then went on to take part in the world championships in October.

The Richmond cyclist secured a silver medal in the world championships, losing out on gold by just one hundredth of a second.

Now Mr Dent, a full-time fireman at Leeds Bradford Airport, has begun training for the British Masters in June, at which he hopes to retain his title. He then hopes to compete in the European Masters.

The masters racing category is sprint cycling for competitors aged 35 and over. Some of his training is done at Manchester’s velodrome, where the Team GB train.

But the majority of Mr Dent’s training takes place at the Liberty Health Club gym in Richmond, which has backed him with free membership.

Mr Dent said: “Everything in sprint cycling is done in short bursts and I actually don’t get to go out and do much cycling, a lot of the work is done in the gym.

“Once or twice a month I’ll go to the velodrome at Manchester, which is useful for tactics and things like that and to get used to riding on boards, which is so much faster.

“You also get to meet the GB squad and their coaches. If they’ve got time they’ll stand and talk to you. It’s a small community.”