AELWEN Davies brought the curtain down on another season at last weekend's British Championships in Dalby.

The 16 year old from Builth Wells made the trip with confidence having won the Welsh Championships double earlier in the month and taking both the short and long course mountain bike cross country titles.

And it was to prove agonisingly close to a perfect end of the season for the teenager.

On Friday, Aelwen led the field around the 1.2km ‘XCC’ short-track course for the entire race, before putting in a big attack on the final lap, gapping her opponents, and taking the national title with ease.

Then, on Sunday for the ‘XCO’ Cross-Country Olympic 3.5km long-course race, Aelwen used the same tactic of racing off the front taking one other with her for the majority of the laps.

Aelwen Davies in action. Picture: Man Down Media.

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Through a bit of bad luck and getting caught up with riders from another category, there was a congested sprint to the finish line where she was pipped by a bike’s length into second place, taking the silver medal.

Aelwen said: “It was a frustrating way to end my MTB season which I have been working towards all year.

"I am relatively happy with my weekend as last year I finished in bronze position in the XCC race, so to win this year feels amazing. But as an athlete you always want to win, especially as I targeted my entire season on wanting to improve on last year’s silver medal in the XCO race. But that’s bike racing."

Since returning home, Aelwen has joined her Welsh Cycling team-mates for training camps at Newport Velodrome in preparation for the week-long National Track Championships being held at London’s Olympic Velodrome starting on July 29th.

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XCC stands for “cross country short-track” and it's a relatively new discipline in mountain biking which has gained both World Championship and Olympic status. XCC is an intense, fast and furious race of around 20 minutes on a shortened course allowing for multiple laps, and is a spectator’s favourite.

Aelwen is now a 15 times Welsh, and five time British Champion across four different cycling disciplines - track, road, mountain bike cross country and cyclo-cross.

She also boasts a record of never being beaten in a mountain bike nor cyclocross race since she started cycle racing at the tender age of eight.