KENDAL rider Eve Dixon has won the Cycling Development North West championship - just four years after taking up the sport competitively.

The 20-year-old, who is part of Manchester-based Team 22, won two of the six races she competed in during the series and secured enough points for overall victory at the final race at Great Budworth, Cheshire, late last month.

Leading into the final race it was a close fought series with Dixon, teamate Jen Edwards and Ruth Taylor, from Manchester Wheelers, all contesting for the championship.

But it was Dixon, who will next year go on to compete in the national league as a category one rider, who ultimately came out on top.

“It is quite a big league,” she said. “I finished in the top 20 in all of the races I competed in. I wasn’t quite sure on the points so I was waiting to find out at the end.

“I would like to finish in the top 20 in the national league but the fields are getting harder because the continental professionals are coming back to race them.”

Dixon also comfortably won the points competition after winning the primes in the majority of the races and finishing 37 points ahead of Amy Gornall, her nearest rival.