Resilient Roberts bounces back to form and claim shock silver
RESILIENT Jess Roberts battled back from almost quitting cycling to win a surprise European Championship silver.
The 23-year-old from Pontyberem has endured a torrid time and was close to pursuing a different career after a barrage of injuries.
Roberts told British Cycling she needed five months out of the sport, and after returning to the saddle last year she capped a remarkable recovery by climbing on to the 10km scratch race podium in Munich.
The Welsh star came into the competition with few expectations and now feels like a different person after finishing second behind Poland’s Anita Yvonne Stenberg.
She said: “I’ve had a bit of a rough two years. I took five months off last year because of numerous things and nearly quit the sport.
“Since I’ve come back, I’ve just tried to enjoy the process and not put too much pressure on myself.
“I’ve been working hard to get back to this level and hopefully I can build momentum.
“I had an injury that went on for two years and we didn’t know what it was, and that brought me down mentally and I was in quite a bad place.
“I said to British Cycling that I need to take a break and ended up having five months off. But it was the best thing I could have done. I did loads of psychology stuff, rehab work on my injury and I’ve come back in a really strong place.”
She added: “To get a place on the podium makes me really happy. I definitely didn’t expect it. You go into every race looking for a result, but I tried to put myself in the right position and it paid off.
“Hopefully, I can build from here and get back to where I was preinjury.”