Champion life-changer from Shropshire

Now, just four years later, Richard Webster from Wellington has been named the UK Gravity Enduro Mountain Bike overall winner in the veteran class for 2015.

Four years ago at the age of 40, Richard, who runs a plastics consultancy firm, decided years of smoking and drinking had taken their toll, and the time had come to take stock and buy a bike to get fit.

Soon the mountain biking bug had bitten and the father of two was off each weekend on trails across the country.

Where once his wife Lindsay used to complain about him spending hours on the golf course, now he spends his time on red and black runs racing through woods and forests. His hard work and dedication has paid off and he is revelling in his new found title.

"The UK Enduro Series has been going for five years," said Richard. "It is a point to point race covering between 20 and 25 miles mainly downhill.

"I have been competing for the last three years and have been steadily building my way up the rankings.

"There were 360 riders in the Gravity Enduro in six or seven categories and I raced against people of the same age and gender as myself and I was racing against the clock. Each section is between two and eight minutes long and you can be travelling at speeds of up to 40 miles an hour."

Now he has won the UK Enduros, is he considering having a bash at the World Championships? "Yes, I am toying with the idea," he said.