NEWTON Abbot BMX athlete and competitor, Max Avery, fought his way to the finishline in an inspiring comeback despite suffering a serious setback right out of the gate.

This saw the Combeshead Academy student hit the floor in his first senior elite race stepping up to race with 22 top pro riders.

As the gates dropped and Max and three riders atop the eight-metre starting hill in Manchester’s National Cycling Centre’s hurtled down towards the first of the tracks many jumps, 15-year-old Max Avery and another rider came barrelling into one another causing both riders to hit the dirt.

Undetered and laser-focused, Max instinctively picked up his bike, set his sights on the finish line and set about getting back in the race.

Not satisfied with merely finishing the race, Max’s skill and determination awarded him 12th place – a seriously impressive feat for the local lad given how vital a sound start is in the world of BMX track racing.

Riding a BMX bike for the first time at just four years old, Max made his debut into the competitive scene when he was seven and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Max is ranked third nationally in the Male 16s catergory, rides for Tribe Green Machine, a beloved bike shop in Kingsteignton renowned for its support of the BMX community across Teignbridge, and is in the business of travelling to countries far and wide to compete – among them the Netherlands, Belgium and Azerbaijan to name but a few.

This past weekend it was the Racing Under The Roof 2021 BMX event hosted at Manchester’s purpose-built National Cycling Centre that brought the country’s top up and coming riders together.

No stranger to adversity, Max overcame a less than perfect start, and that would be putting it mildly, and achieved a great feat of which he should be proud.

Onwards and upwards for the young man who has already achieved so much.

Max’s usual training haunt is Decoy BMX Club.