FORMER Keighley professional cyclist, Doug Petty, has been honoured for his part in helping tourism in Majorca.

Doug played a flying visit to the Spanish sunshine island, with his wife Liz, to accept the award from Snr Lluck Tomas, Lord Mayor of the district of Lluchmayor.

"We flew out on Friday, attended the presentation ceremony and were back in England on Sunday," he said.

He began his interest in cycling back in 1947 when he was one of a group of teenagers who formed the Keighley Velo cycling club.

"We all wanted to become professionals, but National Service intervened and I had to do two years in the army," he said.

In the early 1950's he took part in the first Tour of Britain race alongside former DJ and TV star Jimmy Saville. He then rode in tough races over the cobbled roads of Belgium before heading into France where he enjoyed a successful professional career.

He held his first warm weather training camp in Majorca back in 1968, an era before foreign package holidays made overseas travel available to virtually every family -- and he has been going back ever since.

At first the trips were for a few friends, but now he is joined by cyclists from throughout the world, spending three months every year on the island.

He coached his own England ladies team to victory in a World Cup race on the island and was also manager of the Irish Ladies Olympic mountain bike squad when they trained in Majorca.

He counts most of the top riders as personal friends and even has a race named after him during Majorca's annual festival of cycling.