BRAVE cyclist Emma Silversides has displayed eminent North Yorkshire grit to roar back from an injury-spiked season.

The 30-year-old princess of pedal-power is now riding high in the saddle on the gruelling women’s European circuit, but for more than two months it’s been a long and winding – and extremely painful – road in her second year as a professional.

The former maths teacher, who rides for the Belgium-based Lotto Belisol team, has suffered two major injuries to her ribs and collar-bone forcing lengthy absences from competitive riding. But Cawood’s Silversides has since bounced back to some of her best form as she bids to finish the European season on a high.

Silversides started the campaign strongly in Italy, taking that surge of power into the Dutch town of Drenthe, the venue of three leading UCI women’s races. That’s when her horrendous cycle of pain started.

She crashed heavily in the second of three one-day races. The attending race doctor said there was no internal damage despite suffering pain when breathing deeply and engaging her torso.

Silversides took part in the later World Cup event in Drenthe, she and Otley’s Lizzie Armistead perfroming great support for the team’s two lead riders, Belgium’s Grace Verbeke and Rochelle Gilmore from Australia.

However, the pain she was experiencing was now truly excruciating and a visit to a physiotherapist revealed she had displaced no fewer than four ribs from the original crash. That put her out of action for four weeks.

More trouble was to strike on Silversides’ immediate return in the Tour de l’Aude in France, a ten-day race.

The cycling ace opted to ride within herself for the first four days to ease herself back, but on the sixth day another crash left the North Yorkshire rider dazed before subsequently finding she had broken her collarbone.

That second injury ruled her out of the World Cup in Montreal, the national championships and the Giro d’Italia.

It was six weeks before she was back on the competitive circuit, but Silversides demonstrated both fortitude and skill. In six kermis races back in Belgium she bagged three top-ten finishes, including a fourth place behind former Olympic champion Sweden’s Emma Johansson.

That was followed by her first international race since her broken collar-bone when she competed in the Tour de Limousin Feminin in central France.

The four-day event, concluding with 2,000 metres of climbing on the last day, yielded the Lotto Belisol team the pink and green jerseys with Silversides claiming a third place in the day three stage.

Said Silversides of her twist and turn season so far: “I am happy with my recovery and hope that the positive trend continues.”