GEORGE Fox is looking forward to the next cyclo-cross season after what has been a summer and a winter to forget.

The 18-year-old from Bradford came off his bike at 45 miles per hour after hitting a speed bump going down the notoriously steep Wibsey Bank road last March.

Former Buttershaw Business & Enterprise College student George admitted: "I was just going too fast and ended up on the floor.

"I suffered facial injuries, and broke my knee in three places.

"It was nine weeks before I could get back on a bike but I couldn't start racing again until October."

After finishing a solid 12th overall in the junior men's category at the National Trophy Series in 2015-16, which included a fifth place finish in round three at Durham University and a sixth in round five at Peel Park, George's 2016-17 winter was drastically shortened while he recovered from his horror crash as flesh met concrete.

Now working at Evans Cycles in Castleford – he cycles there – the Odsal-based teenager needed to get miles in his legs over the mud, and his progress was understandably slow.

However, there was a gradual recovery after he came 51st in the first round of the National Trophy in Derby.

George followed that up with 44th in the third round at Houghton le Spring, 40th in the fourth round at Ipswich and 23rd in the fifth round at Shrewsbury.

In the Yorkshire Points Series, he was 29th in the sixth round at Wakefield and ninth in round eight in Halifax before coming 33rd in the North of England Championships at York.

However, he really showed that he was back on the road to fulfilling his potential when he came fifth in the under-23 men's category in the HSBC National Championships on his favourite Peel Park course in January.

George admitted, however: "I wanted a podium finish but I made a few mistakes and missed out."

Now the Paul Milnes-Bradford Olympic RC rider, who says that his confidence has not been dented by his accident, will compete over the road this summer before getting back to his beloved cyclo-cross mud in the autumn.