Teen mountain biker selected for world championships
A 16-year-old mountain biker is getting ready to hit the world stage when he represents Great Britain at the World Downhill Championships in Poland.
Max Lewis, from Long Ashton, Bristol, is flying out to Bielsko-Biala in southern Poland this week in preparation for the competition.
The teenager was just 12 years old when he tried mountain biking for the first time on the winding trails at Ashton Court.
Max said: "It's my first World Cup. I would love to win a World Cup and make a career out of it but I'm just going to have fun."
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The season opener of the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup takes place in the Beskid Mountains between 16 and 18 May.
Max said he was feeling a "bit nervous" but was "looking forward to it".
"World Cup tracks are not like your local trails, they're pretty full-on and gnarly - very scary - with big drops and big gap jumps," he said.
"It's just the quickest riders in the world who come to race in the World Cup."
The teenager said he first "fell in love" with the gravity-fuelled sport when he got his first mountain bike.
Now, despite competing for only four years he has been picked to represent Great Britain.
"Last season, I had a decent season - just being consistent, building up and putting in some fast race runs - and here I am."
Hitting speeds of up to 50mph (80kmph) in some of the men's races, while negotiating tree roots, banks, bumps and jumps, Max said he has had "quite a few" injuries.
"That's part of the risk of the sport. It's so much fun but it comes with big risks," he said.
"I've broken both my arms at once - went straight into the back of a jump."
But, he said, he has been "very lucky" to have access to some of the "amazing trails" near Bristol.
"I do a lot of training around Leigh Woods, Belmont Hill," he said.
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