IAN GEORGE collected three medals at the World Masters cycling championships - after just a few months riding the oval track.

The Cross Hills-based bike mechanic hit top form in the championships which were held at the Manchester Velodrome -- which will be home to cycling events in next year's Commonwealth Games.

He picked up a bronze medal in the 1k race, which pushes his endurance as a sprint racer to the limit.

Although he has ridden thousands of miles, his speciality on the track is his incredible burst of speed.

"The 1k event is just absolute pain for four laps, you can't start slowly and build up speed because after just 40 seconds of racing your body goes into 'oxygen debt'.

"I just had to go as fast as I could in the early stages and after that I was hanging on for 1 laps. Lactic acid builds up in your legs - it is agony - and I was gasping for breath."

The Open Sprint saw Ian win all the early rounds, but in the final missed out on a gold medal by 4-10ths of a second, beaten by a powerful rider from Trinidad.

He also won a Silver medal in the Olympic Sprint, a team event which involves three riders, with members of the Yasumitsu-Schlapp squad.

The first leads the team away from the gun and after a powerful first lap peels off, leaving the last two riders. After the second lap the middle rider also peeled away, leaving ian to ride the gruelling anchor leg. "We beat the championship riding with out usual team of three, but the winning outfit had been put together at the tournament with the three fastest riders at each distance -- so we felt as if we were moral winners," Ian said.

After winning the British masters title on an old £200 machine, Ian decided to get a state of the art bike for the world championships, and was helped by Keith Aunger of Silsden.

Keith's son, Edward, was a top track rider, but died at the age of 24 after collapsing during training.

Carbon fibre wheels from Edward's bike, worth thousands of pounds, were used in Ian's championship bid together with a made-to-measure frame built by Chris Marshall of Keighley.

Although the bike looks like almost any other, it is a very specialist machine. There are no brakes, and the rigid frame has the rider at the perfect angle to put all his power into the wheels.

Even the tyres are handmade from silk with a wafer-thin rubber surface which lasts for just 10-miles.

"The tyres cost £80 each, so riding is not a cheap sport at the top level," Ian said.

Now Ian is considering offers to ride in the West Indies and Japan next year.