A champion mountain biker who survived a 40ft cliff plunge while filming his latest video spoke today about the horrific incident and his slow road to recovery.

Chris Akrigg, of Keighley, spoke out after an accident in which earth gave way beneath his bike wheels, causing him to fall from Earl Crag, a large grit stone outcrop near Cowling, Keighley.

The six-times National Bike Trial Champion had been re-visiting his favourite mountain biking terrain in Yorkshire, when the accident happened.

The 33-year-old told the Telegraph & Argus: “I was just using the cliff as a backdrop, because it is a really nice location.

“I was riding on the top ready to do something that was not even that scary or risky – it just happened that it went badly wrong.

“I was getting up some speed and, when I landed, the grass gave way and I went off a rather large cliff.”

The fall sparked a large rescue operation which included paramedics and an 18-strong mountain rescue team.

In a lengthy operation, surgeons at Airedale General Hospital in Steeton, near Keighley, inserted a metal rod into the top of his pelvis, with pins holding together the shattered bone in his thigh.

He also suffered tissue damage because of the impact of the fall and still has his leg in plaster.

  • Read the full story in Saturday's T&A