AN athlete from Pencarreg is celebrating getting his best result against some of the best competitors in the world.

On the back of winning the national road race and time trial titles last year, handcylcist Luke Jones has been representing Britain at the World Cups in Italy and finished fourth in the time trial held in Maniago.

Luke said: “I felt really good and had a plan in my head to go hard from the start. The first 10km were tough but you kind of finished on a bit of a hill and the rest was a fast 3.9km.

“I hit some really good power to the top of the climb, and recovered pretty well so I had power to carry me through to get a fast finish.

“I ended up fourth, by far my best result, 10 seconds away from third and only 13 seconds away from the win.

“These are the best athletes in the world and there were 48 in the category.”

Luke, who didn’t get away on any winter training camps with the tough hours and miles chalked up indoors, also competed in the road race and the team relay.

“The road race was tough, I had a really bad start and finished fourteenth.

“No issues just personally down to myself, I need to work on being a bit more aggressive at the start.

“In the relay, it was the first team put up by the British and we finished 10th which was a really good result.”

Luke, who receives fantastic support from his wife, two children, family and close friends, then had a couple of days training in Maniago before the team headed off to Ostend in Belgium where he contested in the C1 Flanders.

He added: “The 90km race started in Bruges with some of the epic climbs you get to see in the Tour de Flanders done by the major teams. It was amazing to be part of the event.

“It was tough start and I missed the front group but worked really well in the fourth group to pick up and get on the back of the second group and I came in sixth.”